famous churches – IAMNOTASTALKER

May 4, 2020May 1, 2020

First Church of Christ, Scientist from “Little Fires Everywhere”

Though I stalked and blogged about Little Fires Everywhere locations ad nauseam, amazingly there is still one spot I have yet to cover – Pasadena’s First Church of Christ, Scientist, which masked as the Shaker Heights courthouse on the new Hulu series. I recognized the building as soon as it came onscreen in episode 7 (though, truth be told, I often get it confused with the similar-looking Second Church of Christ, Scientist in West Adams). Not only did I used to live just a few blocks from the temple and pass by it regularly on my thrice daily walks to Starbucks, but I am very familiar with it thanks to its appearance in Scream 2. I was sure I had taken pictures of the place for my October 2016 write-up on the horror flick’s Los Angeles locales, but when I went to look, I couldn’t find any in my photo library. So onto my To-Stalk List it went. Then, late last week, my friend Kim sent me a text asking about must-see places in Pasadena. Turns out she was heading to Crown City for a little (socially distant) stalking trek the following day. Thrilled, I asked if she might pop by First Church of Christ, Scientist to snap some pics for me, which she gladly did. Thank you, Kim!

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First Church of Christ, Scientist was designed by Franklin Pierce Burnham beginning in 1909. The Classical Revival building was one of the architect’s last works and he, sadly, didn’t live to see it completed. Burnham passed away unexpectedly in December 1909, at which point Marston & Van Pelt (who also gave us Arden Villa from Vacation, the Gilmore mansion from Gilmore Girls, the S.S. Hinds Estate from Beaches, and the A.L. Garford House from Twins) took over.

The structure’s most notable feature is its central dome, inspired by the Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, aka the religion’s “mother church.”

When it was completed, First Church of Christ, Scientist had the distinction of being Pasadena’s largest building. Though that is no longer the case, it remains one of the city’s prettiest. As such, it is no shock that it found its way to the screen.

The church first pops up as the Shaker Heights courthouse in the seventh episode of Little Fires Everywhere, titled “Picture Perfect,” as the custody battle for Mirabelle McCullough/May Ling Chow (I cannot find the name of the actress who plays her anywhere!) gets underway.

The building also appears a couple of times in the Little Fires Everywhere finale, titled “Find a Way.” It is first shown as in an establishing shot as the McCullough/Chow trial continues.

And then later, after the verdict is announced, the McCulloughs’ lawyer, Bill Richardson (Joshua Jackson), holds a press conference on the front steps.

Only the exterior of the building was used on the series. Interiors were shot elsewhere, though I am unsure of where.

As I mentioned earlier, First Church of Christ, Scientist is also featured in Scream 2. Though little of it can be seen, it is outside of the building that Ghostface gets into a car crash and kills Hallie McDaniel (Elise Neal) in the 1997 horror flick. In the caps below, Hallie is standing at the eastern end of the church’s Green Street side, with the camera facing west.

Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam) shoots August Marks (Billy Brown) in front of First Church of Christ, Scientist in the series finale of Sons of Anarchy, titled “Papa’s Goods,” which aired in 2014.

That same year, the building posed as Washington, D.C.’s United States Department of Justice at the top of the Season 1 episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. titled “Nothing Personal.”

Huge THANK YOU to my friend Kim for stalking this location for me and taking all of the photos that appear in this post!

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: First Church of Christ, Scientist, aka Shaker Heights courthouse from Little Fires Everywhere, is located at 80 South Oakland Avenue in Pasadena.

September 13, 2017September 12, 2017

Community Church at Holliston from “That Thing You Do!”

Many moons ago, around the time I first moved to Los Angeles in early 2000, the Pasadena Historical Society hosted a special exhibition about filming in the area. I, of course, attended and, along with learning that Dylan McKay’s (Luke Perry) house from Beverly Hills, 90210 was located just down the street from Casa Walsh, I also gleaned that fave movie That Thing You Do! had been lensed at two Crown City locales – the now largely defunct Ambassador College (at 131 South St. John Avenue) and the Holliston Avenue Methodist Church, now Community Church at Holliston (at 1305 East Colorado Boulevard). Though I visited both sites many times over the years, I have somehow never done a blog on either. So I figured it was time to change that. A write-up on Ambassador College will be coming soon, but today I thought I’d cover the Community Church.

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Community Church at Holliston has an interesting history – one that involves a move. Yes, the structure was actually moved from one location to another. But more on that in a bit.

The parish was originally built in 1887 at the southeast corner of East Colorado Boulevard and South Marengo Avenue (where the Pacific Southwest Trust & Savings Bank building stands today). The Gothic-style structure, then known as the First Methodist Episcopal Church, was razed after its tower and roof were blown off during a bad storm in 1891. A replacement church was subsequently constructed on the site in 1901.

The new church, Richardsonian Romanesque in style, was designed by architect John C. Austin, who was also responsible for giving us the Theodore Groene/Bahn Jewelry Store building in Ventura and the Griffith Observatory in Griffith Park. You can see photos of the church during its early days here, here, and here.

In 1923, it was decided that the congregation needed more land and a larger worship space, so the First Methodist Episcopal Church was taken apart – literally – and moved piece by piece to its current location at the corner of East Colorado Boulevard and South Holliston Avenue, where it was rebuilt with a few alterations. It re-opened to the public in December 1924.

The sanctuary boasts a façade consisting of Sespe-covered-bricks which, along with the gothic-style windows, apses, and crenelated roofline, gives the church a very castle-like appearance.

