March 2015 – IAMNOTASTALKER

March 31, 2015March 31, 2015

Hacienda Palomino – Michael Jackson’s Former Las Vegas House

I am not really that into stalking celebrity homes (though I have quite a few of them on my site), the main reason being that typically little else besides a gate can be seen from the road. There are some exceptions, though. If there is a star I really like, or if I read about a residence in a book, or if a significant event happened there, or if the look of a place piques my interest, I am most definitely going to want to stalk it. The latter was the case with an estate that pop star Michael Jackson rented for a brief period time in Las Vegas. Now everyone knows that I absolutely love me some MJ, but even so, I normally would not be interested in visiting a residence where he only lived for a short stint. When I saw photographs of Hacienda Palomino a couple of years ago, though, I practically started foaming at the mouth and immediately added the site to my Las Vegas To-Stalk list. In person, it did not disappoint!

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Shortly before Christmas 2006, Michael and his children left Ireland and returned to the U.S. The pop star had been living abroad since 2005 in an effort to escape the constant media attention that surrounded him following his child molestation trial. Jackson was in need of money, though, and when an opportunity arose to headline a Las Vegas show thanks to his friend, local businessman Jack Wishna, he flew back to America to start the endeavor. The show ultimately fell through due to MJ’s erratic behavior, but the singer wound up living in Sin City through 2008. He leased two houses during his stay. The first was at 2785 South Monte Cristo Way in the Spring Valley neighborhood and the second was at 2710 Palomino Lane in the Pinto Palomino area. According to this Las Vegas Review-Journal article, Jackson leased the Palomino house from 2007 until his death in 2009, though he had moved to L.A. by late 2008.

The sprawling 24,276-square-foot Hacienda Palomino compound is situated on 1.7 acres and boasts 7 bedrooms, 12 baths, an art gallery, a 7,394-square-foot chapel with seating for 74 guests, a grand salon, a cigar bar, an enclosed courtyard large enough to accommodate 300 people, a recording studio, parking for up to 50 cars, elevators, 3 kitchens, a conference room with seating for 60, and a 3,900-square-foot guest house with an underground tunnel leading to main residence. During his tenure at the property, Jackson and his three children lived in the guest house. MJ also housed his vast art collection, which was insured for $600 million, in the estate’s subterranean vault. You can see some photographs of the uh-ma-zing property here.

Hacienda Palomino was originally constructed in 1952 and, at the time, consisted of a small Spanish-style residence. The property was then redesigned and expanded into the massive compound that it is today by an eccentric theatre developer named Horst Schmidt in the ‘90s. When Schmidt passed away in 2004, Aner Iglesias, the honorary consular of El Salvador, purchased it. It was Iglesias who leased the residence to Jackson. After the King of Pop passed away, the house sat vacant until 2011 at which time Iglesias began renovating the site. He still owns the manse today, though it has gone on the market four times since Jackson’s death. It is currently used as Aner’s second home and as a special events venue. You can read a more in-depth history of the unique dwelling here.

Strange events seemed to follow Michael Jackson around throughout his life and a few happened during his time at Hacienda Palomino. One occurred on the evening of Elizabeth Taylor’s 75th birthday party. While Jackson was getting ready for the soiree, his brother Randy crashed his Mercedes through the front gate of the home and was almost shot by security. Randy then demanded to see the singer, claiming that the King of Pop owed him money. Michael refused, but was so distraught over the event that he bailed on Taylor’s birthday party and proceeded to hole up inside of the house for the next three days.

The most bizarre occurrence happened on the two-year anniversary of Jackson’s death, though, when Iglesias opened Hacienda Palomino to the public for a special tour. Apparently, while fans were waiting in line that morning, a random man arrived, opened up the doors to the estate and began leading groups through the residence. As it turns out, though, he had no authority to do so, nor did he have any sort of affiliation with the home, though he seemed to know quite a bit about it. He even offered attendees water! The police were soon called by the property’s caretaker and it was learned that the wannabe tour guide had a warrant out for his arrest. When cops arrived on the scene, he fled, though, and there was an ensuing chase throughout the neighborhood. It seems that even in death the King of Pop cannot escape the obscure events that surrounded him in life.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Hacienda Palomino, Michael Jackson’s former Las Vegas house, is located at 2710 Palomino Lane in Las Vegas. You can visit the property’s official website here.

March 30, 2015March 30, 2015

The Georgian Ballroom from “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”

Had you asked me last week, I would have told you that I was an expert on both Pasadena and its filming history. But something happened on Wednesday afternoon that rocked me to my stalking core. While writing a blog post for Los Angeles magazine, I got on a bit of a Girls Just Want to Have Fun kick and decided to attempt to track down a few of its unknown locations, one of which was the Lakeview Country Club where Natalie Sands’ (Holly Gagnier) debutante ball was held. As it turns out, the country club scene not only took place in Pasadena, but at a spot I am extremely familiar with – The Langham Huntington hotel! At the time of the filming, the property was known as The Huntington Sheraton. I was absolutely reeling upon making the discovery. Then, while doing further research, I learned something even more shocking – the historic hotel was actually demolished in 1989 and then rebuilt from the ground up! What the wha?

