Al Pacino – IAMNOTASTALKER

July 2, 2018July 1, 2018

The Pierre Hotel’s Cotillion Ballroom from “Scent of a Woman”

“No mistakes in the tango, Donna. Not like life. Simple. That’s what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, if you get all tangled up, you just tango on.” So advises Lt. Col. Frank Slade (Al Pacino) in the iconic tango scene from the 1992 drama Scent of a Woman. Though the segment is widely regarded as one of the most famous in moviedom, conflicting rumors have raged online for years as to where it was shot. At the very least I knew filming had occurred in New York, so prior to my April 2016 trip to the Big Apple, I decided to take a flamethrower to all the misinformation floating around. The various reports I came across online and in stalking books stated that the bit was lensed everywhere from a Plaza Hotel ballroom to the Grand Ballroom at The Pierre to a Waldorf Astoria venue, but none of the spaces seemed to match what was shown onscreen. While perusing the internet for other possibilities, I finally came across an ad for The Pierre in a 1994 issue of New York magazine which mentioned that Scent of a Woman’s famed tango sequence had been shot in the property’s Cotillion Ballroom. One look at images of the site showed me that, although it had changed a bit since filming took place over 25 years ago, it was without a doubt the right spot. So I promptly contacted The Pierre’s marketing department to ask if I could tour the venue during my trip and was thrilled when a very friendly executive sent back an almost immediate response saying she’d be pleased to show me the space. Hoo-ah!

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Overlooking Central Park on New York’s Upper East Side, The Pierre was designed by the Schultze & Weaver architectural firm, who also gave us The Spring Street Tower, the Millennium Biltmore Hotel Los Angeles, and the landmark Waldorf Astoria. Commissioned by Sicilian-born restauranteur Charles Pierre, the opulent 714-room lodging opened its doors to the public in October 1930, delighting guests with its Georgian-style detailing, large suites, and multilevel public spaces, including the Cotillion Ballroom which originally served as a supper club. (While The Pierre is a noted New York landmark and has played host to countless filmings over the years, for this post I thought it best to solely cover the Cotillion Ballroom. I will be blogging about the hotel itself soon.)

The stunning 91×45-foot ballroom boasts 19-foot recessed ceilings, gilded mirrors, a sunken main floor, two massive crystal chandeliers, Central Park views, tiered draperies, marble railings, relief wall sculptings, and a 500-patron capacity.

In Scent of a Woman, Frank and his young chaperone, Charlie Simms (Chris O’Donnell), pop into the Cotillion Ballroom for cocktails. While there, Frank, who is blind, takes note of a woman named Donna (Gabrielle Anwar) sitting nearby thanks to Ogleby Sisters Soap that permeates her skin and winds up inviting her for a spontaneous tango.

The ballroom was transformed into an luxe restaurant for the scene, with seating, tables, and a buffet set-up added to space.

Pillars, additional marble balustrades and a large bar were also installed for the shoot.

Though the Cotillion Ballroom has been altered over the years, certain elements, such as the ornamental mirrors that line the room and the railings that edge the two raised landings, remain untouched.

Thanks to those details, the Cotillion Ballroom is amazingly still recognizable from its onscreen appearance despite the passage of more than two decades.

Per the AFI Catalog of Feature Films, Scent of a Woman’s ten-minute tango scene took four days to shoot. For the dance itself, which lasted about two and a half minutes, Pacino and Anwar underwent three and half weeks of training with choreographers Jerry Mitchell and Paul Pellicoro.

According to an Entertainment Weekly interview with Anwar, she and Pacino never rehearsed the piece together as the actor “wanted to keep a spontaneity and a freshness to the dance.” His methodology worked because the duo’s performance is effortless, flawless and completely engaging. It is easily one of the best few minutes ever recorded on film.

You can watch the Scent of a Woman tango scene by clicking below. I viewed the clip numerous times while writing this post and could not stop smiling from ear to ear. It just makes me so gleeful. I swear I’ve never been happier writing a post than I was while penning this one!

A couple of other productions have made use of the Cotillion Ballroom, as well.

In the Season 3 episode of The Real Housewives of New York City titled “Rebuked, Reunited, Renewed,” which aired in 2010, Ramona Singer tours the Cotillion Ballroom . . .

. . . and winds up hosting the reception for her vow renewal there.

In the Season 2 episode of Jessica Jones titled “AKA Start at the Beginning,” which aired earlier this year, Jeri Hogarth (Carrie-Anne Moss) receives a Women in Law award in the Cotillion Ballroom.

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 Pierre, from Scent of a Woman, is located at 2 East 61st Street on New York’s Upper East Side. The Cotillion Ballroom, where Frank and Donna tangoed in the film, can be found on the hotel’s second floor, just off the Rotunda.