The large inner courtyard is especially reminiscent of a castle.

The parish has undergone several name changes over the years, becoming Holliston Avenue Methodist Church, then Holliston Church, and finally Community Church at Holliston, as it is known today.

In That Thing You Do!, the Community Church at Holliston was the spot where The Oneders recorded their first single, for their soon-to-be-hit song “That Thing You Do.”

The reason their inaugural record was laid down in a church? That’s all thanks to Guy Patterson (Tom Everett Scott). When the idea of recording an album first comes up, Guy informs the group that he has a relative in the record industry. Well, sort of. As Lenny Haise (Steve Zahn) explains, Guy’s uncle, Uncle Bob (Chris Isaak), “records church music, choirs, favorite sermons, stuff my mom listens to.” Uncle Bob does indeed help The Oneders, though, recording their first single in what is supposedly a locale Eerie, Pennsylvania church. In the scene, you can see the sanctuary’s E.M. Skinner pipe organ.

Sadly, when we showed up to stalk the church, mass had just ended and the interior was packed with people. Though we did get to see the inside, I did not snap any photographs of it due to the crowds. I was able to take pictures of the courtyard area, though, thankfully. You can check out some images of the Community Church at Holliston’s interior here.

I used to live not far from Community Church and happened upon the filming of a Cold Case episode on the premises one day. Or actually, episodes. The locale appeared in Season 6’s special two-parter, titled “The Long Blue Line” and “Into the Blue,” both of which aired in 2009. For the shoot, the church was transformed into the Pennsylvania Military Institute.

Though I couldn’t venture onto the property to watch the filming, I could see a few of the courtyard scenes being shot from the street, all of which involved military formations and marching. It could not have been more cool to witness!

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 Community Church at Holliston, from that Thing Thing You Do!, is located at 1305 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena.

January 18, 2016February 16, 2016

The “Pretty Little Liars” Church

Before we get started, I have a couple of announcements. Some changes will be coming to the blog in 2016. The biggest change will be a major site redesign, which the Grim Cheaper is currently working on and which I could NOT be more excited about. You’ll notice I’ve altered my screen captures a bit in today’s post, which is part of the revamp. My editor at Los Angeles magazine also recently started a new position and until someone is hired to replace her full time, things are a bit up in the air with my Scene it Before column. Regardless of what happens with that, I will be scaling my IAMNOTASTALKER postings down to three days a week (most of the time, anyway), so that I can free up some time to write for other websites (and for my own sanity – throughout most of 2015, I found myself working every weekday plus Sundays, which is no way to operate). One of my new ventures is a monthly column for one of my good friend’s blogs (more info on that to come), which I am thrilled about. So yeah, changes are a-coming. But hopefully my fellow stalkers will embrace them. I have a feeling big things are on the horizon for 2016. And now, on with the post! The winter premiere of Pretty Little Liars, titled “Of Late I Think of Rosewood,” aired last Tuesday night and I have to say it was surprisingly enjoyable. I am really digging the five-year time jump and all of the mysteries that come with it. Well done, PLL! You’ve sucked me right back in, which I wasn’t sure was possible considering the debacle of the whole Big A reveal in August. In honor of the show’s promising return, I am here yet again with yet another Vancouver locale from the pilot episode – Ryerson United Church, which my good friend/fellow stalker Kerry was nice enough to stalk for me during a recent weekend trip to Canada.

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Ryerson United Church was featured at the very end of the Pretty Little Liars pilot. In the episode, it stood in for the Rosewood, Pennsylvania parish where Alison DiLaurentis’ (Sasha Pieterse) funeral was held.

Most notably, it was while standing outside of the church after the funeral that the Liars received their first ever ominous group text message, which read, “I’m still here, bitches. And I know everything. -A”

Being that I had nothing to go on with this one – no visible street signs or address numbers – I thought the church would be tough to track down, but it was a surprisingly easy find. I simply did a Google Images search using the terms “church” and “Vancouver” and, voila, in the fourth row of results, there was a photo of the place I was looking for! Clicking on said photo led me to a page about Ryerson United Church on the Wedding Mappers website.

The actual inside of Ryerson United also appeared in the Pretty Little Liars pilot. You can check out some photographs of the interior here.

Though, as I mentioned in this post, the supposed church stairs shown in the funeral scene are not located at Ryerson United, but in the Vancouver home that masked as Ali’s in the episode.

It is interesting to be blogging about this particular location now, after having watched “Of Late I Think of Rosewood,” being that the episode so closely paralleled the pilot, especially the funeral scene.

Side note – I absolutely loved the line in the premiere in which Caleb Rivers (Tyler Blackburn), when talking about Radley Sanitarium’s transformation into the boutique hotel “The Radley,” said, “Well, people get do-overs, why shouldn’t buildings?” I couldn’t agree more, Caleb! Oh, how I wish people would stop tearing down old and historic structures! I’m looking at you, owners of the Clueless party house!

When Pretty Little Liars got picked up, production moved from Vancouver to Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank and the series began to make use of a structure located on the Midwest Street backlot as Rosewood’s local church. The façade has gone on to appear in countless episodes, including the funeral scene in “Of Late I Think of Rosewood.”

The Midwest Street church is a practical set and its interior also regularly appears on the show, as was the case with “Of Late I Think of Rosewood.”

