Los Angeles filming locations – Page 4

September 3, 2009September 3, 2009

The Warner Grand Theatre

This past Saturday, my family and I returned from Catalina Island via the Catalina Express high speed catamaran that docks in San Pedro Harbor. When the captain announced that we had finally reached our destination, I suddenly realized that a filming location I have LONG been dying to stalk was actually located in the very city where we now found ourselves! The Warner Grand Theatre, where Rosalee Futch took Tad Hamilton on a date in fave movie Win A Date With Tad Hamilton, was in fact located just a few miles away from where our boat had just docked. 🙂 I have absolutely no idea why I hadn’t realized it sooner. So, I begged my dad to drive me over to the theatre as soon as we gathered our luggage and, amazingly enough, he obliged. Thank you, dad!

Warner Brothers first opened the Warner Grand Theatre on January 20, 1931. It was co-designed in an Art Deco style by architect B. Marcus Priteca, who also constructed the Pantages Theatre, and interior designer Anthony Heinsbergen. Priteca and Heinsbergen had also created two other theatres for the Warner Brothers Company – one in Beverly Hills and one in Huntington Park. Unfortunately, though, the Warner Grand is the only one of the three that is still intact. In 1982, the City of Los Angeles declared the 1,400 seat theatre a Cultural and Historic Monument. Sadly, though, in the 1990’s it fell into a serious state of disarray and was almost demolished. The theatre was saved in January of 1996 when the City of Los Angeles stepped in and purchased it for $1.2 million and began a slow, painstaking restoration process. It has since been named a National Historic Place. The Grand is currently open for business, showing foreign and independent films on its fifty foot screen almost every weekend and showcasing various events including concerts, plays, and even graduations. And it is also a frequent filming location! 🙂

The Warner Grand actually shows up three times in Win A Date With Tad Hamilton, where it stands in for the local Fraziers Bottom, West Virginia movie theatre. The movie’s very first scene takes place at the theatre, in which Rosalee, Pete, and Cathy watch Tad’s latest film entitled A Man Called Jackson.

Later on in the movie, Rosalee takes Tad to the Warner Grand for their second date.

It is at the theatre that one of my favorite lines from the movie is spoken. In the scene, while walking by a poster for one of Tad’s movies, Rosalee says “You look so sad there”, to which Tad replies “Give me a break. I just lost my wife . . . and my goat.” LOL LOL LOL

The theatre last shows up in what was to be the movie’s original ending, which is shown in the DVD’s Special Features section. In the scene, Pete, Cathy, Rosalee, and Rosalee’s father are at the Warner watching A Good Man is Hard to Find, Tad’s latest movie which tells the story of his relationship with Rosalee.

The Warner has also been featured in countless other productions. In the 2001 movie Pearl Harbor, the Warner Grand was the Oahu theatre where Kate Beckinsale and Josh Hartnett watched the MovieTone News clip about the war.

Later on in the scene, they grab a bite to eat at the “Black Cat Diner”, which is located directly next door to the theatre and which, in reality, is an art gallery named the Findings Art Center. Unfortunately, I didn’t snap any photos of the Black Cat location as I didn’t learn about its use in Pearl Harbor until after I got home and started researching the theatre. 🙁

In the same scene, while Kate and Josh are eating inside the Black Cat Diner, their friend Ray proposes to his girlfriend Betty on the street outside the Warner Grand.

In the Season One episode of The O.C. entitled “The Proposal”, the Warner stood in for the Newport Beach theatre where Ryan, Seth, and Summer took Marisa to cheer her up after she had discovered that her ex-boyfriend, Luke, was sleeping with her mother. Nice mom, huh?

After seeing the movie, the gang heads over to a Jamba Juice located in the Arcade Building on Sixth Street directly across the street from the theatre, where they run into – you guessed it – Marisa’s mother and ex-boyfriend, Luke.

Because my parents were not too keen on waiting around while I stalked all of West 6th Street, I didn’t get to venture inside the Arcade Building. But I did manage to snap the above pic from across the street.

