May 2012 – IAMNOTASTALKER

May 31, 2012December 6, 2013

The Sand Acre Estate – Where Marilyn Monroe is Rumored to Have Vacationed

A few weeks ago, while doing research on Seward Johnson’s “Forever Marilyn” statue, which I blogged about yesterday, I came across a press release posted on the Visit Palm Springs website and just about passed out over the mention of a desert-area MM location that I had never before heard of! The press release stated, “Marilyn Monroe has many legendary ties to Palm Springs. To name a few, she was photographed and “discovered” by Johnny Hyde from the William Morris Agency at Charlie Farrell’s Racquet Club. She was also rumored to have frequented a Movie Colony estate with Joe DiMaggio, currently known as the Sand Acre Estate, and owned a 1950’s bungalow-style house in Las Palmas.” While I had stalked and blogged about both Charlie Farrell’s Racquet Club and Marilyn’s Las Palmas home, I had somehow never before even heard of the Sand Acre Estate! So I immediately added the place to my To-Stalk list and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there this past Friday afternoon while visiting my parents in the desert.

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When we pulled up to the Sand Acre Estate, which is located in Palm Springs’ Movie Colony neighborhood (LOVE that name!), I was shocked to discover the sheer enormity of the place! As you can see below, it is absolutely gargantuan! And I was even more shocked to discover that the manse is located directly across the street from Cary Grant’s former desert home, which I stalked back in July of last year. How in the heck had I not known about this place??

The Sand Acre Estate, which is currently a vacation rental and special events venue, is surrounded by a tall stucco wall that is topped by even taller hedges making the place extremely private and hidden from view. The stalking gods were definitely smiling down upon us that day, though, because the front gate happened to be standing wide open when we arrived, affording us a tiny peek at the site’s magnificent grounds.

The 3,434-square-foot Spanish-style dwelling, which was originally built in 1933 and recently underwent a year-long restoration, boasts 5 bedrooms, 6 baths, exposed beam ceilings, a media room, a large gourmet kitchen, a carriage suite complete with its own bedroom, a tennis court, a pool and Jacuzzi, numerous en-suite wood-burning fireplaces, a gym, and a 1.02-acre corner plot of land.

As you can see below, the property also boasts some breathtaking views of the San Jacinto Mountains. You can check out some fabulous interior photographs of the home here.

The rumors of Marilyn and Joe vacationing at the Sand Acre Estate are, sadly, just that – rumors. Because there is nothing concrete to prove that the couple ever set foot on the premises, Larry Rener, who manages the property, is quoted as saying, “We go with the rumor.” The tower-shaped area pictured below is the room where Marilyn and Joe are purported to have stayed during their frequent visits. And while I am not sure what the starlet’s link to the property was, if one ever even existed, it is definitely easy to picture her vacationing there, unwinding by the pool with her new husband while protected from the prying eyes of the ever-present and hounding media. Besides Marilyn, the Sand Acre Estate also has another Hollywood connection – Linda Gray, Donna Mills, and Morgan Fairchild once posed for a photo shoot there for the cover story of Palm Springs Life magazine’s January 2009 issue.

And on a very exciting side-note – fellow stalker Lavonna texted me on Friday afternoon to let me know that my fan question for Colin Egglesfield on Extra had finally aired! Whoo hoo!

As you can see below, I had quite a bit of fun watching the filming, especially when Colin showed us his AMAZE-BALLS Tom Cruise impersonation. Big THANK YOU to Lavonna for telling me about the episode and for making the screen captures that appear in this post.

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here. And you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Sand Acre Estate, where Marilyn Monroe is said to have vacationed with Joe DiMaggio, is located at 953 North Avenida Palmas in the Movie Colony neighborhood of Palm Springs. You can visit the property’s vacation rental website here. Cary Grant’s former desert home is located right across the street at 928 North Avenida Palmas.