August 22, 2016August 19, 2016

The Actors Studio – Marilyn Monroe’s Former Acting School

There is pretty much nothing I love more than re-creating famous movie/television scenes and iconic photographs – as most of you well know! Though I had long been obsessed with the notable series of images of Marilyn Monroe taken in front of The Actors Studio in New York in the ‘50s, due to the fact that the legendary school moved no less than five times during its early days, I could never figure out exactly where the shoot had occurred. I poked around the facility’s longtime 44th Street location on Google Street View a few times over the years, but never saw anything that matched up. Then, in preparation for our April trip to the Big Apple, I decided to do some more digging on the subject and discovered, thanks to this YouTube clip, that the photos had indeed been taken at the 44th Street site. Floored, I added the address to my NYC To-Stalk List and headed right on over there our second day in the city, with the Grim Cheaper and our friend Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, in tow.

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The Actors Studio was originally established on October 5th, 1947 by theatre director Cheryl Crawford and actor Elia Kazan. The two hatched the idea for the organization over lunch one day. In a 1956 Sarasota Journal article, Crawford said, “Kazan and I both felt lucky. We were both associated with hits. So we started talking about actors and the fact that they had no place to practice. If they were in a hit, they were stuck with the same part; if they were in a flop, they were soon out on the street. But they never had a chance to try new things any more.” The studio was not actually set up as a school, but as a private institution for working thespians. Of the purpose of the group, writer Dick Kleiner stated in the same article, “It isn’t a school, as such. It’s a place where professional actors can go to practice. They get criticism, mostly from fellow members, but there are no classes, no lessons, no set exercises. And there are no students. The people who belong – there are about 125 of them – are members. They pay no fees of any sort; all funds come from voluntary contributions. To belong, an actor has to go through a series of auditions, before hypercritical judges.” Lee Strasberg was brought in to help run the facility with Crawford and Kazan in 1948. By 1951, he was serving as its artistic director, a position he held until his death in 1982.

Elite artists flocked to The Actors Studio like moths to a flame. Inaugural members included Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando, Ray Walston, Tom Ewell, Karl Malden, Eli Wallach, and John Forsythe. Since that time, such luminaries as James Dean, Paul Newman, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Anthony Hopkins have all gone on to become members.

In 1955, after moving several times, the organization purchased the former West Forty-fourth Street United Presbyterian Church located at 432 West 44th Street in Hell’s Kitchen. The Greek Revival-style structure was originally built in 1859 as the Seventh Associate Presbyterian Church. The Actors Studio still calls the building home to this day.

Though not initially set up as such, The Actors Studio began offering schooling in 1994. That year, the facility was recruited by New School University to run its acting department which was dubbed the “Actors Studio Drama School”, aka ASDS. Out of the program came the infamous Bravo television series Inside the Actors Studio, hosted by James Lipton. The Actors Studio/New School University partnership was severed in 2005, after almost eleven years, and today ASDS is run though Pace University.

Though never a member, Marilyn started visiting The Actors Studio in 1955. Unhappy with the roles being offered to her by 20th Century Fox at that time, the starlet decided to go on a virtual strike against the studio, move to New York, and start her own production company with photographer Milton Greene. Upon arriving in the Big Apple, she began taking private lessons from Strasberg, as well as attending sessions at The Actors Studio, where she observed the work of other students for months before setting foot on stage herself. Her first exercise, according to Donald H. Wolfe in his book The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe, was to sing “I’ll Get By.” Of the exercise, Wolfe explained that the ballad was to be sung “without gestures, so that the emotion and context would be projected solely by voice.” Apparently, Marilyn hit it out of the park, thoroughly impressing the skeptical Actors Studio members in attendance. She later performed a scene from Anna Christie with Maureen Stapleton, which again was lauded. Though Marilyn’s tenure in New York was not long (20th Century Fox relented within the year, giving Monroe a new contract which had her headed to Hollywood to shoot Bus Stop), Lee Strasberg and his wife, Paula, would remain powerful presences throughout the rest of the actress’ life. MM even left the vast majority of her estate to the couple.

While I originally thought that the photographs taken of Marilyn in front of The Actors Studio were lensed during a random day the movie star was attending a session on the premises, as I just discovered today the shoot was actually part of a benefit for the 1956 film Baby Doll. As you can see, most of the images were tight shots showing the starlet standing on a downward-facing staircase.

Via Google Street View, I could find no such staircase at The Actors Studio’s 44th Street location.

Thankfully, a deeper search yielded the YouTube clip I mentioned earlier which featured several images of Marilyn arriving at the studio that day. In one of the pictures, the buildings across the street were visible and I was able to match them up to the structures located across from 432 West 44th.

Once I knew I had the right spot, I did some further scrutinizing of Street View and spotted a staircase on the east side of The Actors Studio (largely obscured by a street light, a fence, and a much larger staircase situated above it) that matched the one Monroe had posed on! Eureka!

Marilyn’s staircase is located to the east and underneath the building’s main staircase, next to the window marked “432,” in the area pictured below.