The Warner has also been featured in the television series Cousin Skeeter, 7th Heaven, Melrose Place, Party of Five, and ESPN’s Reel Classics, and the movies Wharf Rats to Lords of the Dock, Worth Winning, Seabiscuit, Ghosts of Mississippi, Invasion Earth: The Aliens are Here, and What’s Love Got To Do With It (where it stood in for Harlem’s Apollo Theatre).

The Warner is an absolutely beautiful place and I can’t tell you how excited I was to finally be stalking it! Sadly, though, the lobby area wasn’t open while we were there, so I didn’t get to venture inside. But you know what that means! I’ll just have to go back to stalk the place again! 🙂 According to the Warner’s website, though, the theatre’s original seats were just recently restored, so the interior looks quite different now than how it appeared in the many movies pictured above. 🙁

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Warner Grand Theatre is located at 478 West 6th Street in San Pedro. You can visit their website here. The Black Cat Diner from Pearl Harbor, aka the Findings Art Center, is located at 470 West Sixth Street, next door to the Warner. The Arcade Building on Sixth Street, which was featured in The O.C., is located at 479 West Sixth Street, directly across the street from the theatre.

August 24, 2009August 23, 2009

The Independence Day House

One of the locations at the very top of fellow stalker Owen’s “To Find” list was the house belonging to Captain Steven Hiller, aka Will Smith, and his girlfriend Jasmine Dubrow, aka Vivica A. Fox, in the 1996 blockbuster movie Independence Day. So, a few weeks ago, Owen enlisted the help of master stalker Chas and, amazingly enough, the two of them found the house in just a few short hours!!!! So, of course, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I immediately ran right out to stalk it! Mike had actually been looking for this house for quite some time, but had become convinced that it was a fake house that had been built solely for the production on a studio backlot somewhere. Well, thanks to Owen and Chas, we can now say for certain that the Independence Day house was, in fact, very real! 🙂

Both Mike and I were absolutely SHOCKED to discover that the Independence Day house looks EXACTLY the same today as it did thirteen years ago when the movie was filmed!!! The paint color, the shutters, and the foliage are all still pretty much identical to how they appeared in the movie. SO LOVE IT! Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a good screen capture from the movie which showed the entire house. 🙁

The thing I was most shocked about seeing in person was the little “6033” address plaque hanging from the front porch which was also featured in the movie (pictured above). I could NOT believe that little plaque was there in real life, too! I thought for sure it had been a movie prop. SO DARN COOL!

The Independence Day house only pops up in a few brief scenes at the very beginning of the movie. It is first shown in the scene when Will Smith walks outside to get his morning paper only to discover a large flying saucer hovering above his neighborhood. We next see it when Will says goodbye to his girlfriend and her son before driving off to go save the world from alien invaders. And, from how it appears in the movie, I am pretty convinced that the real life interior of the home was used for the filming, as well.

There actually was one major part of the house that was changed for the filming of the movie – the view. Producers actually cheated quite a bit regarding the home’s location in the movie. In the scene when Will Smith first notices the flying saucer while standing in his front yard, he looks to his left and sees the above pictured valley and freeway system.

In reality, though, while the home is located on a bit of a hill, it doesn’t really overlook anything. What Will really would have been looking at in that scene is pictured above. 🙂

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I highly recommend stalking the ID4 house to all fans of the movie! Especially since it still looks so similar to how it appeared onscreen! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Captain Steve Hillard’s Independence Day house is located at 6033 74th Street in the Westchester area of Los Angeles.

August 12, 2009August 12, 2009

The “Never Been Kissed” Prom

A couple of weeks ago, thanks to fellow stalker Chas, I was able to stalk the location of South Glen South High School’s prom from the 1999 movie Never Been Kissed. Chas and I both knew that the prom interiors had been filmed at the Ebell of Los Angeles – a women’s educational and philanthropic club which has a long and storied film history and which I promise to blog about in the near future – but the exterior scenes had actually been filmed at another location entirely. It was that exterior location that I asked Chas to find during my Never Been Kissed stalking kick a few weeks back. Ironically, he told me that it was the one location from the movie that he didn’t think he would be able to track down. Well, I guess he just doesn’t realize how good he really is because a few hours later he emailed me back with an address and, sure enough, it was the spot!! YAY!