May 30, 2012December 6, 2013

The “Forever Marilyn” Statue in Palm Springs

Back in December the Grim Cheaper’s boss, while on vacation in Chicago, spotted a huge statue of my girl Miss Marilyn Monroe towering above the Michigan Avenue skyline and texted me a picture of it. Well, as you can imagine, I just about lost my mind upon seeing the looming bronze effigy and told the GC that we had to get out to the Windy City as soon as possible to stalk it. As it turns out, though, Marilyn ended up coming to me! A few months after learning of the installation, which is named “Forever Marilyn”, fellow stalker Lavonna informed me that it was actually being relocated to the West Coast – to the corner of Tahquitz Canyon Way and Palm Canyon Drive in downtown Palm Springs to be exact! So I immediately called up my parents, who live in the Coachella Valley, and told them to keep me abreast of the bombshell’s status so that I could stalk it as soon it was installed, which, thankfully, did not take long. “Forever Marilyn” was finally unveiled last Thursday evening and I dragged the GC right on out to the desert to see it the very next day.

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“Forever Marilyn” was originally constructed in 1996 by American-realist sculptor Seward Johnson as part of his ICONS REVISTED series. The design was based upon the famous 1954 photograph of the starlet taken by Bruno Bernard, aka Bernard of Hollywood, during the filming of The Seven Year Itch’s iconic subway grate scene (the location of which I blogged about way back in June 2008). The statue did not make its debut until 15 years after its inception, though, when, on July 15th, 2011, it was unveiled as a temporary installation in the middle of Chicago’s Pioneer Court. Of the work, the now 82-year-old Seward states, “In this series, ICONS REVISTED, I am trying to discover what makes an image stay with us; become something more than its one moment in time. Marilyn has come to represent beauty, and the white dress blowing up around her is a type of teasing sensuality. There is something about her pose: the exuberance for life without inhibition, which is quintessentially American. It expresses an uninhibited sense of our own vibrancy.” Because The Seven Year Itch was the first MM movie that I ever saw, the image of the starlet trying to hold down her billowing dress has always been one that I’ve held extremely close to my heart. As photographer Mark Anderson asked in the October 2008 issue of Vanity Fair, “Who ever forgets the first time they saw Marilyn Monroe?” So true!

“Forever Marilyn”, which was constructed entirely out of bronze and stainless steel, measures 26 feet tall, 17 feet wide and weighs a whopping 34,300 pounds. It is owned by The Sculpture Foundation, Inc., an educational organization that provides public exhibitions and works of art to various communities around the globe.

Earlier this year, it was decided that the Coachella Valley would be “Forever Marilyn’s” next temporary stop and, on May 7th, a crew of six dedicated men began the dismantling process before the blonde bombshell embarked upon the long journey to her new home. (You can check out some fabulous photographs of her cross-country drive here.) Of the move, Seward said, “I am very pleased that Marilyn will be on view in Palm Springs. It was, after all, a location of her own choosing, and I assume she was drawn to the beauty and stillness of the landscape.”

As you can see here, the positioning of “Forever Marilyn” in relation to the skyscrapers of downtown Chicago was quite deceiving and made the statue appear to be much taller than it actually is. As the GC and I made our way down South Palm Canyon Drive towards the sculpture last Friday afternoon, I kept expecting to see it towering over the short one- and two-story buildings that make up Palm Springs. When we finally did come upon the icon, I was quite shocked as she is much shorter than her Chicago surroundings made her appear. Don’t get me wrong, “Forever Marilyn” is HUGE, just not as huge as I had originally anticipated.

“Forever Marilyn” is honestly one of the coolest works of art that I have ever seen in my entire life and I was literally pinching myself the whole time I was stalking it. I have a feeling that I will be making regular pilgrimages to see it when visiting my parents in the desert over the next year.

I am absolutely IN LOVE with the photograph below that the GC took of “Forever Marilyn”. I think it is can’t-take-my-eyes-off-it stunning and if we had any blank wall space left in our apartment, I would so have it blown up and framed.

I would be remiss in my blogging duties if I did not mention here that located directly across the street from “Forever Marilyn” is a statue of Lucille Ball that was designed in 1995 by the husband-and-wife sculpting team of Emmanuil and Janet Snitkovsky.