Back to Ryerson United Church in Vancouver. Pretty Little Liars is hardly the first production to make use of the site. Most notably, the church was the main location featured in the 1983 TV movie The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

The interior of Ryerson United was also utilized in the production.

In the Season 2 episode of The Flash titled “Legends of Today,” Ryerson United Church masked as St. Marks in Central City, where Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) went to track down a consecrated staff.

The exterior shown in the episode was that of a different church, though.

Big THANK YOU to Kerry for stalking this location for me!

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: Ryerson United Church, aka the church from the pilot episode of Pretty Little Liars, is located at 2195 West 45th Avenue in Vancouver.

January 5, 2016August 7, 2020

The “Wicked City” Library

I have one more Wicked City location up my sleeve (for the time being, at least – I did track down a couple of others after watching the recently-released final five episodes, but have yet to stalk them) – the former Second Church of Christ, Scientist in West Adams, which masked as an L.A. library in “Should I Stay or Should I Go.” I have long been familiar with the stately, domed structure thanks to my many area stalkings (Fatty Arbuckle’s former house is located on the same street, as is the oft-filmed St. Vincent de Paul Church) and recognized it immediately upon viewing the episode. I had never done a proper stalking of it, though, and promptly dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there to remedy that a couple of weeks ago.

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Second Church of Christ, Scientist was designed by architect Alfred H. Rosenheim, who also designed the American Horror Story house. The prolific Albert C. Martin, Sr. (of Million Dollar Theatre, Los Angeles City Hall and Thomas Higgins Building fame) acted as the engineer. The massive Italian Renaissance-style structure, which was modeled after the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, aka the “Mother Church,” took more than two years to complete at a cost of $318,000. Its doors were opened to the public on January 23rd, 1910.

The property, which was built out of terracotta, brick, stucco and granite, was so grand that, according to the Big Orange Landmarks website, a 1908 Los Angeles Times article deemed it “the largest and most elaborate church west of Chicago.”

At the time of its completion, the interior featured a pipe organ, mahogany woodwork, stained glass windows, wainscoting throughout, and seating for 1,200 churchgoers.

The site’s most impressive feature, though, was – and still is – its 130-foot tall copper-clad, poured-concrete dome, which according to Big Orange Landmarks, measures 70 feet in diameter and weighs 1,400 tons.

The green-tinted dome seems to sparkle in the sunlight and only adds to the grandeur and beauty of the already picturesque church, which was named a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1968.

Due to declining membership and the high cost of maintaining the property, Christian Science Church vacated the building in 2008. The empty structure proved attractive to vandals, who spray painted the once stately structure with graffiti and broke many of its stained glass windows.

In December 2009, the site was sold to The Art of Living Foundation, a non-profit organization that teaches meditation, yoga, breathing, and emotional balance. The group lovingly repaired the damage done to the property and today use it as their main headquarters.

The former Second Church of Christ, Scientist played a significant role in Wicked City’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go.”

Masking as a local library, it is there that Kent Grainger (Ed Westwick) leaves the head of one of his murder victims among the stacks of books for detectives Jack Roth (Jeremy Sisto) and Paco Contreras (Gabriel Luna) to find.

I initially thought that the actual inside of the former church had also been used in the filming of the library scenes, but as soon as I looked through these interior photographs of the place I realized that was not the case.

As it turns out, interior filming took place at DC Stages, a downtown Los Angeles studio that has been around since 1988. The facility, which was originally called Dos Carlos Stages, is situated inside of a a former perishable food storage center and boasts several standing sets including that of a police station, a city hall, a courthouse, political offices, a hospital, a jail, apartments, hotel rooms, a restaurant, and, of course, a library. You can check out a drone video shot of the various sets here and some some photographs here. What I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that place in person!

Many sources state that the Second Church of Christ, Scientist was used regularly as the Fulton County Courthouse on the television series Matlock, but I have not been able to verify that. I downloaded a couple of episodes to scan through and in each of them a different building masked as the courthouse, neither of which was the Second Church of Christ, Scientist, as you can see below. The series aired for nine seasons, though, so it is quite possible the West Adams church did make an appearance (or several appearances) at some point during that run.

The locale also pops up as the Radiant Assembly of God church on the HBO series Perry Mason.

Only the exterior of the building is utilized on the series. Interior church scenes were shot at the Trinity Auditorium, located at 851 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles.

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: Second Church of Christ, Scientist, aka the Wicked City library, is located at 948 West Adams Boulevard in University Park. DC Stages, which was used for the interior library scenes, is located at 1360 East 6th Street in downtown L.A. Be advised that the studio facility is not open to the public.

June 11, 2013June 10, 2013

Our Lady of Solitude Church from “Behind the Candelabra”

Another Palm Springs’ Behind the Candelabra location that the Grim Cheaper and I stalked recently was Our Lady of Solitude Church, where the funeral for Liberace (Michael Douglas) was held in the recently-aired HBO biopic. This locale was especially interesting because in a case of art imitating life, it was where the flamboyant pianist’s actual 1987 memorial service took place. But more on that later.