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There’s a lot of ground to cover today, but I thought I’d start with how I made the Girls Just Want to Have Fun discovery. While scouring through the debutante ball scene, I spotted two different signs reading “Georgian Room.” So I did some Googling of the words “Georgian Room” and “Los Angeles” and eventually a listing for a Georgian Ballroom came up. I clicked on it and, lo and behold, it was a link to photos of the Georgian Ballroom at The Langham Huntington hotel.

Amazingly, the intricate gold ceiling pictured in the images was an exact match to the ceiling that appeared in Girls Just Want to Have Fun!

Oddly though, the hallway featured briefly in the scene did not resemble The Langham hallways in any way, shape or form. While GJWTHF was filmed three decades ago and the hotel’s décor bound to have changed during such a lengthy time period, I just could not get over the fact that nothing about the hallway in the movie paralleled the hotel’s actual hallways. Nothing. The hallway pictured in GJWHF was dark and Spanish in style, while The Langham’s hallways are very bright and open and boast a Louis XIV design. So I started doing some research and just about fell over when I read that The Huntington Sheraton was demolished in the late ‘80s. Because The Langham is repeatedly touted as being one of Pasadena’s most historic properties, I was shocked to discover this information. Not to mention the fact that I lived in the Crown City for over a decade and have visited The Langham dozens of times! How did I not know about this??

The Langham Huntington was originally constructed as The Wentworth in 1907. Commissioned by General Marshall C. Wentworth, the hotel had problems from the get-go and was shuttered and declared bankrupt a short five months after opening. In 1911, Henry Huntington stepped in to purchase the site and hired architect Myron Hunt to remodel and expand it. The property reopened three years later under the name the Huntington Hotel. It quickly gained a reputation as Pasadena’s finest lodging.

In 1954, the hotel was sold to the Sheraton Corporation and renamed The Huntington Sheraton. Despite being later purchased by the Kiekyu USA company in 1974, the site continued to operate as a Sheraton through 1985. That year, Kiekyu had seismic testing done on the property and the results showed that it was not structurally sound enough to withstand a major earthquake. The doors of The Huntington Sheraton were shut in October, its future unclear. In December 1987, Huntington Hotel Associates purchased the site and set about plans to demolish it. Despite some major resistance from preservationists, the wrecking ball descended on the structure in March 1989. Miraculously, two portions of the original hotel were left intact, the Viennese Ballroom and, you guessed it, the Georgian Ballroom – which means that the very spot that appeared in Girls Just Want to Have Fun is still standing today! But more on that in a minute.

The new property opened in 1991 as the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel. The exterior was constructed as an almost exact replica of the original. As you can see in the screen capture (which was taken from Disneyland Dream – a 1956 movie that I will talk about later in this post) as compared to a photograph that I took in 2008, while there are some minor differences between the new and old buildings, they are virtually imperceptible.

The hotel sold a couple of times after its reconstruction and, in 2007, was purchased by the Hong Kong-based Great Eagle Holdings and renamed The Langham Huntington.

While the hotel was being reconstructed in 1989, the Georgian Ballroom underwent a restoration. During the process, ten stained glass windows lining the ceiling of the room were discovered behind plaster. They had been covered over at some point in the 1940s. (This explains why there were not visible in Girls Just Want to Have Fun.) Developers removed the plaster and restored the windows to their original glory and they once again line the perimeter of the grand room.

I have stayed at The Langham countless times over the years and thought I had ventured throughout every square inch of the property, but that was obviously not the case as I had never before seen or heard of the Georgian Ballroom. As soon as I made the discovery about the room’s appearance in Girls Just Want to Have Fun, I was tempted to drive right on out to Pasadena to remedy the situation. In a timely stroke of luck, though, I remembered that my mom had a doctor’s appointment in the Crown City on Thursday, so she headed over to The Langham beforehand to snap some pictures for me. My mom currently has a broken foot and is on crutches, but she still managed to go out stalking on my behalf! She is a rock star!

The Georgian Ballroom appeared in one of Girls Just Want to Have Fun’s more memorable scenes in which Janey Glenn (Sarah Jessica Parker), Lynne Stone (Helen Hunt) and Maggie Malene (Shannen Doherty) sabotaged the debutante ball of mean girl Natalie by inviting 150 unwanted (and rather wild) guests to her upscale soiree.

The Georgian Ballroom looks quite a bit different today than it did onscreen in 1985.

As you can see below, though, aside from the addition of the stained glass windows, the ceiling remains unchanged.

At the time of the filming, the Georgian Ballroom had windows and doors that led to the outside of the hotel.

That is no longer the case, though.

