The “Liar Liar” Towing Yard

A few weeks ago, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I spent an entire day stalking in and around the Malibu area.  But before actually heading west to the ‘Bu, Mike made a little surprise pit stop in Alhambra so that the two of us could stalk the towing yard that appeared in fave comedy Liar Liar.  Mike had actually told me about the yard, which is called Henry’s Towing in real life, the first time we met and even though I had long been dying to stalk the place, for whatever reason, I had yet to do so.  So, I was BEYOND elated when he pulled up to the yard a few weeks ago and told me what it was.  Mike found this location thanks to the fact that he grew up in the Alhambra area, not too far from Henry’s, and had driven by the place countless times during his youth.  So when he saw Liar Liar for the first time back in 1997, he recognized the yard immediately.  Yay!  Thank you, Mike!

Henry’s Towing appeared in my absolute favorite scene in Liar Liar (well, besides the HILARIOUS “The pen is blue!” scene, of course), in which Audrey Reede (aka Maura Tierney) takes her ex-husband Fletcher Reede (aka Jim Carrey) to pick up his Mercedes which has just been towed.

After retrieving the car, Fletcher notices that there is a scratch on it, causing him to have a completely hilarious meltdown consisting of one of my favorite movie monologues of all time!   During the meltdown he says, “You know what I’m gonna do about this?  NOTHING!  Because if I take ya to small claims court it’ll just drain eight hours out of my life and you probably won’t show up and if I finally got the judgment you’d just stiff me anyway.  So what I’m gonna do is piss and moan like an impotent jerk and then bend over and take it up the tailpipe!”  To which the towing attendant says, “You’ve been here before, haven’t you?”  LOL Love it!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-rNIAN5o5M&feature=related[/youtube]

You can watch the tow yard scene by clicking above.

Unfortunately, though, thanks to a large fence which now surrounds the property, the majority of the towing yard is not visible from the street.  🙁

But you can see a good view of the place in the above aerial image.

Ironically enough, according to one of the workers we spoke with, the cashier’s window featured in Liar Liar is not actually Henry’s real life cashier’s window.  Instead, producers chose to use a different window located deeper inside the property, behind the exterior fence.

The window which appeared in the movie is denoted with the pink arrow above and, sadly, if you aren’t visiting Henry’s to pick up a towed car, you won’t be able to see it.  🙁  Such a bummer!

The real life cashier’s window – which is a part of Henry’s main office – does appear very briefly in Liar Liar, though, towards the end of the towing scene when Fletcher walks Audrey to her car.  The two walk past the perimeter fence – which at the time did not have black tarp covering it – and towards the real life cashier’s window while she tells him about the wish his son made the previous evening.

The window looks a bit different today than it did during filming, though, as the little wooden awning which appeared above it in the scene has long since been removed.  Henry’s main office has also been painted a different color in the years since filming took place.

The back side of the main office can also be seen in the background during Fletcher’s meltdown.

While not much of Henry’s Towing Yard is visible from the street, I still absolutely loved seeing it in person and the memories of the movie that being there brought back.  I do have to admit, though, that the guys working the counter thought Mike and I were BEYOND weird for stalking the place.  And even though I explained to them that we were big fans of the movie Liar Liar and were taking the pictures for our respective stalking websites, I am fairly certain they thought we were angry patrons whose cars had been recently towed and that the photographs were for a pending lawsuit, as they kept a VERY close eye on us the whole time.  LOL  Don’t they know a stalker when they see one?  😉

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location.  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Liar, Liar towing yard, aka Henry’s Towing Service, is located at 1100 Westminster Avenue in Alhambra.

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