Hollywood Hills – Page 2

October 20, 2017October 20, 2017

High Tower from “Dead Again”

I did not see Dead Again when it was first released in 1991 (at 14, I was too young for such an intense thriller), but I vividly remember my parents coming home from the theatre raving about how great it was and how much I would have loved a particularly disturbing scene involving cigarettes. It was not until years later, after I met the Grim Cheaper, that I finally sat down for a viewing. The flick was worth the wait. Dead Again is honestly one of the most well-crafted crime dramas I have ever watched. And my parents were right – that cigarette scene is horrifyingly fabulous. The film also boasts one of the spookiest locations ever featured in a movie – High Tower, the striking Italianate campanile (a word I just learned today!) housing the elevator leading to Amanda Sharp’s (Emma Thompson) hillside home. I first stalked the site shortly after seeing Dead Again and have been back many times since. In fact, I used to take an acting class just down the road from it and would drive by on a weekly basis. Each time I would marvel at how lucky I was to be living in such a magical city, where passing by historic and iconic locales is natural happenstance. It randomly struck me recently that I had never blogged about High Tower, despite it being the perfect Haunted Hollywood spot. So I am amending that situation today.

[ad]

Though there are a few differing reports floating around online, according to the Los Angeles Historic Resources Survey, High Tower was originally constructed in 1923.

At the time, the hillside it flanks looked quite a bit different, as you can see in photos of the structure from its early days here and here.

The elevator was originally installed to service the dotting of homes on the tiny street of Alta Loma Terrace, situated just northeast of the tower.

In 1935, over a decade after High Tower’s inception, architect Carl Kay began construction on a series of four Streamline Moderne duplexes cantilevered directly behind the campanile on Broadview Terrace.

The complex, which Kay modeled after Positano, Italy and dubbed “High Tower Court,” was not completed until 1956.

Today, the elevator solely services the four High Tower Court properties.

The garages for the complex are situated at the bottom of the hill, a good five stories below the homes, and, amazingly, none of the residences have direct street access (moving must seriously be a b*tch!), making the conveyance an absolute necessity.

Without it, residents would have to resort to climbing a haphazard tangle of staircases comprised of more than 200 steps in order to access their units.

Each High Tower Court unit pays $51 per month for use of the elevator, which, while costly, is well worth it in my book. (However, there is something to be said for the fact that anyone who decided to save money and forgo the perk would easily have the best legs in town!) Sadly though, the structure is off-limits to the rest of us. Without one of the coveted keys doled out to homeowners, the gated tower can’t be accessed.

While researching for this post, I was floored to learn via a 1993 Los Angeles Times article that, while the elevator is private, High Tower Court is publicly accessible – as long as you’re willing to hoof it those 200 steps.

I wish I had known that fact before my most recent stalk of the place. I so would have ventured up the hill! Can you even imagine the views? For those interested in journeying to the top, Secret Stairs-LA put together a fabulous itinerary of a 2.6-mile trek that will lead you there.

High Tower Court has attracted quite a few notable residents over the years, including illusionist David Copperfield, author Michael Connelly (several of his books are even set at High Tower), musician Michael Feinstein, and actress Adriana Caselotti (aka the voice of Snow White in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs).

Though some reports state that Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love also lived at High Tower in the early ‘90s (during the time that In Utero was written and Frances Bean was born), that information is incorrect. The couple actually resided just behind the complex at 6881 Alta Loma Terrace.

High Tower appears a couple of times in Dead Again. In the movie, Amanda, an amnesiac, resides in the large white home situated directly east of the elevator.

As ‘Piccolo’ Pete Dugan (Wayne Knight) tells her after finally discovering her true identity, “You live at 1454 Hightower in the old Carl Kay house. You know, the one with the elevator?” In reality, the address of the pad used in the flick is 2182 Broadview Terrace.

According to William A. Gordon in The Ultimate Hollywood Tour Book, “The location was deliberately chosen (and even included in the original script), because the producers wanted to show that Emma Thompson was literally cut off from outside help.”

The inside of Amanda’s apartment appears to have been a set as it does match the actual interior of 2182 Broadview, which you can take a look at here. (While you’re at it, you can also check out the interiors of the other three High Tower Court duplexes – 2181 Broadview, 2185 Broadview, and 2189 Broadview.)

