University Park – IAMNOTASTALKER

May 29, 2019May 31, 2019

Hoose Library of Philosophy from “What Women Want”

Those who were impressed by Doheny Memorial Library from Matilda (which I blogged about last November), wait ‘til you get a load of today’s locale! It’s yet another stunning athenaeum on the University of Southern California campus. Named the Hoose Library of Philosophy, it boasts some of the most remarkable architecture I have ever laid eyes on! I first learned of the place while researching for my Doheny post and upon seeing photos of its grand vaulted interior, my jaw practically dropped to the floor. I was thrilled – but not surprised – to discover while probing further that it had cameoed in numerous productions, including the 2000 romcom What Women Want. So to the top of my To-Stalk List it went and I finally made it out there last week.

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The James Harmon Hoose Library of Philosophy, as it is formally known, is situated on the second floor of USC’s Mudd Hall.

Designed in 1930 by architect Ralph Carlin Flewelling, son of then USC School of Philosophy head Ralph Tyler Flewelling, the striking structure incorporates Romanesque, Byzantine and Arabesque elements.

Modeled after a medieval Tuscan monastery, the building features a 146-foot-tall bell tower . . .

. . . cloisters that seem to stretch forever . . .

. . . and a central courtyard with a fountain.

As gorgeous as Mudd Hall’s exterior is, though . . .

. . . Hoose Library is the site’s real stunner.

Named for James Harmon Hoose, the founder of USC’s Philosophy Department and its first department head, the dramatic space looks like something straight out of the Harry Potter universe.

With a cathedral ceiling that towers 38 feet above the checkered floor . . .

. . . a massive carved fireplace . . .

. . . a parade of archways at either side . . .

. . . stained glass windows . . .

. . . tile mosaic designwork . . .

. . . rich wood paneling . . .

. . . and reading nooks galore . . .

. . . it is easily one of the prettiest venues I have ever had the pleasure of visiting.

The rest of Mudd Hall isn’t too shabby, either!

I was especially enamored with the stairs leading up to Hoose Library.

I mean!

That tiling!

Hoose, which spans 115 by 22 feet, is currently home to 50,000 tomes, the vast majority related to philosophy.

The locale, which has the distinction of being USC’s oldest continuously operating library, underwent a painstaking four-month seismic retrofitting in 2003. After the walls were sheared and braced, artisans were brought in to cover any marks left behind as a result of the extensive work. The outcome is flawless. Hoose appears completely untouched and frozen in an idyllic past.

It is not at all hard to see how the place wound up onscreen.

In What Women Want, Nick Marshall (Mel Gibson) peruses the Hoose Library of Philosophy stacks in an attempt to “get inside women’s heads” as research for his new ad campaign.

The site’s onscreen resume dates back much farther than that production, though. In the 1930 short Hog Wild, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy drive by Mudd Hall. That’s it on the extreme right in the two screen captures below.

Thanks to fellow stalker Mike, I learned that Hoose and Mudd Hall popped up several times in the Season 4 episode of Charlie’s Angels titled “Angels on Campus,” which aired in 1979.

Along with Doheny Memorial Library, Hoose serves as the interior of Brain’s (Harry Dean Stanton) lair in 1981’s Escape from New York.

Mudd Hall is the site of countless hijinks in the 1985 medical school comedy Stitches.

The building’s clocktower makes a very brief appearance in the 1991 horror flick Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare.

In the 2000 comedy Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, Sherman Klump (Eddie Murphy) tries to figure out what went wrong with his hamster experiment while at Hoose.

Rachel (Naomi Watts) researches Pacific Northwest-area lighthouses there in the 2002 thriller The Ring.

Hoose masks as the church where John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) visits Gabriel (Tilda Swinton) in the 2005 drama Constantine.

The site was tapped to portray a portion of the Berkeley campus in the Season 5 episode of Monk titled “Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion,” which aired in 2006. In the episode, a detective actually refers to Hoose Library as “nothing special,” which is a bit mind-boggling.

In the Season 6 episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine titled “The Bimbo,” which aired this past April, the exterior of Mudd Hall stands in for Columbia University where Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) and Captain Raymond Holt (Andre Braugher) investigate the theft of three ancient coins.

One of the building’s first level rooms was also utilized in the episode.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Hoose Library of Philosophy, from What Women Want, is located at 3709 Trousdale Parkway, inside the Seeley Mudd Hall of Philosophy on the University of Southern California campus, in University Park. The site is open Monday through Friday from 12 to 5 p.m.