Ironically enough, the exterior Never Been Kissed prom location can actually be found just a block and a half away from the Ebell. Why the two different locations you ask? Well, my best guess is that producers wanted to shoot Drew and the gang’s entrance to the dance at a building with a large drop-off area, which the Ebell unfortunately doesn’t have. So, when they found a suitable building located just two short blocks away, they decided to film the entrance scene there instead. Just another example of the magic of Hollywood at work! 🙂

For some odd reason I could not find much information about the Never Been Kissed prom location online, even though it looks like it could be some sort of historic structure. I’m actually very surprised that it is not on the National Register of Historic Places, as it is a truly beautiful place. The only information I was able to discover is that the Mediterranean style building, which used to be a private residence, was converted to commercial office space in 1981. While it is currently vacant, in the past the building housed the Metropolitan Talent Agency and, most recently, a wedding coordination company named the Ahn Gallery. You can see interior photographs of the building on its leasing website here.

Big THANK YOU to Chas for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Never Been Kissed prom site is located at 4526 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. Note – if you search this location using Google Maps, the building will not show up. You have to move about a block to the West to see it. 🙂 The Ebell of Los Angeles, where the interior prom scenes were filmed, is located just down the street at 743 South Lucerne Boulevard. Unfortunately, both properties are currently closed to the public.

August 10, 2009June 16, 2011

The “Rumor Has It” House

Out of the blue last week, fellow stalker Owen and I became a bit obsessed with finding the white clapboard colonial style home used in the 2005 Jen Aniston movie Rumor Has It. For some extremely odd reason, neither Owen (who is also a HUGE JA fan) nor I had ever tried to locate the house before. I didn’t especially love the movie, though, in spite of the fact that it starred my girl Jen, so that’s probably why I never sought it out. But, last week, when Owen mentioned the movie to me, we both got the exact same thought in our head at the exact same time – “We have GOT to find that house!” LOL And find it, we did! Well, he did, actually!

Even though the movie supposedly takes places in Pasadena and even though the house looks like a very typical Pasadena area home – there’s a white clapboard colonial on practically every corner here – I was convinced that, in typical Hollywood fashion, the house would most likely be located elsewhere. Because Pasadena stands in for pretty much every city in pretty much every state in pretty much every movie LOL, it seemed only fitting that when a production called for a Pasadena area home, the location scouts would find it in a city other than Pasadena. LOL

So, imagine my surprise when Owen texted me to let me know that he had found the house exactly where the movie said it would be. While searching the IMDB Rumor Has It message boards he found a thread entitled “White Colonial In Pasadena Used As Movie Set” where a man had written the following entry: “It was quite a shock seeing Rumor Has it while flying back to Boston. I suddenly recognized the home my grandfather built in Pasadena at 717 South Hudson Avenue in 1920 and that I lived in briefly in 1946-47 while my father built a new home near the Annandale golf course. Not often that one sees one’s childhood home used as a movie set — and sees Shirley MacLaine walking out the front door or Kevin Costner arriving.” So, Owen googled the address and, sure enough, it was the house!! THANK YOU, IMDB!

So, of course, as soon as I had the address, I immediately ran right out to stalk the house! 🙂 Surprisingly enough, I had actually parked RIGHT in front of the Rumor Has It house just two weeks prior while stalking the Dickie Roberts house, which is ironically located just two doors down!!!! I felt like such an airhead for not recognizing the house at the time, but, in my defense, it actually looks quite different in person than it did in the movie. The paint color has been changed from white and forest green to more muted tones and, sadly, the house just isn’t as charming in person as it was in Rumor Has It. Don’t get me wrong, the house is cute, it’s just not AS cute as it was in the movie. But there was also something else that looked quite different to me that I just couldn’t put my finger on – until I got home.