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In February 1926, Banning resident Father Philip LaVies began working on plans to found and build a Roman Catholic church in the Palm Springs area. The land for the parish was purchased from the Southern Pacific Railroad and temporary services were held there beginning in 1928. LaVies commissioned Albert Martin, the prolific architect who gave us St. Vincent de Paul Church (which I blogged about here), St. Monica Catholic Church (which I blogged about here), Los Angeles City Hall, and the Million Dollar Theatre, to design the site. The Spanish Revival-style structure was completed in 1930. A rectory was added to the property in 1964 and a parish center in 1974. Our Lady of Solitude, which was designated a Class One Historic Site on May 15, 1985, is currently one of the oldest churches still standing in Palm Springs

Our Lady of Solitude has had a few brushes with celebrity in its past. Apparently, President John F. Kennedy attended mass there whenever he was in town. And Jackie Coogan (who just so happens to be the grandfather of Keith Coogan, my girl Pinky Lovejoy’s fiancé) must have as well, because the GC spotted the placard pictured below posted on one of the church’s pews. So incredibly cool! It is also rumored that Liberace was an Our Lady of Solitude parishioner, although I am unsure if there is any validity to that.

Our Lady of Solitude church popped up only once in Behind the Candelabra, in the movie’s closing scene in which Scott Thorson (Matt Damon) attended the funeral of his estranged lover, Liberace (Michael Douglas).

In the scene, Scott parked in the lot located directly across the street from the church.

The actual interior of Our Lady of Solitude was also used in the filming.

As Scott watches the rather colorless ceremony, he starts to envision a funeral service that would be fitting of his flamboyant former lover. In his imagination, the church altar lifts away to reveal a lit stage . . .

. . . complete with Mr. Showmanship himself wearing a pink bedazzled suit and flying off into the great beyond.

Behind the Candelabra took a few liberties with the scene, though. The real story is as follows: Liberace passed away at The Cloisters, his Palm Springs home (which I blogged about here), at 2:05 p.m. on February 4th, 1987. According to a Daily News Wire Services article published a few days later, his body was removed from the house within hours and taken directly to Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills. A memorial service was held the following day, Friday, February 6th, at Our Lady of Solitude church. It was not an actual funeral, as was portrayed in Behind the Candelabra, though, as the pianist’s body was not present.

There seems to be quite a bit of confusion online about the Our Lady of Solitude service and which celebrities attended it. According to Scott Thorson’s 1988 book, Behind the Candelabra, on which the movie was based, only two stars were present – actress Charlene Tilton, from the television series Dallas (who was one of Liberace’s Palm Springs neighbors), and, ironically enough, Michael Douglas’ father, Kirk. And while the fabulous Findadeath website states that Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor, and Robert Goulet were also in attendance, the truth of the matter is that two different public services were held to honor the pianist. The first was the February 6th service at Our Lady of Solitude. A second memorial was then held (after Liberace had already been entombed at Forest Lawn Memorial Park on February 7th) at St. Anne’s Catholic Church in Las Vegas on February 12th. That service was the one attended by Goulet, Reynolds, and O’Connor, as well as Rip Taylor and Sonny King.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Our Lady of Solitude Church, from Behind the Candelabra, is located at 151 West Alejo Road in Palm Springs. You can visit the parish’s official website here.

January 27, 2011January 27, 2011

The “Kill Bill” Church

One location that my dad and I visited while stalking in the Lancaster and Palmdale areas last week was the Sanctuary Adventist Church which was used prominently in the 2003 and 2004 Quentin Tarantino movies Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Kill Bill: Volume 2. And although I have never actually seen either of the Kill Bill flicks, I was dying to stalk the church because, thanks to fave book Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer’s Guide to Exploring Southern California’s Great Outdoors, I found out that it also had a very small, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo in the 2002 Britney Spears movie Crossroads, in which I was an extra. I should mention here that if you are planning to spend a day stalking in Palmdale – and I do HIGHLY recommend doing so – I suggest you print out maps of each and every location that you are wanting to visit before heading out the door. I failed to do so and had planned on using my navigation system to lead me to each locale, but, let me tell you, that did NOT pan out very well. At most points during our journey, my navigator had no idea where on earth we were – more than once it told me I was driving on a road that didn’t exist! LOL – and a few times it even took us on routes through dirt roads that wound up at dead ends. And while Palmdale and Lancaster are not exactly desolate – there’s even a Starbucks there! – most of the filming locations in that area are pretty far removed from civilization. I suggest that you not make a stalking journey out there alone and that you arrive with a full tank of gas and a car that is in good working order.

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The Sanctuary Adventist Church, which up until recently was known as the Calvary Baptist Church, is an actual working religious facility that, sadly, does not appear to currently be in the best of shape. The tiny Spanish-style chapel definitely has a Southwestern feel to it and it is not very hard to see why Quentin Tarantino chose to use it as the site of the wedding day massacre in his two-part action flick. Especially with that lone Joshua tree that stands in front of it and gives the church a very picturesque, very cinematic feel.

As you can see in the above photograph, the church is also located on a very desolate and very remote stretch of desert road, which gives it a very non-L.A., non-California feel. In fact it is hard to believe that the place is located just a scant sixty miles away from the hustle and bustle that is Los Angeles.

In Crossroads, the church stood in for the supposed Arizona-area Native American souvenir stand that Lucy (aka Britney Spears), Kit (aka Zoe Saldana), Mimi (aka Taryn Manning), and Ben (aka Anson Mount) stop at during their journey from Louisiana to California. It is while at the stand that Lucy asks her friends for advice on whether she should show up at her estranged mother’s house unannounced or call her beforehand.

Ironically enough, even though the church is supposed to be a roadside souvenir stand in the movie, for whatever reason producers decided to leave the Calvary Baptist Church sign up during the filming.

