July 2012 – IAMNOTASTALKER

July 31, 2012July 30, 2012

Frank the Tank’s House from “Old School”

Three weeks ago, fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, emailed me to let me know that he had recently tracked down the house where Frank Ricard (Will Ferrell), aka “Frank the Tank”, and his new wife, Marissa Jones (Perrey Reeves), aka “Mrs. Ari” from Entourage, lived – well, until she kicked him out for streaking, anyway Winking smile – in the 2003 comedy Old School. I was beyond thrilled to hear this news as Frank and Marissa’s abode is one location that I have long wondered about and always wanted to stalk. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there to do just that this past weekend.

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While watching Old School on television a few weeks back, Geoff’s wife happened to ask if he knew where Frank and Marissa’s house was located. He didn’t, but figured that the information had to be mentioned somewhere online. After checking all of the usual stalking websites, though, he came up empty-handed and decided to begin his own search. Thankfully, an address number of “2234” was visible in the background of one of the scenes, so that search was a short one. As it turns out, Frank the Tank’s house is located in Altadena – pretty much right in my own backyard.

In real life, the property was originally built in 1917 and boasts four bedrooms, three baths, 2,400 square feet of living space, and a 0.34-acre plot of land. As you can see below, it could not be more charming or idyllic. This place has got curb appeal down to a T! And while this website claims that the abode was recently listed for sale at $43,250 (as if!!!!), according to Zillow, it actually last sold in August 2001 for $560,000.

Frank the Tank’s house actually only shows up twice in Old School, and very briefly at that. But it made quite an impression on me nonetheless.

So much so that, even though I had not seen the flick in ages, I recognized the place immediately when we pulled up and could almost see Frank the Tank working on his Trans-Am, “The Red Dragon”, in the driveway, with the strains of Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again” blaring out of his speakers. SUCH A GREAT MOVIE!

As you can see in these photographs, the real life interior of the home, which is absolutely ADORABLE (so shabby chic!), was also used in the filming. I was literally drooling over the shots of the sweeping front porch, the backyard and the kitchen.

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. And you can take a look my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Frank the Tank’s house from Old School is located at 2284 Mar Vista Avenue in Altadena.

July 30, 2012July 27, 2012

Floodlights Nightclub from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

Located directly across the street from Calvert Studios – the studio where fave show Beverly Hills, 90210 was lensed and the location that currently stands in for the exterior of The Rub massage parlor on the Lifetime television series The Client List – is the office building that masqueraded as Floodlights nightclub in the Season 1 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Slumber Party”. And while I had known about this locale for what seems like ages, for some reason, I had never stalked it during any of my prior visits to Calvert Studios. Thankfully though, when I was there with Mike, from MovieShotsLA, a couple of months back, he reminded me about the place and suggested that I stalk and blog about it. So here goes!

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In the “Slumber Party” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, Steve Sanders (Ian Ziering) takes Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) to a nightclub named Floodlights. After the teens are denied entry at the door, due to the fact that they are both obviously underage, they walk back to the club’s parking lot area where they meet Trina (Growing Pains’ Julie McCullough) and Shelly (Judie Aronson), two scam artists who end up stealing Steve’s Corvette. And while the police do catch and arrest the women later on in the evening, Trina begs Steve to bail them out of jail, promising to “make it up to” him, and Steve being Steve, he, of course, does – after which Trina gives him a coupon for a free manicure. Ah, the good old days!

In real life, the Floodlights building is not a nightclub at all, but a simple office space that currently serves as the headquarters for ProAction Products, which, according to its website, is a custom plastic injection molding, assembly and tool manufacturing firm – whatever that means. And while I am not sure what the structure housed back in 1991 when the “Slumber Party” episode was filmed, judging by the industrial nature of the area, I am guessing it was a similar type of company. I cannot express how incredibly weird it is to see the small, quiet and normal street where Calvert Studios is situated and picture the Beverly Hills, 90210-gang arriving there each and every morning to tape what was then the most popular television series on the planet. Most movie studios are surrounded by huge gates, fences and guard shacks, and, barring a tour, are largely off-limits to the public. But Calvert Studios is, in essence, just a warehouse and, while it is slightly more inaccessible now, back in the 90210 days, it was completely visible from the street. I cannot even imagine working in one of the nearby offices at the time and getting to see Shannen Doherty and Luke Perry arrive on set everyday. How incredibly cool would that have been?!? Sigh!

Oddly enough, thanks to its unique façade, producers did not have to do much to transform the 1972-office building into Floodlights nightclub. They simply covered over the glass entrance doors to make the structure appear less “officey”, added a neon sign and a fake cactus plant, and, voila, they had themselves what looked exactly like an early ‘90s-era club.

Ironically enough, while scanning through the pilot episode of The Client List, which was titled “The Rub of Sugar Land”, to make screen captures for last Friday’s post, I spotted the Floodlights office building in the background of the scene in which Riley Parks (Jennifer Love Hewitt) discovered that the word “whore” had been spray-painted on her car.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Floodlights Nightclub, from the “Slumber Party” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, is located at 14940 Calvert Street in Van Nuys. The Rub from The Client List is located across the street at 15001 Calvert Street. The back of the Peach Pit and the door to the After Dark from Beverly Hills, 90210 is actually the east side of the warehouse located right next door to The Rub at 15041 Calvert Street. Steve Sander’s bus stop from the “Chuckie’s Back” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 was built on the west side of that same warehouse. You can read my post on those locations here and here.

July 27, 2012July 26, 2012

The Rub from “The Client List”

Another The Client List location that fellow stalker Owen (aka Jennifer Love Hewitt’s biggest fan), from the When Write Is Wrong blog, tracked down recently was The Rub – the supposed Sugar Land, Texas-area massage parlor where JLove’s character, Riley Parks, works on the series. Owen had actually been looking for the locale for quite some time and when he finally found it and sent me the address I literally just about fell off my chair! As it turns out, The Rub is the exterior of Calvert Studios in Van Nuys, the very same studio where Beverly Hills, 90210, my favorite show of all time, was filmed! How I did not recognize it while watching The Client List is absolutely BEYOND me. In my defense, though, at the time that Owen gave me the address, I had only seen one episode of the series. Anyway, once I found out about the location, I added it to my Re-Stalk list and Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I headed right on over there while in the area two months ago.

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The two warehouses pictured below were both formerly a part of the Calvert Studios complex and the interior of each was used in the filming of Beverly Hills, 90210. As you’ll notice, the place does not look anything at all like a typical movie studio. That is because Calvert Studios was originally a light manufacturing facility located at the end of a cul-de-sac in a small industrial area of Van Nuys. In 1989, Aaron Spelling purchased the site to film his new television series Beverly Hills, 90210 and transformed the two warehouses, which comprised 45,000 square feet of space, into sound studios and production offices. And for the next ten years magic happened inside of those walls. Well, for the next four years – we can all attest to the fact that the show went seriously downhill after Shannen Doherty left. But I digress. Anyway, after 90210 went off the air in 2000, Spelling Productions continued to do filming at the site. Then, when Aaron passed away in 2005, CBS took over the property and used the studio to shoot such shows as Jericho, Heist, Harper’s Island, and the ill-fated 2009 Melrose Place re-boot.

Then, sometime last year, CBS sold off one of the warehouses to Genie Air Conditioning & Heating Inc., cutting Calvert Studios in half. And sadly, the warehouse sold was the most recognizable one, the one that was used regularly as the back of the Peach Pit and the famous entrance to the Peach Pit After Dark on 90210.

Sadder still is the fact that Genie has since painted over the warehouse’s legendary red brick exterior and the building is now a drab blue and grey color and is virtually unrecognizable. GAH!

Unfortunately, while the After Dark door – which, in reality, is one of the warehouse’s side doors – is typically visible from the street, it was covered over by a huge tower of wooden crates on the day that Mike and I stalked the place. Its location is denoted with a pink arrow in the photograph below. You can check out some pictures that I took of that door on my first visit to Calvert Studios – during which Mike and I were invited onto the lot – here.

The side of the Genie warehouse was also used as other locations besides the Peach Pit during 90210’s ten-year run. Most prominently, it doubled as the rave where Emily Valentine (Christine Elise) slipped Ecstasy into Brandon Walsh’s (Jason Priestley’s) drink in the Season 2 episode titled “U4EA”. The white door visible in the screen captures pictured below is actually the famous After Dark door. The camera was just facing the opposite angle from which the After Dark scenes were usually shot.

And the opposite (west) side of the warehouse was used as the bus station where Steve Sanders (Ian Ziering) caught a bus to Albuquerque, New Mexico in the Season 2 episode titled “Chuckie’s Back”.

The bus depot, which was, of course, just a fake, was set up in front of the first window pictured below.

And although they can’t be seen in the episode, when Steve’s bus drives off in the scene, it passes right through the Calvert Studios gates.

Those gates are pictured below.

One of the Genie warehouse employees was nice enough to let us onto the property while we were there, so I, of course, just had to pose for a pic in the spot where the gang was standing in the episode.

While the Genie warehouse is no longer used for production, the other warehouse still is. And not only does the front exterior of it stand in for the entrance to The Rub on The Client List, but the interior is actually comprised of the soundstages where the series is filmed.

In The Client List, The Rub is the not-so-above-board strip-mall massage parlor where Riley Parks gives massages . . . among other things. As you can see below, it looks pretty much exactly the same in person as it does onscreen, minus a few potted plants and some retro light fixtures.

As I mentioned in my post about the house where Riley lives on the series, The Client List is actually based upon the true story of The Healing Touch massage parlor, which got raided by the police in a huge prostitution scandal in May 2004. In real life, The Healing Touch was located at 3631 North Dixie Boulevard in Odessa, Texas.

Ironically enough, in the Season 1 finale of The Client List, which was titled “Past Is Prologue”, the back (north) side of the Genie warehouse was featured in the scene in which The Rub’s owner, Georgia (Loretta Devine), took Riley “next door” to “Bucky’s Appliances” and suggested that she relieve some of her anger at her ex-husband by hitting washing machines with a baseball bat.

It absolutely cracked me up to see those washing machines because, as I mentioned back in December 2009 in my post about the “Keep It Together” park from Season 1 of Beverly Hills, 90210, Calvert Studios is surrounded by appliance warehouses and washing machines were visible in the background of more than a few episodes of the series.

Big THANK YOU to Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location and to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for figuring out Steve’s bus stop location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Rub from The Client List is located at 15001 Calvert Street in Van Nuys. The back of the Peach Pit and the door to the After Dark from Beverly Hills, 90210 is actually the east side of the warehouse located right next door at 15041 Calvert Street. Steve’s bus stop from the “Chuckie’s Back” episode of 90210 was built on the west side of that same warehouse.

July 26, 2012July 26, 2012

The Burger That Ate L.A. from “Melrose Place”

Way back in July 2009, a fellow stalker named Zoe emailed me to ask for some help in tracking down a hamburger-shaped restaurant that had appeared regularly in establishing shots on the original Melrose Place. Because I had never really watched the series, though, and had never noticed a burger-shaped eatery in all my years of living in L.A., I was not able to offer much help. So imagine my surprise when, while stalking in the West Hollywood area with Mike, from MovieShotsLA, a couple of months ago, we drove by the Starbucks pictured above and he announced that in the late ‘90s it was a famous hamburger-shaped restaurant named The Burger That Ate L.A. and that it was featured in an early episode of MP. I just about passed out from excitement over the news! More exciting still was the fact that, as Mike pointed out, even though the eatery has since gone through a series of different incarnations, the shape and structure of it is still almost exactly the same as it was when it was a burger place. Yay! Because we were rushing off to stalk Frank’s Wedding Coordinator shop from Father of the Bride (which I blogged about here) though, we did not pull over to take pictures. (I know, I know – me passing up the chance to stalk a Starbucks is seriously blasphemous!) But I immediately added the address to my To-Stalk list and finally dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there a couple of weeks ago.

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In the pilot episode of Melrose Place, Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) drops Donna Martin (Tori Spelling) and David Silver (Brian Austin Green) – all of whom were making a guest appearance – off in front of The Burger That Ate L.A. before heading over to see her new boyfriend, Jake Hanson (Grant Show), who “lives around the corner” at the Melrose Place apartment building (which I blogged about many, many moons ago here). As you can see below, The Burger That Ate L.A. was quite an extraordinary place.

The eatery also popped up in the opening credits of Melrose Place’s pilot episode and, as I mentioned above, in the series’ regular establishing shots of the Melrose District neighborhood, where the characters supposedly lived.

The Burger That Ate L.A. was also featured very briefly in the Season 1 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “The First Time”, in the scene in which Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) takes his former girlfriend, Sheryl (Paula Irvine), who is visiting from Minnesota, sightseeing.

The unique programmatic design of The Burger That Ate L.A. was the brainchild of restaurateur David Alderman, who also founded Carlos & Pepe’s in Fort Lauderdale and Moonshadows in Malibu (where Mel Gibson partied before his infamous DUI arrest in 2006). Alderman became inspired to shape his latest venture like a hamburger late one night while watching a B-movie. According to this July 7th, 1989 Los Angeles Times article, of the idea, he said, “Something in the old movie must have flipped a switch, and a light bulb popped in my head. I grew up in West Los Angeles, and often passed the Tail o’ the Pup hot-dog stand, which is shaped like a sausage sticking out between two buns.” Alderman commissioned the Solberg + Associates (which was then known as Solberg + Lowe Architects) firm to design and carry out his vision and The Burger That Ate L.A. was opened in mid-1989. The kitschy diner featured bar stools that were shaped like pickle wedges and a huge tomato slice that was suspended from the ceiling. What I wouldn’t give to have been able to see it in person! Sad smile

The Burger That Ate L.A. was insanely popular for a time and even attracted its fair share of celebs. Apparently, Drew Barrymore once dined there, as did Axl Rose. Sadly though, the popularity did not last. While I do not know the exact date of its closure, by October 1994, The Burger had already been shut down, re-opened as the Acapulco Chicken Café (which inexplicably retained the burger shape of the building, as you can see here), closed yet again and left to deteriorate. At some point, the façade of Los Angeles City Hall was removed, but when Starbucks leased the property in 1995 or 1996, they added it back on, which I think is so incredibly cool! As you can see below, the basic shape of the place is still exactly the same as it was back in The Burger That Ate L.A. days. The rounded “burger” area is still there, as are the winged backdrop and the curved windows. And, as you can see in this 2000 photograph of the building on the Starbucks Everywhere website, the place even retained its brick siding for a time.

I cannot tell you how exciting it is to discover that, despite years of change (or in this case decades!), some remnant of a historic location still exists, no matter how small. And I love, love, love that Starbucks not only chose to incorporate the basic shape of The Burger That Ate L.A. into its design, but also restored the City Hall façade back onto its roof. While most Starbucks stores look like cookie cutter versions of themselves, this one not only stands out, but also preserves a bit of Los Angeles’ history in the process. That’s Starbucks for you – making the world better, one latte at a time. Winking smile

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Burger That Ate L.A., from the pilot episode of Melrose Place, was formerly located at 7624 Melrose Avenue in the Melrose District of Los Angeles. The space now houses a Starbucks.

July 25, 2012July 24, 2012

Elvis Presley’s Honeymoon Hideaway

While visiting my parents in the Coachella Valley last month, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, suggested that I do a re-stalk of the desert home where Elvis Presley and his new bride, Priscilla, spent their honeymoon in 1967. I had originally stalked and blogged about the property way back in March 2008, when my website was just a few months old, but because the post (which you can read here) was a mash-up of sorts about several Palm Springs-area celebrity vacation homes, Mike thought it would be a good idea to re-visit the location and dedicate a post solely to it. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there on our way out of town.

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The Elvis Honeymoon Hideaway, as it is commonly known, was designed in 1960 by architect William Krisel for real estate developer Robert Alexander, owner of the The Alexander Construction Company, who built the pad himself, at a cost of $300,000, for his wife, Helene. Together, Alexander and Krisel had constructed almost 2,000 homes in the Palm Springs-area, most notably in what came to be referred to as the “Alexander Tract”, which, according to a February 2009 Palm Springs Life article, historian Alan Hess called the “largest Modernist housing subdivision in the United States”.

The design of the house consists of four perfect circles built on three levels and incorporates many circular elements, including a 64-foot circular banquette couch that surrounds a circular fireplace and a circular-shaped kitchen that curves around a rounded stove. And, as you can see below, the pathway leading to the front door is made up of overlapping circular steps.

I absolutely LOVE the musical clefs on the home’s front gate, by the way.

And the rock outside which declares that Elvis honeymooned on the premises. As I’ve said countless times before on this blog, why don’t more owners of famous homes do this??? LOVE IT! But I digress.

When Look Magazine published an eight-page feature on the property called “The Way-Out Way of Life” in September 1962 (which you can take a look at here), “The House of Tomorrow”, as it was dubbed, became wildly famous, as did the Alexanders. Sadly, the couple, who were said to be the movers and shakers of the Palm Springs social scene at the time, were killed in a plane crash on November 14th, 1965. Elvis, who first heard about the dwelling from his manager, Colonel Tom Parker (who lived nearby at 1166 North Vista Vespero), ended up leasing the property a little less than a year later, on September 16th, 1966, at a rate of $21,000 per year. And while the singer and his then girlfriend, Priscilla Beaulieu, were set to be married on the grounds, when the media caught wind of the impending nuptials, plans were changed and the couple was whisked away to Las Vegas for an impromptu ceremony at the Aladdin Hotel on May 1st, 1967. That afternoon, the newlyweds returned to their Ladera Circle home, where Elvis famously carried Priscilla over the threshold. Lisa Marie was born exactly (like to the day!) nine months later, on February 1st, 1968, by which time the couple had moved into a ranch located in Memphis, Tennessee.

The two-bedroom, four-bath, 4,695-square-foot home, which was restored to its original glory in 1990, features a pool, an outdoor stage, a tennis court, a fruit orchard, a private garden, floor-to-ceiling windows, panoramic views of the Santa Rosa Mountains, and a honeymoon master suite (natch!). You can check out some fabulous interior photographs of the residence here. The dwelling is currently used as venue for weddings and private events, and – wait for it! – guided tours of the property are also given on a daily basis at a rate of $25 per person. How cool is that?

And the home is also a filming location! In the 1998 made-for-TV movie Poodle Springs, the exterior of the abode stood in for the residence where Philip Marlowe (James Caan) lived with his wife, Laura Parker-Marlowe (Dina Meyer – aka Beverly Hills, 90210’s Lucinda Nicholson).

The interior and backyard scenes were shot elsewhere, though – most likely at a home in Los Angeles.

And while the 1998 made-for-television movie Elvis and Me, which was based on Priscilla Presley’s 1985 book of the same name, supposedly filmed some scenes at the Honeymoon Hideaway, I scanned through it prior to writing this post and did not spot the house anywhere.

The Honeymoon Hideaway is also a popular spot for photo shoots and such stars as Jenny McCarthy, Elisabeth Shue and Jennifer Jason Leigh have all posed there for such noted lensmen as Mario Testino, Mark Seliger and Annie Leibovitz.

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. And you can take a look at my latest post about one of my favorite to-go meals on my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for suggesting that I write another post about this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Elvis Honeymoon Hideaway is located at 1350 Ladera Circle in Palm Springs. You can visit the home’s official website here. Tours of the property, tickets for which can be purchased here, are given on a daily basis at a cost of $25 per person.

July 24, 2012July 23, 2012

Angela Bennett’s House from “The Net”

Two weekends ago, while Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I were driving around looking for a parking place in Venice Beach (NEVER an easy task!), we passed by the dwelling pictured above and he announced, “That’s the house where Sandra Bullock lived in The Net.” Well, as you can imagine, I was absolutely bowled over to learn this bit of information and asked him to pull the car over immediately so that we could properly stalk the place. And while I had not seen The Net in years, stalking the home had me absolutely itching to watch it again, so I popped in my DVD of it just as soon as I got home later that night. I was a bit worried that the flick might be outdated, being that technology has advanced so far from where it was back in 1995 when The Net was filmed, but I am very happy to report that it was still pertinent to today’s world and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time!

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In The Net, reclusive software engineer Angela Bennett (Sandra Bullock) lives in a tiny beach bungalow located at the fictional address of “407 Finley Avenue” in Venice, until her identity is stolen by ruthless computer hackers who want her dead.

Sadly, as you can see below, Angela’s house looks quite a bit different today than it did when The Net was filmed 17 years ago. There is now a large fence surrounding the property and completely blocking it from view, which is ironic being that Angela had her lattice fence removed at the end of the flick in an effort to become less reclusive.

The fence also has a sign printed on it which reads, “Please don’t step in or on planters”. I am not sure if that is a message directed toward those stalkers who attempt to sneak a better peek at the property or to random passersby in general, but I am guessing the former. Either way, I got a kick out of it. Smile

In real life, the house, which was originally built in 1941, measures 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, and 1,076 square feet. According to fave website Zillow, the tiny property is currently worth an estimated $833,200! Welcome to California, folks!

I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the home was also used in the filming.

In the flick, after Angela Bennett (Sandra Bullock) realizes that her identity – and house! – has been stolen, she escapes out of her former home’s bathroom window and runs through a side fence and out onto the street toward the Venice Canals.

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. And you can take a look at my latest post about one of my favorite to-go meals on my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Angela Bennett’s house from The Net is located at 407 28th Avenue in Venice. After Angela realizes that her home has been stolen from her, she runs out of the property’s side gate on Dell Avenue and heads north towards the Venice Canals.

July 23, 2012July 25, 2012

A Day Off

I spent all day Friday running around and, unfortunately, did not have time to write a post for today, but I will be back tomorrow with a whole new location. I hope all of my fellow stalkers had a fabulous weekend! And in the meantime, check out this fabulous new blog I just discovered called Cupcakes and Cashmere. LOVE IT!

July 20, 2012July 19, 2012

The Venice Beach Cotel – aka SanDeE*’s Apartment from “L.A. Story”

One location that I have been dying to track down ever since first moving to Southern California in 2000 was the apartment building where SanDeE* (my girl Sarah Jessica Parker) lived in the 1991 classic comedy L.A. Story. (And yes, that is the correct spelling of her name – as she says in the movie, “Big s, small a, small n, big d, small e, big e, and there’s a little star at the end”. LOL) I knew that the building was located somewhere in Venice, but because I do not know the area very well and rarely venture out there, I had a hard time tracking it down. So imagine my excitement when, a couple of years ago, I came across a blurb about the place in fave stalking book Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer’s Guide to Exploring Southern California’s Great Outdoors. As it turns out, SanDeE*’s apartment building is none other than the Venice Beach Cotel on Windward Avenue. And while I immediately added the address to my To-Stalk list, I was not able to get out there until this past Saturday afternoon when Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I were doing some stalking in the area.

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Venice Beach actually has a very interesting history – one which involves the Cotel. The city was dreamed up by a wealthy tobacco heir/real estate developer named Abbot Kinney, who wanted to establish “The Venice of America” right here in Los Angeles. In the early 1900’s, he purchased some coastal acreage, most of it marshland, south of Santa Monica and proceeded to create a replica of the Italian city. The marshes were drained and transformed into eight miles of canals (a popular filming location, which I will be blogging about soon), complete with imported gondolas and singing gondoliers. A 1600-foot fishing pier was also constructed, along with carnival rides, a large beachside pool, and an indoor saltwater pool known as “The Venice Hot Saltwater Plunge”. The focal point of Kinney’s city, which was opened to the public in 1905 and was nicknamed “The Playland of the Pacific”, was Windward Avenue, a main street lined with beautiful neo-Italianate, columned buildings and sweeping archways as far as the eye could see. The buildings housed everything from luxury restaurants and shops to hotels, one of which was the ritzy St. Charles. Today, that site is known as the Venice Beach Cotel and it is the city’s oldest hotel.

Sadly, while St. Charles was once luxurious and upscale, it fell into decline, along with the rest of the city, shortly after Abbot Kinney’s death in 1920. And while Venice Beach has experienced a resurgence of sorts in recent years, the property is still a bit seedy. And what does the word “Cotel” mean, you ask? According to the hostel’s website, “The name Cotel comes from the prefix ‘co’, meaning getting together (people), which is what we are all about!”

The infamous mural that dominates the west side of the Cotel is named “Venice Reconstituted” and it was originally painted in 1989 by muralist Rip Cronk. It looks quite a bit different today than it did in L.A. Story, though, because in 2010, Cronk restored the huge painting, renamed it “Venice Kinesis”, added and deleted a few figures, and moved it up an entire story in a futile attempt to keep it out of reach of taggers.

There is also a 102-foot by 50-foot mural that covers the east side of the Venice Beach Cotel, but it, too, has been re-visioned. The piece was originally painted in the early 1900s by Terry Schoonhoven and was a view of what Windward Avenue looked like at the time. You can see a historic photograph of it here. Sadly, the work deteriorated and faded considerably over the years, so, in early 2012, artist Jonas Never covered over it with a new mural named “Touch of Venice” that was inspired by Touch of Evil, Orson Welles’ 1958 film which was shot in its entirety in the beachside city.

In L.A. Story, the Venice Beach Cotel is where SanDeE*, the dimwitted, colonic-loving girlfriend of wacky weatherman Harris K. Telemacher (Steve Martin), lived. The building and Rip Cronk’s mural popped up a few times in the flick.

I cannot tell you how absolutely devastated I was when I saw that SanDeE*’s front doorway had since been removed, as I had so wanted to reenact the image below. Sad smile

As I later discovered, though, SanDeE*’s (and I cannot express what a pain in the a** it is to type that name out repeatedly! Winking smile ) doorway was never actually there, but was a façade that was added solely for the movie. You can check out some pictures of the building from the same time period that L.A. Story was filmed here, here, and here, which show that the doorway never actually existed. BOO!

L.A. Story was hardly the first film to shoot at the Cotel. In 1958’s Touch of Evil, which as I mentioned above, was shot in its entirety in Venice, the building stood in for the Ritz Hotel in the fictional border town of Los Robles, where Susan Vargas (Janet Leigh) was threatened by drug kingpin “Uncle” Joe Grandi (Akim Tamiroff) while on her honeymoon.

As an homage to Touch of Evil, the Cotel doubled as The Ritz Hotel once again in the opening scene of the 2001 flick Double Take.

As you can see below, an exact replica of the “Ritz Hotel” sign from Touch of Evil was created for Double Take. So cool!

In 1968’s I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!, Harold (Peter Sellers) shops at what he calls a “hippy supermarket” set up in front of the Venice Beach Cotel.

In the opening scene of 1992’s White Men Can’t Jump, Billy Hoyle (Woody Harrelson) parks in front of the hotel and then throws his basketball up against Rip Cronk’s mural as he walks by.

In 1993’s Point of No Return, Maggie Hayward (Bridget Fonda) walks by the building upon first arriving in Venice.

Rip’s mural showed up very briefly in an establishing shot in 1992’s Venice/Venice . . .

. . . which starred a very young David Duchovny.

According to Hollywood Escapes, the Venice Beach Cotel is also visible in the 1983 remake of Breathless, but, unfortunately, I could not find any copies of it with which to make screen captures for this post.

And on a Sarah Jessica Parker side-note – My good friend Steffi, who lives in Switzerland and is even more Sex-and-the-City-obsessed than I am (if that’s possible), texted me the below picture yesterday. Um, LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT!

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. And don’t forget to take a look at my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Venice Beach Cotel, aka SanDeE*’s apartment building from L.A. Story, is located at 25 Windward Avenue in Venice. You can visit the hostel’s official website here.

July 19, 2012July 18, 2012

Pickwick Bowl from “Parks and Recreation”

While watching the Season 4 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Bowling for Votes” back in June, I wondered aloud about at which bowling alley filming had taken place. The Grim Cheaper, who happened to hear me, looked up from his ever-present laptop and said, “That’s Pickwick Bowl – part of Pickwick Gardens – in Burbank.” Well, I just about fell right off my chair over the fact that he had recognized a filming location (that literally never happens!) and immediately grabbed my iPhone to look up photographs of the place to see if he was right. Sure enough, he was! Thanks, honey! So the two of us ran right out to stalk the alley – and do some bowling – just a few days later. And I have to say that we had an absolute blast while there!

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Pickwick Gardens, which, in its earliest incarnation, housed a trailer park and swimming pool, first opened in the 1940s and was known as Pickwick Swim Park. There are rumors that the place was named after the “Mr. Pickwick” character from Charles Dickens’ first novel, The Pickwick Papers. As legend has it, the complex’s original logo featured a cartoon representation of Mr. Pickwick and some Disney imagineers, who worked just down the street, created a replica of it – in the form of a ghost hanging from a chandelier – for the ballroom scene of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion ride. Whether that is true or not remains to be seen, but it certainly makes for a good story. Smile In the 1950s, the complex was sold to new owners who changed the name of the place to Pickwick Recreation Center and added an ice skating rink, a 781-space drive-in movie theatre (which has since closed), a restaurant named the Five Horseman Inn (which has also since closed), and a bowling alley. The Pickwick Pool was, sadly, filled in sometime during the 80s and the area transformed into a spacious, two-and-a-half-acre garden, which is used today as a wedding and event venue and after which the complex is now named.

On an interesting filming side-note – the Pickwick Drive-In Theatre was where a forlorn Danny Zuko (John Travolta) sang the song “Sandy” in the 1978 classic Grease. The drive-in was sadly shuttered and demolished in 1989 in order to make way for a strip mall, which reminds me of one of my favorite lines from the movie You’ve Got Mail. In an email to Joe Fox (Tom Hanks), Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) writes, “People are always telling you that change is a good thing, but all they’re really saying is that something you didn’t want to happen at all has happened. My store is closing this week. I own a store – did I ever tell you that? It’s a lovely store and in a week it will be something really depressing, like a Baby Gap.” And while the Pickwick Drive-In strip mall does not currently house a Baby Gap, it does feature a Pavilion’s grocery store, an El Pollo Loco, a Staples, and a dry cleaner – all of which are just as equally depressing. The one plus? There is a Starbucks. Winking smile You can check out some photographs of what the Pickwick Drive-In Theatre used to look like here.

I honestly cannot more highly recommend stalking Pickwick Bowl! The GC and I spent the entire afternoon there and had such a fabulous time! Although I was a little bummed out that the bar did not have champagne. After I came back from inquiring about it, the GC said, “Did you actually think that a bowling alley would serve champagne?” Um, yes, yes I did!

Besides being a filming location, Pickwick Bowl is also something of a celebrity hot spot. Adam Sandler rents out the entire complex each year for his Happy Madison holiday party, at which he has hosted such guests as Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes (and Suri!), AJ Michalka, Aly Michalka, Kate Hudson, Brett Ratner, Penelope Cruz, Jackson Browne, Maria Bello, Kevin James, Bryan Greenberg, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Tom Green, Rob Schneider, Demi Moore, Nick Swardson, and David Arquette. Man, what I wouldn’t give to score an invite to that thing! Smile Nick Jonas and Miley Cyrus were also spotted bowling at Pickwick back in February of 2011.