I am fairly certain that the exterior of The Huntington Sheraton was used as the exterior of the Lakeview Country Club in the scene, as well. While I have scoured the internet looking for 1980’s images of the hotel’s main entrance taken from the same angle as GJWTHF to use for comparison, I came up empty-handed.

But as you can see below, in the screen capture from Disneyland Dream the exterior of The Huntington Sheraton was covered in vines, as was the building pictured behind J.P. Sands (Morgan Woodward) in Girls Just Want to Have Fun.

The exterior of The Huntington Sheraton was also featured briefly in the 1982 pilot episode of Remington Steele (more on that later) and as you can see in the screen capture below, the front of the hotel was painted white at the time, matching what appeared in GJWHF. You can also check out a photograph of the what the hotel’s entrance looked like in 1989 here. Though not taken from the same angle shown in Girls Just Want to Have Fun, you can see that it does bear a resemblance to the exterior shown in the movie.

During its tenure as The Huntington Sheraton, the hotel popped up quite a few times onscreen. As I mentioned, it was featured in Disneyland Dream, a home movie made by Robbins Barstow who won a trip to The Happiest Place on Earth in 1956 via a contest sponsored by Scotch Tape. During the seven-night vacation, he and his family stayed at The Huntington Sheraton.

You can watch Disneyland Dream by clicking below. The Barstows seem like such a fun family!

As I also previously mentioned, the hotel was used extensively throughout the pilot episode of Remington Steele, which was titled “License to Steele.”

I could not get over seeing the interior of the property in the episode. With its arched openings, beamed ceilings and wrought-iron glass doors, the place bears absolutely no resemblance whatsoever to The Langham.

I honestly cannot believe how much it has changed!

I was able to spot a few things from Remington Steele that matched up to what appeared in Girls Just Want to Have Fun, which thrilled me to no end. As you can see below, unique fan-shaped lights were visible in both productions.

The carpeting in both is also a direct match.

The hotel stood in for Club Meade in the Season 2 episode of Simon & Simon titled “The Club Murder Vacation” in 1983.

In the episode, a large tree located in front of the hotel is visible. That tree is a match to one that appeared in Girls Just Want to Have Fun. The placement of the lawn-covered center island in Simon & Simon is also a match to what was shown in GJWTHF, further leading me to believe that the exterior of The Huntington Sheraton was used as the exterior of the Lakeview Country Club in the flick.

In the 1985 made-for-TV movie Promises to Keep, The Huntington Sheraton masked as the Westwind Hotel where Jack Palmer (Robert Mitchum) stayed while trying to make amends with the family he abandoned thirty years prior.

The property stood in for the abandoned Cumberland Grand hotel in the Season 3 episode of Scarecrow and Mrs. King titled “The Triumvirate,” which aired in 1986.

The interior of the hotel was also used in the episode.

There are those fan-shaped lights again!

In 1987, the Scarecrow and Mrs. King crew returned to The Huntington Sheraton to film Season 4’s “One Flew East.” In the episode, the hotel masked as the Hospimerica Briarwood Sanitarium.

The renovated Georgian Ballroom also made an appearance in the 2007 film Charlie Wilson’s War.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Langham Huntington Hotel is located at 1401 South Oak Knoll Avenue in Pasadena. You can visit the property’s official website here. Girls Just Want to Have Fun was filmed in the Georgian Ballroom.

March 27, 2015March 26, 2015

“The Hangover” Wedding Chapel

It is no secret that erroneous (and/or imprecise) filming location information published online and in books is one of my biggest pet peeves – especially when it leads to me stalking an incorrect place, which is exactly what happened while I was in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago. (Why there is some sort of halo on my shirt in the above pic is beyond me.)

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Several websites state that The Best Little Chapel from The Hangover was a fake set piece that was constructed for the shoot in a vacant parking lot near 1236 Las Vegas Boulevard South. The building at that address currently houses a youth hostel named Hostel Cat. When the Grim Cheaper and I arrived there, though, I found that there were two parking lots that fit that description – one to the north of Hostel Cat and one to the south – and only one of them was large enough to accommodate the construction of any sort of structure, not to mention the car accident scene that took place on the premises. I snapped some photos of the large lot and was shocked when I compared my pictures to images from the movie later that night in our hotel room. As it turns out, The Best Little Chapel set piece had not been constructed in the large parking lot.

The Best Little Chapel was actually not a set piece constructed in a vacant parking lot at all, but a fake front attached to the northern side of the Hostel Cat building.

As you can see below, the western portion of the hostel’s main building was even incorporated into the design of the chapel.

A white picket fence as well as quite a bit of foliage were added to the western portion of Hostel Cat during the shoot to make the place look less hotel-ish.

A fake bus stop – which was later destroyed – was also brought in for the filming. And Hostel Cat’s real life sign was covered over with signage reading “The Best Little Chapel” for the scene, as well.