I actually stalked the statue, which is titled “Lucy Ricardo”, way back in May of last year for fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, whose mom is a HUGE Lucy fan, but I never got around to blogging about it.

While doing research for today’s post, I discovered that I had unknowingly stalked another of Seward Johnson’s statues while in San Diego back in 2008. The 25-foot-tall “Unconditional Surrender”, which is part of a 2005 series, recreates the infamous photograph of a sailor kissing a nurse in the middle of Times Square on August 14th, 1945 – the day that the end of World War II was announced. I saw the piece at Tuna Park Harbor, just outside of The Fish Market Seafood Restaurant, in downtown San Diego. It has since been relocated to New Jersey for restoration, but according to a May 28th, 2012 Los Angeles Times article, a replica of it is currently being created and will eventually be on permanent display at the seaside park.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: ‘Forever Marilyn’ is located at the northwest corner of South Palm Canyon Drive and East Tahquitz Canyon Way in downtown Palm Springs. The statue will be on display through June 2013. You can visit the “Forever Marilyn” Facebook page here. The “Lucy Ricardo” statue can be found directly across the street from Marilyn on the northeast corner of South Palm Canyon Drive and East Tahquitz Canyon Way, in front of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.

May 28, 2012May 30, 2012

Happy Memorial Day!

I will be taking today and tomorrow off for Memorial Day, but will be back on Wednesday with a whole new location. I hope all of my fellow stalkers had a fabulous three-day weekend! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

May 25, 2012May 24, 2012

Afton Arms – “The Boys Next Door” Apartment Building

A couple of months ago, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, informed me of a location that he thought was right up my alley due to its vast and storied Hollywood history – the Afton Arms apartment building from the movie The Boys Next Door. After Mike mentioned it, I attempted to watch the 1985 flick – which centers around a Los Angeles killing spree – on more than one occasion, but it was, sadly, far too dark for this stalker’s liking and I never ended up finishing it. But I decided to do some research on the Afton Arms anyway and, let me tell you, the information I dug up had me practically salivating at the mouth! So I immediately added the building to my To-Stalk list and finally dragged the Grim Cheaper out to Hollywood to see the place in person this past Saturday afternoon.

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The 42-unit Afton Arms apartment building was originally built in in 1924 and was designed by Leland Bryant, the prolific architect who also designed the Sunset Tower Hotel (one of my favorite spots in L.A.), Granville Towers (Portia de Rossi’s former home), the Harper House [where Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber) was murdered in Scream 3], and the Romanesque Villa Apartments (where my girl Miss Marilyn Monroe once lived). Afton Arms has had countless claims to fame over the years, the most notorious of which is the legend that one of its apartments was the site of regular trysts between Joseph Kenney and actress Gloria Swanson during the 1920s. Whether or not the two ever set foot on the property, though, is anyone’s guess, but what is known is that Afton Arms has been home to several Hollywood luminaries (my buddy E.J.’s Movieland Directory’s page on the place is one of the most extensive on his entire website) and the location of several murders (one in 1987) and deaths (on June 27, 1988, the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Hillel Slovak was found dead of a drug overdose in apartment #114).

In 1972, a man named General Hershey Bar (I’m not making this up!) took over the management of the Afton Arms and renamed the place “The Happy Malaga Castle” (again, not making this up!). After Mr. Bar’s short tenure as manager, the building went through a succession of different caretakers, fell into serious disrepair and became home to more than a few seedy characters. Journalist Rob A. Campbell states in a fabulous September 20th, 1995 Los Angeles Times article on the property, “Though the Castle was listed as ‘Best Hollywood Apartment Building’ in the L.A. Weekly, its major assets were ‘a plausible little garden’ and ‘easiest place to buy cocaine.’” LOL He also says, “the Castle was so notorious with local police that officers would show up two or three times a day, whether called or not.” Thankfully, long-time resident Ynot Navillus finally took over management of the building and saw to it that the Arms was restored to its original grandeur – and name. Of the process, Ynot said, “When you bring light and air into a situation in the form of service and cleanliness, those who need a dank environment depart. Then there are those who respond to the change of the environment and they themselves change and end up staying. Those are the success stories.”