In real life, Amanda’s residence, which was built in 1936, boasts 2 bedrooms, 4 baths, 2,067 square feet, and a 0.10-acre lot.

Dead Again is hardly the only production to feature High Tower.

In the Season 2 episode of Naked City titled “New York to L.A.,” which aired in 1961, Franklin Maquon (Frank Sutton) confronts and kills Caldwell Wyatt (Martin Balsam) just outside of the elevator.

Like Emma Thompson, Philip Marlowe (Elliott Gould) calls 2182 Broadview home in the 1973 noir The Long Goodbye.

Unlike Dead Again, though, it really does look as if the actual interior of the property was utilized in the shoot.

The kitchen seen in the movie, where Marlowe’s poor tabby refuses his attempts at feeding him some non-Courry-Brand cat food, is pretty much a direct match to the kitchen pictured in 2182’s MLS photos.

High Tower was also featured in a video adaptation of the first chapter of Michael Connelly’s 2006 book Echo Park.

And the site portrayed the apartment of murder victim Sandy Boudreau (Alexa Davalos), said to be at 121 Bendix Avenue, in the pilot episode of Raines, which aired in 2007.

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: High Tower, from Dead Again, is located at 2178 High Tower Drive in the Hollywood Hills. Amanda’s house from the movie can be found just up the hill at 2182 Broadview Terrace. Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love’s former residence is located just around the corner at 6881 Alta Loma Terrace.

January 27, 2017January 25, 2017

The “Swingers” Party House

2016 was a great year for me as far as finding locations goes. So many of my most-wanted unknown locales were identified. Rod Tidwell’s home from Jerry Maguire, the Say Anything . . . amphitheatre, the Life Goes On house, the “Las Vegas” casino from the Season 4 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “And Did It . . . My Way” – I could go on and on. Another spot that I tracked down in 2016, but haven’t gotten around to blogging about until now is from Swingers. Though the vast majority of the 1996 comedy’s locations are well-known and have long been documented online, late last year I went on a trek to find some of the missing ones, namely the Spanish-style house where Mike (Jon Favreau), Trent (Vince Vaughn), and the gang attended a party. And I am happy to report that I was successful!

[ad]

I literally had nothing to go on with this locale outside of the fact that, per Favreau’s DVD commentary, it was located in the Hollywood Hills. In the scene leading up to the party, Mike and his four friends are shown driving (all separately!) on a curving L.A. road. I figured that the segment was likely shot in the same vicinity as the house where the party scene was lensed. Thankfully, while watching the Swingers Blu-ray, I was able to make out an address number of 7902 on the curb of a home that the boys pass. (Unfortunately, my computer does not have the capacity to play Blu-rays, so all of my screen captures were taken from a regular DVD, which is why the 7902 number is not clear in the image below.)

I started searching the Hollywood Hills for houses with a 7902 address number and fairly quickly discerned that the boys drove by the residence at 7902 Fareholm Drive on their way to the party. I was floored to make the discovery and immediately began scouring the area for the property where the soiree was held – unsuccessfully. Though there are several rambling Spanish-style homes located on Fareholm, none of them matched the pad from Swingers. So back to the drawing board I went.

Since the movie’s 20th anniversary was fast approaching, interviews with the cast and crew were popping up all over the internet. I decided to pour through every one I could find with the hope that some information about the party house would be revealed. I got lucky when I came across this fabulous article on the Grantland website titled “So Money: An Oral History of Swingers.” (If you’re a fan of the film, I highly recommend a read.) Not only did the article mention the party scene, but it detailed the exact street it was shot on! Thank you, Grantland! According to those interviewed, the production team could not afford to rent a home to shoot the soiree sequence, nor could they afford to hire the large amount of extras that would be required. So line producer Nicole LaLoggia and director Doug Liman asked some friends who lived in “this very cool old house” located “up in the Hollywood Hills on Temple Hill Drive” if they would throw a get-together and let them film it. Those words were music to my ears! I immediately started using Google Street View to search Temple Hill Drive for the residence used. It took me longer to find the place than expected due to the fact that it is situated on a corner and only a side view of it was shown in Swingers.

