West Adams – IAMNOTASTALKER

October 4, 2018October 16, 2019

Olivia, Markie and Penelope’s House from “Truth or Dare”

If Ghostface from the Scream franchise ever called me to inquire “What’s your favorite scary movie?”, things might get a little confusing because the only answer I’d be able to give would be Scream. It’s honestly the sole flick in the genre that I truly love. I did recently watch Truth or Dare, though, and found it to be pretty enjoyable – as well as downright terrifying. I was on the edge of my seat throughout! And yes, it is a bit on the dumb side, but it made for a fun watch – up until the end that is, which was sorely disappointing. Regardless, I thought it would only be appropriate to stalk and blog about a couple of its locales this month in honor of my Haunted Hollywood theme. First up is the Craftsman-style home where doomed college student Olivia Barron (Lucy Hale) lives with her similarly-doomed roommates, Markie Cameron (Violett Beane) and Penelope Amari (Sophia Ali), in the 2018 film. Thankfully, the pad was an easy find.

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In an early scene in which Olivia, Markie, Penelope and their friends leave home to head to Mexico for Spring Break, not only was it apparent that their residence was located on a corner and that the backyard was situated on the side of the property and not the rear (two incredibly helpful identifying markers) . . .

. . . but the signage of an adjacent street, Gramercy Place, was visible.

I ventured right on over to Google to search aerial views for a corner home with a large side yard abutting Gramercy. I decided to start my hunt at the 10 Freeway and first work my way north. If I had no luck in that direction, I’d switch gears and head south. As soon as the aerial imagery came into focus, though, I just about fell out of my chair because there was the Truth or Dare house staring me right in the face, literally one block north of the 10 at 2233 West 21st Street.

The handsome dwelling pops up numerous times in Truth or Dare, though it is never quite explained how three college kids can afford such spacious, fancy digs.

For whatever reason, we are not given a full view of the house in the movie.

Instead, the property is only ever shown in tight, abbreviated shots.

The best glimpse we get of the place is via the rather harrowing scene in which Penelope is dared to walk along the edge of the second-story roofline until she finishes drinking an entire bottle of vodka.

The speared side gate that figures so prominently in the segment isn’t actually there in real life, but was a set piece brought in for the filming.

In actuality, a wooden fence stands in that spot. I could not get a great shot of it due to the car parked in the driveway, but you can just make it out to the right of the pad in the images below.

In another rather fortuitous bit of luck, when I headed over to Image Locations’ filming library to see if I could dig up some photos of the inside of the Truth or Dare house, I was thrilled to discover that the place was actually the very first listing under the Craftsman category! One look at the pictures posted told me that the interior was definitely utilized in the flick. As you can see, the screen shot of the girls’ living room below is a perfect match to this image of the home’s real life living room.

As is this shot of Olivia’s bedroom to this photo of the property’s master suite.

The pad’s actual dining room parallels what was shown onscreen, as well . . .

. . . as does the built-in buffet.

In real life, the 1905 abode boasts 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, 3,126 square feet of living space, and a 0.18-acre lot.

Though a gorgeous example of Craftsman architecture, it is not surprising that the dwelling wound up in a horror film. The place just has a very looming quality about it.

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: Olivia, Markie and Penelope’s house from Truth or Dare is located at 2233 West 21st Street in Los Angeles’ Harvard Heights neighborhood.

January 5, 2016August 7, 2020

The “Wicked City” Library

I have one more Wicked City location up my sleeve (for the time being, at least – I did track down a couple of others after watching the recently-released final five episodes, but have yet to stalk them) – the former Second Church of Christ, Scientist in West Adams, which masked as an L.A. library in “Should I Stay or Should I Go.” I have long been familiar with the stately, domed structure thanks to my many area stalkings (Fatty Arbuckle’s former house is located on the same street, as is the oft-filmed St. Vincent de Paul Church) and recognized it immediately upon viewing the episode. I had never done a proper stalking of it, though, and promptly dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there to remedy that a couple of weeks ago.