Today, Afton Arms is a gorgeous (albeit slightly overgrown) vine-covered property, one which I doubt the local police ever have much reason to visit. The place was named Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument Number 463 on November 3, 1989.

In The Boys Next Door, best friends Roy Alston (Maxwell Caulfield) and Bo Richards (Charlie Sheen) take a road trip to Los Angeles shortly following their high school graduation. During their trip, they meet a man at a bar and wind up going back to his apartment at the Afton Arms, where they randomly murder him. Like I said, it’s a dark movie. As you can see below, thanks to the abundant foliage that now covers the structure, it looks quite a bit different today than it did in 1985 when The Boys Next Door was filmed. In fact, it is, sadly, almost unrecognizable. Major kudos to Mike for finding it!

And while I cannot say for sure, I am fairly certain that the real life interior of one of the Afton Arms apartments was used in the filming. You can check out some pics of a unit that is currently for lease in the building here.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location and convincing me to stalk it! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Afton Arms, aka The Happy Malaga Castle, aka The Boys Next Door apartment building, is located at 6141 Afton Place in Hollywood.

May 24, 2012May 24, 2012

An “Extra” Taping with “The Bachelorette’s” Emily Maynard!

Late last week, Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, informed me that the current Bachelorette, the impossibly adorable Emily Maynard, would be filming a segment for Extra at The Grove in L.A. on Tuesday, May 22nd. And while I am not usually a fan of getting celebrity pictures during Extra tapings – there are always massive amounts of people trying to do the exact same thing, security is difficult, at best, and the set-up is different everyday so one never knows the best place to stand – because this stalker absolutely LOVES LOVES LOVES herself some Emily Maynard, I had to at least try. Which is how I found myself heading out to The Grove bright and early this past Tuesday morning, and, as it turned out, things could not have gone more perfectly! And I would like to go on the record here and state that while I LOVE Emily as The Bachelorette, it is this stalker’s never-to-be-humble opinion that producers seriously dropped the ball on choosing her suitors. There is not one guy in the bunch that I even mildly like. (Although I did truly laugh out loud at the comment contestant John “Wolf” made about fellow contestant Kalon in Monday night’s episode in which he said, “I have a rule – if you have Louis Vuitton luggage and you’re a dude, you’re an a**hole!”) Emily, you’ve definitely got your work cut out for you!

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I ended up arriving at The Grove at around 9 a.m., about two hours before Emily’s interview was scheduled to begin and, amazingly enough, the mall and area around the Extra stage were both completely empty. After milling around for a bit, looking in the windows of my favorite stores, I lucked out by spotting host Maria Menounos walking towards the set, so I ran up to ask for a pic. Maria was a complete and total sweetheart and even chatted with me a bit about her stint on Dancing with the Stars. Love it! Shortly thereafter, one of the Extra crew members came to the stage and announced that a prize would be given to those audience members who were willing to stick around for the entire taping, which would last about three hours. I, of course, agreed to stay, not because I wanted the prize, but because, as you all know, I LOVE to watch filming of any kind! The crew member then came up to me and the two women standing next to me to inquire if we would be willing to ask Emily Maynard a “fan question” during the show. Um, yes, please! I mean, could this day get any better? Smile (For those who read my blog regularly, you will remember that I also asked actor Colin Egglesfield a fan question during an Extra taping a couple of weeks ago, but it seems that I ended up on the cutting room floor as I never saw my question air.)

Shortly after we were informed of the questions we were to ask during the taping (yes, the fan questions are written by producers and are not spontaneous), Emily showed up on the scene looking absolutely adorable, as you can see below!

I was OBSESSED with her shoes, which, thanks to a quick internet search, I discovered are Pierre Hardy’s Canvas Multi-Colored Wedges. For those of you who have an extra $695 burning a hole in your pockets, you can pick yourselves up a pair here.

