Haunted Hollywood – Page 5

October 12, 2017October 12, 2017

The “Scream” Warehouse

There has been so much tragedy in the world as of late. I’ve always avoided watching the news, but recently I feel like not even turning on my TV at all. Between the heartbreaking massacre in Las Vegas, the multitude of hurricanes plummeting the Eastern seaboard, and the fires ravaging both Orange and Sonoma Counties, devastation seems to be everywhere. My mom and I were actually in Santa Rosa visiting my aunt and uncle last year at this exact time. Hearing reports of the blaze desolating the area has been particularly saddening as I can’t help but think of the incredibly happy time we spent there, traversing pretty much all of Wine Country to stalk film locations, mainly from my favorite scary movie Scream, which was shot in its entirety in the region. (Thankfully, my aunt and uncle are both safe, as is their house.) I have yet to blog about the vast majority of the locales we visited during that fabulous trip and thought covering one today would be especially poignant.

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Scream is a bit of an anomaly in the motion picture world being that it was lensed almost exclusively at actual locations. Very few sets were utilized in the shoot, which took place over the course of eight weeks beginning in April 1996. During my visit to Northern California, I dragged my mom, aunt and uncle (as well as another uncle, my longtime BFF, Nat, and her boyfriend, Tony – there was literally an entire squad of us!) to every single site featured in the flick – every. single. one. I was so fixated on being thorough that we even stalked the warehouse that served as a soundstage during the production. Though the building is completely non-descript with absolutely no recognizable elements tying it to the film – not to mention it was either largely remodeled or demolished with a new structure now standing in its place (I’ll extrapolate on that a bit later in the post) – I was thrilled to be seeing it in person.

As I detailed in last year’s post about the Sonoma Community Center, a portion of Scream was originally set to be shot at Santa Rosa High School. The school board wound up vetoing the plan at the very last minute, though, leaving director Wes Craven and the rest of the production team scrambling to find a suitable replacement to mask as Woodsboro High. Enter the Sonoma Community Center, whose then manager offered up the site for use. Though the center did serve as a school up until 1948, it lacked several spaces detailed in the Scream script. So a couple of sets were built at a Santa Rosa warehouse to accommodate for the missing spots.

I learned of the warehouse’s existence and location thanks to my friend/Drew Barrymore aficionado Ashley, who runs The Drewseum website. As I mentioned in my October 2016 post about the Shadow of a Doubt house (which also appeared in Scream), over the years Ashley has managed to get her hands on a few Scream call sheets and she was kind enough to share them with me. Let me tell you, reading through them is like a dream! I mean, the location information alone is enough to make my head spin! One of the coveted pages details Day 9 of production (April 25th, 1996), during which several scenes taking place in Woodsboro High’s school office were lensed. The sheet lists the location of the shoot as a “warehouse stage” at 2875 Santa Rosa Avenue. Ashley also shared with me the image below (a screen capture from Scream: The Inside Story), which shows the office set as it existed inside of the warehouse.

The Woodsboro High office set – which consisted of Principal Arthur Himbry’s (Henry Winkler) office, a small hallway and an anteroom – as it appeared in Scream can be seen below.

I am fairly certain that the Woodsboro High School girls’ restroom, where Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) encountered the Ghostface killer for the second time, was also a set built at the warehouse. Though I originally assumed the segment was shot at the Sonoma Community Center, when I stalked the building, I could not find a bathroom even remotely similar to the Scream bathroom anywhere. I showed the employee who took us on a tour of the place the screen captures below and he informed me that he was fairly certain a restroom of that size and shape had never existed on the premises. Upon arriving home, I contacted a Scream crew member who got back to me immediately saying that the bathroom was indeed a set. Since crew member recollections are not always reliable, though, I wanted more confirmation. So I reached out to Leonora Scelfo and Nancy Anne Ridder, the two actresses who appeared alongside Neve in the scene. They both could not have been nicer, but had different memories of where filming took place. Leonora recalled shooting the bathroom scene on location at “the school” (I’m assuming she means the community center), while Nancy informed me that the bit was lensed on a set. As I said, cast and crew recollections can’t always be trusted. I am fairly certain, though, that Nancy was correct and that the Woodsboro High girls’ restroom was a set that existed inside of the Santa Rosa warehouse.

Ashley also has a hunch that a very tiny portion of the infamous opening scene was lensed at the warehouse, as well, though she is not certain of that fact. Scream’s opening, which took place at the residence of Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore), was actually the first part of the movie to be shot. At the time, Craven had not yet secured the rights from Fun World for the use of their “Peanut-Eyed Ghost” mask, which executive producer Marianne Maddalena had spotted while scouting the home that was ultimately used as Tatum Riley’s (Rose McGowan) in the flick and which Wes wanted to utilize to shroud Ghostface. Time running out, Craven had KNB EFX Group re-create the mask with just enough subtle changes so as not to infringe upon Fun World’s copyrighted design. KNB’s re-creation was used in the first two segments of Scream that were shot – the opening and the scenes in the Woodsboro High School office. After those bits were lensed, the rights to the Fun World mask were secured and for the rest of the shoot, the Peanut-Eyed Ghost was used. Both masks are pictured below. As you’ll notice, the differences between them are rather inconspicuous. The KNB version has a much sharper triangular nose than its Fun World counterpart. The KNB mouth boasts an upside-down tear-drop shape, while the Fun World mouth is more of an oval. And the eyes of the KNB ghost are thinner and more symmetrical than that of Fun World. Other than those small differences, though, it is pretty hard to tell them apart.

At some point after the rights were secured, Wes decided to reshoot the brief portion of the opening in which Ghostface is seen through Casey’s back window using the Fun World mask. Ashley has an inkling that the reshoot (stills of which are pictured below) was done at the warehouse and I think she’s right. That is just a hunch, though. While it makes sense that filming of the short, tightly-shot segment would have taken place at the warehouse, it is also entirely possibly producers constructed a tiny window set to shoot the bit at one of the other locales utilized in the production.

If you watch the Scream opening carefully, the two different masks are apparent. The sharp nose of the KNB version (which is pictured in the caps below) is the most noticeable giveaway.

I also have a hunch that the window portion of Sidney’s bedroom may have been a set. Though Craven states in Scream’s DVD commentary that filming of the bedroom scenes took place at the actual Santa Rosa residence utilized as Sidney’s in the shoot, as you can see in the image of the warehouse below, some sort of set boasting three single-hung windows is visible to the right of the high school office set.

Those windows are a darn close match to Sidney’s. Even her white lace curtains seem to be visible. In Scream, Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) climbs through Sidney’s window, located on the Prescott home’s second floor, on two different occasions. To quote Bruce Willis, it seems doubtful, due to liability issues, that Wes would have Skeet clambering onto a roof and through a second-story window not once, but twice during production. It is much more likely that a small portion of the bedroom with more accessible windows was re-created at the warehouse for the scenes. Who knows, though?

When I arrived at 2875 Santa Rosa Avenue last October, I was shocked to find a strip mall that looked to be of rather new construction standing on the premises. Walking around the center, which is home to a flooring store, a La-Z-Boy outpost and a sports shop, among others, I started to have doubts that the Scream warehouse was still standing.