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Second Church of Christ, Scientist was designed by architect Alfred H. Rosenheim, who also designed the American Horror Story house. The prolific Albert C. Martin, Sr. (of Million Dollar Theatre, Los Angeles City Hall and Thomas Higgins Building fame) acted as the engineer. The massive Italian Renaissance-style structure, which was modeled after the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, aka the “Mother Church,” took more than two years to complete at a cost of $318,000. Its doors were opened to the public on January 23rd, 1910.

The property, which was built out of terracotta, brick, stucco and granite, was so grand that, according to the Big Orange Landmarks website, a 1908 Los Angeles Times article deemed it “the largest and most elaborate church west of Chicago.”

At the time of its completion, the interior featured a pipe organ, mahogany woodwork, stained glass windows, wainscoting throughout, and seating for 1,200 churchgoers.

The site’s most impressive feature, though, was – and still is – its 130-foot tall copper-clad, poured-concrete dome, which according to Big Orange Landmarks, measures 70 feet in diameter and weighs 1,400 tons.

The green-tinted dome seems to sparkle in the sunlight and only adds to the grandeur and beauty of the already picturesque church, which was named a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1968.

Due to declining membership and the high cost of maintaining the property, Christian Science Church vacated the building in 2008. The empty structure proved attractive to vandals, who spray painted the once stately structure with graffiti and broke many of its stained glass windows.

In December 2009, the site was sold to The Art of Living Foundation, a non-profit organization that teaches meditation, yoga, breathing, and emotional balance. The group lovingly repaired the damage done to the property and today use it as their main headquarters.

The former Second Church of Christ, Scientist played a significant role in Wicked City’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go.”

Masking as a local library, it is there that Kent Grainger (Ed Westwick) leaves the head of one of his murder victims among the stacks of books for detectives Jack Roth (Jeremy Sisto) and Paco Contreras (Gabriel Luna) to find.

I initially thought that the actual inside of the former church had also been used in the filming of the library scenes, but as soon as I looked through these interior photographs of the place I realized that was not the case.

As it turns out, interior filming took place at DC Stages, a downtown Los Angeles studio that has been around since 1988. The facility, which was originally called Dos Carlos Stages, is situated inside of a a former perishable food storage center and boasts several standing sets including that of a police station, a city hall, a courthouse, political offices, a hospital, a jail, apartments, hotel rooms, a restaurant, and, of course, a library. You can check out a drone video shot of the various sets here and some some photographs here. What I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that place in person!

Many sources state that the Second Church of Christ, Scientist was used regularly as the Fulton County Courthouse on the television series Matlock, but I have not been able to verify that. I downloaded a couple of episodes to scan through and in each of them a different building masked as the courthouse, neither of which was the Second Church of Christ, Scientist, as you can see below. The series aired for nine seasons, though, so it is quite possible the West Adams church did make an appearance (or several appearances) at some point during that run.

The locale also pops up as the Radiant Assembly of God church on the HBO series Perry Mason.

Only the exterior of the building is utilized on the series. Interior church scenes were shot at the Trinity Auditorium, located at 851 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles.

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: Second Church of Christ, Scientist, aka the Wicked City library, is located at 948 West Adams Boulevard in University Park. DC Stages, which was used for the interior library scenes, is located at 1360 East 6th Street in downtown L.A. Be advised that the studio facility is not open to the public.

October 23, 2015September 29, 2017

The Rindge House from “The Brasher Doubloon”

There are few things the Grim Cheaper loves more than historic sites. So when we came across a massive dwelling that appeared to have a past while on our way to stalk the Beckett Residence in September 2012, we stopped to take a closer look. Figuring the place had appeared onscreen at some point, I also snapped some photos of it. I didn’t end up doing much research on the home until recently, though. As it turns out, the property is known as the Rindge House and it was built at the turn of the 20th Century for one of L.A.’s most prominent citizens.

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The Rindge House was originally constructed in 1903 for wealthy businessman Frederick Hastings Rindge. Frederick not only co-established the Union Oil Company and the Los Angeles Edison Electric Company, but his family was largely responsible for developing Malibu. (I blogged about Frederick’s daughter’s home, the Adamson House, here.)