Very little of the dwelling’s exterior actually appeared in the movie, but, thankfully, enough detailing was visible for me to be able to identify it.

I was most excited to see the staircase that Trent and the guys headed up upon arriving at the party.

A better view of those stairs is pictured below.

Though the outside was only featured briefly in Swingers, the interior of the residence got quite a bit of screen time. It is while inside the home that Trent gets – and then immediately tears up – the digits of a “business class” girl who touts herself as having a Tina Yothers vibe.

In real life, the 1926 pad boasts 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3,872 square feet, and a 0.22-acre plot of land. As I mentioned above, the residence is situated on a corner. Pictured below is the side of it that fronts Temple Hill Drive.

The property is absolutely massive, much more so than it appears to be from the street. You can check out an aerial view of how it’s laid out below. (The castle-looking estate located next door is known as Moorcrest. Charlie Chaplin and Mary Astor have both called it home at different points in time and it currently belongs to actor Andy Samberg. A post on that locale will be coming soon.)

The Swingers party pad has quite the Hollywood pedigree. As actor/writer Mike White, who was present during the filming of the party scene, explains in the Grantland article, “The house was one of the centers of partying back then. There were four guys that lived there. Two of them have gone on to be successful producers — Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen. Their production company is called Temple Hill [Entertainment], in reference to the house. They produced all the Twilight movies, actually.” Godfrey and Bowen also gave us The Fault in Our Stars, Revenge and Rosewood! Not a bad resume. I cannot express how cool I find it that the duo chose to name their production company in honor of their former digs.

In his DVD commentary, Favreau described the property as such, “This is one of those big, great 1920s Hollywood Hills houses that sort of has fallen into disrepair, but people, like, all get together and become roommates and live in these huge mansions.” The residence remains in a state of disrepair today, sadly. Though I do kind of love the fact that, 20 years later, it still looks like a dwelling that a bunch of showbiz hopefuls got together to rent.

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 Swingers party house is located at 6161 Temple Hill Drive in the Hollywood Hills. It is the eastern side of the residence, which can be found on Vasanta Way, that appeared in the movie.

November 2, 2015February 17, 2017

The Golden Spoon Cafe from “The Brady Bunch”

/Users/MWR/Desktop/Brady Bunch Research/IANAS Files/golden_spoon_1.jpg

My best friend, Robin, is currently in town with his girlfriend for a week visiting from Switzerland, so I will not be blogging about this year’s Halloween activities until next Tuesday. I will also be taking most of this week off, though I will, as always, have an article on Los Angeles magazine on Thursday. Today, we have a very special guest post written by my friend, fellow stalker Michael, who lives in Minnesota. Michael and I first connected a couple of years ago when he wrote to ask for help researching a location. Michael and I started corresponding regularly and he has helped me track down several locales, namely Haskell’s Ice Cream Hut from The Brady Bunch and the Griffith Park spots featured in both the opening credits of Full House and the Girls Just Want to Have Fun dance montage. (He also recently helped me find another GJWTHF location, but that’s a different story for a different post.) Through our correspondence, I came to admire Michael’s tenacity in getting things right when it comes to filming locations. He is as tenacious and fastidious as I am about reporting the truth and his researching skills are like nothing I have ever seen. So when he informed me of his quest to right an incorrect locale from The Brady Bunch that had been reported on a few websites, I told him I would be happy to help in any way I could. Turns out he didn’t need much assistance from me. Michael was able to figure things out on his own and the story behind his quest is pretty incredible. I am so glad he was willing to share it here. So Michael, take it away!

[ad]

When I was in elementary school, I would watch reruns of The Brady Bunch every day when I got home, and thanks to its healthy dose of establishing shots, it’s one of the first shows that got me curious about filming locations. Consequently, I’ve always gotten a certain nostalgic satisfaction tracking down and seeing locations that I’ve been familiar with since I was little. For those—unlike me—who escaped childhood without the compete works of Sherwood Schwartz engrained in their brains, in the fourth season episode of The Brady Bunch, titled “Goodbye, Alice, Hello,” Alice quits when the Brady Kids start giving her the cold shoulder after they believe she tattled on them to Mike and Carol about a series of wholesome misdeeds. Alice’s friend Kay replaces her, and as the Brady Kids learn the error of their ways, Kay fills the kids in on where Alice now works: The Golden Spoon, at 4th and Oak.