In Kill Bill: Volume 1 and 2, the Sanctuary Adventist Church stood in for the supposed El Paso, Texas-area Two Pines Wedding Chapel where the Deadly Viper Assassination Team (aka Vivica A. Fox, Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, and David Carradine) attempt to kill “the Bride” (aka Uma Thurman).

I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the church, which you can see a photograph of here, was also used in the production of both films.

The church has also been featured in numerous other productions, as well. In fact, the intersection of 198th Street East and East Avenue G, where the church is located, is quite a famous little stretch of land. In the 1981 movie True Confessions, the Sanctuary Adventist Church is where Detective Tom Spellacy (aka Robert Duvall) visits his brother Father Des Spellacy (aka Robert DeNiro).

The 1999 Jean-Claude Van Damme action flick Dessert Heat (which, for some reason, is also named Inferno), was filmed almost in its entirety in both the former High Vista Diner and the sundries store located directly across the street from the Sanctuary Adventist Church. The church is visible in the background throughout the vast majority of the movie.

Jubal Early (aka Pat Morita) is also shown ringing the church bell at one point in the movie, although that bell is no longer there in real life.

In Desert Heat, the High Vista Diner is where both Rhonda Reynolds (aka Gabrielle Fitzpatrick) and Dottie Matthews (aka Jaime Pressly) worked. In real life, the place was not a real working restaurant, but, much like Four Aces and Club Ed, was solely built for use as a filming location. Sadly though, the structure was torn down back in early 2008 and is now nothing more than a dirt lot. You can see a photograph of what it used to look like here and here.

Right next to the former High Vista Diner location is another vacant building which stood in for the Elis Emporium Sundries and Surplus store in Desert Heat. And while that structure is still currently standing, I am not sure for how long that will be the case.

As you can in the above photographs, the building does not look to be in the best of shape, although it is apparently still available for filming. Winking smile

The Elis Emporium structure was also visible in the background of the opening scene of True Confessions and I do believe that it was a real working grocery store at one point in time.

The little motel that Henry Howard (aka Robert Symonds) and his wife (aka Priscilla Pointer) owned in Desert Heat used to be located directly behind the Elis Emporium building, but it has also since been torn down.

In Nurse Betty, the High Vista Café stood in for the supposed Williams, Arizona-area Canyon Ranch Bar where Betty (aka Renee Zellweger), and later Wesley (aka Chris Rock) and Charlie (aka Morgan Freeman), stop while making their way towards California.

I am fairly certain that the interior of the Canyon Ranch Bar was filmed elsewhere though, as it looks nothing like the interior of the diner from Desert Heat and also appears to be quite a bit larger than the former High Vista Diner building. My guess is that the interior Canyon Ranch Bar scenes were filmed on a soundstage somewhere in Hollywood.

The Kill Bill church is also just barely visible in the background of Nurse Betty in the scene in which Charlie and Wesley arrive at the Canyon Ranch Bar.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Sanctuary Adventist Church, aka the Kill Bill church, is located at the intersection of 198th Street East and East Avenue G in Lancaster. The High Vista Diner was formerly located directly across the street from the church at the southeast corner of 198th Street East and East Avenue G. The Elis Emporium Sundries and Surplus Store from Desert Heat is located at the southwest corner of 198th Street East and East Avenue G.

December 23, 2010December 23, 2010

The First Congregational Church of Los Angeles from “My So-Called Life”

Fellow stalker/My So-Called Life aficionado Andrew recently went on a mission to try to track down the church that was used in the Season 1 Christmas-themed episode of fave show My So-Called Life titled “So-Called Angels”. He had just picked up the most-recently released boxed set of the series, which came out in 2007, and was floored to discover that actor Wilson Cruz, who played Ricky Vasquez on the show, had recorded a commentary for the “So-Called Angels” episode and had described the location of the church as being on 6th Street close to Downtown Los Angeles. Even with that detailed information, though, this locale proved to be a tough one to track down. Thankfully, Andrew hit a stroke of luck, though, when he noticed that the doors of the church in the episode featured very intricate carvings. He figured those doors had to be unique and, sure enough, they were! Just type the words “carved doors”, “church”, and “Los Angeles” into Google and the very first entry that appears is for the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, located on the corner of South Commonwealth Avenue and West 6th Street, about a mile from Downtown Los Angeles, right where Wilson Cruz had said it would be. Yay! So, once Andrew told me the good news, I immediately dragged my dad right on out to stalk the place – just in time for Christmas, too!

The Gothic revival-style First Congregational Church of Los Angeles was constructed in 1932 by brothers James Edward Allison and David Clark Allison, the same architecture team that designed the Beverly Hills Post Office and UCLA’s Royce Hall. Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the property are absolutely gorgeous in person. In fact, I think it is safe to say that I have never seen a more beautiful place of worship in my entire life! The church is literally breathtaking – especially decked out in all of its Christmas glory!

The First Congregational Church of Los Angeles’ main sanctuary, which stretches 198 feet in length and reaches 76 feet in height, is home to the world’s largest pipe organ, features carved oak pews, and is dotted with countless stained glass windows which were designed by Judson Studios in Pasadena.

The bronze doors that Andrew noticed in the “So-Called Angels” episode were designed in 1946 by artist Albert Gilles and, unbelievably, they measure three inches thick and weigh in at a whopping one thousand pounds apiece! The doors were so heavy, in fact, that I could hardly open them when we went to leave!