In person, the house seemed much smaller than it did in Rumor Has It and I couldn’t figure out why until I was able to compare screen captures from the movie to the photographs I had just taken. As you can see in the above screen capture, producers actually put large hedges over the real driveway of the home and extended the curb and grass area on the sidewalk in front of the driveway, making the front yard appear much larger than it actually is.

In the scene when Jen Aniston’s father pulls up to the house, he actually parks in the real life home’s neighboring driveway (pictured above)! LOL Why go to all of that trouble just to give the illusion that the house is larger than it actually is? Why not just film at a bigger house? As I mentioned above there are houses similar to this one on practically every Pasadena street corner. LOL Ah, the magic of Hollywood!

But even though the house looked quite different in person than it did in the movie, I was still absolutely floored to be stalking it! It was soooo exciting to think that my girl Jen – and Shirley MacLaine and Kevin Costner – had once stood on the very same sidewalk that I was now standing on. 🙂 LOVE IT!

Had to do it! 🙂

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Rumor Has It house is located at 717 South Hudson Avenue in Pasadena, just two houses down from the home used in Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star.

July 31, 2009July 30, 2009

The Zeta House from House Bunny

Last week, thanks to fellow stalker Owen, I was able to stalk the Zeta House from the 2008 movie House Bunny. Owen actually found this location without ever even having seen the film, which takes some pretty major stalking skills, I tell you!!!! He happened to notice the house while watching a House Bunny preview and, because of its unique and distinct look, set about on a mission to locate it. Which he did in record time! And even though I didn’t particularly like House Bunny all that much, once Owen told me where the house was located, I just HAD to stalk it. 🙂 I do have to say, though, that I did absolutely LOVE Anna Faris in the movie. I laugh out loud EVERY TIME I hear her do that scary-deep-voice-to-remember-a-name thing. LOL LOL LOL

The House Bunny house is absolutely GINORMOUS in person, much larger than it appears onscreen. It’s so huge that pictures don’t even really do it justice, in fact! It’s easily one of the biggest houses I’ve ever seen in my life!!!! Other than its size, though, I am happy to report that the House Bunny house looks exactly the same in person as it did in the movie. 🙂

Well, until the girls painted it blue towards the middle of the film, that is.

And, of course, in real life there is no ZETA sign. 🙂

The house shows up several times throughout the movie, most notably as the location where Anna Faris does her absolutely HILARIOUS Marilyn-Monroe-over-the-subway-grate impersonation! LOL LOL LOL

I highly recommend stalking the House Bunny house. The home itself is just so unique and distinct, that even if you didn’t like the movie it’s still worth the trip. 🙂 The house is also located on a pretty amazing street that is chock full of HUMONGOUS Craftsman style homes. Walking around the neighborhood it’s easy to forget that you are just one small block away from the hustle and bustle of the 10 Freeway.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Zeta House from House Bunny is located at 2151 West 20th Street in Los Angeles.

July 22, 2009July 21, 2009

The Girls Just Want To Have Fun Apartment Building!!

As I sit here writing this I am in shock – absolute shock. This morning at around 10 O’clock I got a phone call from fellow stalker Chas who had some news to share with me, some very big news! Are you all sitting down for this???? Chas was calling me up to tell me that HE HAD FOUND THE GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN APARTMENT BUILDING! No, that was not a major typo, you did just read that last sentence correctly!!!! Chas, who I am now probably going to name my first born after, actually FOUND THE GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN APARTMENT BUILDING!!!! For those who are new to my blog, the large brick apartment building that Sarah Jessica Parker lived at in fave ’80s movie Girls Just Want To Have Fun is for me the absolute Holy Grail of filming locations, the one location I have spent YEARS looking for but could NOT for the life of me find, the one spot that I was sure I would go to my grave still wondering about. And Chas FOUND IT! In record time, too!