Hostel Cat is actually made up of one main building and nine free-standing bungalows.

The back of one of the bungalows was painted over for the shoot. You can check out a great image of Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis sitting in front of that structure here.

The interior of The Best Little Chapel was a set built on a soundstage and not the actual interior of Hostel Cat.

I was thrilled to see that Hostel Cat embraces its filming history. Not only does the lodging make mention of its Hangover appearance on the homepage of its official website, but an image of Galifianakis as “Alan” is also painted on the wall of the main building.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Best Little Chapel from The Hangover is located “at the corner of get a map and f*ck off.” Just kidding. Winking smile The chapel was a fake façade that was built around the north side of Hostel Cat, which is located at 1236 Las Vegas Boulevard South in Las Vegas. The areas that appeared in the scene are denoted in the aerial view below.

March 26, 2015March 20, 2015

New “L.A.” Mag Post – “Apollo 13” Turns 20!

Be sure to check out today’s Los Angeles magazine post – about the 20th Anniversary screening of Apollo 13 at the TCM Classic Film Festival. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

March 25, 2015March 25, 2015

The Cooper House from “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”

Sometimes I become obsessed with a location because I love the movie that it was featured in. Other times I just like the look of a particular place and am desperate to see it in person. And other times still I read something about a filming site that completely transfixes me despite the fact that I have never actually seen it onscreen. Such was the case with the Anywhere, U.S.A.-style residence where the Cooper family – Ben (Steve Carell), Kelly (Jennifer Garner), Alexander (Ed Oxenbould), Anthony (Dylan Minnette), Emily (Kerris Dorsey), and Baby Trevor (Elise and Zoey Vargas) – lived in Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. While doing research for a Los Angeles magazine post about Vroman’s Bookstore’s appearance in the 2014 family flick, I came across these production notes and was shocked to read that a re-creation of a real home in South Pasadena had been constructed for the shoot. Interest piqued, I immediately rented Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day on iTunes and, in a stroke of good luck, found the South Pas pad almost immediately.

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As it turns out, the Cooper home is located on Buena Vista Street, a place that I am very familiar with thanks to its many appearances onscreen. While watching Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day’s opening scene, I immediately recognized the mansion visible behind the Cooper family’s van as Lady Heather’s (Melinda Clark) house from CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. So I did some Google Street View-sleuthing in the same area and found the Cooper’s residence just a half a block east of Lady Heather’s house. (Patrick Gates’ home from National Treasure is located directly across the street from the Cooper dwelling and the the Liar Liar house can be found two blocks north.)

Of the Cooper home, production designer Michael Corenblith said, “We imagined that this is a family of birds that live in this beautiful cozy little nest that has been created from all of the nicest little branches and twigs and pieces of colored ribbon and fabric. But there are just too many birds for the nest. This family is bursting at the seams, so the idea was to craft an environment for them that would really convey that idea to the audience.” He then set about looking for a “quaint” house to film in.

He found the perfect spot at 1037 Buena Vista Street. Corenblith said, “It was exactly the right house for this family. It had the right scale, it had the right vibe, window scape and was built in the right period. It had a lot of things we really liked, but ultimately, it was going to be too small to actually shoot the movie inside.” So he decided to have a replica of the residence built at Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio in Newhall. The “home” took five weeks to construct.

The production notes state, “The exterior of the home – complete with backyard and select interior sets – was built in one area of the studio lot, while the upstairs interiors resided on soundstages elsewhere on the lot.” Corenblith did an amazing job designing the interiors! I am in love with the Cooper’s kitchen. With the bright windows, light-colored cabinetry and large center island, it reminds me a lot of Cupcakes and Cashmere’s Emily Schuman’s kitchen.

I cannot believe that the backyard and pool shown in the movie were set re-creations! Had I seen Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day prior to reading the production notes, I would have bet money on the fact that the home’s actual backyard was used.

Corenblith explained that the need to build the backyard replica and interior sets stemmed from the scene involving the crocodile. He says, “We follow the crocodile through the house and out the back into a swimming pool. The path this crocodile takes from the front door, through the house, out the French doors in the back, and directly to a swimming pool was nothing we found in the real world. That was one of the big factors that mandated the design of this configuration.”

Corenblith even had the rear side of the home re-created for the shoot. You can see what the actual back of the house looks like in the aerial view pictured below. It is strikingly similar to what was built.

From the way the production notes were written, I originally thought that no filming whatsoever had taken place at the South Pasadena house. It became apparent while watching the movie, though, that the front exterior of the real home was used in a few scenes and in several establishing shots.

The residence looks exactly the same in person as it did onscreen. The unique trees in the front yard are absolutely breathtaking!

In real life, the residence, which was originally built in 1949, boasts two bedrooms, two baths, 2,022 square feet, and a 0.37-acre lot.