Upon arriving home, I looked into the matter further and was dismayed at what I found. In comparing the 1993 overhead view of the site to the 2009 view via Historic Aerials, it is clear that the warehouse was either razed and completely rebuilt at some point during the interim or remodeled and expanded extensively before being transformed into the strip mall it is now. My guess is the former, which would mean that the Scream warehouse is no longer. Try as I might, though, I could not find any confirmation of my hunch or any information on the warehouse or the strip mall whatsoever. Even searching Santa Rosa building permits provided no clarification. Regardless, to me the site will always be hallowed ground and I was thrilled that I got to stalk it.

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

Big THANK YOU to Ashley, from The Drewseum, for telling me about this location and for providing so much of the information included in this post!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Scream warehouse is/was located at 2875 Santa Rosa Avenue in Santa Rosa.

October 9, 2017June 22, 2018

The “One Hour Photo” House

Today’s location is not spooky – at all, in fact. It’s actually quite exquisite. But it did figure rather heavily in the creepiest scene from one of the creepiest movies I’ve ever seen, so I thought it would only be fitting to include it in my Haunted Hollywood postings. I am talking about the contemporary residence where the Yorkin family – Will (Michael Vartan), Nina (Connie Nielsen) and Jakob (Dylan Smith) – lived in One Hour Photo. I first got interested in tracking down the ultra-modern pad after coming across this The Straight Dope message board while researching Lacy Park, another of the 2002 thriller’s locations. In the thread, user Ins&Outs&What-have-yous inquired if anyone had any information on the dwelling, though no one seemed to. Shortly thereafter, I found my way to this page on the FilmGrab site in which a commenter named Melissa also inquired about the Yorkin home. Her query did not garner any responses, either. So, since facts about the house seemed to be nil, I decided it was my duty to track the place down and blog about it come October.

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Finding this spot took quite a while, I am loathe to admit. I knew from the movie’s production notes that the Yorkin home was located somewhere in Brentwood. My first stab at tracking down its exact address was to do a Google search for “Brentwood” and “modern house,” which yielded a slew of links to a slew of gorgeous properties, but none of them were the Yorkins’. I then added “filming” to the mix and scoured countless more links and images – so many that I ultimately do not remember the exact details of how I was finally led to the right place. At some point, though, I came across the video below which showed the pad as it appeared in an episode of Californication. The clip’s caption proved especially forthcoming, providing not only the property’s name, Benton House, but its architect, Ray Kappe. From there, Google prompted me to 90210Locations’ Californication page which detailed the residence’s exact address –136 South Canyon View Drive. Thanks, 90210Locations! I ran right out to stalk the place shortly thereafter.

In 1989, psychologist/mom/architecture buff Dr. Esther Benton purchased a large home on a shaded plot of land in Brentwood with the intention of performing a vast remodel. She commissioned Kappe for the job, but the incredibly prolific architect wound up razing the structure and rebuilding in his signature style instead, generating magic out of glass, wood and concrete. His creation, which took three years to complete (from 1991 to 1994), was designed with the working mom in mind. The residence boasts three large rooms, or “suites” as a 1998 New York Times article described them – a master bedroom suite, a suite for Esther’s daughter, and an office suite, which Kappe fashioned with a swiveling wall so that the doctor could “watch over the house without interrupting her time at work.” The property is also fashioned with 20-foot ceilings, a large skylight, Douglas fir embellishments, multiple fireplaces, a sunken bathtub, a frameless glass shower, and a towering glass and steel staircase. Zillow estimates the pad is worth a whopping $8.9 million today! Though absolutely stunning, as you can see in photos here and here, sadly none of it is visible from the street.

But, as I’ve said before, that’s why God created aerial views.

For those who have not seen One Hour Photo, the movie centers on Seymour Parrish (Robin Williams), aka Sy, a Sav-Mart photo developer who becomes obsessed with the Yorkins, a family whose film he regularly develops. Though things are definitely not perfect in Will, Nina and Jakob’s world, through Sy’s eyes, the family and their home is idyllic, arcadian and devoid of any typical everyday problems. As Williams is quoted as saying in the film’s production notes, “In the outside world Sy stands out, especially when you get near the Yorkins’ house, which is very warm and incredibly beautiful, almost painfully beautiful because it is his idealized home.” Production designer Tom Foden further describes the dwelling as “representing a place of dreams and ideals.”

In the movie’s creepiest scene, Sy ventures into the Yorkins’ residence while they are away and proceeds to look through their things, put on their clothes, use their bathroom, watch their TV, and generally just make himself at home. In the end, it turns out the experience was all just a fantasy taking place in Sy’s mind, but because Williams played the role to such creepy perfection, the segment is seriously disturbing. The real life interior of the Benton House was utilized in the scene . . .

. . . as well as throughout other portions of the film.

When I first started looking into the Yorkin home, I couldn’t help but think about how much it resembles the residence belonging to Sebastian Stark (James Woods) on the television series Shark. So I was not too surprised to discover during the course of my research that the Shark pad was designed by Ray Kappe’s son, Finn Kappe. That property, one of my favorite TV homes ever, can be found at 2315 Live Oaks Meadow Road in Malibu.

What I was absolutely bowled over to learn, though, was that the inside of the Benton House was utilized as the inside of Sebastian’s home in Shark’s pilot episode, which aired in 2006. I had always assumed the Live Oak Meadows residence had been used for both interiors and exteriors! You can check out photos of the inside of that property here. As you can see, it looks nothing like Sebastian’s pad.

The Benton House interior was later re-created on a soundstage for the filming of all of Shark’s subsequent episodes. That set re-creation is pictured below. (And yes, that’s a young Matt Lanter – my favorite actor – in the second screen capture! <3)

In the Season 1 episode of Californication titled “Girls, Interrupted,” which aired in 2007, the Benton House plays itself. Well, sort of. In the episode, Hank Moody (David Duchovny) takes his ex-wife, architecture enthusiast Karen (Natascha McElhone), to see the home of director Todd Carr (Chris Williams). Though said to be in Bel Air and not Brentwood, the pad is described as a Ray Kappe house in the segment.

The residence’s interior also appeared in the episode.

Back in 1999, the Benton House popped up in Cruel Intentions as the supposed Long Island, New York-area home of Blaine Tuttle (Joshua Jackson).

As Geoff from 90210Locations also informed me, the Benton House portrayed the residence of Samantha Winslow (Susan Sarandon) during the fifth season of Ray Donovan.

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

Big THANK YOU to Geoff, of 90210Locations, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Yorkin house from One Hour Photo is located at 136 South Canyon View Drive in Brentwood.

October 6, 2017October 6, 2017

The Haunted House from “The Goldbergs”

There’s literally nothing better than being scared at Halloween! In my mind, at least. Terrifying movies? Yes! Spooky decorations? Yes! Haunted houses? Yaaaas! Especially haunted houses! Too bad Adam F. Goldberg (Sean Giambrone) doesn’t share my sentiment. In the Season 3 episode of The Goldbergs titled “Couples Costume,” the teen only begrudgingly visits a haunted house on All Hallows’ Eve in the hopes of impressing his girlfriend, Dana Caldwell (Natalie Alyn Lind), after his sister and brother, Erica (Hayley Orrantia) and Barry (Troy Gentile), tell him he is too old for trick-or-treating. Figuring the pad utilized in the show would fit in perfectly with my Haunted Hollywood theme, I, of course, became obsessed with tracking it down immediately upon seeing it. Fortunately, it was a snap to find.

