Year: 2018

Oliver’s San Francisco House from “A Lot Like Love”

I have made no secret over the years of my obsession with the 2005 romcom A Lot Like Love. And I thought I was quite well-versed in its locations. So I was shocked when fellow stalker Tovangar2 (you may remember him from this post) published a comment on my site in November 2015 alerting me to the fact that the supposed San Francisco house where Oliver Martin (Ashton Kutcher) lived in the flick was actually located in Los Angeles – at 1321 Carroll Avenue in Echo Park, to be exact. For the life of me I could not remember the exterior of Oliver’s SF residence being shown in the movie, so I immediately popped my A Lot Like Love DVD into my computer, started scanning, and, sure enough, about 45 minutes in was a shot of Oliver returning to a large Victorian pad after a long day at work. Considering I’ve seen the film about 25 times, I don’t know how I missed it! Fortunately, I happened to be in L.A. just a few days after learning about the locale, so I ran right out to stalk it. Thank you, Tovangar2!

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According to Big Orange Landmarks, the pad, which is known as the Beaudry House in real life, has quite an interesting history. Constructed in the Queen Anne/Eastlake style in 1887, the dwelling was initially located at 1145 Court Street, just west of North Boylston, about seven blocks south of where it currently stands. You can check out a map showing where it was originally situated here.

By the late ‘70s, the Beaudry House had grown severely dilapidated, the result of a downturn in the neighborhood and negligible maintenance. Though the property as well as its neighbor, the Irey House at 1123 Court Street, were rewarded Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument status, they both suffered from vandalism, graffiti and age. At around the same time, a group of Carroll Avenue homeowners banded together to form the Carroll Avenue Restoration Foundation in the hopes that they could thwart the development of a large vacant plot of land on their street. Fearing that the addition of a sizeable contemporary residence on the lot would be at odds with the community’s decidedly historic Victorian aesthetic, the organization resolved to purchase the plot and relocate the Beaudry and Irey Houses there. Thanks to some savvy maneuvering and many generous donations, CARF was successful and the two dwellings were moved via flatbed truck to their new street on March 22nd, 1978. You can check out a photo of the drive, which took two hours to complete, here.

Today, the Beaudry House, which is actually classified as a duplex, is a glowing example of preserved Victorian architecture. The 3,201-square-foot property – which consists of a 1-bedroom, 1-bath unit downstairs and a 2-bedroom, 1-bath second-level space, as well a carriage house that has been converted into a studio – boasts pocket doors, period sconces, wood detailing, stained glass windows, a 3-car garage, and 0.28 acres of land.

The residence last sold in December 2015 for $1.2 million. You can check out some interior photos from the listing here. Because the pad is a duplex with a converted carriage house, it oddly has three different kitchens, which is a bit jarring to see.

Here’s hoping the new owners will convert the property back into a single-family home.

The Beaudry House appears only once in A Lot Like Love, in the scene in which Oliver returns home from work to learn that his live-in girlfriend Bridget (Moon Bloodgood) wants to break up with him just minutes before dinner guests are expected to arrive. in the movie, the residence actually belongs to Bridget. As Oliver later explains to his on-again/off-again love Emily Friehl (Amanda Peet), “I’ve been killing myself at work – nights, weekends, even at home. Well, Bridget’s home. See, I moved in with her. That was my big mistake right there. I should have stuck to the plan. I mean, the plan, the plan was working! And the irony of it is that Bridget actually loves plans.”

The actual interior of the property was also featured in the film, as you can see in the screen capture as compared to the MLS photo of the home pictured below.

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

Big THANK YOU to Tovangar2 for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Oliver’s “San Francisco” house from A Lot Like Love is located at 1321 Carroll Avenue in Echo Park. Several other homes in the neighborhood have also appeared onscreen – the Sanders House at 1145 Carroll is where Ola Ray hid from zombies in Michael Jackson’s Thriller, 1329 Carroll portrayed the Halliwell sisters’ residence on Charmed, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) grew up at 1355 Carroll on Mad Men, and Holly’s (Amy Ryan) Nashua house from the “Employee Transfer” episode of The Office is around the corner at 1347 Kellam Avenue.

April 16, 2018
The Barthman Sidewalk Clock

It has been said that you shouldn’t look down when you walk. There are two places in Manhattan where you ought to keep your eyes on the pavement, though. I blogged about one, Hess Triangle in front of Village Cigars, on Wednesday. The other, a clock imbedded in concrete outside of what was once William Barthman Jeweler in the Financial District, has been alerting overhead passersby of the time since 1899! I first learned about the historic curiosity while perusing the book The Best Things to Do in New York shortly before our April 2016 trip to the Big Apple and immediately decided it was a must-see. Even though the underfoot ticker is not a filming location (at least, not that I know of), since it is such an obscure and unique spot and definitely falls into the “Hidden NYC” category, I figured it was blog-worthy, as well.

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The sidewalk timepiece was first dreamed up by William Barthman in 1896 as a way to attract patrons to his downtown jewelry and watch store, which he opened on the corner of Broadway and Maiden Lane twelve years prior. Though large clocks posted at the entrance to boutiques were quite commonplace at the time, one embedded in the sidewalk was a definite novelty and Barthman figured such an unusual mechanism would pique the interest of all who stepped upon it. He conceived of the design himself and enlisted his associate Frank Homm to bring his vision to life. It took Homm more than two years to do so and the piece was finally installed outside of the shop in the fall of 1899.

The original Barthman Sidewalk Clock is not the one pictured above. As you can see in the screen capture below, which I grabbed from a fabulous video posted on the Hodinkee website, in its initial form the piece, a three-window jump hour mechanism with a built-in light that made it visible at night, looked much different. Though it did quickly become an area attraction, luring in those who walked by, in a rather unfortunate twist, when Homm passed away in 1917 he took the secret of maintaining the device to his grave with him. As such, the clock ceased to function, consistently broadcasting the incorrect time to all who took note of it (well, except for twice a day, as the saying goes). In the years following, it served as a source of embarrassment for the store and employees took to covering it over with cardboard each morning prior to opening.