I happened to spot Emily as she was making her way to the Extra set, completely unnoticed by passersby. Seizing the opportunity, I snuck away from the crowd and approached her to ask for a picture, knowing it would likely be my only chance. And while security seemed extremely peeved with me and told me that photos could only be taken once filming was completed, Emily said it was OK and happily posed. She seemed quite a bit shy and was surprised I wanted a picture with her, but was very sweet. And yes, she is just as cute in person as she appears to be onscreen. As it turns out, the stalking gods had definitely been smiling down upon me when I spotted her, because after her interview was over, she was mobbed by fans and my chances of getting a photograph would have been slim to none.

Emily’s interview, which lasted about ten minutes, was very fun to watch and she was very sweet answering my fan question, which was, “Did you learn anything from your previous experience with Brad? Is there anything you are going to avoid this time around?” After the interview was completed, one of the Extra crew members took a photo of The Bachelorette posing with Mario Lopez, which I somehow made it into the background of (!!!) and which The Grove later posted on its Facebook page. (Thanks to Lisa, from the Finding the Famous blog, for letting me know!) SO INCREDIBLY COOL! Can you tell I was excited? Winking smile You can check out another pic from the taping that fellow stalker Sandy told me about here.

After Emily left, Mario, Maria, and host Renee Bargh taped a few more brief segments. The girl who was standing next to me – a super nice tourist from Texas named Danielle – really wanted a photograph with Mario, and even though it is typically extremely hard to get pictures with him during the filming of Extra, I decided to try to help her make it happen. After getting turned down four separate times by him throughout the course of the morning, we were noticed by his security guard who, knowing that we had been standing there for over three hours and had participated in the show by asking fan questions, took pity on us, asked for our cameras and managed to snap pics of each of us posing with Mario during a break. Yay! As I said earlier, the stalking gods were definitely smiling down upon me on Tuesday!

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention our prize! All of the audience members who stayed for the duration of the filming were gifted a Philips Sonicare Airfloss Electric Flosser, which at first I thought was pretty lame – until I got home, that is, and tried it out. The Flosser is seriously one of the coolest things I have ever owned! The machine flosses one’s entire mouth electronically, using air and water, in about sixty seconds time. For someone who has never been a fan of flossing, this is pretty much the best invention ever and I am now completely in love with it! The Grim Cheaper has Siri and I have my Philips Sonicare Airfloss Electric Flosser. Winking smile All in all, it was a fabulous, FABULOUS day that I could not have enjoyed more! Look for Emily’s interview to air on Extra next Monday, May 28th.

Big THANK YOU to Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, for telling me about Emily’s appearance on Extra! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Extra tapes daily at The Grove shopping center, which is located at 189 The Grove Drive in Los Angeles. You can visit The Grove’s official website here and Extra’s official website here.

May 23, 2012May 24, 2012

Attending a Taping of Extra . . .

I spent all of yesterday morning at The Grove watching an episode of Extra being filmed that featured special guest Bachelorette Emily Maynard, whom I LOVE LOVE LOVE. (She is so freaking cute, it is almost unbelievable!) Then, when I finally did get home, the Grim Cheaper hooked me up with a new watermark (check it out above) and a cutting-edge photograph program, which I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to master. As I said a couple of weeks ago, this stalker is taking things to the next level. Smile Anyway, because of all of that I was not able to write a new post for today, but I will be back tomorrow writing about my whole Extra experience, which was FABULOUS! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

May 22, 2012May 21, 2012

John O’Groats Restaurant from “New Girl”

Another restaurant that appeared on fave show New Girl that I stalked recently was John O’Groats, a tiny breakfast and lunch café in the Rancho Park area of West Los Angeles. As fate would have it, a few years back I attended a weekly acting class at the Pico Playhouse, which is located directly next door to John O’Groats, and, on occasion, my actor friends and I would venture on over to the diner to grab a bite to eat before class. So when it popped up in the Season 1 episode of New Girl titled “Kryptonite”, I recognized the place and its darling interior immediately. Because I had not been there in years, though, and had no photographs of it, I added John O’Groats to my ever-growing To-Stalk list and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there this past Sunday morning for breakfast.