It’s no stranger to the silver screen, either. In 1983, the very same home was used as Arnie Cunningham’s (Keith Gordon) Rockbridge, California residence in Christine, though it looked quite a bit different at the time.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Cooper house from Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is located at 1037 Buena Vista Street in South Pasadena. Patrick Gates’ home from National Treasure is located across the street at 1030 Buena Vista Street. Lady Heather’s house from CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is located at 929 Buena Vista Street. The Liar Liar house can be found one block north at 1004 Highland Street.

March 24, 2015March 24, 2015

The Pink Motel from “Vanderpump Rules”

The latest season of Vanderpump Rules might have been the most epic yet. With Stassi Schroeder making only occasional appearances, I had a fear that the show was going to lose all of its allure and most of its steam, but that was not the case. Kristen Doute brought the crazy like never before and the fact that Ariana Madix had a larger role made Scheana Marie’s onscreen time almost bearable. I loved pretty much every second of Season 3, especially the ‘50s-style photo shoot that took place in the final episode, which was titled “Dethroned.” The photo shoot was held at the Pink Motel, a historic locale that I had the pleasure of stalking back in June 2012.

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The Pink Motel was constructed by a Pennsylvania native named Joseph Thomulka on San Fernando Road in Sun Valley in 1946.

According to a 1990 Los Angeles Times article, Joseph painted the 20-room property bright pink so that it would “get noticed.” In the piece, his son Monty Thomulka says, “He was driving out here from Philadelphia, coming cross the middle states, looking at motels. He wanted something that people would remember.”

Joseph built a small diner, also painted a rose hue, on the site in 1949 and dubbed it the “Pink Café.”

At the time that the Pink Motel and Pink Café were built, San Fernando Road was a bustling thoroughfare that lead from Los Angeles to Santa Clarita. The construction of Interstate 5 changed all of that, though, and while the hotel and restaurant continued to operate for several decades, it was at a much slower pace.

Monty took over the property from his parents in 1969 and still runs it to this day. Operating both a hotel and a restaurant proved to be too much work, though, and he found that he could make more money renting the diner out solely for filming. So he closed the Pink Café to patrons in 1989. Today, the eatery, renamed Cadillac Jack’s, sits frozen in time – ketchup, mustard bottles and table settings in place at each seat – waiting for its next close-up. The Pink Motel continued to operate as a hotel for many years, but it, too, is now available solely for filming. An average of sixty shoots take place on the premises each year!

When we visited the property in 2012, the caretaker happened to spot us taking pictures through the windows of Cadillac Jack’s and, amused at my excitement over seeing the place in person, asked if we wanted to come inside. My answer was a resounding yes! (The photographs below were taken by Mike, from MovieShotsLA. He, too, was invited inside the diner to snap some pictures when he visited the place and was kind enough to share them with me.)

I cannot even describe how cool it was to be able to tour Cadillac Jack’s interior and stand in the footsteps of so many past filmings!

The Pink Motel and Cadillac Jack’s were featured extensively in the Vanderpump Rules “Dethroned” episode.

The shoot made use of pretty much every square inch of the property, including the hotel’s swimming pool which was added to the site in 1959.

The motel’s usual pool, which is fish-shaped, was featured in the 1987 skateboarding movie The Search for Animal Chin and subsequently became a popular destination for skateboarders. Since the motel ceased operations, the pool has been left drained and is now rented regularly for skating events. It is also often utilized for film and photo shoots in its dry state, as was the case with Vanderpump Rules.

You can check out the images from the Vanderpump Rules photo shoot here.

Cataloging all of the Pink Motel and Cadillac Jack’s onscreen appearances would be virtually impossible, but I will list of few of the highlights. In 1974, the site popped up in the Season 1 episode of The Rockford Files titled, “Caledonia – It’s Worth a Fortune!” as the spot where Leonard Blair (Richard Schaal) got beat up.

In 1982’s Grease 2, Michael Carrington (Maxwell Caulfield) tutored Stephanie Zinone (Michelle Pfeiffer) over a hamburger (with extra ketchup!) at Cadillac Jack’s.

The Pink Hotel was used in the Season 7 episode of MacGyver titled “The ‘Hood,” which aired in 1991, as the spot where Kelly Dobbs (Nancy Sloan) was held captive.

Mary Anne Spier (Rachael Leigh Cook), Dawn Schafer (Larisa Oleynik) and the gang hung out at Cadillac Jack’s in the 1995 movie The Baby-Sitters Club.

The eatery was used extensively in Mandy Moore’s 1999 “Candy” music video. Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the property appeared in the video.

And I, of course, just had to pose for a picture in the booth where Mandy sat in “Candy.”

The pool was also used in the shoot.

In the 2004 comedy The Whole Ten Yards, Jimmy the Tulip (Bruce Willis), Oz (Matthew Perry) and Jill (Amanda Peet) grab a bite to eat at Cadillac Jack’s, which is said to be located in Oceanside. While there, Jimmy knocks out a rude patron and teaches the patron’s son a little lesson about manners.