November 9, 2018May 3, 2019

Doheny Memorial Library from “Matilda”

Movies have a way of making locations appear more majestic than they truly are, thanks largely to photogenic set dressing, perfect camera angles, and expert production design (anyone who has ever seen a Nancy Meyers film knows exactly what I am talking about). Amazingly, that is not the case with Doheny Memorial Library, which, though featured to spectacular effect as young Matilda’s (Sara Magdalin) sublime sanctuary in 1996’s Matilda, is just as magnificent in person as it was made out to be onscreen. I became transfixed by the site upon first catching a glimpse of it while making screen captures for my August post on the Wormwood home from the flick and immediately set about tracking it down. All of the information I found online seemed to point to filming taking place at Pasadena Central Library (which I blogged about in October), but having lived in Crown City for 15 years and frequenting its book repository regularly, I knew that was incorrect. Pasadena Central Library, though gorgeous, is much less grand than the one featured in Matilda. So I headed over to Google and inputted the words “beautiful,” “library,” and “Los Angeles,” which led me to a 2016 TimeOut post conveniently titled “The Most Beautiful Libraries in Los Angeles.” Third on the article’s list was Doheny Memorial Library on the University of Southern California campus. One look at the photos running with the column and I knew it was the right spot. So I added it to my To-Stalk List, ran right over there shortly thereafter, and was elated to see that it is just as magical in person as Matilda made it out to be.

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Doheny Memorial Library was commissioned by oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny in honor of his son, Ned, a USC alumnus who was shot in February 1929 at Greystone Mansion in what remains one of Los Angeles’ most famous unsolved murder cases.

Construction on the grand space began on June 6th, 1931 and was finished the following year. The library, USC’s first freestanding athenaeum, opened to the public on September 12th, 1932.

Designed by Ralph Adams Cram and Samuel E. Lundon in the Italian Romanesque and Gothic styles, the building cost $1.1 million to complete. Landscape architect A. E. Hanson was responsible for creating the gorgeous gardens surrounding the property.

The result of their efforts is striking . . .

. . . even more so on the inside. Upon stepping through the hand-chased bronze front doors, visitors to the sprawling four-story site are greeted by a massive rotunda boasting intricate chandeliers, travertine flooring, and six towering stained glass windows designed by artist Wilbur Herbert Burnham.

I challenge anyone not to drop their jaw upon entering!

The ceiling alone is enough to render one speechless!

The crown jewel of Doheny Memorial Library, though, is the Los Angeles Times Reference Room, a 131 by 46-foot space featuring shelving for 6,000 tomes, seating for 400 students, and a blue and gold coffered ceiling that rises 27 feet above the floor.

The gorgeous canopy was designed by muralist Giovanni Smeraldi whose work also hangs in the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, the Vatican, and the White House.

The site, which underwent a $17-million restoration and retrofitting from December 1999 to October 2001, is easily one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen – both inside . . .

. . . and out.

There are countless rooms and floors to explore . . .

. . . with every nook and cranny seemingly prettier than the last.

Even the stairs are cinematic!

So it is no surprise that the place has popped up onscreen.

Doheny Memorial Library appears at the beginning of Matilda as the spot where the titular youngster finds refuge from her horrible family.

The movie made great use of the grand building, showcasing the entrance steps . . .

. . . the Los Angeles Times Reference Room (which was altered a bit for the filming) . . .

. . . and the rotunda . . .

. . . which was also altered via the addition of a rounded circulation desk.

The only part of Matilda’s haven that I could not find on the premises was the children’s reading room. I am unsure if that room was a set or a real space located at a different library. If anyone happens to know, please fill me in.

Matilda is hardly the only production to have been lensed at Doheny Memorial Library. In fact, the building is such a popular filming spot, there is no way I can chronicle all of its appearances here. What follows is a semi-comprehensive list.

Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) waits outside of Doheny Memorial Library, which is posing as Berkeley, in the hopes of seeing Elaine Robinson (Katharine Ross) in 1967’s The Graduate.

And he later confronts Elaine about her new fiancé inside the Reference Room.

Dustin Hoffman returned to Doheny Memorial Library in 1971 to film scenes for the thriller Marathon Man. It is there that his character, Babe, first meets Elsa (Marthe Keller) at what is supposed to be Columbia University.

Doheny’s lower level masked as the lobby of Brain’s (Harry Dean Stanton) lair in 1981’s Escape from New York. Very little of the building appeared in the film, though – the majority of the scenes involving Brain’s hideout were shot at Hoose Library of Philosophy, also on the USC campus.