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John O’Groats was originally opened on February 26th, 1982 in a tiny, 750-square-foot space on the corner of Manning Avenue and Pico Boulevard. The eatery was the second culinary endeavor of Angelica and Robert Jacoby, who first founded Bit O’Scotland in Westwood seventeen years prior. After deciding that they no longer wanted to work nights, as they missed eating dinner regularly with their two sons, the Jacobys closed their pioneer restaurant and opened a coffee shop that served only breakfast and lunch. Their new café, which was named for a village in Scotland, enjoyed immediate success thanks to its homemade American-style comfort food, created with only the freshest and finest ingredients. After two years, the couple moved John O’Groats to a larger location where it still remains to this day, almost three decades later. Due to its immense popularity, the Jacoby’s have since expanded twice – first in 1995 and then again in 2000 – but, even so, it is still quite common to see large crowds standing outside waiting for a table. Thanks to its fabulous food and proximity to 20th Century Fox Studios, the restaurant has also become a magnet for celebrities over the years. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there include Julia Roberts, Debra Messing, Jessica Alba, Cash Warren, Ed O’Neill, Billy Baldwin, Danica McKellar, Josh Brolin, and Diane Lane.

John O’Groats has received countless culinary accolades in the press, including Zagat’s “Best Breakfast”, Esquire Magazine’s “Best Breakfast in America”, and USA Today’s “Best Power Breakfast in L.A.” – all of which are incredibly well-deserved! I am not a big breakfast person, but John O’Groats serves up some spectacular grub! The homemade biscuits, which the restaurant is famous for, are fabulous, as is the French-press coffee. The café also serves both sausage patties and sausage links, which I appreciate as I do not like links, but LOVE me some patties and most eateries only serve one or the other. Love it!

In the Season 1 episode of New Girl titled “Kryptonite”, John O’Groats was the eatery where Nick (Jake M. Johnson), Schmidt (Max Greenfield) and Winston (Lamorne Morris) discussed who was the “Top Dog” in their apartment. Our waitress informed us that the series had actually filmed on the premises twice, but I am guessing that the second taping wound up on the cutting room floor because I scanned through each of the show’s other 23 episodes and did not see it pop up anywhere.

Oprah Winfrey also taped an interview at John O’Groats with actor Jonah Hill for her 2012 Oscar Special in February of this past year.

You can watch a clip of the interview by clicking below.

Oprah Winfrey Oscar Interview with Jonah Hill at John O’Groats

And a BIG belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY goes out to Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog! I love you more than Matt Lanter, Michael Buble and Kristin Cavallari put together, girl! Winking smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: John O’Groats restaurant, from the “Kryptonite” episode of New Girl, is located at 10516 West Pico Boulevard in the Rancho Park neighborhood of West Los Angeles. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

May 21, 2012May 20, 2012

The Prince Restaurant from “New Girl”

One location that has been at the top of my To-Stalk list for what seems like ages now is The Prince – a historic and oft-filmed-at 1920s-era eatery located in Koreatown. And while I had never actually dined there, I had long been familiar with the place’s interior thanks to its many appearances onscreen. So when the restaurant popped up in the pilot episode of New Girl, and in pretty much every episode thereafter, I immediately recognized it and told the Grim Cheaper that we had to get down there as soon as possible to stalk the place. As it turns out, The Prince was well worth the wait because, as I mentioned a few weeks back in my Must-Stalk List, the eatery is, hands down, one of the coolest places that I have ever visited in all of Los Angeles!

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The Prince was originally opened as the Windsor Inn, an outdoor garden café located in the courtyard of the historic Windsor Apartments building, in 1927. A little over two decades later, in 1949, a man named Ben Dimsdale took over the establishment, whereupon he moved the location indoors to the first floor of the building, shortened the name to “The Windsor” and instituted a French-inspired menu. Thanks to its proximity to the legendary Ambassador hotel and its dimly-lit, gorgeous interior, it was not long before the place became one of Los Angeles’ finest eateries, serving everyone from American presidents to A-List actors. In 1991, the restaurant changed hands once again, was renamed “The Prince” and the menu given a Korean flair, but thankfully the interior was left intact and, in fact, has not been touched to this day. Love it, love it, love it!