I only set Chas on the mission of finding the GJWHF apartment this past Sunday night and being that I have spent YEARS searching for it, it is absolutely unbelievable to me that he located it in a record TWO days! And the guy doesn’t even live in the L.A. area!!!! He has to have ESP or something! It’s a gift, I tell ya! And, oh yeah, did I mention that he has NEVER EVEN SEEN THE MOVIE! LOL After seeing the ONE screen capture of the building I had posted online, Chas got an inkling as to where it might be located. And sure enough, minutes later, he found it – right where he thought it would be! Totally mind-blowing! What’s even more amazing to me is that he recognized the building using aerial images, as the bird’s eye view of it (pictured above) does not look at all like how I pictured it to be. Because of the angle at which the apartment was always shown in the movie, I was under the impression that it was a U-shaped structure surrounding a grassy courtyard.

In reality, though, the GJWHF apartment building is made up of four separate matching buildings which surround a grassy courtyard. The two rear buildings have a large space running in between them which was not visible in the movie.

Pretty much immediately after Chas told me the good news, I ran right out to FINALLY stalk the GJWHF apartment! And I have to say that seeing it in person was heaven – absolute heaven – for me! I honestly never believed the day would come when I would actually be able to STALK THE GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN APARTMENT BUILDING!!! My biggest fear was that the place had been torn down, so, to see it in person today was INCREDIBLE! I honestly could NOT have been more excited!!!!! And while the apartment does look slightly different today than how it appeared in GJWHF, what’s amazing to me is how little has actually changed in the twenty-four years since filming took place!!! For the most part, the building looks EXACTLY the same as it did in 1985 when GJWHF was filmed.

The main changes occured in the building’s courtyard area, where the walkway and foliage now look quite different than how they appeared in the movie. But other than that, the rest of the building looks virtually identical to how it appeared onscreen back in 1985! And it was so very cool to see it all in person!

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This morning, when Chas first told me he had found the much-coveted apartment building, I was in absolute and total shock. My first thought was ‘What in the heck am I going to do with all of my free time?’ LOL You see, for the past year and a half, anytime I’ve had a free moment or two, instead of picking up a magazine or turning on the TV, I’d hop on Google Maps and search for the ever-elusive GJWHF apartment building. And anytime I’d drive through a new neighborhood, I’d crane my neck looking down each and every side street hoping against hope I’d randomly stumble upon it. So, to be honest, seeing that building in person today was a bit of a bittersweet moment for me. As excited as I was, I couldn’t help but wonder (subtle SJP reference there) what in the heck I am going to do with myself now!! LOL LOL LOL I feel like a mountain climber who spends years training to climb Mount Everest, finally makes it to the top, and then wonders ‘Now what?’ The Girls Just Want To Have Fun apartment was my definitely my Mount Everest. 🙂 I have no doubt, though, that it won’t be long before I come up against a new hard-to-find location that will keep me up for many a night! 🙂

Big Huge THANK YOU to Chas for finding this location!!!!!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Girls Just Want To Have Fun apartment building is located at ( WOW I never thought I’d be writing those words!) 511-517 South Mariposa Avenue in Los Angeles.

July 21, 2009July 20, 2009

The Win A Date With Tad Hamilton House

I am forever indebted to fellow stalker Chas who has succeeded in finding a location that has eluded me for the past few years, a location that has been at the very top of my ultimate stalking list ever since the movie it was featured in first premiered in January of 2004. The location in question? Rosalee Futch, aka Kate Bosworth’s, charming little Craftsman home from fave movie Win A Date With Tad Hamilton. It was just a few months ago that I found out that Win A Date had been filmed in its entirety on location in Los Angeles and since that time I have been completely obsessed with finding the main house used in the movie. Unfortunately, though, I had absolutely no luck in locating it. I even went so far as to contact Win A Date’s location manager via Facebook, who sent me back a one line response saying “Long time ago – think house is in Melrose Heights”. I had never heard of a place named “Melrose Heights” prior to that, so I immediately go to Googling and found out that an area with that name does actually exist in Los Angeles, but that it is a high-end shopping district. Not to be deterred, I considered the possibility that the house was located near Melrose Heights, and enlisted the help of Mike, from MovieShotsLA . The two of us set about searching any and all residences near the small shopping district, but came up empty-handed. Just last week, fellow stalker Owen joined in the search and also combed the Melrose Heights area, just in case Mike and I had missed something. They say two heads are better than one, but in this case even our three heads combined couldn’t find that house! Until Chas stepped in, that is!