In a later scene, the trio check into the Pink Hotel along with a gangster they have kidnapped.

In the Season 2 episode of fave show The O.C. titled “The Rainy Day Women,” which aired in 2005, Sandy Cohen (Peter Gallagher) and his ex-girlfriend Rebecca Bloom (Kim Delaney) got stranded for a night at the Pink Motel.

In 2006, the motel was where Off. Debra Morgan (Jennifer Carpenter) and Sgt. Angel Batista (David Zayas) tracked down Ice Truck Killer imitator Neil Perry (Sam Witwer) in the Season 1 episode of Dexter titled “Circle of Friends.”

The Dexter crew returned to the Pink Motel in 2013 to shoot Season 8’s “A Beautiful Day,” in which Debra hides out at the property with Andrew Briggs (Rhys Coiro).

At the end of the 2008 comedy The House Bunny, Shelley Darlingson (Anna Faris) did a photo shoot for Playboy at the Pink Motel.

Cadillac Jack’s was used throughout the music video for CeeLo Green’s hit 2010 song “F**k You”/”Forget You.”

You can watch the “Forget You” version of the video by clicking below.

The first season of the 2010 television series The Booth at the End was shot extensively at Cadillac Jack’s.

In the 2011 flick Drive, Driver (Ryan Gosling) and Blanche (Christina Hendricks) hide out at the Pink Motel. Only the interior of one of the rooms appeared onscreen, though. Director Nicolas Winding Refn says in a Movieline article, “The motel was hard, because so much action goes on. It was called the Pink Motel, which has been used in a lot of movies. But I really liked the motel rooms, so I decided not to do any exterior shots so nobody could know where we were actually shooting. It’s a very classic old hotel, it looks like something from the ’50s or ’60s. The day we shot there, which was the first time we shot anything, was the hottest day in L.A., so it was pretty unbearable. I was told afterwards [that the Valley is hot], nobody told me about it!”

Cutie Matt Bomer did a photo shoot for a 2012 issue of GQ Italia at the diner.

In 2014, the pool was used for Major Crimes’ Season 3 promo shots. For whatever reason, though, a different motel was superimposed into the background of the finalized images.

I actually never would have figured this one out had it not been for Phillip P. Keene, who plays camera tech Buzz Watson on the series. I randomly spotted Phillip shopping at the J.Crew in Pasadena last August. I did not approach him, though, as I already had a photograph with him and do not like approaching actors inside of stores. Well, about an hour later, I literally almost kicked myself over the whole thing. I had been trying to track down the motel from the Major Crimes promo shots ever since they had been released and realized I could have asked Phillip if he remembered the location! So I immediately tweeted him and, miraculously, not only did he respond, but he started following me!

The Season 5 episode of Dance Moms titled “Wild Wild West Coast, Part 2,” in which the Abby Lee Dance Company girls shot a music video for the MattyB song “Turn Up the Track,” took place at Cadillac Jack’s and the Pink Motel.

The interior of Cadillac Jack’s was also featured in the video.

You can watch the “Turn Up the Track” video by clicking below.

The property was also featured in The House of Sand and Fog, High Road, and Pirates of Silicon Valley, as well as in episodes of Columbo, Las Vegas, Highway to Heaven, Murder, She Wrote, Law & Order, and Simon & Simon.

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

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for sharing some of his photos with me for this post! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Pink Motel and Cadillac Jack’s from Vanderpump Rules is located at 9457 San Fernando Road in Sun Valley. You can visit the property’s official website here.

March 23, 2015March 23, 2015

The Pioneer Saloon

There’s only one thing I love more than stalking film locations and that’s stalking film locations that have a history. On our way out of Las Vegas last week, the Grim Cheaper and I visited a watering hole that has quite a storied one. The Pioneer Saloon in Goodsprings, which has been deemed Southern Nevada’s oldest bar, was first established over 100 years ago on a curving rural road located about 25 miles southwest of The Strip. Miraculously, little of the two-room saloon has changed since its inception and the place is still going strong to this day.

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The Pioneer Saloon was founded by businessman George Fayle in 1913.

He constructed the neighboring General Store at around the same time, which he operated as a café.

Both structures were built from kits likely purchased from a Sears, Roebuck & Company catalog. According to the Pioneer Saloon’s brochure, the buildings are thought to be some of the last of their kind in the U.S.

The walls and ceilings of the Pioneer Saloon and Goodsprings General Store were constructed entirely out of pressed tin that is still in place today.

The mahogany bar in place at the saloon today is the same one that was installed in 1913. It was made by the Brunswick Company in Maine in the 1860s.

The original brass foot railing is also still in place.

The Pioneer Saloon’s history is steeped in lore. The most notable tale (which I tend to believe) centers around Clark Gable and wife Carole Lombard. On January 16th, 1942, Carole, her mother and Gable’s press agent boarded a flight from Indiana to California. The three had been in the Hoosier State selling war bonds. After a brief refueling stop in Las Vegas, their plane crashed into Potosi Mountain. Gable immediately headed to Goodsprings and spent several days at the Pioneer Saloon, first awaiting news of the crash and then waiting for his wife’s body to be released.