Walking through The Prince’s front doors is like stepping back in time to some fabulous bygone era. Thanks to its dark, wood-paneled walls, plush red leather booths, and stained glass décor, it is easy to see why the place has become a favorite of location scouts over the years. As you can see below, The Prince’s interior is nothing short of spectacular.

I was absolutely gobsmacked to discover while doing research for this post that The Prince is not mentioned in ANY of my Los Angeles tour books or filming locations books! One of the coolest restaurants that I have ever set foot in, not to mention one of Southern California’s most filmed-at locales, and NOT ONE of my guidebooks even makes mention of it! HOW ON EARTH IS THAT POSSIBLE?? It is a good thing you have me, my fellow stalkers! Winking smile

The GC and I opted to sit at the bar during our stalk and had the pleasure of meeting one of the restaurant’s owners, who was so beyond nice it was almost unbelievable! She chatted with us for the entire duration of our two-hour meal (I did NOT want to leave, hence our long stay Winking smile ) and guided us through the eatery’s Korean-inspired menu. After ordering drinks we were given a complimentary order of chips and salsa, both of which were homemade on the premises earlier that day, as is everything (and I do mean everything) The Prince serves. After devouring the chips and salsa, which were excellent, we started our meal with an order of Pan-Fried Dumplings and my eyes just about popped out of my head when the dish arrived as the serving was absolutely HUGE! There had to be at least 16 dumplings on that plate! And, yes, they were delicious, as well!

The owner ended up convincing us to try an order of the Deep-Fried Whole Chicken, The Prince’s signature dish. After it arrived, she even taught us how to eat it Korean-style, with chopsticks(!), mixed with several sauces and slaw, and wrapped in a special thin bread that was almost like a gooey tortilla. And I can honestly say that it was AMAZING – one of the best meals, and dining experiences, that I have ever had! I cannot tell you how cool it was to partake in a foreign custom that I had been completely unfamiliar with. I cannot say enough good things about The Prince – how can you go wrong with stellar food, out-of-this-world service and an ambiance that will knock your socks off? The place is truly one of Los Angeles’ finest treasures and hands-down one of the coolest places that I have ever been to! I absolutely cannot wait to go back and I cannot more highly recommend the restaurant to my fellow stalkers. If you have only one night to dine in Los Angeles, go to The Prince.

On New Girl, The Prince is the bar where Nick (Jake M. Johnson) works and where the gang – Jess (Zooey Deschanel), Schmidt (Max Greenfield), Winston (Lamorne Morris), and Cece (Hannah Simone)- regularly hangs out.

The Windsor Apartments is also where Nick almost moved to at the end of the episode titled “See Ya”.

The interior of the Prince was used as the interior of The Brown Derby, where J.J. Gittes (Jack Nicholson) met up with Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) to discuss her husband’s death, in 1974’s Chinatown. As you can see below, the restaurant still looks exactly the same today as it did then. Love it, love it, love it!

The Prince appeared in the Season 1 episode of Mad Men tilted “Ladies Room” as the supposed Manhattan-area restaurant where Roger Sterling (John Slattery) and Don Draper (Jon Hamm) took their wives, Mona Sterling (Talia Balsam) and Betty Draper (January Jones), on a date.

Later in the episode, Don and Betty return to The Prince alone for dinner.

In 2005’s Thank You for Smoking, The Prince was used extensively as “Bert’s”, the supposed Washington, D.C.-area watering hole where Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart), Polly Bailey (Maria Bello) and Bobby Jay Bliss (David Koechner) met on a weekly basis to discuss their strategy for giving alcohol, tobacco and firearms a better public image.

In the pilot episode of The Defenders, The Prince showed up twice as a supposed Las Vegas-area bar where Nick Morelli (James Belushi) and Pete Kaczmarek (Jerry O’Connell) grabbed drinks.