While the interior was created on a soundstage at Paramount, the exterior is shown in a quick establishing shot. Other than looking like the type of location I’d like to visit—the quintessential roadside diner—the location has always piqued my interest since, unlike most establishing shots, extra effort was taken in the script to give it both a name and location.

/Users/MWR/Desktop/Brady Bunch Research/IANAS Files/golden_spoon_2.jpg

/Users/MWR/Desktop/Brady Bunch Research/IANAS Files/golden_spoon_3.jpg

Over the years, a number of websites have posted a selection of specious locations for The Golden Spoon, but until recently, all were all easy to rule out. That changed when Chas from It’s Filmed There posted a new Golden Spoon address: 3200 Cahuenga Blvd W, surmising it to be the former home of the Freeway Cafe. He suspected the defunct restaurant, listed at 3222 Cahuenga Blvd W in a Brady-era city directory, had changed its address to 3200 at some point. I thought that the building at that site looked properly aged, but the architecture didn’t seem to match up, nor did the power lines, lampposts, or background terrain.

However, there were a number of things that looked promising; the concrete fencing from the Hollywood Freeway was identical to that seen behind the Golden Spoon, cars zooming through the Cahuenga Pass on the freeway would help explain the traffic reflected in the canopy ceiling in the establishing shot, and the 3222 address would jibe if the last digit were removed, for whatever reason, before filming.

/Users/MWR/Desktop/Brady Bunch Research/IANAS Files/golden_spoon_4.jpg

Pulling up historic aerial photos, I could see that there was once a structure to the northwest (left) of the 3200 building. [Editor’s note – the structure is denoted in pink and placed on a present-day map below.] And although the aerial photo was blurry, the layout seemed to match that of The Golden Spoon: a square building with a gable roof, a small addition extending left, and a larger addition extending right. Furthermore, in the historic aerial, the 3200 building seemed to match the present-day aerial, meaning it probably hadn’t been renovated much in the last 40 years, and its address most likely hadn’t changed. It was then that I started working under the hypothesis that it was indeed the Freeway Cafe that was shown on The Brady Bunch, but that the Freeway Cafe was not located at the present-day 3200 Cahuenga—it was next door, in what is now a parking lot. But, without stronger proof, I didn’t feel comfortable declaring this the definitive location.

/Users/MWR/Desktop/Brady Bunch Research/IANAS Files/golden_spoon_5.jpg

This summer, while vacationing in Los Angeles at the Millennium Biltmore, I thought I’d walk over to Figueroa Plaza to visit the Los Angeles Building Records Department and see if I could find something that would confirm my suspicions. After a brisk walk on a particularly sunshiny day—as the Brady Kids would sing—I arrived at the records office, took a number, and filled out an information request form. Once my number was called, a very helpful clerk pulled the records for the location. While she read through the various permits for that address, I heard her mumble the word “canopy.” Jumping on that, I asked to see a copy of that file. Lucky for me, it was a 1962 Freeway Cafe permit for the addition of an aluminum canopy and screened patio. Better yet, it included a drawn diagram that matched The Golden Spoon perfectly, right down to the cinderblock fence in front of the right patio and notch taken out of the left patio.

/Users/MWR/Desktop/Brady Bunch Research/IANAS Files/golden_spoon_6.jpg

All that was left was to confirm the location of the Freeway Cafe. Unfortunately, that confirmation also proved that the building has since been razed. In September of 1989, Mobil, the owner of the cafe property and gas station next door (to the left), obtained three demolition permits for the gas station, its canopy, and the cafe. Mobil then built a new gas station and canopy, but the restaurant wasn’t rebuilt. There’s not a lot of space on that plot of land, and I can see why the the gas station may have wanted to sacrifice a small aging restaurant for some overflow and driveway space for those waiting for a turn at the pumps. Looking at the demolition map, it seems the original restaurant and left screened patio added a few feet in the rear since the 1962 canopy permit.