The property was designed by Frederick L. Roehrig, the same architect who also gave us the Stimson House from House II: The Second Story, the Andrew McNally House from Kingdom Come, the Lincoln Clark House from Little Black Book, and Castle Green in Pasadena (an oft-filmed locale that I have yet to blog about).

Sadly, Frederick Rindge passed away in 1905, just two years after the manse was completed. His wife, May, continued living on the premises until she, too, passed away in 1941. After May’s death, the property was utilized for a time as both a convent and a home for women. At some point, it was reverted back to a private residence and it remains so today. You can read a more detailed history of the Rindge House on the Big Orange Landmarks blog here.

According to Zillow, the Chateauesque-style pad, which was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1972, boasts 15 bedrooms, 9 baths, 11,704 square feet of living space, and 1.73 acres of land.

The GC and I had a blast walking around the perimeter of the property and looking at all of its unique detailing, like the mailbox and light post pictured below.

Because of its massive size and its age, the Rindge House definitely gives off an ominous aura. The huge spider we spotted hanging out on the fence outside didn’t help to combat that image.

A man named Mike had commented on the Big Orange Landmarks post that he used to live at the Rindge House and that many productions had been shot there. I got in touch with him in the hopes that he might remember some of the productions lensed on the premises and not only did he get back to me right away, but he proved to be a vast wealth of information! As it turns out, the property has a film resume that dates back to 1947! That year, it masked as the Murdock mansion, which is said to be located “all the way out” in Pasadena, in the noir The Brasher Doubloon.

The eastern portion of the residence, as well as the front porch and doorway were featured in the film.

I am fairly certain that the interior of the Murdock mansion was a set. You can check out what the real life interior of the Rindge House looks like here.

In the Season 3 episode of Wonder Woman titled “The Man Who Could Not Die,” which aired in 1979, the Rindge House served as the residence of evil scientist Joseph Reichman (Brian Davies).

Ironically enough, though the home was said to be in Topanga Canyon in the episode, a sign with its real life name and address was shown pretty prominently in a scene. (Love the special effects below!)

The interior of the Rindge House was featured quite prominently in “The Man Who Could Not Die.”

As you can see, it is absolutely stunning inside!

The property’s large guest house was also visible in the episode.

In the 1980 CBS Children’s Mystery Theatre episode titled “The Haunting of Harrington House,” the home masked as Harrington House, an old hotel that Polly Ames (Dominique Dunne) investigates for paranormal activity during a break from boarding school. For whatever reason, an establishing shot of the residence is never shown in the episode. Only close-ups of the porte-cochère . . .

. . . and the interior appeared onscreen.

That same year, the Rindge House was featured in another CBS Children’s Mystery Theatre episode titled “The Treasure Of Alpheus T. Winterborn.” In the episode, the property masqueraded as the Winterborn Public Library. Sadly, as Mike informed me, during the filming a 40-year-old stuntwoman named Odile Astie was killed while performing a stunt in which she was supposed to fall off the roof of the home onto airbags situated twenty-five feet below. Some plastic padding that Astie was wearing caught on the gutter during the sequence, though, causing her to land on the ground instead of the airbags. You can read more about the tragedy here.

The inside of the Rindge House masked as two different places in “The Treasure Of Alpheus T. Winterborn.” It first appeared as the interior of the Winterborn Public Library.

And it was also featured as the interior of Alpheus Winterborn’s former house.

I was shocked to discover while watching that the exterior of the Winterborn home was none other than the Weller Residence, which I blogged about on Wednesday.

And I was further shocked to discover that the episode starred Keith Coogan, who is married to my friend Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog!

In the 1982 comedy (and I use that term loosely) Slapstick (of Another Kind), the Rindge House was where twins Wilbur (Jerry Lewis) and Eliza Swain (Madeline Kahn) lived.

The interior of the home was also featured in the movie.