In the 2006 movie Crank, The Prince was where Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) killed Alex Verona (Jay Xcala), after first chopping off his hand.

According to The Prince’s website, the restaurant was also used in episodes of The Layover, Eagleheart, Prime Suspect, and Criminal Minds, but I was, unfortunately, unable to figure out which episodes exactly, and it will also be appearing in the yet-to-be-released movie The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Prince is located at 3198 1/2 West 7th Street, inside of the Windsor Apartments building, in Koreatown. The restaurant opens at 4 p.m. nightly and I would recommend partaking of their valet parking as the area can get a bit sketchy after dark. You can visit The Prince’s official website here.

May 18, 2012June 21, 2012

The View from Leonard and Sheldon’s Apartment on “The Big Bang Theory”

As I mentioned in Wednesday’s post, while doing research on the rooftop where Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) and Bernadette Rostenkowski (Melissa Rauch) got married in the Season 5 episode of The Big Bang Theory titled “The Countdown Reflection”, I came across a TBBT forum that was an absolute treasure trove of location information. I became so entranced by the many debates about where the photograph was taken of the view shown from Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon Cooper’s (Jim Parsons) apartment, in fact, that I completely lost track of time and failed to make dinner, so the Grim Cheaper and I ended up having to go out! (That’s a good trick, actually – I’ll have to remember that one! Winking smile ) I cannot tell you how often the GC and I would pause episodes of The Big Bang Theory over the years trying to figure out from where that photograph was taken. We had both come to the conclusion long ago that the view was fake – a fictional composition of a skyline created by TBBT art department. So imagine my surprise when I read on the forum that the view was actually real! Not only that, but the photograph of it had been taken from a place that I am extremely familiar with.

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On the forum, a Pasadena resident named “JamesPMiller” posted a comment which detailed his extensive, and successful, hunt across the City of Roses trying to pinpoint the exact spot where the photograph of Leonard and Sheldon’s view was taken. The lengths that he went to during this venture are nothing short of awe-inspiring. He is a man after this stalker’s own heart, that’s for sure! As it turns out, Leonard and Sheldon’s view can be seen from the roof (or Level 6) of the parking structure of the Community Bank building on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. Ironically enough, the GC has meetings at the Community Bank building on a regular basis and I frequently have to drop stuff off to him there. So when I read of the location, I really had to mentally smack myself in the forehead as it is a place that I visit almost daily. Doh! Maybe all of that blonde hair dye is truly going to my head, as the GC has long suspected. Winking smile Anyway, once I learned of the location, I ran right over there to take some pics.

As you can see below, the view from the parking structure matches up perfectly to the backdrop that appears on the show. It seems that the TBBT producers digitally removed the steeple of the Pasadena Presbyterian Church, which is visible in my photographs, but, other than that, the two views are identical.

The photograph of Sheldon and Leonard’s view was taken from the parking place denoted by the pink “X” in the photograph below.

The space is the seventh spot over from the southern-most end of the parking structure.

As JamesPMiller also noted in TBBT forum, the view from the apartment where Penny (Kaley Cuoco) lives was also taken from the Community Bank building parking garage roof, just a few spaces south from where Leonard and Sheldon’s backdrop picture was taken. So incredibly cool!

Big THANK YOU to JamesPMiller for finding this location! I cannot urge you enough to read the story of his search, which begins on Page 5 of The Big Bang Theory forum.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The photograph of the view from Sheldon and Leonard’s apartment on The Big Bang Theory was taken from the roof (Level 6) of the Community Bank building parking garage, which is located at 790 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. Although the address is 790 East Colorado Boulevard, the entrance to the parking structure is located on South Hudson Avenue, in between East Green Street and East Colorado Boulevard. The photograph of Sheldon and Leonard’s view was taken from the seventh parking spot over from the southern-most end of the roof, and the photograph of Penny’s view was taken from the fifth parking spot over from the southern-most end of the roof.

May 17, 2012May 20, 2012

Running Errands!

I spent all day yesterday running errands so I did not have time to write a new post for today. I will be back tomorrow, though, with a whole new location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile