February 2015 – IAMNOTASTALKER

February 27, 2015February 27, 2015

Ronnie and Amber’s House from “Modern Family”

This season of Modern Family brought to life a storyline that is basically my worst fear – nightmare neighbors. Poor Phil (Ty Burrell) and Claire Dunphy (Julie Bowen) had their tranquility disturbed in the episode titled “Won’t You Be Our Neighbor” when loudmouth medicinal marijuana dealer Ronnie LaFontaine (Steve Zahn), his wife, Amber (Andrea Anders), and their two children moved in next door. It’s been a horrific (and rather comical) ordeal ever since, with antics including a dry-docked boat parked in the driveway, an invitation to swing and a rather ugly fight over Halloween decorations. So while in the Cheviot Hills area with my friends Lavonna, Kim, Melissa and Maria last November, I just had to stop by to do some stalking of the place.

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As depicted on Modern Family, the LaFontaine residence is located right next door to the Dunphys, at 10342 Dunleer Drive.

In real life, the Mediterranean-style dwelling is quite spectacular. The pad, which was originally built in 1933, boasts 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3,100 square feet and a 0.14-acre plot of land.

The house was recently listed as a rental with The Agency (The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ Mauricio Umanksy’s real estate company) for $9,500 a month (gardener and housekeeper included!). You can check out some interior pictures of the residence here. It is truly gorgeous inside, though I could do without that black-tiled bathroom.

The LaFontaine house has appeared in a few episodes of Modern Family, beginning with “Won’t You Be Our Neighbor.” In the episode, Phil takes on the listing for the house next door. Though he thinks he has found the perfect couple to purchase the place (not only does the husband collect fine wine, but he also works in PR for high-end shoe companies!), he and Claire scare them off, leaving room for the LaFontaines’ offer to be accepted.

The pad then popped up in “Halloween 3: AwesomeLand,” in which Claire and Ronnie went head-to-head in a battle to have the scariest decorated house in the neighborhood.

Most recently, it was featured in “The Big Guns,” in which Ronnie decided to park his large boat “Jackpot” in the homes’ shared driveway.

While we were stalking the residence, we happened to meet a woman who was working on the premises and she informed us that a house just up the street had also been used in “Halloween 3: AwesomeLand,” in the scene in which Jay Pritchett (Ed O’Neill) and Gloria Delgado-Pritchett (Sofia Vergara) took their kids trick-or-treating. So we ran right over to stalk it. Sadly though, very little of it can be seen in the episode.

As you can see below, in real life the house is much larger than it appeared to be onscreen.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Ronnie and Amber’s house from Modern Family is located at 10342 Dunleer Drive in Cheviot Hills. The residence where Jay and Gloria’s children trick-or-treated in “Halloween 3: AwesomeLand” is located a block west at 10424 Dunleer Drive.

February 26, 2015February 19, 2015

Latest “L.A.” Mag Post – About Vroman’s Bookstore

Don’t forget to check out my latest Los Angeles magazine post – about Vroman’s Bookstore and its latest onscreen appearance in Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

February 25, 2015January 13, 2016

The “Pretty Little Liars” Guide to Warner Bros. Studio

My name is Lindsay Blake and I am a Pretty Little Liars addict. I started watching the ABC Family series on Netflix while the Grim Cheaper was away on a weeklong business trip last year and it was not long before I was utterly and totally hooked. I’m no longer ashamed to admit it, either. PLL is a great show. There is good news and bad news about its filming locations, though. The bad news first. Production hardly ever – and I mean like ever – leaves the studio. In the five years the show has been on the air, the cast and crew has left the lot about eight times. Not joking. The good news is that the series is lensed at Warner Bros. Studio and many of its locales can be viewed via the Warner Bros. VIP Studio Tour, which I have taken so many times now I’ve lost count. So for the other fans out there, I thought I would put together a Pretty Little Liars guide to the lot.

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Pretty Little Liars is set in the fictional town of Rosewood, Pennsylvania. The pilot episode was shot in Vancouver, but once the series got picked up, production moved to L.A. Though the show has made use of pretty much every square inch of the Warner Bros. backlot, I will only be covering the main locations that have appeared onscreen during the first two and a half seasons, as that is the point I am up to in the series. An aerial view of Warner Bros. Studio with coordinating numbers denoting each PLL locale is pictured below.

And below is a studio map featuring those same coordinating numbers.

1. The Marin House – Used repeatedly throughout the series, the house where Hannah Marin (Ashley Benson) lives is a large Colonial-style estate located at the southern end of Warner Village. It is denoted as building 187 on the Warner Bros. Studio map. Only the exterior is used on the series. As is the case with all of the Liar’s residences, the interior of Hannah’s house is a set located inside of a soundstage. In real life, the inside of the structure serves as a production office.

2. The Fields House – The residence where Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell) lives also pops up regularly on Pretty Little Liars. It is the northernmost house located on Midwest Street. The same home was also used as Ross (David Schwimmer) and Monica Geller’s (Courteney Cox) parents’ house on Friends. It is a practical set, meaning both the interior and exterior can be utilized for filming. While the inside was used on Friends (Season 2’s “The One with the Prom Video”), it does not appear on PLL.

3. The DiLaurentis House – This abode has had quite a few different residents throughout the series. Formerly occupied by Alison DiLaurentis (Sasha Pieterse) and then Maya St. Germain (Bianca Lawson), it is currently where Jason DiLaurentis (major cutie Drew Van Acker) lives. The structure is actually just a façade located on the shores of the Jungle and, as you can see in the photograph below, not even a full one at that. Yes, it is missing a roof, which is actually apparent sometimes onscreen.

4. The Hastings House – The façade that serves as the stately home where Spencer Hastings (Troian Bellisario, daughter of NCIS creator Donald P. Bellisario) lives is actually the rear side of the residence located next door to Emily’s house on Midwest Street. The same façade was used as Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory Gilmore’s (Alexis Bledel) house on Gilmore Girls.

5. Spencer’s Barn – The barn that Spencer painstakingly redecorated and that her sister, Melissa (Torrey DeVitto), then promptly moved into is located directly across from the Hastings residence, in what is actually the front yard of the property.

6. The Hastings Gate – The large gated entrance to Spencer’s estate is not a permanent façade – it is a piece that is set up in the Jungle, across from the DiLaurentis house, when needed. Because it is only put into place during an actual shoot, you will not catch a glimpse of it while on the Warner Bros. VIP Studio Tour. A photograph of the Jungle in its normal state, without Spencer’s gate, is pictured below.

7. Toby and Jenna’s House – The house where step-siblings Toby Cavanaugh (Keegan Allen) and Jenna Marshall (Tammin Sursok) live is located on Midwest Street, two doors down from Emily’s house.

8. Rosewood High School – The Liar’s high school is located on Midwest Street, near where it intersects with French Street. The structure appears regularly on the series, but, again, only the exterior is utilized. The hallways and classrooms are sets located inside of a soundstage.

9. Rosewood City Hall – City Hall is located adjacent to Rosewood High School.

10. Apple Rose Grille – The restaurant where the girls regularly hang out is located on the corner of Midwest Street and French Street. The same spot masked as Luke’s Diner on Gilmore Girls.

The structure is a practical set and its interior is also used in the series.

11. Rosewood’s Local Church – The Midwest Street church, located across the road from Emily’s house, has appeared countless times on the series. It was where Ian Thomas (Ryan Merriman) tried to kill Spencer in Season 1’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” where Ian’s funeral was held in Season 2’s “The Devil You Know,” and where Hannah tried to sabotage her dad’s wedding in Season 2’s “Over My Dead Body,” just to name a few of its appearances.

12. Anne Sullivan’s Office – Throughout Season 2, the Liars regularly visited therapist Anne Sullivan (Annabeth Gish) at her office, which was situated on Midwest Street across from the northern side of the church.

The same façade also masked as the Hastings & Reibman Law Firm, Veronica Hastings’ (Lesley Fera) law office, in the Season 3 episode titled “The Kahn Game.”

13. Ezra Fitz’s Apartment Building – The exterior of the apartment building where Ezra Fitz (Ian Harding) lives is located in between French Street and Embassy Courtyard, across from New York Park. The edifice was featured in Season 1’s “If at First You Don’t Succeed, Lie, Lie Again . . .” and is denoted as Building 60 on the studio map.

14. Philadelphia City Museum – The Warner Bros. Courthouse masked as the Philadelphia City Museum, the site of Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale) and Ezra’s first real date, in “If at First You Don’t Succeed, Lie, Lie Again . . .” The Courthouse, which was featured regularly on the 1966 Batman television series, is located at the western end of Embassy Courtyard and is denoted as Building 61 on the studio map.

As you can see below, Ezra’s apartment and the Courthouse are actually located next door to each other.

15. Noel Kahn’s Cabin/Lost Woods Resort – In the Season 1 episode of Pretty Little Liars titled “To Kill a Mocking Girl,” the Liars attend a party thrown at a cabin belonging to Noel Kahn’s (Brant Daugherty) parents. The building used in the episode is located in the Jungle and is known as the Practical House.

The very same structure was also featured several times as the Lost Woods Resort on Pretty Little Liars. (It popped up regularly as Merlotte’s Bar & Grill on HBO’s True Blood, as well.)

For whatever reason, a different structure was used as the Kahn family cabin during Season 3 of Pretty Little Liars. I am unsure of what building was utilized as the cabin during that time, but my best guess is that it was the rear side of the Jungle’s Practical House, in the area denoted with a pink arrow below.

16. Emily and Maya’s Lakeside Hangout/The Greenhouse – In Season 3’s “Stolen Kisses,” Emily takes Nate St. Germain (Sterling Sulieman) to visit a lakeside cabin where she and Maya formerly hung out. The Jungle’s Shore-Side Cabin, located opposite the DiLaurentis house, was used as their hangout in the episode. The same structure also served as Ira’s Roadside Diner in Million Dollar Baby and Lyle Sussman’s (Scott Michael Morgan) hunting cabin on Dexter.

The rear of the Shore-Side Cabin is actually a greenhouse and it was there that the Liars often set up clandestine meetings during the beginning of Season 2. My buddy Mike the Fanboy recently had the opportunity to tour the interior of the Cabin and was nice enough to share a photograph he took of it with me.

17. Radley Sanitarium – The large building located on Embassy Courtyard served as the mental institution where Mona Vanderwaal (Janel Parrish) was held for the majority of Season 3.

18. The Haunted House – In Season 2’s amazing Halloween-themed episode,which was titled “The First Secret,” Alison was attacked in Rosewood’s local abandoned house. That residence is located on Midwest Street, directly across from Emily’s home, and was also used as the dwelling where the Seavers lived on the 1985 series Growing Pains.

19. Vail’s Doll Hospital – The creepy Brookhaven doll store that the Liars visited in both Season 2’s “Father Knows Best” and “If These Dolls Could Talk” (scariest episode ever!) is located in the middle of French Street.

20. The Brew – During Season 3, the girls start hanging out at a coffee house known as The Brew. Emily also later gets a waitressing job there. The façade that serves as the exterior of The Brew is located off of Midwest Street, just down the road from Rosewood City Hall.

21. The Local Rosewood Motel – A building that houses production offices located in the northeast portion of Warner Bros. Studio was used as a local motel in many Season 1 episodes, including “Can you Hear Me Now,” “The New Normal” and “A Person of Interest.” It is denoted as Building 139 on the studio map.

22. Melissa’s Philadelphia Apartment – The apartment that the Liars raided in Season 3’s “Birds of a Feather” can be found on Brownstone Street, which is located just a little off of the map I created.

The façade’s location is denoted in the aerial view pictured below.

At this point you are most likely wondering why I have yet to mention Aria’s house. The exterior of the Montgomery residence was actually only shown once, in the Pretty Little Liars pilot, and is therefore located somewhere in Vancouver, not at Warner Bros. Studio. I am unsure of why a replica exterior was not used for subsequent episodes, but, for whatever reason, one never has been – at least during Seasons 1 through 3.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Warner Bros. Studio is located at 3400 West Riverside Drive in Burbank. You can find out more information about the VIP Studio Tour here.

February 23, 2015February 23, 2015

The Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar from "The Bachelor"

This season of The Bachelor has been one for the record books! I don’t think there has ever been a prior season featuring so many crazy contestants – and for The Bachelor, that’s really saying something. Sure there are a few sane women in the bunch (Whitney, Carly and Becca), but for the most part each episode is like a parade of crazy – and I am loving every minute of it! The Grim Cheaper and I just visited a location from a past season of the show last week while up in San Francisco for my grandma’s 90th birthday. One of my besties Nat, who lives in SF, planned a spectacular Valentine’s Day evening for us, during which we stopped by the iconic Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar at The Fairmont San Francisco Hotel. And, let me tell you, I could NOT have been more excited!

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Construction on The Fairmont began in 1902. In a bit of unfortunate timing, the hotel was completed, but had not yet opened, shortly before the 1906 earthquake. While the building was not harmed by the actual quake, the fires that followed wound up devastating the structure. Architect Julia Morgan, who co-designed William Randolph Hearst’s Ocean House in Santa Monica, was eventually brought in to rehabilitate it and The Fairmont was finally opened to the public in 1907. It soon became the city’s most popular upscale hotel. The property went through a succession of different owners during its early years and in 1929 was purchased by an engineer named George Smith, who installed a 75-foot indoor pool on the hotel’s Terrace level that he dubbed the “Fairmont Plunge.”

The hotel suffered a downturn during the Great Depression and was sold yet again, this time to Benjamin Swig. In the hopes of restoring The Fairmont’s popularity, Swig brought in interior decorator Dorothy Draper to redesign the place.

And it worked. The Fairmont once again became the toast of San Francisco society, as well as the go-to hotel for visiting celebs and dignitaries. Just a few of the stars who have stayed at The Fairmont over the years include Joan Crawford, Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Wells, William Randolph Hearst, Rudolph Valentino, Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, James Stewart, Kim Novak, Fred Astaire, James Brown, Ernest Hemingway, David Duchovny, Harrison Ford, Uma Thurman, Courteney Cox, Katie Holmes, and Mischa Barton. The Fairmont has also hosted such presidents as Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, John F. Kennedy and, just last week, Barack Obama. And it was in the hotel’s famed supper club, The Venetian Room, that Tony Bennett first sang his trademark song “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”

In 1945, Swig hired MGM set director Mel Melvin to transform the Plunge into a nautical-themed Chinese restaurant that he named the S.S. Tonga. While popular, Benjamin decided to redesign the place once again in the 1950s due to the advent of the tiki bar craze. The new Polynesian-themed eatery was dubbed the “Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar.”

Swig stationed a barge, complete with a thatched roof, in the center of the pool and hired bands to play on it nightly.

He also installed a large dance floor that had been constructed out of the deck of the S.S. Forester, a ship that once travelled between San Francisco and the South Sea Islands.

To say that the Tonga Room is spectacular would be a gross understatement. The place is absolutely phenomenal and my photographs really don’t do it justice. It is easily one of San Francisco’s most unique spots and it is not surprising that producers chose to feature it in the Season 16 episode of The Bachelor that was filmed in SF. Oh, and did I mention that it rains there? So freaking cool!

The Fairmont popped up during Ben Flajnik’s season in the episode titled “San Francisco, California” and was shown several times throughout the episode.

Not only were the women put up at the hotel . . .

. . . but the incredibly dramatic rose ceremony - in which Shawntel Newton (from Brad Womack’s season) barged in and was then subsequently ousted (cue Courtney saying “Sayonara”) – took place on the patio of The Fairmont’s 6,000-square-foot Penthouse Suite. Just a few of the luminaries who have stayed in the suite include President John F. Kennedy, Prince Charles, Mick Jagger, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, and Marlene Dietrich. You can check out some photographs of the space here. The library room is uh-ma-zing!

The show’s group date took place in the Tonga Room. In the episode, Ben described the restaurant as an iconic and historic San Francisco landmark, so I was shocked that I had never heard of it before, especially considering that I grew up in SF. I immediately called my mom to ask how it was that my parents had never taken me there and she replied, “We never took you there? How is that possible?” I don’t know, mom! I don’t know! Winking smile I have wanted to remedy the situation ever since and am so glad that I was recently able to do so!

The Bachelor returned to The Fairmont during its current season. In the fourth episode, titled “Camping,” Bachelor Chris Soules and contestant Jillian Anderson had an extremely awkward date on the patio of the Penthouse Suite, the same spot where Ben’s rose ceremony took place.

The Fairmont has been featured in countless productions over the years, so many that it would be impossible for me to chronicle them all here. As Jim Van Buskirk and Will Shank say in their book Celluloid San Francisco, “The Fairmont has starred in so many movies that, legend has it, the doorman is required to be a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild.” Love it! A few of its notable onscreen appearances include Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. In the 1958 thriller, Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak) is shown briefly driving by the hotel.

Supposedly, the shots of San Francisco that appeared in the movie’s opening sequence were taken from the roof of The Fairmont, but I am unsure if that information is correct.

Hitchcock returned to the hotel to shoot a brief scene for 1976’s Family Plot, in which Blanche Taylor (Barbara Harris) leaves a cryptic message for George Lumley (Bruce Dern) with the doorman.

The Fairmont was used in establishing shots of the St. Gregory Hotel in the 1983 television series Hotel.

Interiors were shot on a set modeled after the inside of The Fairmont.

In the 1996 thriller The Rock, John Patrick Mason (Sean Connery) demands a suite at The Fairmont while helping the FBI with a case.

The FBI secures him the Penthouse Suite and it is on the patio that Mason gets his hair cut . . .

. . . and from which F.B.I. Director Womack (John Spencer) is thrown.

Though portions of the Penthouse interior were utilized in the filming (including the library, pictured below), I believe that most of the hotel room scenes were shot elsewhere.

And oddly enough, when Mason is shown exiting The Fairmont, he is actually standing in front of the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

In the 1994 comedy Junior, an establishing shot of The Fairmont is shown as the location of the West Coast Pharmaceutical Convention.

But interiors were actually shot in the Gold Room at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel.

And when Dr. Alex Hesse (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Dr. Larry Arbogast (Danny DeVito) are shown leaving the convention, they are actually standing at the Biltmore’s limo ramp .

Fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, also informed me that The Fairmont was where Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) gave a speech at the National Parks Conference in the Season 6 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Moving Up.” The hotel was only used in establishing shots, though. Interior filming took place elsewhere.

The Fairmont has also appeared in Jade, Hard to Hold, Shoot the Moon, Chu Chu and the Philly Flash, A Night Full of Rain, Mother, Towering Inferno, Petulia, Midnight Lace, Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Magnum Force, Kiss Them For Me, The Streets of San Francisco and The Amazing Race.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Fairmont San Francisco is located at 950 Mason Street in Nob Hill. You can visit the Fairmont’s official website here. The Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar is located on the hotel’s Terrace Level. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

February 20, 2015April 19, 2015

New Discover L.A. Post – About Oscar-Winning Movie Locations

Be sure to check out my latest Discover Los Angeles post about locations from ten Best Picture winners, just in time for Oscar weekend!

February 19, 2015February 17, 2015

New L.A. Mag Post – About “American Sniper’s” L.A. Locations

Make sure to read today’s Los Angeles magazine post – about American Sniper’s L.A. filming locations. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

February 18, 2015February 17, 2015

Thornton’s Mansion from “Back to School”

Even though I am a definite child of the ‘80s, for whatever reason I had never seen the 1986 Rodney Dangerfield classic Back to School until late last year. I wound up loving the flick and immediately started researching its locations. I covered a few of them in a September post for Los Angeles magazine, but one that I could just not seem to track down was the mansion belonging to “Tall and Fat” clothing store owner Thornton Melon (Dangerfield). I finally enlisted fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, to help in the quest and he ended up finding the pad rather quickly. Thank you, Owen!

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While watching Back to School, I spotted an address number of 9933 on the front of Thornton’s mansion. I was also fairly certain that the property was located in Beverly Hills or Bel Air, so I passed that information along to Owen. Sure enough, when he sent me the address just a few hours later, it was right where I figured it would be – 9933 Shangri La Drive in Beverly Hills. How I was unable to find the place on my own is beyond me!

The same address placard that was visible in the movie is still there today!

The mansion was only featured at the beginning of Back to School, in the scene in which Thornton and his second wife, Vanessa (Adrienne Barbeau), hosted a party for their 5th wedding anniversary, during which they decided to get a divorce.

As you can see, the residence looks quite a bit different today than it did when the movie was filmed 29 years ago due to the massive amount of foliage that now surrounds it.

I was thrilled to see that the house located down the street, which was visible in the background of the scene in which Thornton’s limo driver dropped him off before the party, still looks exactly the same as it did onscreen.

The real life interior of the Shangri La mansion was also used in the party scene.

As was the home’s real life backyard and pool.

You can check out aerial images of the mansion’s backyard, which is pretty darn spectacular, below. The property actually consists of two lots – the lot that the residence sits on and the landscaped lot directly to its south – and therefore has two addresses, 9915 and 9933 Shangri La Drive.

In real life, the home, which was originally built in 1980, boasts 4 bedrooms, 4 baths and 6,929 square feet of living space.

In 2013, the property served as the SVEDKA Summer House and such celebs as Julianne Hough, Derek Hough, Jessica Szohr, Adrienne Bailon and Evan Ross attended events there.

Back to School Mansion (8 of 12)

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

Big THANK YOU to Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Thornton’s mansion from Back to School is located at 9915/9933 Shangri La Drive in Beverly Hills.

February 17, 2015February 16, 2015

Whirlwind Weekend

I spent this past weekend in San Francisco celebrating my grandma’s 90th birthday. The family threw her a surprise party and to say she was bowled over would be an understatement. We had an absolute blast and I can’t think of a better way to have spent my Valentine’s. For the evening, one of my best friends Nat planned an amazing night out in the city. It was such a special day. Anyway, being up in NorCal did not leave me any time for blogging, but I will be back tomorrow with a new post.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

February 13, 2015February 13, 2015

The Whisky a Go Go

I’ve never really been into music. As I have mentioned before, if it’s not sung by Michael Bublé, Britney Spears or Michael Jackson, or was not a top ‘80s hit, chances are I haven’t heard it. But my good friend Kim from Kentucky is a huge music buff, so when she and our good friend Lavonna came out for a visit in November, we made sure to hit up what is arguably one of the most famous rock venues in the world, the Whisky a Go Go on the Sunset Strip.

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Whenever Kim, Lavonna and I do any stalking together, we seem to have miraculous luck. This day was no different. We showed up to the Whisky in the late afternoon only to find it closed. There was a sign on the front door, though, that stated that anyone looking to buy merchandise could call the club’s office during daytime hours. So we did just that, using Lavonna’s twang to full effect, of course. An incredibly nice booking agent named Bekah (that’s her pictured below) let us in and, after Kim and Lavonna purchased pretty much every piece of merchandise available (not joking!), offered to give us on a tour of the place!

We wound up being taken on an epic tour of the venue and, even though I am not into music, I was pinching myself the whole time.

While a sign on the Whisky’s front door specifically states that no photography of any kind is allowed inside, Bekah told us that we could take all of the pics that we wanted, so as you can imagine I was snapping away like a madwoman!

It was so neat to be able to see the Whisky while empty, because come nightfall it is typically packed to the gills with crowds.

It was also amazing to stand in the space and think about the music history that had taken place within the four walls and the many legends who had performed on its stage. Lavonna, Kim and I were walking in the footsteps of some major music legends and it was pretty surreal to contemplate.

Just standing on the Whisky a Go Go stage. NBD. Winking smile

The Whisky a Go Go first opened its doors on January 15th, 1964. The club was founded by Elmer Valentine, a one-time Chicago cop who was the then owner of P.J.’s restaurant in West Hollywood. During a fateful trip to Paris in 1963, Valentine visited a discotheque named Whisky a Go Go and thought the concept would be successful in L.A. Upon returning home, he secured three investors and opened his club inside of a former Bank of America branch. He hired singer Johnny Rivers to be the headliner. The venue was instantly popular, though small – seating capacity was just 500. The space was so tiny, in fact, that there was no room for a D.J. booth. In a 2006 Vanity Fair article, author David Camp states, “Between sets, the audience would dance to records spun by a D.J.—but not just any D.J.: a girl D.J., suspended high above the audience in a glass-walled cage. This faintly ridiculous idea was Valentine’s pragmatic response to the room’s space limitations: the Whisky was not a big club, and the only way he could fit the D.J. booth was to mount it on a metal support beam that ran alongside the performing area.”

As fate would have it, that D.J. box wound up leading to the go-go dancing craze. Prior to the Whisky’s launch, Valentine decided to hold a contest for the D.J. job, but as Camp explains in the Vanity Fair article, “On the very night of the Whisky’s opening, January 15, 1964, the contest winner called Valentine in tears, explaining that her disapproving mother wouldn’t let her take the job. So Valentine pressed his reluctant cigarette girl, a young woman named Patty Brockhurst, into action. ‘She had on a slit skirt, and we put her up there,’ he says. ‘So she’s up there playing the records. She’s a young girl, so while she’s playing ’em, all of a sudden she starts dancing to ’em! It was a dream. It worked.’ Thus, out of calamity and serendipity, was born the go-go girl. Valentine acted fast to formalize the position, installing two more cages and hiring two more girl dancers, one of whom, Joanie Labine, designed the official go-go-girl costume of fringed dress and white boots.” The rest, as they say, is history.

Whisky a Go-Go was also responsible for launching the careers of countless legendary musicians and bands. Just a few who played at the club during their early days include Fleetwood Mac, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, Frank Zappa, Mötley Crüe, Metallica, Nirvana, Hole, The Bangles, Guns ‘N Roses, the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Jimi Hendrix, KISS, Rage Against the Machine, Korn, and Limp Bizkit. The Doors and Chicago even served as the Whisky’s house bands for a time before hitting it big. Celebrities could often be found in the audience, as well, including Cary Grant, Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, Steve McQueen, Jayne Mansfield, Jack Paar, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Michelle Phillips, and Cass Elliot.

Perhaps most phenomenal about the Whisky a Go Go is that the place is still a veritable rock institution to this day, over 51 years after its opening.

The Whisky is also a filming location! It is outside of the club that Ben Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) and Elaine Robinson (Katharine Ross) kiss after a very bad first date in the 1967 classic The Graduate.

The venue played itself in the 1991 film The Doors. It was there that Jim Morrison (Val Kilmer) and the group were famously fired after performing the Oedipus section of “The End.”

You can watch an interesting featurette about the filming of that scene by clicking below.

Suzette (Goldie Hawn) gets fired from her Whisky bartending job at the beginning of the 2002 comedy The Banger Sisters.

The Whisky also served as the inspiration for the fictional Bourbon Club in Rock of Ages, but no filming took place there. Though the 2012 musical was set on the Sunset Strip in the 1980s, director Adam Shankman needed to be able shut down traffic for six weeks during the shoot, a scenario that would have been impossible along one of L.A.’s busiest stretches of road. So production instead took place in Miami. For the filming, the intersection of North Miami Avenue & NE 14th Street was transformed into the Sunset Strip and the building located at 10 NE 14th Street was used for the exterior of The Bourbon Club.

The nightclub Revolution Live at 100 Southwest 3rd Avenue in Fort Lauderdale masked as the interior of The Bourbon in the flick.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Whisky a Go Go is located at 8901 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. You can visit the venue’s official website here.

February 12, 2015February 4, 2015

New “L.A.” Mag Post – About “Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce”

Be sure to stop by LAMag.com today to read my latest post – about Echo Park’s recent appearance in Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.