/Users/MWR/Desktop/Brady Bunch Research/IANAS Files/golden_spoon_7.jpg

After doing a quick digital mashup of the 1989 demolition map, and a contemporary permit map of that plot of land, I was able to accurately determine where exactly the Freeway Cafe once stood—very close to where I’d suspected when I’d compared the vintage aerial photo with the present day map a few months prior.

/Users/MWR/Desktop/Brady Bunch Research/IANAS Files/golden_spoon_7.jpg

New map in hand, I took the Metro Red Line to its penultimate stop: Universal City. From there, I walked under the freeway and down Cahuenga Blvd to the Mobil parking lot.

/Users/MWR/Desktop/Brady Bunch Research/IANAS Files/golden_spoon_8.jpg

Although the cafe is no longer there, it was easy to line things up thanks to the concrete covering the tanks being a different color than the rest of the dark asphalt lot. According to the overlaid maps, the left-most edge of the cafe would have nearly abutted the separation between the light and dark pavement.

/Users/MWR/Desktop/Brady Bunch Research/IANAS Files/golden_spoon_9.jpg

Plus, the terrain across the freeway, lamppost location (that would have been behind the right canopy), power wires, and stylized concrete freeway fence are are still recognizable from The Brady Bunch.

Try as we might, Lindsay and I have found that online references to the Freeway Cafe are rare. According to city records, the original 18×20 building housed a shoe repair shop in the 1940s, and in 1958 was converted into a restaurant. The 1963-5 Los Angeles city directories list the name of the cafe as Bib N Cuff, but by 1966, a new name—Freeway Cafe—is listed. A 1973 edition of The Van Nuys News reports the Freeway Cafe as being owned by Herbert and Louise David of Canoga Park, and a 1976 edition names Jamal Ghassem of Inglewood as the proprietor. Lastly, in a 1988 edition of Orange Coast Magazine, written just a year before the cafe was demolished, they note that although it’s “an old wooden stand overlooking the Hollywood Freeway…don’t let the exterior fool you. This is not a pit stop, but a palace for the connoisseur of ground beef.”

More recently, this selection of the Hollywood Freeway has been in the news, as Universal Studios expansion plans may result in the removal of the southbound Barham Blvd exit, which now routes traffic next to the Mobil station.

/Users/MWR/Desktop/Brady Bunch Research/IANAS Files/golden_spoon_10.jpg

Many thanks to Chas at It’s Filmed There for posting about the Freeway Cafe and getting me quite a bit closer to 4th and Oak. And of course, a HUGE thank you to Lindsay for all her help researching this location and for the opportunity to write about it here. [Editor’s note – a HUGE thank you to you, Michael, for sharing the story behind the hunt with us AND for correcting all the erroneous Golden Spoon information.]

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Mobil Gas Station parking lot, aka the former Freeway Cafe, aka The Golden Spoon from The Brady Bunch, was located at 3222 Cahuenga Boulevard West in Los Angeles.

October 27, 2014September 29, 2017

Pete Duel’s Former House

Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it. That adage rings true for today’s story, about actor Pete Duel who shot and killed himself at his Hollywood Hills home in the early morning hours of New Year’s Eve 1971. I had Duel’s address written down in the Haunted Hollywood portion of my To-Stalk list, though I cannot for the life of me recall how or where I obtained it. I am unsure if a fellow stalker gave me the information or if I came across it in a book. I really need to start keeping notes on my sources. Regardless of how the address came my way, I was thankful for it and stalked the residence a couple of weeks ago while in L.A.

[ad]

Pete Duel was born Peter Ellstrom Deuel in Rochester, New York. He started acting as a child and, in 1959, moved to Manhattan to try his hand at stage productions. Deuel landed a role in a touring production of Take Her, She’s Mine in 1962, which brought him to Hollywood. Once there, he decided to stay. Peter gave himself five years to “make it” in the biz and make it he did. He quickly landed guest roles on several television shows which eventually led to him being cast as John Cooper on the series Gidget. When that show was cancelled after one season, he won a starring role in Love on a Rooftop. That series did not fare well, either, and was also cancelled after its inaugural season. It was at that time that Peter Deuel shorted his name to “Pete Duel.” He moved on to films shortly thereafter and was successful. Then, in 1970, he was cast in a leading role in the western-themed television series Alias Smith and Jones. It was a quick hit. The long hours proved hard on Pete, though, and he fell into a depression. He also developed an alcohol habit. Despite finally achieving the fame he had sought for years, he was not happy. A do-gooder by nature, Pete felt that he should be bettering the world and that his acting in Alias Smith and Jones was too trivial to accomplish that. The man who seemingly had it all wanted more.