Gable is said to have sat in the spot where I am sitting in the photo below.

The divots that can be seen in the face of the bar are rumored to have come from the many cigars he smoked while waiting.

The Pioneer Saloon’s eastern room is now known as the Carole Lombard & Clark Gable Memorial Room.

The space features numerous photographs and newspaper clippings about the couple, as well as a piece of the wreckage of the airplane on which Carole lost her life.

The room also boasts photographs of the many productions that have been lensed on the premises, but more on that in a bit.

Another infamous moment in the Pioneer Saloon’s history took place in 1915 when a dispute over a card game resulted in a man being shot and killed. The table where he was sitting during the game is pictured below. It was originally located in the main room of the bar, but has since been relocated to the Carole Lombard & Clark Gable Memorial Room.

It is said that the bullet holes below came from that shooting.

The three holes run straight from the inside of the Pioneer to the outside.

The photograph below is pretty eerie. No wonder the place is said to be haunted!

In 1966, the Pioneer Saloon and Goodsprings General Store (the interior of the General Store is pictured below) were purchased by Don Hedrick and his wife. When they passed away, Don Hedrick Jr. inherited the site and continued to run it until 2006 when he retired and sold it to Las Vegas entrepreneur Noel Sheckells. The property had fallen into a bit of disrepair by that point so Noel subsequently poured $600,000 into restoring it. The following year, the Pioneer Saloon was added to the Nevada Register of Historic Places.

The saloon is honestly one of the coolest places I have ever visited. The people there could not have been more friendly and the overall vibe smacked of good times. Besides cheeky décor, the walls are donned with signs that read, “Street girls bringing miners into hotel must pay for room in advance” and “Pioneer Saloon – Open Everyday Till the Drinking Stops.”

The Pioneer even has an “A**hole Association.” Being that one of my good friends refers to the GC as “Ahole” (in a loving way, of course), I made him join. The yearly $5 membership fee is donated to Goodsprings’ local schoolhouse.

While one would not think that a 100-plus year-old watering hole located in the middle of nowhere would serve particularly good food, the Pioneer’s fare was shockingly fabulous! The GC and I both opted for the chicken tacos and they were some of the best I’ve ever had! The restaurant also serves burgers (which smelled so good I almost regretted my choice of the tacos), steaks, ribs, nachos, pizzas, salads, and chicken wings. There is also the option of purchasing various meats onsite and grilling them yourself on the DIY BBQs located on the premises.

Thanks to its unique aesthetic, the Pioneer Saloon has appeared numerous times onscreen. It was featured in the deleted “Hardware Barn” scene in 1998’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Please pardon the craptastic screen captures – I got them off of YouTube.

You can watch that scene by clicking below.

Travis Tritt shot photos for his 2004 album, My Honky Tonk History, at the Pioneer Saloon.

In 2005’s Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, the Pioneer Saloon stood in for the Sloane Valley, Nevada bar where Lou and Karl Steele (Abraham Benrubi and Nick Offerman, respectively) hosted an arm wrestling competition.

Though the interior of the saloon was also said to have been used in the filming, I am not sure if that is true. The layout of the bar shown onscreen does not seem to match up to the layout of the Pioneer.

The Pioneer served as the inspiration for the Prospector Saloon in the 2010 video game Fallout: New Vegas.

The saloon also appeared in Melvin and Howard, the 1982 Cheech and Chong movie Things are Tough All Over, and The Winner, as well as in episodes of Sister Wives, Ghost Hunters and Pawn Stars. And while the bar is also said to have been featured in The Mexican, I scanned through the flick while doing research for this post and did not see it pop up anywhere.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Pioneer Saloon is located at 310 Spring Street in Goodsprings, Nevada. You can visit the watering hole’s official website here. The “gas n gulp” from The Hangover is located just a few miles away at 1 Goodsprings Road in Jean.

March 19, 2015March 16, 2015

New Scene It Before Post – The “Annie” Orphanage

Don’t forget to check out my latest Los Angeles magazine post – about a location from one of my favorite movies ever, Annie. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

March 18, 2015March 17, 2015

WeScoutLA – Episode 5

Check out my latest video collaboration with Mike, from MovieShotsLA, in which we visit locations from Valley Girl, Poltergeist, Phantasm, and Encino Man. Enjoy!