For Pat Benatar’s 1982 “Shadows of the Night” music video, both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the Rindge House were turned into a Nazi compound.

You can watch that video by clicking below.

In 1983’s Private School, the interior of the Rindge House stood in for the interior of Cherryvale Academy for Girls.

Oddly enough, two different exteriors were shown as the outside of Cherryvale Academy in the movie, neither of which was the Rindge House. The first exterior shown was that of the “Batman mansion” in Pasadena, which I blogged about here.

The other exterior shown was that of a house located at 4839 Louise Avenue in Encino. That same residence was also where Roger Azarian (Matthew Perry) lived in the Season 1 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “April Is the Cruelest Month.” You can read a post I wrote about it here.

The close-ups of the exterior of Cherryvale Academy were shot at the Rindge House, however.

Mike also informed me that the Rindge House appeared in another episode of CBS Children’s Mystery Theatre, but he could not remember which episode, and in the 1980 made-for-television movie Scout’s Honor, which I, unfortunately, could not find a copy of to make screen captures for this post.

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

Big THANK YOU to Mike for all of the help he provided with this post!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Rindge House, from The Brasher Doubloon, is located at 2263 South Harvard Boulevard in the Adams-Normandie area of Los Angeles.

October 22, 2014September 29, 2017

Elegant Manor

Because there’s nothing this stalker loves more than history and abandoned locations, my BFF Mike, from MovieShotsLA, once took me by a dilapidated old West Adams house known as Elegant Manor that has quite a backstory. This was years ago, though, and, while I knew the place was a filming location (thanks to this 2004 Los Angeles Times article), I kept putting off blogging about it as I was unsure of which productions it had appeared in. Thankfully, fellow stalker David, from The Location Scout website, gave me a tip last October and, while I did not get around to writing about it then, when I recently found out that the residence was the site of this year’s interactive play/haunted house Delusion: Lies Within, I thought it was high time that I finally did so.

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The two-story Italian Gothic/Queen Anne-style home was built for James T. Fitzgerald, a wealthy piano store owner, and his wife in 1906. The 6,665-square-foot brick and stone residence, which was originally known as the Fitzgerald House, was designed by architect Joseph Cather Newsom and featured 15 rooms, 6 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, three parcels of land, a cellar, an attic, a carriage house, vaulted ceilings, a sunken den, gothic arches, multiple fireplaces and wood ornamentation throughout.

After the Fitzgeralds moved out around 1910, the dwelling went through a succession of different owners. In 1952, it was purchased by the Regular Associated Troupers, a group of female circus performers, to be used as their headquarters. By the time Louisiana native Arlillian Moody acquired it from the Troopers in 1977, the home had fallen into severe disrepair. With help from friends, family and neighbors, Moody set about restoring the once great estate to its original grandeur. When the project was complete, she dubbed her new residence “Elegant Manor.” The property, which was named a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1982, served as more than just a home, though. Arlillian allowed it to be rented out for events, film shoots, political gatherings, school functions, and Alcoholic Anonymous meetings. The whole thing sounds very Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil – a fabulous book which I am currently in the midst of reading.

When Moody fell ill in 1993, her son Ronald Carroll began managing the property. He did not care for it as well as his mother had, though, and soon the events being held at the residence took a wild turn. Raves were a common occurrence, as was gang activity. When Moody passed away in 2001, things only got worse. In January 2004, two teen siblings were shot and killed by gang members during a party on the premises. Shortly thereafter, the city stepped in and removed 33 (!!!) disabled vehicles and over 20 tons (again !!!!) of trash from the property. They also put a halt to the home being used an an events venue. Ronald subsequently put the pad on the market for $2.1 million. I do not believe that he ever found a buyer, though, and, from what I’ve been able to glean online, I think that the estate eventually went into foreclosure before being sold by the bank. Elegant Manor, which was no longer so elegant, was put up for sale again in 2008 for $1.9 million. It appears to still be on the market. You can check out some great photographs of what the interior currently looks like here. It is actually in a lot better shape than I would have guessed, considering its past.