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In the “So-Called Angels” episode of My So-Called Life, the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles was the spot where Angela Chase (aka Claire Danes), along with the rest of the Chase family, and her friends Brian Krakow (aka Devon Gummersall) and Ricky wind up on Christmas Eve night after a heartbreaking course of events during which Ricky gets beaten up by his father and ends up first living on the streets and then in an abandoned warehouse. I had actually forgotten how very heartbreaking the episode was until I re-watched it last week. So incredibly sad!

The area where Patty Chase (aka Bess Armstrong) found Ricky lighting candles is located just to the left of the church’s main altar, although that area looks a bit different today. There are no candles located in that particular alcove (which I was seriously bummed about as I had planned on lighting one), nor is there a visible stained glass window. The red carpet has also since been removed.

The pew where Patty and Ricky sat in the scene is located just to the left of the alcove.

The exterior of the church looks a bit different today than it did during the filming, as well. The large potted plants which flanked the front of the church in the episode are no longer there, but I have a hunch that those trees were actually props brought in specifically for the filming and were never actually there in real life.

The street lamp that was pictured at the very end of the episode is actually there in real life, though, which I thought was just about the coolest thing ever! Smile

My So-Called Life is not the only production to have filmed at First Congregational. The church also stood in for New York’s St. Thomas Episcopal where Wilhelmina Slater (aka Vanessa Williams) almost married Bradford Meade (aka Alan Dale’s) in the Season 2 episode of Ugly Betty titled “A Nice Day for a Posh Wedding”.

First Congregational was also where the funeral for Preston Blake (aka Harve Presnell) was held in the 2002 Adam Sandler comedy Mr. Deeds.

It was also used as the church where Mary Jane Watson (aka Kristen Dunst) almost married John Jameson (aka Daniel Gillies) in Spiderman 2.

And it stood in for New York’s Trinity Church where the climactic final scene of 2004’s National Treasure took place.

Both the opening and one of the closing scenes from 2003’s Daredevil were also filmed at the church.

The First Congregational Church of Los Angeles has also appeared in episodes of Californication, The Riches, The West Wing, Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Shark, The Closer, Bones, The Practice, Cold Case, Joan of Arcadia, Six Feet Under, Jag, and The X-Files and in the movies Nancy Drew and Into the Wild. The church even has a page on its website which chronicles the many productions that have been filmed on the premises over the years (although My So-Called Life is ostensibly missing from the list). So love it!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Andrew for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, from the “So-Called Angels” episode of My So-Called Life, is located at 540 South Commonwealth Avenue in Los Angeles. You can visit the church’s official website here and you can check out its extensive filming resume here.

September 22, 2010October 16, 2011

First Christian Church of North Hollywood – Where Phyllis Got Married on “The Office”

Brace yourselves, my fellow stalkers, ‘cause today’s post is going to be a long one! A few months back, I dragged my then-fiancé and my parents out to re-stalk the First Christian Church of North Hollywood – a location which is most commonly known as “the 7th Heaven church”, thanks to its recurring role as the Camden Family’s local parish throughout the Aaron Spelling series’ ten-year run. Even though I never watched 7th Heaven, I stalked and blogged about the church way back in April of 2008 after receiving a challenge to find it from my Aunt Lea. So, when the very same location popped up on new favorite show The Office as the spot where Phyllis Lapin (aka Phyllis Smith) married Bob Vance (aka Robert R. Shafer) – of Vance Refrigeration – in the Season 3 episode titled “Phyllis’ Wedding”, I decided I just had to re-stalk it and do a more in-depth write-up of its extensive filming history.

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The First Christian Church of North Hollywood was originally built in 1949 on the corner of Moorpark Street and Colfax Avenue in what is, contrary to what the name might suggest, actually Studio City. Construction on the 19,000-square foot, Colonial-style structure took just under a year to complete and the first mass was said there on March 12, 1950. Today the church boasts one of the largest Protestant congregations in the entire San Fernando Valley. Location scouts have long been drawn to the property, which includes a main sanctuary, several offices, a kitchen, a garden, a nursery school, a social hall, and a courtyard, for decades due to its Anytown, U.S.A.-style facade. Countless upon countless productions have been filmed there over the years – far too many for me to properly catalog here, but I’ll do my best to try. I must give major props to whoever runs the First Christian Church of North Hollywood website, by the way, because it boasts a very well-organized Film Shoots” page that chronicles all of the filming that has ever taken place there. Love it!

The “Phyllis’ Wedding” episode of The Office was filmed almost in its entirety on location at First Christian Church of North Hollywood and both the interior and the exterior of the property were used extensively in the production. The areas which appeared in the episode include the front entrance;

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the entryway and front stairwell;

the main sanctuary;

the altar;

the social hall (which we unfortunately did not get to see);

the top of the exterior side stairwell, where Pam Beesly (aka Jenna Fischer) and Roy Anderson (aka David Denman) danced;

the north exterior side of the church, where Dwight Schrute (aka Rainn Wilson) danced with Angela Martin (aka Angela Kinsey);

and the side courtyard, where Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) “found” Phyllis’ Uncle Al (aka George Ives).

And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention here that it is while in the First Christian Church of North Hollywood that Dwight utters fellow stalker Owen’s very favorite television line of all time. While filing into the church with the other wedding guests, Dwight turns to Jim Halpert (aka John Krasinski) and says, “Why are all these people here? There’s too many people on this earth. We need a new plague.” LOL LOL LOL Love it! So, of course I just had to stand in the exact spot where Dwight was standing during that scene and repeat his famous line.

As I mentioned above, the First Christian Church of North Hollywood is most well-known for its countless appearances on 7th Heaven where it popped up almost weekly during the series’ eleven season run.

It is also at First Christian Church that Indiana Jones (aka Harrison Ford) marries Marion Ravenwood (aka Karen Allen) while Mutt Williams (aka Shia LaBeouf) looks on at the end of 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Shia LaBeouf returned to First Christian Church that very same year to film his character’s brother’s funeral scene for the movie Eagle Eye.

The church was also where Barbara Keeley (aka Calista Flockhart) married Val Goldman (aka Dan Futterman) at the end of the 1996 movie The Birdcage.

In What About Bob?, the church was where Bob Wiley (aka Bill Murray) tied the knot with Lily Marvin (aka Fran Brill).

The church was also the wedding location in the music video for Katy Perry’s hit song “Hot & Cold” –

– which you can watch by clicking above.

Most recently, the church appeared in the Season 6 opener of How I Met Your Mother, which was titled “Big Days” and which aired this past Monday evening.

The First Christian Church of North Hollywood was also used in the movies Death Becomes Her, Nothing to Lose, and The Suburbans, and in episodes of United States of Tara, Desperate Housewives, Parks and Recreation, Samantha Who?, Crossing Jordan, Swingtown, Hart to Hart, Ghost Whisperer, Gilmore Girls, and Melrose Place.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The First Christian Church of North Hollywood is located at 4390 Colfax Avenue in Studio City. You can visit the church’s official website here. The areas of the church used in the “Phyllis’ Wedding” episode of The Office are denoted above. Pam and Roy danced at the top of the church’s north-side stairwell, which is located on Moorpark Street and is marked with the blue arrow above. The windows where Dwight and Angela danced are located just below the stairwell and a few feet east, also on Moorpark Street. Michael’s courtyard is located on Colfax Avenue, in between the main church building and the nursery school, and is denoted with the pink arrow in the above aerial view. The social hall, where Bob and Phyllis held their wedding reception, is located on the second floor of the nursery school building.

August 4, 2010August 3, 2010

Jim and Pam’s Wedding Church from “The Office”

Another wedding-themed location that I stalked recently was the San Fernando Valley-area church where Jim Halpert (aka John Krasinski) married Pam Beesly (aka Jenna Fischer) in the Season Six episode of my new favorite show The Office titled “Niagara”. I found out about this location quite a while ago, thanks to both fellow stalker Owen, who had told me about it in an email, and fellow stalker Snidely Whiplash, who posted a comment about it on my site. And literally, as soon as I finished watching the “Niagara” episode a few weeks back, I dragged my fiancé right out to stalk the place. Unfortunately, I must have been having a blonde moment at the time, though, because we stalked the church on a Saturday evening when it was, sadly, locked up and closed. SUCH A BUMMER! The experience taught me a very valuable lesson, though – if you are going to stalk a church, do so on a Sunday morning when it is almost guaranteed that the property will be open to the public. 😉

In real life, the supposed Niagara Falls, New York-area church where Pam and Jim tied the knot, which was referred to as Spruce Avenue Presbyterian Church in the episode, is known as the Congregational Church of the Chimes and it can actually be found right here in Southern California, in the San Fernando Valley suburb of Sherman Oaks. Jim and Pam’s wedding did not take place in the church’s main building, though, but in the smaller Walter H. Staves Chapel, which is pictured above.

And while I didn’t get to see the inside of the chapel, my fiancé and I were able to wander around the church grounds quite a bit and, thanks to some very friendly parishioners who pointed me in the right direction, I got to stalk the fountain where Jim and Pam posed for the photograph that appeared on their official wedding website. YAY!

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We also got to stalk the patch of grass where Jim kicked around a soccer ball before the wedding, so the day wasn’t a total loss. 🙂

My good friends, fellow stalkers Lavonna and Melissa, who were Office aficionados long before I was, stalked the church when they were in town this past April and had much better luck than I did. As fate would have it, they happened to pull up to the property just as the church’s wedding coordinator, a super nice woman named Lila, was locking the chapel up. They told her that they were major Office fans and asked if she might let them take a quick peek at the interior and she happily obliged! Thankfully, Lavonna and Melissa were kind enough to loan me the photographs they took that day to use in this post. Thank you, ladies!

Not only did the two of them get to stalk the inside of the chapel, though, but Melissa also got to re-create the “Forever” dance routine that the Office staff performed during the ceremony! Sigh! I had SO wanted to do that very same thing while I was there! Ah well, looks like I’ll just have to re-stalk this place again sometime soon . . . on a Sunday, of course. “:)

You can watch Jim and Pam’s wedding scene from the “Niagara” episode by clicking above. And I am not ashamed to admit that I absolutely CANNOT watch that scene without crying – even though I’ve probably seen it a dozen times by now! It literally gets me EVERY SINGLE TIME! Especially when Jim says, “And Plan A was marrying her a long, long time ago. Pretty much the day I met her.” Sigh!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalkers Owen and Snidely Whiplash for finding this location and to Lavonna and Melissa for allowing me to post their photos of it on my blog! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Congregational Church of the Chimes, aka Jim and Pam’s wedding church from The Office, is located at 14115 Magnolia Boulevard in Sherman Oaks. You can visit the church’s official website here. Jim and Pam got married in the Walter H. Staves Chapel, which is located on the southwest portion of the church grounds and is denoted with the blue arrow on the above map. The fountain where the couple posed for their wedding photograph is located inside of the Katharine Gibson Chapel of the Garden and is denoted with a gold star on the above map. The patch of grass where Jim played soccer before the ceremony is located in the center of the property and is denoted with a pink “X” on the above map.

January 6, 2010January 6, 2010

The “Father of the Bride” Churches

One location that I have wanted to stalk for what seems like years now is the church where Annie Banks married Bryan MacKenzie in my all time favorite wedding movie, the 1991 classic Father of the Bride. But, according to IMDB, two different locations actually stood in for Annie’s wedding church in the film – one for the exterior shots and a different one altogether for the interior scenes. And I’d been longing to stalk both of them pretty much ever since I moved to the Southern California area. What I didn’t realize at the time, though, was that IMDB actually got one of the churches – the one which they claim was used for the establishing shots – wrong. Get out of here! IMDB posted a bogus address?? Well, I simply don’t believe it! 😉 Thankfully though, fellow stalker Owen stepped in and decided to put the mystery of Annie’s wedding location to rest once and for all. While doing some cyberstalking recently, he happened to stumble upon this blog in which the author randomly mentions that he lives down the street from the church used in Father of the Bride. So, Owen contacted the blog author and asked for the name and address of the church, which he happily gave him and, voila, the mystery was solved! YAY! And once I had the correct addresses, I immediately dragged my fiancé right out to stalk both churches!

Surprisingly enough, even though the church used for the exterior shots – which is named HOPE Christian Fellowship in real life – looks very much the same today as it did when Father of the Bride was filmed back in 1991, it wasn’t at all what I was expecting to see in person. In the movie, the church, which is covered in snow thanks to an unprecedented Los Angeles snowstorm which takes place the night before Annie’s wedding, seems to be a charming, little small-town type of parish. But in real life, HOPE Christian Fellowship is located on a very busy and very wide thoroughfare, which takes away from its small-town feel. Other than that, though, I am happy to report that the church – and its bell tower – look pretty much identical in person to how they appeared onscreen in Father of the Bride. 🙂

The interior scenes of the Banks/MacKenzie wedding were filmed at Trinity Church in Santa Monica (pictured above), which is located a good thirty miles away from HOPE Christian Fellowship. Why the producers chose to film at two churches that were located thirty miles away from each other is beyond me, especially since the exteriors of both are quite similar looking. I am guessing, though, that they wanted the exterior of Annie’s wedding church to have a quaint feel to it, and Trinity Church, while pretty, is anything but quaint. You would think that producers would have been able to find a quaint church in the Santa Monica area to use for the exteriors, but I guess that’s Hollywood for you! 🙂

According to an EXTREMELY nice congregation member whom I spoke with named Bob, the Father of the Bride producers had the interior of Trinity Church painted for the filming and it has not been repainted since! So, in essence, the church still looks EXACTLY the same today as it did when the movie was filmed back in 1991! How incredibly cool is that??? Sadly, though, Bob told me that there are currently plans in the works to paint the entire interior an ivory color sometime this year. SO SAD! I tried to talk Bob into leaving the church exactly as it appeared in the movie, but unfortunately, being that I am not a member of the congregation, I don’t think what I had to say had much merit. LOL So, if you are a fan of FOTB and want to stalk the church where Annie got married, I suggest you do so sooner rather than later, as Trinity may look a whole lot different in the coming months. 🙁 Bob, who was actually the very person who negotiated the deal for Father of the Bride to be filmed at Trinity, also told me that producers had the crew lower the church’s overhead hanging lights for the filming, after which time they were returned to their normal height. As you can see in the above screen captures, the lights do not hang quite as low in real life as they did in the movie. The crew also brought in a red carpet to cover up the white tile located in the lobby’s entrance area and after the filming was over that carpet was gifted to the church. In fact, that very same carpet is still used to this day when the church hosts special events such as – you guessed it – weddings! 🙂 So cool!

As you can see in the above screen capture, it also appears that producers covered one of the church’s side doors with a fake wall for the filming, to make it appear as though the lobby had an ante-room. In reality, though, that area is little more than a hallway. Other than the height of the lights, the lobby rug, and the covering of the side door, though, Trinity Church still looks EXACTLY – and I do mean EXACTLY – the same today as it did when Father of the Bride was filmed there 18 years ago! Love it! Love it! Love it!

And, of course, I just had to take a picture sitting in the spot where George and Nina Banks (aka Steve Martin and Diane Keaton) sat during Annie’s wedding. In real life, though, there is no barrier separating the first row of pews from the altar as there was in the movie.

Trinity’s main entrance doors were also used in Father of the Bride, in the very brief scene in which Annie and her new husband, Bryan, exit the church immediately following their wedding ceremony.

Trinity Church of Santa Monica is absolutely beautiful in person and the people I spoke with while there could NOT have been nicer to me or more informative! I honestly can’t recommend stalking the place – or even getting married there – enough! If I didn’t already have my wedding venue locked down, I would seriously consider Trinity Church. I mean, how cool would be it be to get married in the same place where Annie Banks tied the knot? 😉

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Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding these locations! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The church used for the exterior shots in Father of the Bride is named HOPE Christian Fellowship and it is located at 6116 North San Gabriel Boulevard in San Gabriel. You can visit their website here. The church used for the interior shots is named Trinity Church of Santa Monica and it is located at 1015 California Avenue in Santa Monica. You can visit their website here.