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While watching “Couples Costume,” I noticed that an address number of 2822 was visible just to the right of the haunted house’s front door. I had a hunch the dwelling was likely located in the same Cheviot Hills neighborhood as the property that portrays that Goldberg family’s home on the series (you can read about that site here), so I started scouring Google Street View for residences in the area numbered 2822. Sure enough, I found the place just a few blocks away at 2822 Forrester Drive.

In the episode, things don’t go well for poor Adam while at the haunted house, which is said to be taking place at a local fraternity on the Villanova University campus in Pennsylvania. Upon entering the tricked-out residence, he gets seriously spooked and uses Dana as a human shield, causing her to drop the promise ring he gave her. Adam then ditches Dana and runs for his life. Later in the evening, he winds up having to return to the haunted house with his sister, brother and mother, Beverly (Wendi McLendon-Covey), and face his fears in order to retrieve the ring.

The Tudor-style home that portrayed the haunted house in the episode looks much the same in person as it did onscreen, minus a few spooky decorations and the Greek Omega Theta Rho lettering over the front door.

In real life, the stately 2-story residence, which was built in 1926, boasts 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3,241 square feet, and a 0.20-acre lot.

I believe the actual inside of the home was also utilized in “Couples Costume,” but, unfortunately, I could not find any interior photos to verify that hunch.

Interestingly, the property is a virtual twin to the Baxter home from the television series Last Man Standing. I blogged about that pad, which is located at 611 Lorraine Boulevard in Windsor Square, earlier this year. You can read that post here.

In an odd twist, a different residence was used as the Omega Theta Rho fraternity house in the Season 1 episode of The Goldbergs titled “For Your Own Good.” Even more odd, that home is located at 2826 Forrester, right next door to the property that portrayed the haunted house!

You can see that home on the right-hand side of my images below.

Odder still – 2826 Forrester was even utilized in “Couples Costume!” It is outside of the dwelling that Beverly tries to take candy from local trick-or-treaters in order to find the “deadly razor candy bar” she made to teach Adam a lesson about safety that she thinks was accidentally given out. I have no idea why producers pulled the ol’ switcheroo like that, especially since, being that it appeared in the episode, 2826 Forrester was obviously available for filming. My only guess is that Tudor-style properties lend themselves to haunted houses better than more traditional homes, so location managers must have looked for one to appear in the episode and wound up finding a suitable candidate right next door to the original fraternity house.

The residence across the street at 2815 Forrrester was also utilized in “Couples Costume” as the spot where Adam and Dana went trick-or-treating after eventually making up.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The haunted house from the “Couples Costume” episode of The Goldbergs is located at 2822 Forrester Drive in Cheviot Hills. The residence that portrayed the Omega Theta Rho fraternity house in the “For Your Own Good” episode can be found next door at 2826 Forrester. The property that is used as the Goldberg family’s residence on the series is just a few blocks away at 3071 Earlmar Drive. And Dana’s home from the show is around the corner at 2885 Club Drive.

October 4, 2017October 4, 2017

Myra Jones’ Former House

Though I love true crime and pretty much all of its facets, there are some cases that I find too sad and disturbing to read about, research, do any stalking of, or feature on my blog. Today’s locale, the site of the brutal rape and murder of a 71-year-old grandma, is not one I would typically cover. But the victim’s connection to what is arguably Hollywood’s most iconic thriller and the serious mistaken identity that resulted from her killing had me utterly fascinated. I figured my fellow stalkers would be intrigued, as well. I am talking about the 1988 slaying of actress Myra Davis, who worked under the stage name Myra Jones.

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The moniker is likely unfamiliar to most, which is not surprising being that Jones’ IMDB page lists a scant six credits. Her face is also likely unfamiliar. Again, not surprising being that she never actually appeared in the most famous production on which she worked. (That’s her below pictured via an image from the television show North Mission Road, which covered her murder in a 2005 episode.)Though Myra did find a bit of success later in life starring in commercials, it was not until after her death that her name and image found their way into the papers. A full decade after her death, actually, thanks to a bit of misreporting in an Associated Press article. But more on that in a bit. During her early days in Hollywood, Jones worked as a stand-in for Janet Leigh. From November 1959 to February 1960, she served as Leigh’s stand-in the Alfred Hitchcock classic Psycho – even during the infamous shower scene. But you never saw her onscreen. For those not familiar with Hollywood terminology, a stand-in, which is not to be confused with a body double, literally “stands in” for an actor or actress anytime the camera is not rolling – typically during rehearsals to test camera set-ups, lighting, and blocking. While standing-in during the shower sequence, Myra wore a nude leotard, which mimicked flesh tones, so that various lighting schematics could be evaluated against it. But neither her face nor her body was featured in even one second of footage.

Flash forward to June 28th, 1988. After not hearing from her for several days, Myra’s granddaughter, Sherry Davis, headed to the actress’ West L.A. bungalow, located at 2917 South Beverly Drive in Palms, to check on her. Peering in the bedroom window, she discovered a horrifying site – Jones’ decomposing body splayed across the bed. She had been raped and murdered eight days prior. Though Sherry had suspicions that the crime might have been committed by next-door neighbor Joel Stein, who lived one door south at 2923 South Beverly, detectives zeroed in on Sherry’s brother, who was battling drug addiction at the time. The brother passed a polygraph, though, and police it seems didn’t look further. Myra’s case went cold.

Her 3-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,234-square-foot home, which Myra had lived in for 40 years, was subsequently sold.

Flash forward once again. This time to March 29th, 1998, almost a full decade later, when 60-year-old Jean Orloff was found raped and murdered inside her apartment located at 1810 South Bentley Avenue in West L.A. Though a fire alarm in her bedroom had been dismantled, her dust ruffle burned, and marks on her neck and back were visible, the police detective on the scene ruled that the death resulted from a heart attack. The burned bed skirt he explained away by saying Jean (pictured below via a Cold Case Files episode), who was a known smoker, might have dropped a cigarette during the attack, causing a small fire. No matter that no cigarette was found near her body or on the floor. Because of the ruling, Jean’s apartment was turned over to her family and they began to clean up the scene and pack her belongings. It was not until four days later that the truth was unveiled. While the funeral home was preparing Jean for cremation, a worker noticed that her death certificate had never been signed by the attending coroner. Orloff’s longtime doctor was contacted, but, because he had not seen Jean for over eight months, legally he could not endorse the document. So the coroner’s office sent out investigator Sherwood Dixson to re-examine the body and sign the paperwork. While inspecting her, Dixson noticed that there was significant bruising on Jean’s neck. In the days since her discovery, the ligature marks left by her killer had darkened significantly. Dixson ruled the death a homicide.

By the time of Dixson’s ruling, Jean’s family had already cleaned her apartment (pictured below from the Cold Case Files episode) and packed away most of her belongings, wiping away or tossing out any evidence in the process. The police were in a predicament. So they started reaching out to those close to Orloff in the hopes that someone might be able to shed some light on why she was killed. One of the people contacted was Jean’s longtime manicurist, Adrienne Rosenfeldt. Though Rosenfeldt did not have any relevant information to give police, when she returned home later that night she mentioned Jean’s murder to her son, Joel Stein. Yes, the same Joel Stein who lived next door to Myra Jones. The conversation got Joel thinking about his brother-in-law, Kenneth Dean Hunt, who also inhabited the home next door to Myra. Kenneth had been behaving strangely and binging on cocaine over the few days prior. Joel remembered that ten years earlier, immediately following Jones’ death, Kenneth had acted the exact same way. He called the police, who brought Hunt in for questioning and obtained his DNA. Sure enough, the results showed that he was the killer of both Jean and Myra. Sherry Davis had been right all along. Her grandmother had been murdered by the man next-door – just not the man she was thinking of. Kenneth was arrested, charged and ultimately convicted of both homicides. He was sentenced to life in prison. The story doesn’t end there, though.