As I mentioned, Elegant Manor is currently being utilized as the site of Delusion: Lies Within, an interactive haunted house that makes use of a different abandoned mansion each year. (Last’s year show was held at the Beckett House, which I blogged about here.) The 2014 story focuses on a popular dark fantasy novelist named Elena Fitzgerald who has not been seen in years and her long missing daughter, Mary. The vast majority of dates for this year have already sold out, but some limited tickets are available here.

David, from The Location Scout, let me know that Elegant Manor appeared in the 2004 horror movie The Hazing (also called Dead Scared).

Elegant Manor was also where Stinger Ray (Hawthorne James) lived in the 1979 flick Disco Godfather. I couldn’t find a copy of the movie anywhere, but was able to make some screen captures from this “concentrated version” of it online. The back of the house, which you can see a photograph of here, was featured in the scene in which Stinger talked to the media.

And the interior of the house appeared in the scene in which Sweetmeat (Jimmy Lynch) threw a party.

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

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for telling me about this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Elegant Manor is located at 3115 West Adams Boulevard in the West Adams District of Los Angeles.

February 21, 2012February 20, 2012

The “You, Me and Dupree” House – Revisited

Today’s location is one that I have actually already once blogged about – way back in April of 2008 – but because it was a fairly short write-up and because I somehow missed one very pertinent detail when reporting on the place, I decided that it was most-definitely worthy of a re-post. The location? The adorable Craftsman-style bungalow where newlyweds Carl (Matt Dillon) and Molly (Kate Hudson) lived in the 2006 romantic comedy You, Me and Dupree. Fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, took me by the property and pointed out the detail that I had inadvertently missed while the two of us were out doing some stalking in the West Adams district a couple of weeks ago and, let me tell you, I just about fell over from shock. I could hardly believe my eyes when he pointed it out! What is this detail, you ask?

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As you can see in the screen captures pictured above, in You, Me and Dupree Carl and Molly’s residence appears to be two stories tall.

In reality, though, and as you can see above, the home, which was built in 1923, is a ONE-story dwelling! How I missed that fact the first time around is absolutely beyond me, especially being that I usually consider myself to be quite an observant little stalker. I must have been in the midst of a severe blonde moment when I originally stalked the property! I am not sure if a fake second level was built on top of the bungalow during the filming or if one was digitally added during post-production, but, either way, I was absolutely gobsmacked (LOVE that word!) when Mike pointed out the discrepancy!

According to Zillow, in real life the 1,726-square-foot house boasts 2 bedrooms and 2 baths, but Property Shark tracks the place at 4 bedrooms and 3 baths, so someone seems to have gotten their wires crossed with the measurements at some point.

Being that Carl and Molly’s living room was dominated by a set of stairs that led up to the home’s fake second level, the real life interior of the property was, obviously, not used in the filming. The inside of their house was, in actuality, just a set that was built on a soundstage at Universal Studios Hollywood. According to fave website Hooked on Houses, of the set, directors Joe and Anthony Russo said in the movie’s DVD commentary, “We tried to make Carl and Molly’s world sort of warm and accessible and you’ll see that in the choice of their house. It’s an older home, modest in scale, and the neighborhood feels like it’s been there awhile.”

Also according to Hooked on Houses, the scene pictured above, in which Carl watches Dupree (Owen Wilson) play baseball with some neighborhood kids, was actually filmed from inside of the real life home, because the directors wanted to “capture the look you can only get through old glass.” It has been said that “God is in the details” and it is the little details like this that I absolutely LOVE hearing about.

According to IMDB’s You, Me and Dupree trivia page, the set used for the interior of Molly and Carl’s house was the same one used for the residence of Hope (Mel Harris) and Michael Steadman (Ken Olin) on the 1980s television series thirtysomething. But, as you can see above, while slightly similar, the two are most definitely not one in the same.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for pointing out the discrepancy in the number of stories of the You, Me and Dupree house.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The You, Me and Dupree house is located at 2406 Gramercy Park in the West Adams District of Los Angeles.