March 17, 2015March 16, 2015

The ” . . . Baby One More Time” Costume

One of the most important items on my Stalking Bucket List was checked off last week while the Grim Cheaper and I were in Las Vegas. Way back in October 2010 (while doing research for this post), I learned that Britney Spears’ schoolgirl costume from her 1998 “ . . . Baby One More Time” music video was on display at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and I just about died. As I have mentioned countless times before on this site, to me that outfit is everything. I’ve replicated it on Halloween and for various costume parties more times than I can count. I love absolutely everything about it, especially the pink hair pom poms. Upon reading on Wikipedia that the costume was at the Hard Rock, I came thisclose to driving out to see it that very night. I restrained myself (or rather, the GC did) and put the stalk on hold for what seemed like eons. So when the GC informed me that we had to head out to Vegas last week, I told him that seeing the costume was our very first priority upon arriving in town.

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Prior to heading to Vegas, I called the Hard Rock Hotel FOUR times to verify that the “ . . . Baby One More Time” costume was still on display. The HR chain has a tendency of moving memorabilia from site to site and periodically rotating items, placing some in storage, and I wanted to make sure that the schoolgirl outfit was on the premises before I got too excited about seeing it. All four people whom I talked to informed me that the costume was most definitely still on display and that it was in the lobby of the HRH Tower. Upon arriving, though, we discovered that it was not in that tower – or anywhere else we looked. None of the Hark Rock employees on duty at the time had any idea where it was, either, and most said that they hadn’t seen it in years. When the VIP concierge informed me that the outfit was most likely in storage, I literally almost started crying on the spot. Talk about a disappointment! Thankfully, the GC suggested that we walk around for a bit on the off chance that we might spot it somewhere. After about 15 minutes of wandering, I caught an image of a black skirt out of the corner of my eye and immediately took off running. Sure enough, it was Britney’s costume!

For whatever reason, the outfit is currently tucked away in the hotel’s Peacock High Limit Gaming Room, which is located just to the right of the casino’s main entrance. You have to actually walk into the room and then around to the extreme right to see the costume, though, as it is situated behind a wall and is not at all readily apparent to passersby.

I was dismayed to discover that my favorite portion of the costume (the pink hair pom poms if you haven’t been paying attention Winking smile ) was not included in the display. As you can see in these photos, Britney’s entire schoolgirl outfit, including the hair accessories, thigh-high stockings and shoes, used to be on exhibit. I wanted so badly to view the complete ensemble, but, sadly, that was not to be. I was extremely excited over seeing the majority of it in person, though, and am anxiously awaiting the day when the hair ties are brought out of storage and put back on display.

While making screen captures for this post, I noticed something else about the costume that is off. As you can see below, in “ . . . Baby One More Time” Britney donned a maroon crop top, not the black bra that is featured on the hotel mannequin.

I tracked down a photo on the Britney Universe website that shows a clearer image of the crop top that she wore during the shoot.

The background dancers wore schoolgirl costumes very similar to Britney’s in the video, so I am guessing that the black bra might have been worn by one of them, or that Britney’s actual crop top was lost at some point and the black bra put in its place for display purposes.

The “ . . . Baby One More Time” music video was shot on location at Venice High School on August 7th and 8th, 1998. The original concept apparently involved cartoons, until Britney ixnayed the idea. She wanted to shoot something that would be more relatable to her fans and convinced director Nigel Dick to center the storyline around a typical school day. Spears was also responsible for creating the video’s iconic costume. In a 2009 interview, Dick said, “My idea originally was just jeans and T-shirts, and we were at the wardrobe fitting and Britney holds up the jeans and T-shirts and says, ‘Wouldn’t I wear a schoolgirl outfit?’ Every piece of wardrobe in the video came from Kmart, and I was told at the time not one piece of clothing in the video cost more than $17. On that level, it’s real. That probably, in retrospect, is a part of its charm.” Britney also explained to People magazine, “The outfits looked kind of dorky, so I was like, ‘Let’s tie up our shirts and be cute.'” And thus, one of the most iconic outfits in music video history was born. You can check out some behind the scenes photographs of the filming here, here and here.

You can watch the “ . . . Baby One More Time” video by clicking below.

Several other Britney items are on display at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, including a Washington Redskins custom-made dress and glove set that she wore for a 2003 NFL Kickoff photo shoot . . .

. . . and a “Slave” crop top that Spears donned in a commercial for the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards that she shot with Jamie Foxx.

Also on display was the outfit Katy Perry wore on the cover of her “I Kissed a Girl” single;

one of Michael Jackson’s gloves (which was virtually impossible to get a picture of due to the fact that it is so sparkly);

a handwritten letter from MJ to a friend;

the shoe stand where James Brown worked as a child;

album cover photographs that The Doors shot at the original Hard Rock Café in downtown Los Angeles (the spot where Michael Jackson filmed the video for “Beat It”);

and a jacket of MJ’s designed by Michael Bush and Dennis Tomkins.

The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino has also appeared onscreen numerous times, including in an episode of fave show The O.C., but I am saving that information for a future post. Today, it’s all about Britney!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Britney Spears’ “ . . . Baby One More Time” schoolgirl costume is on display in the Peacock High Limit Gaming Room at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, which is located at 4455 Paradise Road in Las Vegas. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.