When Hunt was arrested, the Associated Press published an article stating that one of his victims was Janet Leigh’s Psycho body double. The press subsequently ran with the story, tantalized by the eerie fact that a woman who appeared in one of the most famous murder scenes of all time wound up dying a brutal death at the hands of a deranged killer. The only trouble was the account wasn’t accurate. Can you say fake news?!? As I mentioned above, Myra was Leigh’s stand-in, not her body double. That job went to a former stripper and one-time Playboy cover model named Marli Renfro (pictured below). It is her body that appears in all portions of the shower scene in which Janet’s face is not visible in the frame. The press’ misreporting is somewhat understandable, I guess, being that the terms “body double” and “stand-in” are often used interchangeably, though they shouldn’t be. Further muddying the waters was the fact that both Leigh and Hitchcock categorically denied the use of a shower scene body double for years. Because Myra used a stage name, after the Associated Press released their initial article, some media sources, confused by Hitchcock and Leigh’s denials, simply assumed that Marli Renfro and Myra Jones were the same person. It was not long before news of the Psycho body double’s murder was everywhere, with some outlets even claiming that Myra had done the voice work of Norman Bates’ mother in the movie, another incorrect factoid.

It took years for the matter to be cleared up. Enter author Robert Graysmith, who had been obsessed with Renfro since his teens. While perusing a December 2007 news article about the murder, he was surprised to see Sherry Davis quoted as saying, “My grandmother would never have done any nude work.” Being that Marli had been featured on the cover of Playboy, the quote confused Graysmith and he began researching the matter further. As he shockingly soon discovered, not only were Marli Renfro and Myra Jones two different people, but Renfro was alive and well and living in the Mojave Desert. Even more shocking, Marli had no idea she had been proclaimed dead by the media or that there was so much confusion surrounding her role in Psycho until Robert contacted her and explained the situation. Graysmith wound up publishing a book on the subject titled “The Girl in Alfred Hitchcock’s Shower” in 2010.

I first learned about Myra’s killing from fellow stalker Alan who posted a comment on my Challenge Lindsay! page back in January alerting me to the addresses of several Haunted Hollywood locales, one of which was Jones’ home. Another fellow stalker named James responded to Alan’s comment, providing a link to a Wikipedia page about Marli Renfro. I was not familiar with either Jones or Renfro at the time, but once I started Googling, I pretty much couldn’t stop. The whole story is almost stranger than fiction!

Myra’s house, which was originally built in 1938, was featured in the Season 3 Cold Case Files episode that covered her murder titled “Before I Do/Hollywood Homicides.”

The residence also appeared in the North Mission Road episode about the case titled “Double Mystery.” You can watch that episode here.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Alan for telling about this location and to fellow stalker James for providing the Wikipedia link that led me to reading more about the case.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Myra Jones’ former house is located at 2917 South Beverly Drive in Palms.

October 3, 2017October 3, 2017

The “Lights Out” House

“Lights Out Cast Accidentally Cursed the House Where they Filmed.” So blared a headline from an Entertainment Weekly article about the 2016 horror film. As you can imagine, the words had me drooling. I first learned about the movie back in January from fellow stalker “sparklesnow” who left a comment on one of my Instagram photos asking for some help in tracking down the large Tudor-style estate where virtually all filming took place. When I popped “Lights Out” and “house” in to a Google search, the EW column was the first item kicked back. In it, actor Alexander DiPersia was quoted as saying, “A week after we finished shooting the basement scene [which] is very terrifying, I got a call from friends saying, ‘Turn on the news.’ And the house was on fire, like right after we finished shooting. From the basement, smoke was emanating up. We cursed that place.” A locale that was not only featured in a horror flick, but that also got vexed by the production? Count me in! I couldn’t imagine a place more perfectly suited to my Haunted Hollywood postings. So I set right out to track it down.

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Thankfully, the search was not very hard. Being that Lights Out was released in July 2016, I knew that filming had to have taken place in 2015. So I scoured the internet for reports of any fires at L.A.-area residences that year and came across this Los Angeles Daily News article detailing a blaze that struck a three-story home located at 140 South Avenue 59 in Highland Park on November 7th. One look at Street View images of the dwelling in comparison to the pad shown in the movie’s trailer confirmed it was the right spot. Fortunately, the inferno, which was put out within 43 minutes of the fire department’s arrival, does not appear to have caused much damage to the locale because, as you can see below, the Lights Out house is currently standing and seemingly intact.

In real life, the property is known as the Finis E. Yoakum House, named for the doctor-turned-faith-healer who commissioned it. Following a serious buggy accident in Denver in 1894, Yoakum migrated to Los Angeles, hoping the city’s temperate climate would aid in his recovery from his many injuries. A few months after arriving in La La Land, he attended a Christian Alliance prayer meeting, where he was blessed by a priest and almost immediately healed. The experience inspired Yoakum to assist others who were suffering. In 1900, he opened up his Queen Anne-style residence at 6026 Echo Street in Highland Park to those in need, providing shelter, clothing and food for free. In return, the residents performed charitable acts and helped around the property, which Yoakum dubbed the Pisgah Home, named for the mountain from which Moses first spotted the promised land. It was not long before Finis’ crusade took on momentum, transforming into a religion that became known as the Pisgah Home Movement.

In short time, more space was needed to house Pisgah Home’s growing number of residents. Several cottages were added to the Echo Street property and those that couldn’t fit in the ancillary structures would sleep in tents in the yard. Yoakum and his wife even had to move into a tent themselves at one point so that their residence could be utilized for those in need. In 1915, Pisgah Home members constructed a new, much larger Tudor-style dwelling for Yoakum and his family just up the road at 140 South Avenue 59.

The doctor only lived in the lavish structure for five years before passing away in 1920. After his death, the various properties making up Pisgah Home, most of which still stand today, were divided up amongst his family and the Movement. The Finis E. Yoakum house, which is a Los Angeles Historic Cultural-Monument, was subsequently sold and today is a privately-owned residence.

The 19-room estate, which looks much the same today as it did when it was originally built, features 8 bedrooms, 5 baths, 6,140 square feet of living space, a finished basement, several fireplaces, a 0.41-acre plot of land, a large swimming pool, and a detached 2-car garage.

Sadly, not much of it can be seen from the street.

In Lights Out, the Finis E. Yoakum House served as the residence of Sophie (Maria Bello) and Martin (Gabriel Bateman). I watched the movie shortly before writing this post and, let me tell you, it is absolutely terrifying – in the best way possible. I mean, the trailer alone was enough to make me want to sleep with the lights on for at least a week.

The sprawling property was used extensively throughout the flick.

Even the real life interior (which is exquisite!) was utilized in the filming.

Though undeniably beautiful (that woodwork and detailing!), I can see why the house was chosen for the movie. It definitely has a looming quality to it. Those stairs and doors just look like they give good creak!

As Alexander DiPersia mentioned in the EW article, Lights Out’s basement scene was particularly harrowing. According to IMDB, the mannequins featured in the segment were not props, but actually belong to the Yoakum House owners, who store them in the cellar! Shudder! Whether or not the home was actually cursed during the production, causing the fire that later broke out there, I’ll never know, but one thing’s for sure – I wouldn’t ever want to set foot in that basement to find out!

The Yoakum House is actually a frequent horror film star. In the 2014 thriller Ouija, the property was featured as the home of Debbie Galardi (Shelley Hennig), though only interiors were used.

A residence just a few doors down at 5915 Echo Street was utilized for all exterior shots.

Well, almost all exterior shots. The Yoakum House’s pool did make an appearance in the film.

The dwelling also popped up in interior scenes in Ouija’s 2016 sequel, Ouija: Origin of Evil.

In non-horror-movie-related news, the Yoakum House portrayed the bed and breakfast owned by Heaton (Kevin Pollak) and Rita Upshaw (Illeana Douglas) in the 2013 dramedy Chez Upshaw. Both the exterior . . .

. . . and interior were utilized in the shoot.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Finis E. Yoakum House, aka Sophie and Martin’s residence from Lights Out, is located at 140 South Avenue 59 in Highland Park.

October 2, 2017September 29, 2017

The “Pacific Heights” House

I have been waiting for this day for months! Yep, that’s right folks – it is finally, finally time for my annual Haunted Hollywood postings and I could not be more excited! In honor of the occasion, I have added a Haunted Hollywood category to my site and while I typically only publish three columns a week during normal months, I am going to attempt to do a write up of a new spooky spot every single day of October. God knows I have enough material! We’ll see how it goes. For my first locale this year, I thought I’d cover the house from Pacific Heights. I stalked the picturesque pad, which can’t actually be found in the tony neighborhood the film was named for but about three miles south in Potrero Hill, last fall while visiting San Francisco. Though I actually find Pacific Heights to be more anger-inducing than scary, I still thought it would be fitting to include the dwelling that served as its focal point in my October postings.

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For those who haven’t seen Pacific Heights, the 1990 thriller – or “horror film for yuppies” as Roger Ebert dubbed it – tells the story of Patty Palmer (Melanie Griffith) and Drake Goodman (Matthew Modine), a young San Francisco couple who use all their savings to purchase a dilapidated, but still rather pricey (try $749,000!) Victorian home with two rental units supposedly located at 170 Pacific Street. Patty and Drake fix up the residence themselves, move into the top floor space and lease out the two rentals, one of them to maniacal con man Carter Hayes (Michael Keaton), who proceeds to terrorize the couple, as well as the occupants of the other unit, without paying so much as a dime of his monthly rent. Due to San Francisco’s pro-tenant property laws, Drake and Patty are powerless to stop Carter, evict him, or do much of anything really. Screenwriter Daniel Pyne was inspired to pen the film’s script after his own experience of trying to evict a deadbeat tenant from an apartment he once owned.

In the film, Patty and Drake’s real estate agent informs them that the turreted home was built around 1886 and “probably remodeled slightly in the ‘40s.”

In reality, the statuesque Queen Anne was constructed in 1895.

The three-story dwelling was made to look significantly run-down for the movie’s early scenes. According to William A. Gordon in his book Shot on This Site, “When the production company discovered it, the house had been recently repainted. To create a ‘distressed’ look, they masked the entire house with sound-blasting frisket, a substance with light adhesive on one side and paper on the other. The painted side was treated with chemicals to make the exterior look cracked and aged. After two days’ filming, the crew removed the frisket.”

After Drake and Patty complete their improvements, the property comes to resemble its actual self.

Only the exterior of the residence was utilized in the filming. Interior scenes were shot on a set built on a soundstage at The Culver Studios in Culver City.

The views shown in the film are real and absolutely breathtaking (though the San Francisco skyline has changed considerably since Pacific Heights was lensed almost 30 years ago).

In fact, in Shot on This Site, Gordon says the home was chosen for the movie because of its stunning panoramic views.

Along with spectacular views, in real life the residence also boasts a corner 0.06-acre lot, 4 bedrooms, a den, 3.5 baths, 3,200 square feet, 2 fireplaces, an eat-in kitchen, bay windows, parquet flooring, vaulted ceilings, separate guest quarters, a finished basement, a 1-car garage, a patio, a BBQ area, an attic, a garden, and a studio in-law apartment, just like in the movie. Per Zillow, the pad is currently worth a whopping $3.27 million.

Zillow also states that the property appeared in several episodes of Nash Bridges, but I am unsure of which episodes in particular. If anyone happens to know, please fill me in!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Drake and Patty’s residence from Pacific Heights is located at 1243 19th Street in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood.

November 3, 2016September 29, 2017

Halloween 2016 at the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride

I love anything and everything having to do with the ‘80s. So when I started hearing buzz about Stanger Things, a horror series on Netflix with deep ‘80s undertones, this past summer, I knew I’d be hooked. The Grim Cheaper and I finally sat down to binge-watch it in August and immediately became obsessed, staying up until 3:30 in the morning two days in a row to finish it. Stranger Things is literally one of the best. television. shows. ever. It was also responsible for inspiring our Halloween costumes this year. As soon as I saw the first episode, I knew there was no one else I’d rather be than Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown). And the GC quickly set his sights on dressing up as Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo).

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I am nothing if not anal when it comes to Halloween costumes and, as such, I wanted my Eleven dress to be perfect. My mom was originally going to make it for me, but the only pattern we could find that came close to Eleven’s pink Peter-Pan-collared frock turned out to be wildly different once my mom started sewing. So I turned to Etsy and found a dress that was spot-on, made by FrenchieYork. Thankfully, I already owned a pair of white Converse sneakers and the GC loaned me his blue rain coat, so the only items I had to buy were a pair of green and yellow tube socks, which I found on Amazon, and a wig. While I originally wanted to wear a shaved head wig, I could not find one anywhere. I thought I might be able to buy a brown wig and shave it, but after researching that option online, quickly realized that it wouldn’t be possible. Apparently, quite a few people tried going that route with disastrous results, which I should have anticipated. I chopped enough of my Barbie dolls’ hair off as a kid to know that cutting synthetic hair, especially that drastically, never ends well. So I purchased this Hot Honey Blonde Wig and had my mom trim it slightly to match the length of Eleven’s hair.

Originally, I was not planning on accenting my costume with a box of Eggo Waffles, as I did not want to be carrying something around in my hands all evening. But the GC came home with an Eggos carton shortly before Halloween and it dawned on me that I could make a purse out of it, which I did quite easily. I just put clear packaging tape around the entire thing to make it sturdier, ran string through the sides as a strap, attached Velcro to the top flaps so that my belongings would be secured, and voila!

The GC’s costume was an easy find, as well. We purchased Dustin’s hat on eBay and his Waupaca, Wisconsin shirt on Amazon (the exact one we bought is no longer available, but you can find a similar one here), which he wore with jeans, a hoodie, and Adidas that were already in his closet. The wig was a little harder to come by. We wound up buying this Glam Rock Wig, which my mom cut to look more like Dustin’s hair.

For our Halloween festivities this year we decided to hit up the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride. For those who have never been, the Haunted Hayride is a longtime L.A. attraction in which guests travel through a frightfully decorated Old Zoo (you can read my post on that locale here) while sitting in a large tractor-pulled trailer. Though it is one of the city’s most popular Halloween events, the GC and I had never been and decided this was the year to do so. Thanks to my friend Becky, of the Temporary Rest Stop blog (she wrote this fabulous guest post about Breaking Bad filming locations for my site back in May), I learned that it was possible to walk around the Hayride venue during daytime off-hours and see all of the décor. So we actually got a double dose of the place!

First thing Halloween morning, the GC and I headed right on over to the site. Because it was closed and no one was really around, I was a little nervous about just walking right through the Hayride entrance, but thankfully a security guard happened by and when I asked if it was OK to venture in, he explained that the public is welcome to take a look around as long as they don’t touch any of the props or mess up the sets. How awesome is that?

So we wandered right on in and had an absolute blast.

This year’s Haunted Hayride theme was “Secret Society.” As the website states, “Inside the gates of the society, members will bear witness to the clandestine lives of their faction and in a shocking turn, will be commandeered by the society and sent into an initiation, confronting the ghosts of hayrides past.”

Getting to see the decorations up-close-and-personal and in the light of day was pretty amazing.

My favorite part of the set-up was the string of former zoo enclosures, which were fashioned with all manner of gory props.

The enclosures were left open, which meant that we were able to venture inside for some fun.

The Haunted Hayride venue is huge and we spent a good hour walking around looking at everything. If you live in the L.A. area, I can’t more highly recommend stalking it.

Our nighttime visit was a blast, as well, though I will say that the evening turned out to be a lot shorter than we expected. We were able to go through all of the attractions offered in about an hour and a half. While we had a great time and enjoyed all that we did, I felt that the Haunted Hayride was lacking a bit.

Though various kiosks are set up, there just isn’t that much to do while there.

We purchased VIP tickets, so we did not wait in line at all the entire night, which, obviously, got us through things more quickly, but I still expected there to be more to experience.

That being said, we had a great time and would likely go again.

The Los Angeles Haunted Hayride consists of three main attractions, the primary of which is the Hayride itself, which was fabulous at night and a lot longer than I anticipated. At one point, guests even get off the tractor and have to find their way through a corn maze.

My favorite part of the night, though, was the Trick or Treat attraction (the exterior of which is pictured below), during which guests roam through a fake village of tiny cottages, knocking on doors in order to get candy. While treats are handed out, so are scares, as people jump out at visitors from doorways, windows and other dark places. Trick or Treat was incredibly well done and I loved every minute of it, even more so than the actual Hayride.

The third event offered was the Ouija Origin of Evil House of Shadows, which could have been really cool, except that the entire thing was lit by intense strobe lighting, which made me really dizzy. I am not one to get woozy easily (I regularly read in the car), but those lights had me feeling like I’d downed a bottle of tequila. By the end of it, I was so disoriented that I was walking into walls.

According to recent Yelp reviews, Hayrides of years past were far better executed, so I’m looking forward to going back to see how it is in 2017.

All in all, it was a fabulous Halloween and I am deeply saddened that my favorite season has come to an end. I hope all of my fellow stalkers had a fun-filled holiday. I, for one, am already looking forward to next year.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Los Angeles Haunted Hayride takes place each October at the Old Zoo, which is located at 4801 Griffith Park Boulevard inside of Griffith Park. You can find out more information about the event here.

October 31, 2016September 29, 2017

The Los Angeles Filming Locations of “Hocus Pocus”

It’s finally here, folks! The day I wait for all year long. Halloween! I hope all of my fellow stalkers have a fabulous, spooky and safe holiday! I figured what better way to celebrate my favorite day than with a post about one of the world’s most beloved Halloween movies, Hocus Pocus. Last week, my friend Katie detailed the Salem, Massachusetts locations featured in the 1993 flick, so I thought I would write about a few of its L.A. locales. Yep, that’s right – portions of the film were lensed right here in Los Angeles!

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A couple of years ago, I came across a Whittier Daily News article that chronicled the various filming that had taken place in the city over the years. I was shocked to learn that Hocus Pocus was shot in the area. At the time, I was under the impression that the movie had been lensed solely in Salem, but as the column stated, in December 1992, HP did some filming “in and around Central Park with inside shots at the Uptown YMCA.” So I immediately popped in my DVD and started scanning through it. While I did not see any scenes that looked to have taken place at the YMCA or in Central Park (as I later found out thanks to this article, the park scene was cut), I did notice an address number of 6536 posted above the door of the Victorian-style house where the Devil (Garry Marshall) lived with The Master’s Wife (Penny Marshall).

Feeling lucky, I did a Google search for “Victorian house,” “Whittier,” and “6536” and one of the first results kicked back was an article on the Historic Whittier Homes website about a residence located at 6536 Friends Avenue. Sure enough, the images shown matched the Devil’s house to a T. As it turns out, the dwelling is situated along the eastern side of Central Park, which is also known as Friends Park.

The picturesque property only popped up briefly in Hocus Pocus, in the scene in which the Sanderson Sisters – Winifred (Bette Midler), Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker), and Mary (Kathy Najimy) – inadvertently find themselves on the doorstep of a hapless man dressed up as the devil on Halloween night. Thinking he is their master, the witches head inside to do his bidding. The man’s wife is having none of it, though, and quickly boots the three sisters.

The residence looks much the same today as it did when Hocus Pocus was filmed back in late 1992.

I am unsure if interiors were also filmed inside the home or if those segments were lensed elsewhere.

The same pad also served as the residence of Rita Robbins (Glenne Headly) in the 1996 comedy Sgt. Bilko.

In real life, the Devil’s house was constructed in 1911 and boasts 4 bedrooms, 1 bath, 1,792 square feet of living space, and a 0.16-acre lot. According to the Historic Whittier Homes website, the dwelling has been featured in 7 movies, including Hocus Pocus, though, aside from Sgt. Bilko, I am unsure of what the others are.

After identifying the Devil’s pad, I decided to do some further digging and discovered that another scene was filmed just two doors down – a very brief set-up scene in which extras dressed in costume were shown trick-or-treating.

The property featured in that segment is another gorgeous Victorian, originally built in 1896.

The colorful 2,512-square-foot dwelling boasts 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, tin ceilings, stained glass windows, wood moldings, hardwood flooring, and a fireplace. You can check out some interior images of it here.

A further search of “Hocus Pocus” “filming,” and “Whittier,” led me to a post about the movie on the Life at Cloverhill website in which a commenter named Efrain stated that interior school scenes were shot at East Whittier Middle School. While I have never stalked the school, I believe that information to be correct.

I found a video about East Whittier that was filmed in one of the school’s actual classrooms and, as you can see above and below, that classroom appears to be a direct match to the Hocus Pocus classroom.

The archways visible outside of the French doors in the movie also seem to match those of East Whittier.

As I mentioned in my February 2016 post for the Mike the Fanboy website, some Hocus Pocus filming also took place at Warner Bros. Ranch. The park where Dani (Thora Birch), Allison (Vinessa Shaw) and Max (Omri Katz) celebrated the supposed death of the Sanderson Sisters towards the end of the movie is located at the Ranch. As I also mentioned in my Mike the Fanboy post, the park, and its fountain, should be recognizable to Friends fans – they were featured each week in the hit series’ opening credits.

The house visible behind Max in the scene is none other than the Griswold residence from Christmas Vacation, though it looks quite a bit different today than it did when both Hocus Pocus and CV were shot.

Warner Bros. Ranch makes another appearance in Hocus Pocus. It is on the lot’s Blondie Street that Sarah haphazardly drove a city bus. (And what do you know? There’s the Griswold house again!)

I was thrilled to discover during a recent re-watch of the movie that the interior Halloween party scenes were shot at a place I am very familiar with – The MacArthur. Formerly known as the Park Plaza Hotel, the oft-filmed site has popped up in hundreds upon hundreds of productions over the years. I toured the space as a possible wedding venue back in 2009 and became quite enamored with it.

Filming of the Halloween party scene took place in The MacArthur’s Elks Hall, a grand room featuring sweeping archways, carved wooden columns, and ornate chandeliers.

And last, but not least is a location I just now figured out! While scanning through the movie making screen captures for this post, I almost fell out of my chair when I realized that the interior of Allison’s mansion was none other than the interior of the Crank House, aka the Omega Beta Zeta house from Scream 2, aka the Strong residence from Catch Me If You Can! As you can see in the screen captures below, the interior shown in Catch Me If You Can matches the inside of Allison’s mansion perfectly! I had always wondered where the interiors of Allison’s residence were shot, so I am floored to have finally figured it out! You can read a more in-depth post on the Crank House here.

I am fairly certain that a few other Hocus Pocus scenes were shot in L.A., including the trick-or-treating segments pictured below, but as of yet I have not been able to figure out where. If any of my fellow stalkers happen to know, please fill me in!

Screenshot-003192

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Devil’s house from Hocus Pocus is located at 6536 Friends Avenue in Whittier. The residence from the movie’s trick-or-treating scene can be found two doors down at 6546 Friends Avenue. East Whittier Middle School, where the interior school scenes were filmed, is located at 14421 Whittier Boulevard. Warner Bros. Ranch, where Dani and Allison celebrated the supposed death of the Sanderson Sisters, can be found at 411 North Hollywood Way in Burbank. The MacArthur, where the interior Halloween party scenes were shot, is located at 607 Park View Street in Westlake. And the Crank House, which was used as the interior of Allison’s mansion, can be found at 2186 East Crary Street in Altadena.

October 28, 2016September 29, 2017

Eastern State Penitentiary

Prior to traveling anywhere, I read copious amounts about the place I plan on visiting. Copious amounts, from sources including books, magazines, websites, guides, and blogs. My favorite travel guides are the Eyewitness Travel books published by DK. Before my recent trip back east, during which we visited Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Philadelphia, I purchased DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Philadelphia & The Pennsylvania Dutch Country. As usual, it did not disappoint and chronicled countless sites I was interested in visiting while in the City of Brotherly Love. At the top of my Philly Must-Stalk List was Eastern State Penitentiary, which Eyewitness Travel described as an abandoned former prison turned museum. Yeah, I pretty much started drooling upon reading those words. In person, the locale was even more amazing than depicted in the book. Because Eastern State has been repeatedly called “one of the most haunted places in the world,” I figured what better time to blog about it than now?

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Tickets to Eastern State Penitentiary cost $14 per person and include either an audio tour or a guide-led tour. We opted for the audio tour, in which visitors are led through the vast premises via messages digitally-recorded by various experts, former guards, former inmates, historians, and other individuals, including actor Steve Buscemi who became enamored with the prison during a location scout for his 2000 film Animal Factory. Though Buscemi did not end up choosing the site for the movie, its haunting beauty stayed with him and he generously lent his voice to become the main narrator of the audio tour, escorting guests through what he calls a “magnificent ruin still standing in the middle of a modern city.”

As we learned via Buscemi, Eastern State Penitentiary, also known as the “House,” was originally founded in 1829, thanks largely to the efforts of the Philadelphia Quakers and the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons. For years, the groups had lobbied for the reform of area jails, which were known for their poor and often brutal conditions.

The Gothic Revival-style institution, which was designed by British architect John Haviland, was established as a place where prisoners would spend time alone and seek penitence for their crimes. As such, it was given the name “Eastern State Penitentiary.”

Initial construction of the 11-acre site lasted from 1822 to 1836 and cost $780,000.

The unique pinwheel layout of the penitentiary, which consists of 14 cellblocks (originally 7) that extend like bike spokes from a central room, served as a model for more than 300 prisons across the globe.

Though Eastern State’s exteriors are extremely stark and foreboding . . .

. . . consisting of all-encompassing 30-foot high walls . . .

. . . (you can see just how tall those walls are below – use the large benches in the bottom right of the photos as reference) . . .

. . . each of the 450 original cells was considered largely modern. (And yes, I know that was a run-on sentence. Blame poetic license.)

The cells all featured skylights and, in keeping with the solitary concept of the prison, private exterior exercise yards.

Each also boasted central heating and running water, amenities that the White House did not even have at the time. Yep, that’s the toilet pictured below.

“You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.”

Additional cellblocks were added to the structure from 1877 to 1926 , bringing the total to 14, with space for 1,700 prisoners.

Eastern State abandoned its solitary nature in 1913, at which time inmates began gathering for meals, recreation and religious ceremonies.

During its tenure as a prison, many of history’s most infamous criminals were incarcerated at Eastern State, including Al Capone. A re-creation of his lavish cell is pictured below, though there is some debate as to how extravagant his confines actually were.

For various reasons, the site was shuttered in 1971.

It was then left to deteriorate. Some images from that time period are pictured below. As you can see, the prison became so overgrown with foliage, it looked like a virtual forest.

The city of Philadelphia purchased the property, which was becoming more dilapidated by the day, from the state in 1980 and began making plans to transform it into a commercial center.

Thankfully, in 1988 a group of preservationists dubbed the “Eastern State Task Force” stepped in to thwart the renovation and to revitalize the site.

Around that same time, the prison’s doors were opened to a select few for tours. Due to the dangerous conditions of the building, initial guests had to sign liability waivers and wear hardhats to gain admittance.

Over the next few years, volunteers and preservation groups work to clean up Eastern State Penitentiary and to raise money in order to transform the site into a tourist attraction. On Halloween night 1991, a fundraiser was held for the prison. The event was so successful that it became an annual affair and eventually turned into a season-long Halloween attraction known as Terror Behind the Walls.

The gargoyles pictured below, who are named Frank and Carson, are not authentic to the building, but are props installed each year for Terror Behind the Walls. During the nighttime event, the prison is turned into a massive haunted house and guests are invited to explore the grounds in the dark. Sounds like my perfect evening!

In 1994, Eastern State Penitentiary opened its doors to the public for daily tours.

The tours proved immensely popular and today the prison is one of Philadelphia’s most famous attractions, well-loved by visitors and locals alike.

Though Eastern State has been “cleaned up” and visitors are no longer required to sign waivers or wear hardhats when touring the premises, caretakers had the foresight to leave much of the property’s decay intact.

Seeing it is nothing short of breathtaking.

Not only did Eastern State turn out to be one of our favorite places that we visited during our trip, but it is one of our favorite places we have visited period!

Our time in Philadelphia was extremely limited (we only had three days to explore the city) and we originally planned on spending two hours at the penitentiary, yet we just could not tear ourselves away and wound up staying for more than four hours. It still didn’t seem like enough, though. I literally could have spent all day there.

While exploring, I snapped more than 200 photos and I am pretty much in love with every single one (as evidenced by the number that appear in this post), even the ones that are overexposed . . .

. . . and underexposed.

#framer

There was beauty literally around every turn.

I just could not stop snapping.

I mean, come on!

I became just a wee bit obsessed with the gate below.

Can’t stop . . .

. . . won’t stop.

As if there wasn’t already enough to love, Eastern State Penitentiary is also a filming location!

The prison appeared in Tina Turner’s 1985 music video “One of the Living.”

The Dead Milkmen also shot their 1988 “Punk Rock Girl” music video there.

In the 1995 thriller 12 Monkeys, Eastern State Penitentiary masked as the insane asylum where James Cole (Bruce Willis) was sent.

Several areas of the site were utilized in the filming, most notably the anteroom outside of Cellblocks 2, 10 and 11.

Eastern State Penitentiary portrayed a Malaysian prison in the 1998 drama Return to Paradise.

The property’s exterior was digitally altered to appear as if it was on a coastline in the movie.

Sting shot the album cover and album art for 2001’s . . . All This Time at Eastern State.

That same year, the prison was featured in a Season 1 episode of the MTV reality show Fear.

Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) and Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox) took refuge at Eastern State in 2009’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior were utilized in the flick.

Eastern State was also the main location featured in Whitney Peyton’s 2010 “Crazy” music video.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Eastern State Penitentiary is located at 2027 Fairmount Avenue in Philadelphia. You can visit the prison’s official website here. The nighttime Terror Behind the Walls event runs each year from mid-September through early November.

October 27, 2016September 29, 2017

The Salem Filming Locations of “Hocus Pocus”

Today, we have a very special guest post brought to you by my good friend/Hocus Pocus aficionado Katie, who recently took a trip to Salem, Massachusetts to stalk the locations featured in the bewitching (pun intended!) 1993 film. When she kindly proposed writing a column about her adventure during my Haunted Hollywood postings, I immediately took her up on the offer and I could not be more excited about the result! So take it away, Katie!

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Growing up, Hocus Pocus was one of my absolute favorite Halloween movies, and definitely still is! I had always wanted to visit Salem, Massachusetts after watching the beloved Disney film, and as I grew up and heard more and more of the history and legends of the little town, my interest in it only grew. While planning a trip to New England this summer, I was completely shocked when I discovered that some of the production had actually been filmed in Salem, and I knew I had to check it out. So, after packing my witchiest outfit, I dragged my parents along for a quick detour to Salem, Massachusetts, and put all of the stalking skills I learned from Lindsay Blake to work! [Editor’s note – LOVE it!]

1. Ropes Mansion (318 Essex Street)- The beginning of our Hocus Pocus filming location journey began with Ropes Mansion, located a few doors down from the famous Witch House of Judge Jonathan Corwin. The Ropes Mansion is used in the film as the obnoxiously beautiful home of Max’s love interest, Allison, and where the legendary famous words from Dani, “Max likes your yabbos”, were first muttered. The mansion was recently refurbished and reopened to the public, along with the well-loved gardens frequently visited by Salem residents which are located behind the house. Unfortunately, there were no Rococo-inspired Halloween costume balls or candy filled cauldrons inside of the mansion, but if you’d like to step in and see for yourself, the mansion is open to the public for self-guided tours and a glimpse into Salem history.

Built in 1727, the Ropes Mansion housed four generations of the Ropes family before becoming a part of the Peabody Essex museum. One of the original owners of the house, Nathaniel Ropes, died as a patriot mob attacked the mansion in 1774, and Abigail Ropes died in 1839 due to her dress catching on fire. Both are said to haunt the property.

2. Old Town Hall (32 Derby Square)- The Halloween party where the Sanderson Sisters sang the iconic musical number, “I Put a Spell on You”, took place in the Old Town Hall in downtown Salem. Though the interior shots of the party were filmed elsewhere, the exterior of the building is extremely recognizable from the film. Located in the historical district in Salem, the building is now home to the Salem Museum, where tourists are able to learn about the town’s extensive past. The interactive play, Cry Innocent, is also housed by the historical hall, where the story of Bridget Bishop’s trial is depicted and the audience acts as the Puritan jury, deciding whether she is guilty or innocent.

The doors of the backside of the town hall can briefly be seen as Max and Dani’s parents leave the party after dancing the night away under the Sanderson sisters’ spell.

3. Max and Dani’s House (4 Ocean Drive)- A bit of a hike from the central locations of Hocus Pocus is the house used as the home of the Dennisons, which looks almost exact to the film. This home is so distinct that it has practically become a tourist attraction of its own! Built in the 1870s, this charming little house sits on the oceanfront in a residential area of Salem, and has a stunning view of the sea, which you don’t see in the film.

Trick-or-treaters are shown many times lingering in front of the house before Max and Dani leave to begin a Halloween adventure of their own.

I’m pretty sure every kid who grew up watching this movie was immediately jealous of the crow’s nest in Max’s bedroom, which can clearly be seen from outside the house, and definitely made this place the house goals of the 90s youth. It was the perfect place to sulk in teen angst, which Max took advantage of after a rough day of his Jimi Hendrix pickup line being rejected and having his shoes stolen.

4. Phillips Elementary School (86 Essex Street)- “Tis a prison, for children!” Winifred Sanderson says, as she stands in front of Phillips Elementary School, which depicted Jacob Bailey High School in the film. During the sisters’ hunt for children, they are lured to the school by Max, Dani, and Allison, only to be trapped in the school’s ceramics kiln where they meet their presumed demise. The school also appears at the beginning of the film, where the story of the Sanderson Sisters was told in Allison and Max’s classroom. Apparently, the school shut down a year before Hocus Pocus was filmed, making it the perfect place for a Salem high school. The building now serves as a condominium complex overlooking the Salem Common.

“This place reeks of children!”

Smoke from the aftermath of the Sanderson Sisters’ fate of being locked in the school’s kiln can be seen billowing out of the chimney at the front of the school.

6. Salem Common (Washington Square)- Located just across from Phillips Elementary, which was used as the high school of Max and Allison, and the Salem Witch Museum, the Salem Common is a prominent area in the town. The Common was initiated in 1667, and was a partial swamp where livestock roamed freely among the 8-acre park. From around 1685, the Common was used as an area for the residents of Salem to practice shooting and training for military purposes. In 1714, the town decided that the Salem Common would be “forever kept as a training field for the use of Salem.” The Common now acts as an attractive park, and the spot in the movie where Allison hands Max a note, which he believes to be her phone number, but soon realizes after she’s left that it’s actually his own number handed back to him. Ouch.

7. Pioneer Village (98 West Avenue)- The very first location we see at the beginning of the film takes place in Salem’s Pioneer Village, which was used as the home of Thackery Binx (before his cat days). This location is shown for a brief period of time before Thackery heads to the Sanderson Sisters’ cottage, which unfortunately was filmed on a sound stage. The mock village of life in 1630 was built in 1930, and was the first ‘living’ history museum in America. The village has very strange hours and tours, so be sure to check out the website before you plan your visit. Unfortunately, we didn’t plan ahead and the museum was closed, but thanks to some wandering around the perimeter and making use of our investigative skills, we were able to sneak a peek in and could clearly see Thackery Binx’s home! [Editor’s note – again, LOVE it! I’ve taught you well, Katie!]

Well, that’s that, all of the Hocus Pocus filming locations in Salem! I want to give a huge thank you to Lindsay for giving me the opportunity to write a guest post, I had so much fun doing this and I hope you had fun following along with me! Happy Halloween stalking, everyone!

[Editor’s Note – big THANK YOU to you, Katie, for this fabulous post! I regularly receive emails from Hocus Pocus fans asking for information on locations from the movie, so I could not be more thrilled with this spellbinding compilation!]