Thanks to my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, I learned that Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) was recruited to join the army following his graduation outside of Doheny Memorial Library, which was posing as the University of Alabama, in 1994’s Forrest Gump.

That same year, Mitch Robbins (Billy Crystal) and Phil Berquist (Daniel Stern) researched train robberies at Doheny Memorial Library in City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly’s Gold.

Daniella (Elisha Cuthbert) waits for Matthew Kidman (Emile Hirsch) outside of the building, which is masking as Georgetown, at the end of the 2004 comedy The Girl Next Door.

And in the 2000 film Bread and Roses, Ruben (Alonso Chavez) and Maya (Pilar Padilla) meet up at the front of Doheny Memorial Library.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Doheny Memorial Library, from Matilda, is located at 3550 Trousdale Parkway in University Park.

October 4, 2016September 29, 2017

The Old Man’s House from “Night of the Demons”

Ah, how I love creepy old houses. Horror flicks? Not so much. Which is strange, I know, being that I am such a fan of Halloween, all things scary, and movies in general. I do absolutely love horror films that are done well, though (hello, Scream!), but find that the vast majority are pretty pointless (Phantasm, anyone?). That being said, I will never stop stalking locations from them. A couple of months ago, I came across this screen capture of a fabulously spooky old house from the 1988 slasher flick Night of the Demons on The Location Scout website and practically started drooling. Though the capture was slightly blurry due to movement in the scene, the view of the home showed that it was nothing short of tall, dark, and looming. I knew I had to see it in person and jotted down the address immediately. I finally got out to stalk it a couple of weeks back while I was visiting L.A. and, though it has recently been fixed up and is no longer as spectacularly creepy as it appeared onscreen, the place did not disappoint.

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Originally built in 1898 as a single-family home, the 5-bedroom, 2-bath, 2,706-square-foot property was transformed into a duplex in 1942.

As you can see below, the pad boasts two address numbers – 2833 and 2833 ½.

The residence is located in the Menlo Avenue – West Twenty-ninth Street Historic District, an area of University Park that is comprised of a wide selection of architecturally significant homes that date back to the late 1800s. The neighborhood, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, is comprised of more than fifty Victorian, Classic Revival, and Craftsman-style dwellings, each of them boasting unique detailing. The Night of the Demons house was built in the Dutch Colonial Revival-style and features a pedimented front porch with columns and an elaborate tympanum (yeah, I had to look that one up, too), a gambrel roof, a Palladian window, and carved diamond insets.

According to the neighborhood’s National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form from 1987, the home was built for Jennie V. Mitchell, one of the only African American women to own property in Los Angeles at the time. Jennie, who never lived in the residence, is featured in the book The Negro Trail Blazers of California. From 1902 to 1904, the pad was occupied by Bernard Potter, a lawyer who wrote 1950’s Los Angeles Yesterday and Today.

In 2014, the property was sold, underwent a renovation, and today serves as student housing for the University of Southern California. You can check out some interior photos of what it looked at the time it was on the market here and some images of what it currently looks like here.

The residence appears twice in Night of the Demons. It first pops up in the movie’s opening scene in which some teenagers harass the Old Man (Harold Ayer) – and I’m not being disrespectful here, the character’s name is actually listed as “Old Man” – while he is standing in front of his house on Halloween night. The Old Man then proceeds to harass Judy (Cathy Podewell), a teen girl who happens by, before promising his revenge on all “damn rotten kids” while menacingly holding up razor blades and apples.

The dwelling then pops up again in the movie’s closing scene, in which the Old Man walks outside to retrieve his newspaper the following morning.

After grabbing the paper, the Old Man heads back inside, whereupon his wife serves him an apple pie she baked that morning using all of the leftover Halloween apples. You can imagine what happens next. Spoiler alert – it ain’t pretty!

I was floored to discover that the actual interior of the residence was used in the filming of that scene. As you can see below, the stairwell visible in the segment is a direct match to the staircase pictured in an MLS photograph of the home from 2014.

Though the MLS photos did not feature a full image of the dining room area, the walls were visible in one of the pictures and, amazingly, they look to have been the same color pink in 2014 that they were when Night of the Demons was filmed in 1988! As you can see in current images of the home, though, the walls have since been painted taupe, so that is no longer the case.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

A big THANK YOU to The Location Scout for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Old Man’s house from Night of the Demons is located at 2833 Menlo Avenue in University Park.

December 4, 2014December 1, 2014

New “L.A.” Mag Post – About the “How to Get Away with Murder” House

Be sure to check out today’s Los Angeles magazine post – about Annalise’s house from How to Get Away with Murder. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.