In the “Bowling for Votes” episode of Parks and Recreation, Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) holds a focus group to see how Pawnee citizens feel about city council candidate Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler). One particularly crusty man in the group named Derek (Kevin Dorff) announces that he would not vote for Leslie because “she doesn’t seem like the kind of person you could go bowling with.” Leslie, of course, becomes absolutely fixated by the man’s statement and convinces Ben to host a bowling night for her campaign at “Ricky’s Rock N’ Roll Bowl”, to which she invites Derek in an attempt to win him over. That, of course, does not happen and Ben ends up punching Derek in the face after Derek calls Leslie a b*tch. Gotta love P&R!

While at the alley, Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) tells Leslie that Ricky’s Rock N’ Roll Bowl has his “favorite restaurant in Pawnee”. LOL

And I just have to say here that I love, love, love that Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari) showed up carrying a Louis Vuitton Ellipse MM as his bowling bag! A man after my own heart, I swear!

And I am not at all ashamed to admit – despite the fact that several people were laughing at me! – that, while at Pickwick, I bowled granny-style, just like Tom did in the episode. And I scored more than a few strikes doing so. Smile

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. And don’t forget to take a look at my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Pickwick Bowl, from the “Bowling for Votes” episode of Parks and Recreation, is located at 1001 Riverside Drive in Burbank. You can visit the bowling alley’s official website here.

July 18, 2012July 18, 2012

Mitch Hiller’s House from “Enough”

One location that I have been absolutely obsessed with for what seems like ages now is the ultra-modern beach house where Mitch Hiller (Billy Campbell) lived in the 2002 thriller Enough – which I just recently discovered is the very same spot that stands in for the exterior of the Indianapolis loft belonging to Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe) on fave show Parks and Recreation. Mike had long known where the property was located thanks to a former co-worker of his whose husband was on the Enough crew. So, while we were in the Marina Del Rey-area on Saturday (which, as I mentioned yesterday, was completely dreary and overcast – I thought it was supposed to be summer, folks!), he took me right on over to stalk the place. And I am very happy to report that it is just as spectacular in person as it was onscreen. Looks like this stalker may just have herself a new dream house! Winking smile

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The Enough house, which was originally constructed in 1996 out of glass, cement and weathering steel, boasts four bedrooms, five baths, an upstairs office, an elevator, a gourmet kitchen, a detached two-car garage, private balconies off of each bedroom, floor-to-ceiling windows, a media room, and sweeping views of Marina Del Rey’s Grand Canal and the Pacific Ocean. There seems to be some discrepancy online over the abode’s square footage, though, as Zillow (and most property record sites) report it as measuring 5,758 square feet, while the pad’s real estate website claims it to be “almost 3,000”. From viewing the place’s exterior, I would guess the 3,000 measurement to be the better bet. And while the dwelling was just recently for sale for a whopping $4,850,000, it appears to have since been taken off the market.

In Enough, Slim Hiller (Jennifer Lopez) stalks her abusive ex-husband Mitch and sets up an extensive trap to kill him at the home.

And while I would have bet money that the real life interior of the home was used in the filming, that does not appear to have been the case.

As you can see below, the real life property is not nearly as open as its onscreen counterpart and its ceilings are not nearly as high.

The actual home also has a more polished and less industrial look than what appeared in the movie. So while I love, love, love the exterior of the place, I have to say that I much prefer the onscreen design of the interior to the reality.

And while we were there, I, of course, just had to sit where JLo sat at the end of the flick. Smile

As I mentioned last week in my post about the loft where Chris lives on Parks and Recreation, the exterior of the Enough house also popped up as the exterior of Chris’ pad in the Season 3 episodes titled “Indianapolis” and “Road Trip”.

Mike, who, as I have mentioned countless times before, knows the City of L.A. and its surroundings like the back of his hand, also pointed out that retired Laker Rick Fox and then wife, actress Vanessa Williams, used to live right across the canal from the Enough house at 5518 Pacific Avenue. The home was sold to new owners, though, sometime after the couple divorced in 2004.

And while we were stalking the Enough house, Mike and I discovered a gorgeous garden named Channel Pointe located directly across the street. Apparently gardens like the one pictured below are quite common in Marina Del Rey (which is quickly turning out to be one of my favorite cities in Los Angeles). Love it!

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. And don’t forget to take a look at my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Mitch’s house from Enough is located at 5417 Via Donte in Marina Del Rey. Rick Fox and Vanessa Williams formerly lived across the canal in the home located at 5518 Pacific Avenue. And the Channel Pointe Garden can be reached from Via Donte, directly across the street from the Enough house.