Finally, in 1925, Barthman Jeweler replaced the busted gadget with a working Arabic-style clock. The apparatus has since been refitted and modified on several occasions throughout the years, including a 1983 revamping performed by none other than Cartier. The brass compass rose that currently encircles it was also a later enhancement. In addition to regular winding, the piece still requires quite a bit of maintenance, which is not surprising considering an estimated 15,000 people walk across it each hour during peak intervals. Thankfully, this time around more than one Barthman employee is experienced with the ins and outs of its upkeep and care. According to Gizmodo and The New York Times, the custom-made face, which can withstand 2,000 pounds of pressure, is removed for polishing twice a year and replaced altogether every four due to scratching and clouding. And how are maintenance and repairs achieved, you ask? Via an access point located underneath the sidewalk. You can check out what it looks like here.

Though William Barthman Jeweler is still in existence, it has since moved a few doors down to 176 Broadway and a Vitamin Shoppe outpost now occupies its original space.

Prior to the move, a replica clock was made with the intention that it would be installed in the sidewalk in front of the new store. That was not to be, though. As the Hodinkee website explains, when Barthman’s owners asked for permission for the project, in a rather iconic twist “the authorities had a simple answer: there is only one New York Sidewalk Clock.” The replica was eventually hung above the shop’s main door. Though I did not get any photos of it, you can see it in the Google Street View images below.

Despite the re-location, Barthman employees still maintain the clock via the underground access point.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Barthman Sidewalk Clock can be found on the northeast corner of Broadway and Maiden Lane, outside of The Vitamin Shoppe located at 174 Broadway, in Manhattan’s Financial District. William Barthman Jeweler is a few doors down at 176 Broadway. You can visit the jewelry store’s official website here.

April 13, 2018
Village Cigars from “Just My Luck”

When planning a trip, my M.O. is to pore over as many area travel guides as possible and highlight spots I think the Grim Cheaper and I might be interested in seeing. I then pass the books along to him and he reads through all the passages I have marked, giving them a yay or a nay. One place that really piqued both our interests prior to our April 2016 NYC vacay was Village Cigars, which we learned about via The Best Things to Do in New York. Though the smoke shop is an institution in and of itself, the GC and I were most interested in stalking it because of a small triangular plaque located on the sidewalk out front.

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Originally established in the early 1900s, Village Cigars moved to its current home – a tiny triangular-shaped space situated at the intersection of 7th Avenue South, Christopher Street, West 4th Street and Grove Street in the heart of Greenwich Village – in 1922. Prior to that, a five-story apartment building known as the Voorhis stood at that site. Owned by Philadelphia-based landlord David Hess and his family, the property was acquired by the city via eminent domain in 1910 in preparation for a large subway expansion project that ultimately destroyed pretty much everything in its path – all in the name of saving a few bucks. In order to avoid the expensive process of deep bore tunneling, which would have preserved the buildings situated above, the government instead chose to use a ‘cut and cover’ procedure, i.e. removing streets to allow for subterranean digging and then replacing them upon project completion. As such, an entire stretch of about 300 city buildings, including the Voorhis, were razed and Seventh Avenue South was extended about a mile. A commenter named Tim on the Scouting New York website explains it best, saying, “Seventh Ave. used to end at Greenwich Ave. The cut to Varick St. was made in 1913 so the subway company didn’t have to spend big on expensive drilling, instead they convinced the City to demolish 9 city blocks worth of buildings – churches, businesses and apartments – anything in the path of the new Seventh Ave. South so they could use the cheaper ‘cut and cover’ method.”

You can read a great write-up on the massive undertaking on the Gothamist website here. Included in the article are the 1897 and 1916 maps pictured below (garnered from The New York Public Library Digital Collections) which provide a better visual of how the Seventh Avenue extension changed the landscape of the area. In 1897, the Voorhis (spelled incorrectly as “Vorhes” on the map) occupied lot #55, situated just southwest of Christopher Park (the green triangle denoted “park”). As you can see, the extension not only cut through that lot, but the ones numbered 51 through 54, as well.

Years after the Seventh Avenue expansion was complete, Hess’ heirs discovered that during the imminent domain process the government had somehow failed to secure ownership of a miniscule triangular portion of their former land. So they quickly claimed the rights to it. In an incredibly nervy move, the city then asked the Hess estate to donate the 500-square-inch section of sidewalk to New York. I’ve doctored the 1897 map below with an overlay showing the current position of Seventh Avenue and an arrow denoting the location of the land in dispute.

Not surprisingly, the Hess family refused to donate the plot and instead adorned it with a tile plaque reading “PROPERTY OF THE HESS ESTATE WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN DEDICATED FOR PUBLIC PURPOSES.” The black-and-white mosaic was installed on July 26th, 1922. To further drive their point home, the family even erected a fence around the signage at one point.

In 1938, the Hess heirs sold the land, one of the smallest plots still in private ownership in New York, for $1,000 to the proprietors of Village Cigars, who chose to leave the 25.5-inch by 27.5-inch by 27.5-inch plaque intact. Today, the tiny patch is known as “Hess Triangle.” You can read a fabulous accounting of the history of the triangle on the Chris Whong website here and here.

Though the plaque has never appeared in a movie or television show (at least that I know of – if I’m wrong please fill me in!), Village Cigars is a frequent screen star.

The store is visible twice in fave movie Just My Luck. It first pops up toward the beginning of the 2006 film in the scene in which Dana (Bree Turner) and Maggie (Samaire Armstrong) decide to test out Ashley Albright’s (Lindsay Lohan) good fortune by purchasing a lottery ticket for her at a magazine stand located across the street from Village Cigars to see if she wins. Spoiler alert – she does.

Later in the movie, after her luck has run out, Ashley heads to Christopher Park, across the street from Village Cigars, with Jake Hardin (Chris Pine) and accidentally sits on a park bench that has just been painted.

Larry Lapinsky (Lenny Baker) passes by Village Cigars numerous times in the 1976 drama Next Stop, Greenwich Village.

At the beginning of the 1980 comedy Hero at Large, Steve Nichols (John Ritter) is dropped off in front of Village Cigars after a Captain Avenger media promotion.

Alice Detroit (Dyan Cannon) asks Ivan Travalian (Al Pacino) to meet up with her outside of Village Cigars in 1982’s Author! Author!

In the Season 2 episode of NYPD Blue titled “The Final Adjustment,” which aired in 1994, Detective James Martinez (Nicholas Turturro) and Leticia Beltran (Marta Martin) walk through Christopher Park with Village Cigars visible in the background.

Sonny Koufax (Adam Sandler) grabs a hot dog and “a lot of ketchup” with Julian ‘Frankenstein’ McGrath (Cole and Dylan Sprouse) across the street from Village Cigar in the 1999 comedy Big Daddy.

Village Cigars can also be seen in the background of the 2013 drama Inside Llewyn Davis in the scene in which Llewyn (Oscar Isaac) exits a Greenwich Village subway station with his friend’s cat.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Village Cigars, from Just My Luck, is located at 110 7th Avenue South in New York’s West Village. Hess Triangle can be found in the sidewalk just outside the shop’s front doors.

April 11, 2018
Gray’s Papaya from “Sex and the City”

You will never catch anyone calling me a “foodie.” My palate leans much more toward comfort than epicurean with meals of choice consisting of chicken strips and ranch dressing, turkey and mashed potatoes, and hot dogs. I am a hot dog fanatic. My favorite spot to grab a ‘furter is Gray’s Papaya in New York. Their franks are simply sublime! I’ve sung the chain’s praises a couple of time on this blog – first in 2007 and then again in 2009. I got a bit of my reporting wrong in the later, though, when I stated that a scene from the Season 5 episode of Sex and the City titled “Plus One Is the Loneliest Number” had been lensed at the company’s Upper West Side outpost. A reader named Sabrina corrected me, commenting that SATC had actually been shot at the Greenwich Village Gray’s. As she explained, “You can see the phone box right next to the exit Carrie uses.” So I took a closer look at the episode and Sabrina was indeed correct! In “Plus One Is the Loneliest Number,” Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) grabs a dog at the GP located at 402 Sixth Avenue. So I immediately added the address to my New York To-Stalk List. Sadly, by the time I finally made it there in 2016, the eatery had closed and a Liquiteria juice bar had taken its place. I still figured it was worth blogging about, though.

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For those who have never had the pleasure of downing a Gray’s Papaya frank, it truly is an experience. The no-frills, walk-up hot dog stand was originally founded in 1973 by Paul Gray – a former employee of rival chain Papaya King – on the corner of Broadway and West 72nd Street on NYC’s Upper West Side. The eatery quickly became a hit with New Yorkers who loved the quality of the dogs and the bargain prices. It wasn’t long before additional outposts popped up around Manhattan, including the one at 402 Sixth Avenue which opened its doors in 1986. Though I never visited it, you can check out what it looked like when it was still in operation thanks to the archived Google Street View images from June 2011 below.

Sadly, though still insanely popular (you’d be hard-pressed to find any Gray’s location that is not crammed with people 24/7), the Greenwich Village outpost shuttered in January 2014 due to a rent hike. It followed the closing of another Gray’s at 539 8th Avenue in Midtown in February 2011 for the same reason, leaving the UWS eatery as the chain’s sole locale.

Things appear to be on the upswing, though. Not only is the flagship UWS outpost still flourishing 45 years after its inception, but a new Gray’s was opened in 2016 at 612 Eighth Avenue in Midtown. Customers have been lining up for the popular Recession Special – two dogs and a papaya juice drink or soda for $4.95 – ever since.

In “Plus One Is the Loneliest Number,” which aired in 2002, a “palpably lonely” Carrie attends the party for her book release sans a significant other. While heading home from the soiree, Carrie’s limo driver (Dena Atlantic) learns that Carrie has just written a book and insists on taking her somewhere to celebrate. The two hit up Gray’s Papaya (long known for being open 24 hours) and when the driver informs the man taking their order about Carrie’s new book, he insists on giving them the dogs for free. The scene was inspired by SATC writer Cindy Chupack’s first Emmy win. Of the experience, she is quoted in Sex and the City: Kiss and Tell as saying, “I didn’t have a date for the Emmys the year we won, and I lost our Sex and the City people at one point during the night, so I felt very ‘minus one’ until my driver said, ‘You won an Emmy? We have to celebrate this!’ and took me through a McDonald’s drive-through and told the guys in the window, ‘She won an Emmy!’ They gave me a free chocolate shake. The limo driver we cast in the episode was very much like the driver I had – although in the episode, Carrie goes to Gray’s Papaya, which is more New York and is actually a favorite place of Sarah Jessica’s.”

Though very little of Gray’s exterior is visible in the scene and what is shown is only via a blurry camera pan, as you can see in the screen captures below as compared to the Google Street View images, the restaurant’s red trim . . .

. . . as well as the location and configuration of the side doors are a match to what appeared onscreen.

And, sure enough, there’s that phone box that Sabrina mentioned.

The Greenwich Village Gray’s has popped up in a couple of other productions, as well. In the 2008 comedy Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Thom (Aaron Yoo) calls Nick (Michael Cera) while standing outside of the eatery to let him know that he has lost Caroline (Ari Graynor).

And Zoe (Jennifer Lopez) takes Stan (Alex O’Loughlin) to grab take-out there in the 2010 romcom The Back-up Plan.

The other Gray’s outposts are popular filming locales, as well. In the Season 3 episode of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations titled “New York City,” which aired in 2007, Bourdain heads to the now defunct Gray’s at 539 8th Avenue (which you can see a photo of here), his “favorite local eatery,” for a late-night Recession Special. While there he extols the restaurant, saying, “But man, when I start missing New York, you know, this is one of the things I miss. Ah, come on! A good Gray’s dog!”

It is the original Gray’s Papaya on the Upper West Side (pictured below) that is the most popular with location scouts, though.

The Warriors encounter members of rival street gang The Baseball Furies outside of the Upper West Side Gray’s in the 1979 crime drama The Warriors.

Doug Ireland (Michael J. Fox) brings Andy Hart (Gabrielle Anwar) there for a quick bite in the 1993 romcom For Love or Money.

In 1995’s Die Hard with a Vengeance, John McClane (Bruce Willis) and Zeus Carver (Samuel L. Jackson) take a phone call from Simon Gruber (Jeremy Irons) at the payphone across the street from the UWS Gray’s.

Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) briefly dines with Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) there shortly before heading out to meet NY152 at the end of 1998’s You’ve Got Mail.

The last time I visited New York, my friends Kim, Katie, Lavonna and I tried to pose for a photo a la Kathleen and Joe in Gray’s front window, but the reflection wreaked havoc with the image. If you look closely at the screen captures above, it actually appears that the restaurant’s window was removed for the filming of the You’ve Got Mail scene.

Lance Barton (Chris Rock) takes Sontee Jenkins (Regina King) for a meal at the UWS Gray’s in the 2001 comedy Down to Earth.

The eatery was shown in an establishing shot in the Season 1 episode of How I Met Your Mother titled “The Limo,” which aired in 2005, though no actual filming took place there.

Michael J. Fox returned to Gray’s in 2013 to shoot a scene for the pilot episode of his self-titled series The Michael J. Fox Show, in which Mike Henry (Fox) and Harris Green (Wendell Pierce) discuss the possibility of Mike returning to work while standing across the street from the restaurant.

The restaurant chain was also mentioned in the Season 4 episode of Glee titled “Makeover” and was a pivotal plot element in the 1997 romcom Fools Rush In, though neither production did any filming on the premises. And while several websites claim that the Season 3 episode of Louie titled “Telling Jokes/Set Up” and the 1998 romance Crossing Delancey were filmed at Gray’s, both were actually lensed at Papaya King outposts.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Gray’s Papaya from the “Plus One Is the Loneliest Number” episode of Sex and the City was formerly located at 402 Sixth Avenue in Greenwich Village. Today, the site is home to a Liquiteria. The Gray’s that appeared in Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations was formerly located at 539 8th Avenue in Midtown. That spot now houses a Cohen’s Fashion Optical. The Upper West Side Gray’s, from You’ve Got Mail, is still in operation and can be found at 2090 Broadway. A second Gray’s outpost is located at 612 8th Avenue in Midtown. Gray’s Papaya restaurants are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

April 9, 2018
Pasadena Elks Lodge from “Veep”

Anyone who has visited Pasadena has likely taken note of the sprawling pillared building situated on the southeast corner of Colorado and Orange Grove Boulevards. As the many signs adorning the structure indicate, it serves as Elks Lodge #672. I passed the site regularly during the 15+ years I called Crown City home and knew of its frequent use as both a filming location and production basecamp (Star Waggons are ubiquitous in the massive parking lot out front), but because the lodge is private and only accessible to members, I never set foot on the premises. When I learned, thanks to this Instagram photo posted by Veep executive producer David Mandel, that the property had been featured extensively in the popular HBO series’ Season 6 episode “Georgia,” though, I became a wee bit obsessed with changing that. So, while in L.A. a couple of weeks ago, I decided to stop by to see if I could possibly be given a tour. Thankfully, the member who answered my knock could not have been nicer and immediately invited me in to see all the areas that appeared on Veep and to regale me with a brief history of the lodge and the Elks organization itself.

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The Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks of the United States of America (B.P.O.E.) was initially founded in 1867 by singer Charles Algernon Sidney Vivian as a drinking club for Manhattan performers, of all things. Originally dubbed the “Jolly Corks,” per the Elks official website the main function of the organization was “to circumvent a New York law that closed saloons on Sundays.” The group’s focus eventually became far more altruistic and service-oriented, leading to its name change. According to the website, the order chose their eponym based upon a “number of attributes that are deemed typical of those to be cultivated by members of the fraternity. The Elk is distinctively an American animal. It habitually lives in herds. The Elk is the largest of our native quadrupeds, it is yet fleet of foot and graceful in movement. It is quick and keen of perception; and while it is usually gentle and even timorous, it is strong and valiant in defense of its own.”

Today, the Elks organization boasts a million members with 2,000 lodges dotted across the U.S.

Lodge #672 was erected in 1911. Designed in the Colonial Revival style by architect Myron Hunt (who also gave us Thornton Gardens, Occidental College, Wattles Mansion, the Langham Huntington Hotel, and the Huntington Library, Art Collection, and Botanical Gardens), the 31,000-square-foot structure has served as the Pasadena headquarters of the B.P.O.E. ever since.

Though a Bennett-and-Haskell-designed annex was added to the property in 1928 and a restoration took place in 2010, little of the lodge has changed over the course of its 107-year history.

You can check out some early photos of it here.

Though Lodge #672 appears quite large from the street, I was shocked at the sheer size of the place upon entering. The structure is huge with myriad meeting places, event venues and ballrooms, each of them prettier than the next.

The Main Ballroom, pictured above and below, was being dressed for an event while we were there.

Our tour guide informed us that the Veep production team altered the Main Ballroom’s bar for the “Georgia” shoot . . .

. . . adding in the mirrors and shelving you see below for a scene that ultimately wound up on the cutting room floor.

A few faux maroon pillars, like the one pictured below, were also installed for the filming of the deleted scene . . .

. . . and the walls surrounding the bar were painted with the faces of Old Hollywood stars. While the Elks chose to leave the paintings intact, I was not able to view them, unfortunately, due to the fact that they were temporarily covered over with the faux stone walls you see below by yet another production that filmed on the premises just prior to us stalking the place.

The room below, which I believe is named the Fireside Room, is situated off the lodge’s main entrance.

The formal space boasts a fireplace . . .

. . . and a perimeter of decorative columns.

It is the Lodge Room, though, that is the most impressive.

The venue, which is situated on the second floor and boasts plush seating along the two side walls, serves as the Elks’ meeting room.

Calling it grand would be an understatement.

Though the room is original to the property, the stage was added in 1945 and a remodel took place in 2000.

You can check out some more images of the lodge’s interior here.

The Pasadena Elks Lodge portrays two different locations in “Georgia.” The Lodge Room masks as Georgia’s Election Monitoring Headquarters where Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) flip-flops on which candidate she is backing (based upon which of them happens to be offering to donate the most money to her presidential library at the time) in the county’s first free and democratic election.

The lodge’s Fireside Room portrays the lobby of the Tbilisi Grand Hotel, where Selina and her team stay while in town.

A prop elevator was set up in the corner of the room for the shoot, as you can see in the background of the images below.

In reality, that area serves as a doorway to Lodge #672’s front office.

The image below is the only view we get of the Main Ballroom in the episode. It appears in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment as the Tbilisi Grand’s restaurant in the scene in which Jonah Ryan (Timothy Simons) discovers that his fellow congressmen are dining without him.

Only the interior of the Pasadena Elks Lodge is featured in “Georgia.”

For exterior shots of the Tbilisi Grand, producers used a mash-up of locations both near and far. The establishing shot of the hotel is of an actual Georgian lodging – the Ambassadori Tbilisi Hotel and Casino located at 17 loane Shavteli Street. You can check out some images of it here.

All on location exterior filming took place much closer to home at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel located at 506 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles.

The hotel was significantly roughed up for the shoot, with graffiti added to the walls and strewn furniture discarded on the sidewalk out front.

The Pasadena Elks Lodge has been host to many filmings over the years.

In the 1992 comedy The Distinguished Gentleman, the EPA oversight hearing of the Committee on Power and Industry takes place in the Lodge Room.

Senator Bob Rumson (Richard Dreyfuss) campaigns in the Lodge Room in the 1995 comedy The American President.

Though no part of Lodge #672 can actually be seen, per the book Twilight: Director’s Notebook, Bella’s (Kristin Stewart) bedroom set was rebuilt on the premises for a reshoot of the scene in which she and Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) kiss for the first time in 2008’s Twilight.

Ron Donald (Ken Marino) caters his own reunion at the Pasadena Elks Lodge in the Season 1 episode of Party Down titled “James Rolf High School Twentieth Reunion.”

As you can see, when the episode was shot in 2009, the Main Ballroom’s bar was in its original state and looked much different than it does now after the alterations made by the Veep crew.

In the 2010 comedy The Back-up Plan, Nana (Linda Lavin) marries Arthur (Tom Bosley) in the lodge’s Fireside Room.

Thanks to my buddy Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, I learned that the lodge masked as Elder & Massey Auction House, where Doug Wilson (Kevin Nealon) attended a NASA inventory liquidation auction and almost won a flight-worn suit of Captain Jim Wetherbee, in the Season 8 episode of Weeds titled “Unfreeze,” which aired in 2012. Mikey was actually on set the day filming took place and got to meet and take a photo with Kevin. You can read about his experience here.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Pasadena Elks Lodge, from the “Georgia” episode of Veep, is located at 400 West Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. You can visit the lodge’s official website here. Please keep in mind that the club is private and not accessible to the public.

April 4, 2018
The Los Angeles Theatre Alley from “Coyote Ugly”

You won’t typically find me frequenting back alleys in downtown Los Angeles. But there is one that I just can’t get enough of. My good friend Mike, from MovieShotsLA, pointed it out to me many years ago during a daylong DTLA stalking venture. While driving through the Theatre District, he pulled over near what looked to be a nondescript alcove off West 6th Street and pointed upwards. I literally gasped as my eyes locked upon the towering red marquee reading “Los Angeles Theatre” situated on the back wall of the small urban enclave. It was easily one of the most cinematic vistas I had ever seen! So I was not surprised when Mike informed me that the passageway had been featured onscreen in 2000’s Coyote Ugly, which up until that point I assumed had been shot solely in New York. Mike, of course, knew better. I snapped a ton of photos of the alley that day and have been back several times since, always stopping for a peek when I find myself nearby. Somehow though, I failed to ever blog about it. Cut to last month when I received an email from fellow stalker/Emergency! expert Richard Yokley (you may remember him from this post and this post) asking if I had ever stalked the Los Angeles Theatre alley and informing me of several of its other onscreen cameos. I decided right then and there that I had to dedicate a post to the site pronto!

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Modeled after San Francisco’s now defunct Fox Theater, the Los Angeles Theatre was originally built in 1931 for film exhibitor H.L. Gumbiner. The grand venue was designed in the French Baroque style by S. Charles Lee (who also gave us Temple Israel of Hollywood) and cost over $1 million to complete. And we’re talking 1930’s dollars! To say the site is opulent would be a gross understatement. I had the privilege of seeing it up close and personal a few years back thanks to the Los Angeles Conservancy’s Broadway Historic Theatre and Commercial District Tour. And, let me tell you, it is sensational! From the 80-foot-tall façade . . .

. . . to the gilded two-story lobby . . .

. . . to the elaborate 2,000-seat auditorium . . .

. . . to the oval ballroom – the locale is one of the most captivating in all of L.A.!

I mean, even the bathrooms are dazzling!

It is the theatre’s side alley that sets my heart aflutter, though.

The juxtaposition of the grit of the alley with the glamour of the marquee is just so strikingly cinematic!

Not to mention picturesque!

I’ve never seen anything quite like it.

The space almost looks like a manufactured set piece created on a backlot street at a Hollywood studio. But I assure you it is real.

Situated along the Los Angeles Theatre’s north side, around the corner from its main entrance, the alley is largely tucked away from view. One can easily drive right past without realizing it is there.

So why, you ask, was a large marquee installed in a relatively hidden alcove that would not seen by most patrons venturing through the venue’s front doors on Broadway? I could not even fathom a guess, but, thankfully, found an explanation on the Historic Los Angeles Theatres website.

As I learned, another movie palace, the Paramount Theatre, formerly stood directly across the street from the alley at 323 West 6th Street. (It was torn down in 1960 and the International Jewelry Center was eventually erected in its place.) The Paramount’s main entrance provided a great view of the enclave, so Gumbiner, ever the businessman, decided to install a marquee there in the hopes that it would draw the attention – and patronage – of his competitor’s clientele. Original plans for the space called for a much more elaborate façade with a porticoed doorway and columns flanking the marquee, as you can see on the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation’s Facebook page and the Historic Los Angeles Theatres website.

For whatever reason, though, only the marquee portion of it was completed – which I think makes the site even more dramatic and eye-catching.

Considering its compelling ambience, it is not surprising that the alley has popped up onscreen.

In Coyote Ugly, the locale masks as the entrance to New York’s Fiji Mermaid club.

It is there that Violet Sanford (Piper Perabo) introduces herself to Kevin O’Donnell (Adam Garcia), who she thinks is the club’s manager, at the beginning of the film. As you can see in the screen captures above and below, the marquee was changed to read “East Broadway Theatre” for the scene.

As Richard informed me in his email, Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.) and Gay Perry (Val Kilmer) retrieve a body from the Los Angeles Theatre alley – and share a rather passionate embrace there while trying to evade the police – in 2005’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

Richard also clued me into the alley’s appearance in the original Life on Mars pilot, which never aired, but can be viewed on YouTube here. Written by David E. Kelley, the unaired episode takes place in Los Angeles and centers on LAPD detective Sam Tyler (Jason O’Mara) who, after getting hit by a car in 2007, wakes up to discover he is stuck in the year 1972. Apparently ABC requested a complete re-do of the show after viewing it. Not only were several roles recast, but the setting was moved from SoCal to New York. The series was then picked up and went on to air 17 episodes before being given the ax – prematurely I might add. My mom and I watched Life on Mars religiously and were heartbroken over its cancellation. As much of a fan as I was, though, I was completely unaware that the pilot had been reshot until Richard’s email. In the episode, Sam witnesses an arrest taking place in the Los Angeles Theater alley shortly after waking up in 1972.

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

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for originally telling me about this location and to Richard Yokley for reminding me of it and informing me of its other onscreen appearances.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Los Angeles Theatre alley, from Coyote Ugly, is located in between 314 and 318 West 6th Street in downtown Los Angeles.

April 2, 2018
My Latest Interview with US Modernist Radio

Last month, I headed out to the Skylark Hotel in Palm Springs to meet with George Smart, of the US Modernist website, and record a bit for his popular podcast, US Modernist Radio. While sitting by the pool in the Skylark’s fabulously retro courtyard (which could not have felt more appropriate), George and I discussed all manner of stalking-related topics including modernist homes onscreen, how to be a polite stalker, and my most-wanted locations (one of which – Tal Weaver’s house from Beverly Hills, 90210 – I am happy to report has since been found!). You can give the episode a listen here. It’s #54/Modernism Week 1.

March 30, 2018
Tal Weaver’s House from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

Oh man, have I been wanting to say this for years – Tal Weaver’s house has been found! It is thanks to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, that I finally get to! For those who have no earthly idea what I am talking about, Tal Weaver – and his house – appeared in the Season 2 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Leading from the Heart.” In the episode, Tal, played by a very young and very long-haired Gabriel Macht (aka Suits’ Harvey Specter – my latest celebrity crush), throws a raving party at his sprawling Beverly Hills manse that is attended by Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty), her brother Brandon (Jason Priestley), and their wheelchair-bound cousin, Bobby (Gordon Currie). Though the home’s onscreen role was brief, it was extremely memorable and I have spent the past few years trying to track it down. I recently brought Mike in on the hunt and he managed to get in touch with Phil Buckman, aka the episode’s “Surfer Dude” – “Did you hear what that dude in the wheelchair said to me?” – who, thankfully, remembered where filming had taken place. Come to find out not only is Tal’s house one of L.A.’s most famous, but it’s a spot I had actually stalked and blogged about previously. As Phil informed Mike, Tal’s mansion is none other than the Cecil B. DeMille Estate located at 2000 De Mille Drive in Los Feliz. How I never realized it is beyond me! So, thank you, Mike and Phil! (When Mike gave me the good news, I told him, “You’re my hero!” to which he responded, “Some heroes don’t wear capes!” )

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Though I covered the DeMille Estate’s history in my previous post on the pad, I figure a brief recap is in order here. Built in 1914, the Beaux Arts-style dwelling was originally designed by architect B. Cooper Corbette for Homer Laughlin, co-developer of Los Feliz’ exclusive Laughlin Park community. Homer did not live at the site long, selling the massive manse to DeMille in 1916 for $27,893. Five years later, the famed director acquired the home next door – formerly occupied by Charlie Chaplin – and connected the two with an atrium-like breezeway, meshing them into one ridiculously large compound with the Chaplin portion serving as a screening room/offices/guest quarters. Cecil remained on the premises until his passing in 1959. His estate then held onto the property for the next three decades, reportedly changing nothing from the time DeMille called it home, even going so far as to put fresh flowers on his desk daily. The compound was eventually sold to attorney Terry O’Toole and his wife, Evelyn, in 1988. According to a few articles I dug up via newspapers.com (which I cannot link to as a subscription is needed to view them), the couple briefly updated the estate before selling it to a Japanese company in 1990.

In 1996, the hilltop abode was purchased by art consultant/curator Lisa Lyons and her husband, art consultant/writer Richard Grossman. Prolific rehabbers, the couple enlisted architect Brian Tichenor of Tichenor & Thorp to separate and restore the two properties, first the Chaplin home (which they subsequently sold to producer/writer John Wells) and then the DeMille Estate. The renovation of the latter took a whopping six years. You can read a great Town & Country article about the extensive restoration here.

Grossman and Lyons put the 6-bedroom, 10-bath, 7,472-square-foot pad (which also boasts a pool, a pool house/gym, a detached studio, a rose garden, arched windows, iron balconies, molded ceilings, Doric columns, a mahogany-paneled dining room, a formal library with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and a whopping 2.1 acres of land) up for sale in 2008 for $26.25 million. There were no takers, though, so the listing was removed the following year. It then hit the market again in early 2017 (you can check out the MLS photos here), this time selling after just a couple of months for $24.5 million to none other than Angelina Jolie. Considering Laughlin Park’s long tenure as a celebrity enclave, the purchase was not surprising. Besides DeMille, Chaplin and Jolie, just a few of the stars to call the community home over the years include Natalie Portman, Jenna Elfman, Portia de Rossi, W.C. Fields, Carole Lombard, David Fincher, Lauren Graham, and Ellen Pompeo. Though the neighborhood is gated and not accessible to the public, the Grim Cheaper’s best friend’s parents are longtime residents and we’ve been fortunate to visit many times. During one of those visits, I did some stalking of the DeMille Estate, which is where the photos in this post come from. I am so thankful I snapped them, too, because I’m fairly certain getting any pics of the place now would be virtually impossible considering its current resident.

In “Leading from the Heart,” which originally aired in October 1991, Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) takes a liking to Cousin Bobby, who is visiting from Minnesota, and invites him to a party at her friend Tal Weaver’s house. As Kelly tells him, “Tal throws the best parties!”

When Kelly, Bobby and the rest of their group arrive, though, trouble ensues as the only way to gain entrance to the soiree is via a massive set of exterior steps that leads to Tal’s front door.

So it’s Brandon, Steve Sanders (Ian Ziering) and Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) to the rescue! With Brenda and Kelly clearing a path, the three carry Bobby up the steps.

As you can see in the screen captures below (as well as the many above) as compared to the photographs above, when 90210 was filmed on the premises 27 years ago, the DeMille Estate was enclosed with fencing mainly consisting of wrought iron. Though the posts remain, the ironwork has since been replaced with a stucco wall and wooden gates, making the front steps much less visible – which is perhaps why I didn’t recognize the place as Tal Weaver’s pad. (Yeah, I’ll just keep telling myself that. )

Things don’t improve much for poor Cousin Bobby upon venturing inside Tal’s residence, for which the real interior of the DeMille Estate was utilized.

Not only does someone fall onto Bobby’s lap and accidentally spill a drink on him, but Tal asks Kelly to dance, which sends Bobby into an ugly downward spiral. It is not long before he begs Steve, Dylan and Brandon to carry him back down the steps so that he can call a cab and leave. While re-watching the episode, I came to the conclusion that Cousin Bobby is actually kind of a jerk. Pretty much everyone he encounters at the party is incredibly friendly, nice, and accommodating (including Tal and the girl who spilled a drink on him), but he is curt and rude (towards Brandon and Steve, too!) and seemingly does his best not to fit in, even going so far as to read Kelly the riot act when (for the first time in the history of the show!) she has not actually done anything wrong. (I cannot believe I’m defending Kelly here!) By the time the credits roll, though, all is good again in Walsh-land, Kelly and Bobby have mended fences, and the gang heads out for a drive – with Brenda behind the wheel (gasp!) – before Bobby’s flight back to the Midwest.

I would be remiss if I did not post a photo of Tal in all of his long-haired glory. The role was actually Gabriel Macht’s first television job and, of the experience, he told BuzzFeed, “I remember Jason Priestley being on his phone a lot and dropping all these F-bombs. I thought that was funny because he was like America’s apple pie golden boy. I also remember having no idea what to talk about with Shannen Doherty and Jennie Garth while we were hanging around the set.” So he did what any good theatre student would do – he created a backstory. In the episode, it is said that Tal and Kelly once attended a Sting concert together, so Macht used that as a jumping-off point. As he explained to BuzzFeed, “I was coming from theater school, so I was coming up with backstory about our time at the Sting concert and she looked at me like I was crazy. It was my first TV gig and I wanted him to be this sensitive guy — but I don’t think anyone named Tal Weaver, which is the greatest name in all of television, will ever come across like the good guy.” (No surprise that Jennie doesn’t sound all that friendly in his story. )

As I mentioned in my original post on the DeMille Estate, the director is reported to have shot the Garden of Gethsemane scenes from his 1927 film The King of Kings on the grounds of the mansion, but, unfortunately, due to the passage of over ninety years time and the fact that the property and its acreage have been extensively renovated, I was unable to verify that.

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

A MONUMENTAL thank you to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location and to Phil Buckman for helping him to do so!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Cecil B. DeMille Estate, aka Tal Weaver’s house from the “Leading from the Heart” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, is located at 2000 De Mille Drive in Los Feliz. The residence is located in the gated community of Laughlin Park and is, unfortunately, not accessible to the public.

March 28, 2018
The “Lady Bird” House

I know I am in the minority when I say I did not like Lady Bird. Besides confusion over the name (up until I actually popped in the DVD and started watching, I thought the movie was a biopic about Lady Bird Johnson) and a storyline that seemed lacking, I found the main character, Christine ‘Lady Bird’ McPherson (Saoirse Ronan), utterly bratty. She complains constantly about her hometown and claims she will do anything to go to college far away, yet she doesn’t take action to improve her grades, she cheats (on both a test and by lying to her teacher), lets her recently-out-of-work dad mortgage the family home (behind her mom’s back) in order to pay her out-of-state tuition, and throws tantrums on the reg. I honestly could not find one redeemable thing about her. Without a protagonist to root for or at least to sympathize with on some level, my investment in the movie felt like a waste of time. I was intrigued by the locations, though. While set and partially shot in Sacramento, I knew upon watching and recognizing the café where Lady Bird worked as Kaldi Coffee and Tea in South Pasadena that some filming took place in Los Angeles, as well. I was fairly certain that the house where Lady Bird lived with her family – parents Marion (Laurie Metcalf) and Larry (Tracy Letts), brother Miguel (Jordan Rodrigues), and his girlfriend Shelly Yuhan (Marielle Scott) – could also be found in L.A. So I set out to find it.

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One quick stroke of the keypad led me to an Architectural Digest article that stated the McPherson family home was located in Van Nuys. An address number of “6701” was also visible behind Lady Bird in a scene, so I began searching blocks numbered 6700 in Van Nuys and came across the right spot within minutes. Said to be on “the wrong side of the tracks” in SacTown in the movie, Lady Bird’s home can actually be found at 6701 Orion Avenue, just east of the 405.

According to the AD article, Lady Bird’s production team scouted no less than fifty different properties before settling on the traditional 2-bedroom, 2-bath, 1952 ranch-style pad pictured below.

Not much of the residence was altered for the shoot, as you can see below.

Even the interior, which was utilized extensively, was a perfect fit for the production. As director/writer Greta Gerwig said to The Sacramento Bee, “I was looking for very specific things and it’s so hard to find a home that’s not been renovated. I had this vision of the kind of California home I wanted, like specific wide colorful tiles in the bathroom and kitchen.”

Prior to securing locales, Gerwig took the production team to her childhood home to give them an idea of the look she was going for. In a lucky and rather eerie twist, the Van Nuys house boasted that aesthetic naturally – and in spades. As production designer Chris Jones explained to Architectural Digest, “It was really bizarre because the kitchen looks almost exactly like Greta’s kitchen growing up. It’s an almost exact match, down to the yellow tiles on the wall.” The space actually reminds me quite a bit of the Arnolds’ kitchen from the pilot episode of The Wonder Years.

Per AD, while most of the furniture seen onscreen was brought in for the shoot, the faux wood paneling was another of the home’s authentic features.

Jones calls the house “a great find” saying it became a “character in the movie.”

The 1,607 square feet of living space did prove rather cramped for cast and crew, though. Jones told Deadline, “Working in the house was tight. Everyone was crammed in this small, square footage house. Fortunately, that house had a back area, which actually ended up being the dorm rooms for when she goes to New York. The whole yard was taken over by the film shoot for a week and a half.” Lady Bird’s dorm is pictured below. From Jones’ words, I am unclear if an actual room in the Van Nuys residence was utilized for the segment (with a New York cityscape splayed across the window) or if the space was a set constructed in the backyard or some other rear portion of the property.

The Lady Bird house also popped up in the Season 6 episode of Californication titled “Blind Faith” as the residence belonging to Faith’s (Maggie Grace) parents.

Quite a bit of the interior was also shown in the episode . . .

. . . including Faith’s childhood bedroom, which was the same room utilized as Lady Bird’s.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The McPherson family home from Lady Bird is located at 6701 Orion Avenue in Van Nuys.

March 21, 2018
30th Street Station from “Trading Places”

If you’re a filming location buff, you really shouldn’t travel to Philadelphia without first seeing Trading Places, the 1983 Dan Aykroyd/Eddie Murphy comedy set in the City of Brotherly Love. And filming location buff or not, you really shouldn’t leave Philly without a visit to 30th Street Station, the city’s main railroad depot which had a brief, but memorable role in the flick. I had never actually watched the movie until just prior to our trip back east in September 2016, but it has always been one of the Grim Cheaper’s favorites, so I knew I had to give it a go. And even though he is not at all into locations, I made sure to add a few of its sites to our stalking itinerary. 30th Street Station was at the top of that list thanks to some photos I had seen of its grandly dramatic interior online. In person, it did not disappoint.

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30th Street Station was originally built by the Pennsylvania Railroad between 1929 and 1934.

Designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, the imposing structure was erected out of steel, limestone, granite, and sandstone.

Technologically advanced for its time with a pneumatic tube system, a reinforced roof that allowed for small aircraft landings, and a progressive intercom schematic, the site became the headquarters of the Pennsylvania Railroad shortly after opening.

To say that 30th Street Station is grand would be a vast understatement. From the towering front portico . . .

. . . to the striking main concourse – the depot makes quite an impression.

Though the exterior of the building is Classical in style, the 562,000-square-foot interior is all Art Deco – and it is stunning.

The colossal 290-foot by 135-foot concourse features travertine walls, marble columns, 5-story windows, and gilded detailing.

It is the coffered ceiling, which soars 97 feet above the floor, though, that had me gaping.

Walking into the space, one can’t help but simply marvel.

Situated adjacent to the concourse is the North Waiting Room, another gleaming chamber of travertine and marble.

The room is best known for the massive bas-relief that sits on its rear wall.

Named “Spirit of Transportation,” the 1895 piece was sculpted by Karl Bitter and details evolving modes of transit. Originally displayed at the now defunct Broad Street Station formerly located just a few miles away, the installation was moved to its current home in January 1933.

From 1988 to 1991, 30th Street Station, which according to The Architects Newspaper accommodates 11 million commuters each year, underwent a $100-million revitalization. The area surrounding it is currently set to undergo a massive renovation of its own.

In order to expand the city’s commercial district, 30-million square feet of new space consisting of office and apartment buildings, hotels, parks, shops, and restaurants will be constructed around the depot along the banks of the Schuylkill River. Considering the views are already pretty stellar, I can only imagine how beautiful it is going to be.

30th Street Station pops up at the end of Trading Places in the scene in which Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd) and Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy) catch a train to New York.

It is there, in the main concourse, that Coleman (Denholm Elliott) and Ophelia (Jamie Lee Curtis) hand over their life savings in order to help Louis and Billy Ray get revenge on scheming brothers Randolph and Mortimer Duke (Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche, respectively). On a Trading Places side-note – while researching for this post, I came across a fabulous oral history of the movie. Those interested can check it out here.

Considering its dramatic architecture, it should come as no surprise that the station has been featured in a plethora of productions over the years.

In Alfred Hitchcock’s 1964 thriller Marnie, Marnie Edgar (Tippi Hedren) arrives in Philadelphia via 30th Street Station. I am fairly certain that no actual filming took place on the premises, though, and that the depot was solely utilized in an establishing shot.

The station that Marnie is shown exiting from in the movie looks to be nothing more than a studio-built set.

In the 1981 thriller Blow Out, Burke (John Lithgow) stalks a prostitute in 30th Street Station’s North Waiting Room and then kills her in one of the depot’s bathrooms before heading to the concourse to meet up with Sally (Nancy Allen).

Samuel (Lukas Haas) witnesses a murder at 30th Street Station in the 1985 drama Witness.

Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg), Alma Moore (Zooey Deschanel) and Julian (John Leguizamo) flee Philadelphia via a train at 30th Street Station in the 2008 thriller The Happening.

At the beginning of 2015’s The Visit, Mom (Kathryn Hahn) drops off her kids, Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould), at 30th Street Station.

In the 2017 thriller Split, Kevin Wendall Crumb (James McAvoy) buys flowers at 30th Street Station, though not much of the site can be seen in the scene.

The site also pops up each week in the opening credits of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which started airing in 2005.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: 30th Street Station, from Trading Places, is located at 2955 Market Street in Philadelphia.

March 19, 2018