Below is a comparison image of Marilyn walking out of that same spot on a different day (the picture was taken by James Haspiel and featured in his fabulous book Marilyn: The Ultimate Look at the Legend) next to a shot I took in April. As you can see, aside from the addition of a second railing, some window alterations, and the removal of the paint covering the bricks, very little of the building has been changed since Monroe attended sessions there. If only the bench, chair, and portable shed had not been blocking my frame!

The spot where Marilyn posed for the photos is actually located behind a locked gate, but we were lucky enough to encounter someone associated with The Actors Studio while we were there who invited me to snap a few pictures on the staircase as long as I did not disturb the classes taking place on the premises.

As such, I got to re-create a few of Marilyn’s poses.

The photo I most wanted to re-create was the one in which the world’s most famous blonde was walking down the stairs to enter the school.

For some reason, though, I thought she had her head facing downward in the image, not up. #fail

Though the “Actors Studio” sign and light fixture that was situated above it are no longer in place, I was floored to see that the drain visible behind Marilyn in the photographs had survived. I cannot express how much I loved finding little remnants of the past still intact like that.

You can watch a video clip about Marilyn’s time at The Actors Studio below and another one by clicking here.

The Actors Studio is also a filming location! In the Season 7 episode of Seinfeld titled “The Wait Out,” Mickey (Danny Woodburn) auditioned for the school – accompanied by Kramer (Michael Richards) – and an establishing shot of the building was shown. All actual filming took place at CBS Studio Center in Studio City, though, where the series was lensed.

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 Actors Studio, Marilyn Monroe’s former acting school, is located at 432 West 44th Street in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen. Please keep in mind that the area where Marilyn posed for the pictures is gated and not open to the public and that The Actors Studio is a working school with sessions regularly held on the premises. As such, members and classes should not be disturbed.

March 2, 2015March 1, 2015

Hotel Angeleno from “Heat”

The Grim Cheaper and I travel back and forth to L.A. so often that sometimes I feel like I live in a hotel – which is not a bad thing, I ADORE hotels. One that we checked into recently that I absolutely loved was the Hotel Angeleno. Not only is the place’s architecture unique, vibe spectacularly retro and views breathtaking, but it is also a filming location! I mean, come on now! What’s not to love?

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Hotel Angeleno was originally constructed in 1970 as the Holiday Inn Brentwood/Bel-Air. Its cylindrically-shaped configuration was a popular one for the hotel chain. The first of its kind was designed by architect Leonard Lundgren and still stands overlooking Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas. Lundgren went on to design several similarly shaped structures for the Holiday Inn company, including the Brentwood/Bel-Air outpost.

During its tenure as a Holiday Inn, the property offered mid-level lodging. In April 2005, it was taken over by the Joie de Vivre hospitality company and a massive renovation process was started. The site re-opened in February 2006 as the much more upscale Hotel Angeleno.

Thankfully though, its unique exterior was left largely untouched.

The 17-story structure sits above the Interstate 405, just north of the Sunset Boulevard exit. Each room features a private balcony (as well as complimentary parking and free Wi-Fi), most of which offer amazing views. Our room boasted views of the freeway and it was fascinating to watch traffic start accumulating on the northbound side at around 2 p.m. and remain at a standstill until well past 10.

Our room also had a spectacular view of the Getty Center.

Not to mention a vertigo-inducing view of the street below. The GC is not a fan of heights and he couldn’t even bring himself to step out onto the balcony.

Occupying the top floor of the Angeleno is the circularly-shaped restaurant West.

We had the pleasure of dining at West while staying at the hotel and not only is the food spectacular, but the views are simply uh-ma-zing.

The Holiday Inn Brentwood/Bel-Air was most notably featured in the 1995 action classic Heat, as the spot where Lt. Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) moved upon leaving his wife. Very little of the hotel can actually be seen in the movie, though.

In the Season 1 episode of Starsky and Hutch titled “Death Ride,” which aired in 1975, Det. Ken ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson (David Soul) and Det. Dave Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) stopped by the Holiday Inn to pick up a witness named Andrew Mello (Jeff Corey).

Thanks to the Dear Old Hollywood blog, I learned that the 1976 film Two-Minute Warning opened with a scene of a sniper taking a shot from a balcony at the Holiday Inn Brentwood/Bel-Air.

The hotel’s interiors were also shown in the movie, including a room;

a hallway;

the lobby;

and the front desk.

In the 2004 hit Sideways, Miles (Paul Giamatti) drove by the Holiday Inn on his way to pick up Jack (Thomas Hayden Church).

There was even some filming going on when we were staying there! Just as we were checking out, my mom spotted Justin Jedlica, aka the “Human Ken Doll,” filming a segment for a reality show. So I, of course, just had to ask for a pic.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Hotel Angeleno, from Heat, is located at 170 North Church Lane in Brentwood. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.