In the summer of 1971, Pete and his girlfriend, Diane Rey, moved into a brown-shingled two-bedroom residence in the Hollywood Hills. At the time, the home was a small bungalow set back from the road. It has since been remodeled and a large front portion, which sits perpendicular to the original structure, was added. You can see what the property looked like when Pete lived on the premises here.

The large addition is pictured below. Today, the pad features four bedrooms, four bathrooms and 2,401 square feet of space. I believe that the property may currently be a multi-family home.

December 30th, 1971 began like any other day for Pete. He worked on his series and then, when shooting wrapped, was dropped off at home. Diane and Pete settled in for the evening to watch the latest episode of Alias Smith and Jones. Pete apparently was not pleased with it, which was not unusual. Diane went to bed shortly after, while Duel stayed up to watch a Lakers game. At around 1:30 in the morning, he walked into the master bedroom and grabbed his .38 revolver. A few minutes later, Diane heard a gun shot and ran into the living room where she found the actor lying nude underneath the Christmas tree. At the tender age of 31, Pete Duel was dead by his own hand – though whether it was an accident or on purpose the coroner couldn’t say. Duel’s blood alcohol level at the time of the shooting was 0.31, so it might very well have been accidental. The fact that shortly before his death he had scheduled his answering service to give him a wakeup call for 6:30 the following morning also lends credence to that scenario. There is a third possibility, as well, though, which many online truth-seekers believe – that Diane actually murdered Pete and altered the scene to make it look like he had killed himself. While Rey was questioned by the police, Pete’s death was officially ruled a suicide.

It took less than 12 hours for producers to recast Duel’s role on Alias Smith and Jones with actor Roger Davis. Audiences never warmed to him, though, and the series, which had been so popular prior to Pete’s death, was cancelled the following year. It is said that money does not bring happiness. Apparently, neither does fame.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Pete Duel’s former house is located at 2552 Glen Green Street in the Hollywood Hills.

November 22, 2011November 21, 2011

The Skyline Residence – Jacob’s House from “Crazy, Stupid, Love.”

Back in August, I received an email from a fellow stalker named Brandon who wanted to let me know that he had tracked down the ultra-modern abode where Jacob Palmer (aka Ryan Gosling) lived in Crazy, Stupid, Love. At the time I had yet to see the movie, but added the address to my To-Stalk list anyway and am so glad that I did because, as I have mentioned more than a few times before in recent posts, I have since become just a wee bit obsessed with the flick . . . and its cutie leading man. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to the Hollywood Hills to stalk the place this past Saturday afternoon.

Due to a slight snafu with my GPS, though, I was unable to get to the actual house and could only snap a few pictures of it from afar. While I always research locations to make sure that they are accessible to the public before leaving to stalk them and while Jacob’s house was visible on Google Street View, for some reason, my navigational system just could not seem to get me there.

It was not until I returned home that evening that I was able to figure out why. As you can see in the above aerial view, Skyline Drive, where Jacob’s house is located, dead-ends at a certain point and then picks up again a short distance later. My GPS, thinking Skyline Drive was a through-street, directed me to the wrong end of it, where the abode was nowhere to be found.

So the next morning, paper map in hand, I dragged the GC back on out to the Hollywood Hills to re-stalk the property. As you can see above, it was POURING rain at the time, which I was none too happy about. You see, there is nothing in this world that this stalker hates more than rain, except for maybe Kyle Richards. Winking smile But once I remembered that it was also raining in the scene in Crazy, Stupid, Love. that took place at Jacob’s house, me being there during a downpour seemed quite apropos. The GC could not stop laughing at me posing for the above picture, though, as he said that I looked as if I was dressed for “the tundra”. Hmph! I happen to like my rain coat, thankyouverymuch!

In real life, Jacob’s house is known as the Skyline Residence and it was built in 2007 by Hagy Belzberg, of Belzberg Architects, to be used as his private residence. According to this fabulous Architectural Record blog post, several previous owners had tried to build a home on the narrow plot of land on which the Skyline Residence now stands, but had not had any luck in securing permits. Belzberg said, “I decided that instead of trying to fight the topography I would work with it and create a very narrow building that sits lightly on the land with minimal to no grading.” The architect’s design called for a 20- by 120-foot structure made out of concrete, glass, marble, and wood.

As you can see above, the finished product is nothing short of magnificent! As Pinky Lovejoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, would say, it is “amazeballs”! Love it, love it, love it! The property is pretty much my dream abode.

From the view pictured above, which I got off of the home’s former real estate website, the dwelling is extremely reminiscent of the Stahl House, or Case Study House #22, which I blogged about way back in March of 2009. The Skyline Residence, which according to fave website CurbedLA was sold to new owners for a cool $5.995 million on December 21, 2009, boasts 4 bedrooms, 5 baths, a 1-bedroom, 1-bath detached guest house, a 65-foot long infinity pool, a spa, floor-to-ceiling glass windows, a large, open kitchen and dining area, outdoor terraces, sweeping views, and a whopping 5,200 square feet of living space!

My favorite aspect of the house, though, has to be the outdoor movie deck, which sits atop the garage and in which films are projected onto a wall of the detached guest house. How amazing is that???? A girl I was friends with in high school had an actual full-sized movie theatre located inside of her home and at the time I thought it was just about the coolest thing ever, but I can honestly say that this pretty much blows that right out of the water! I mean have you ever seen anything more incredible??? You can check out some more fabulous interior and exterior photographs of the Skyline Residence on The Contemporist website here.

[ad]

Jacob’s house only shows up briefly in Crazy, Stupid, Love. in one of the best scenes of the movie in which Jacob brings Hannah (aka Emma Stone) home and tries to seduce her by showing her his “big move”. Of the property, the Crazy, Stupid, Love. production notes state, “Jacob’s home also reflected his current lifestyle. To serve as his stunning, if stark, bachelor pad, the filmmakers chose the renowned Skyline Residence designed by internationally recognized architect Hagy Belzberg. Located off the Sunset Strip in the Hollywood Hills, the glass-enclosed, ultra-modern home is considered a prime example of world-class contemporary architecture. As no one was residing in the home at the time, it was easy for [production designer William] Arnold and his team to make the few necessary adjustments. ‘We just removed what we didn’t need, and put in a few of our own signature furnishings, leaving it somewhat austere,’ he says. ‘Jacob’s house is a comment on the character’s own emptiness, really. He rattles around in there; it’s very impersonal, yet very tasteful.’”

The main area of the property used in the film was the living room and it appears as if the home’s hanging Fireorb fireplace was removed for the shoot, which was a good call as I personally think the space looks much better without it.

The kitchen area also made a very brief appearance during the montage scene towards the end of the movie.

A photograph of that kitchen is pictured above.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Skyline Residence, aka Jacob’s house from Crazy, Stupid, Love., is located at 8520 Skyline Drive in the Hollywood Hills. A great view of the property can be seen from Crest View Drive, just south of where it meets Skyline Drive. As I mentioned previously, Skyline Drive dead-ends at a certain point and then picks up again a short distance later. Because of that, my GPS took me to the wrong location when I inputted the address “8520 Skyline Drive”. If you have the same problem, I would suggest inputting the intersection of Skyline Drive and Greenvalley Road into your navigational system and then following Skyline Drive west until it dead-ends. Jacob’s residence is the last house on the east side of the street.

October 10, 2011September 29, 2017

The “Double Indemnity” House

A couple of weekends ago I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to the Beachwood Canyon area of the Hollywood Hills to stalk one of the most famous macabre movie locations of all time – the Spanish-Colonial-Revival-style abode that was featured in Double Indemnity. Incredibly, up until a few weeks ago I had yet to see the 1944 film noir classic, which was directed by Billy Wilder, even though it is largely considered to be one of the greatest movies of all time. And I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised when I finally did sit down to watch it. Not only did the film not seem dated, but I was absolutely riveted to my chair for the entire 107 minute run time. Sure, some scenes were a bit cheesy – especially the love scenes between Pacific All Risk Insurance Company salesman Walter Neff (aka Fred MacMurray) and disgruntled housewife Phyllis Dietrichson (aka Barbara Stanwyck), not to mention Walter’s silly pronunciation of the word “baby” – but overall the film was incredibly well-done and thoroughly suspenseful, which is shocking being that it was made almost a full seven decades ago. If you have yet to see it, I cannot more highly recommend doing so!

[ad]

In Double Indemnity, the supposed-Glendale-area hillside abode pictured above is where Phyllis lives with her abusive oilman husband, Mr. Dietrichson (aka Tom Powers), and his daughter, Lola Dietrichson (aka Jean Heather). It is while walking up to the home at the very beginning of the film that Walter Neff utters what is arguably its most famous line. Of the residence, he says, “It was one of those California Spanish houses everyone was nuts about ten or fifteen years ago. This one must have cost somebody about thirty thousand bucks – that is if he ever finished paying for it.” It is at the house that Phyllis and Walter first meet and fall in love. The two later cook up a scheme to purchase an accident insurance policy for Phyllis’ unknowing husband and then murder him to collect on the claim. The “double indemnity” of the title refers to a clause in the policy which stipulates that in the case of certain more unlikely accidents, i.e. a death on a train, the amount of the insurance payout would double.

Amazingly enough, as you can see above, the house has remained virtually unchanged since 1944 when Double Indemnity was filmed. I simply cannot express how cool I think that is!

The only real difference is the garage door, which has since been modernized. Otherwise though, the home looks pretty much exactly the same in person as it did onscreen in all of its black-and-white glory.

The view has obviously changed a bit in the ensuing years, though. Winking smile

The screenplay for the movie, which was co-written by Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder, was based on an 8-part serial written by James M. Cain that was first published in Liberty Magazine in 1936. Cain based his story on the real life 1927 murder of Albert Snyder by his wife Ruth Snyder and her lover Henry Judd Gray, the trial of which Cain had covered while working as a journalist in New York. And amazingly enough, it seems as if the house that wound up being used in the movie was the very same house that Cain had written about in his story. In the book he calls the abode the “House of Death” and, of it, he says, “I drove out to Glendale to put three new truck drivers on a brewery company bond, and then I remembered this renewal over in Hollywoodland. I decided to run over there. That was how I came to this House of Death, that you’ve been reading about in the papers. It didn’t look like a House of Death when I saw it. It was just a Spanish house, like all the rest of them in California, with white walls, red tile roof, and a patio out to one side. It was built cock-eyed. The garage was under the house, the first floor was over that and the rest of it was spilled up the hill any way they could get it in. You climbed some stone steps to the front door, so I parked the car and went up there.” Cain’s words could not be a more perfect description of the residence that appeared in the movie, which leads me to believe that the abode must have served as the inspiration for the home in the story and that Cain then later suggested the place to producers to use for the filming. So incredibly cool!

According to an October 17, 2009 Los Angeles Times article, an almost exact replica of the interior of the house was recreated on a soundstage at Paramount Studios in Hollywood for the filming.

As you can see above, in real life the home’s front door is much closer to the bottom of the central staircase than it was onscreen. The actual residence, which was built in 1927 and boasts 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, and 3,077 square feet of living space, currently belongs to interior designer/set decorator Mae Brunken. You can check out some fabulous photographs of the actual interior of the property here. (The photograph of the home pictured above does not belong to me, but remains the sole property of the Los Angeles Times and photographer Ricardo DeAratanha).

In an interesting twist, as you can see above, producers had the address number of the Double Indemnity house changed from “6301” to “4760” for the filming. I would not have thought that sort of thing happened back in the days before DVD players, pause buttons, and the internet, but all evidence to the contrary.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Double Indemnity house is located at 6301 Quebec Drive in the Beachwood Canyon area of the Hollywood Hills.