Chas spent a full two days looking for the Win A Date house (how do I even begin to thank him for that???) and eventually found it in an area of Los Angeles known as Melrose Hill. Um, hello . . . Melrose HILL??? What happened to Melrose Heights???? In all fairness, though, I guess the location manager almost got the name right. But, as we all know, “almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades”. LOL Mike, Owen, and I would now like those 80+ wasted hours of our lives back! 🙂

I cannot tell you how darn excited I was to finally be seeing the Win A Date house in person. In fact, I am surprised I didn’t run my car right off the road on my way to stalk it – I was THAT excited. 🙂 And I am happy to report that, aside from a change in paint color, Rosalee’s house looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did when the movie was filmed back in 2003. It’s no surprise at all that this particular house was chosen as the residence of Rosalee Futch, the All-American girl with the All-American values. It’s exactly the type of place where you’d expect to find her living. The Win A Date house is located on an adorable little tree-lined street that looks like it could very easily be found in a place called Frazier’s Bottom, Virginia, the town where the movie supposedly takes place. The Melrose Hill Neighborhood is an absolutely charming place that was built between 1911 and 1926 and consists of only 45 homes. One walk through the area’s tree lined streets and it’s not hard to see why Los Angeles Magazine named it one of L.A.’s “10 Great Neighborhoods” in 2003.

Rosalee’s Craftsman house shows up repeatedly throughout the movie, most notably the front porch area, which, as you can see in the above photograph, has since been covered over quite a bit with foliage.

And it appears that the real life interior of the home was also used for the filming of some scenes in the movie.

Ironically enough, I think I was more excited about seeing the street light out in front of Rosalee’s house than the actual house itself. While searching for the Win A Date home, Mike and I had studied that darn street light for hours, trying to figure out where in L.A. it might be located. Neither one of us had ever encountered a lamppost that unusual in all of our stalking adventures and I was beginning to think it was a fake. So, I can’t tell you how excited I was when I saw those unique lights lining the streets of the Melrose Hill neighborhood. It was validation for me that all of those hours we spent searching for the house weren’t for naught! Those lights really do exist! LOL And now, if a location with those particular street lights ever comes up in a movie again, we will know exactly where to find it! 🙂

Big THANK YOU to Chas for finding this location for me!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Rosalee’s house from Win A Date With Tad Hamilton is located at 814 Melrose Hill Street in the Melrose Hill Neighborhood of Los Angeles.

July 20, 2009November 16, 2009

The Never Been Kissed House

Last weekend, thanks to fellow stalker Chas, I was able to stalk a location I’ve been on the lookout for for quite some time – Drew Barrymore’s childhood home from fave romantic comedy Never Been Kissed. Chas is quite the master stalker, so last week I enlisted his help in finding this location and, lo and behold, he unearthed it pretty much immediately! Thank you, Chas!!! Never Been Kissed supposedly takes place in the Chicago area, but being that 99.9% of the movie was filmed right here in L.A., Chas had an inkling that “Josie Grosie’s” childhood home was most likely located here, as well. And sure enough, he was right. 🙂

I am very happy to report that Josie’s house looks EXACTLY the same today as it did back in 1999 when Never Been Kissed was filmed. And I really could not have been more excited to be seeing it in person!

Josie’s home is featured several times throughout the movie, most notably as the location of the heartbreaking scene when she gets egged on prom night by her high school crush, Billy. Ugh, such a sad scene!

It is also the spot where Guy picks up Josie for her second prom experience – one that turns out to be much better than her first. 🙂

Amazingly enough, Chas also managed to track down the home Josie lived in as an adult in the movie, which, ironically, can actually be found in Chicago. I find it incredibly strange that the producers would go all the way to the Windy City to film a few establishing shots of the home along with one very brief scene between Drew Barrymore and David Arquette that takes place in front of the home, when pretty much every other scene in the movie was filmed in Los Angeles. But, according to Chas, whenever filmmakers want to establish that a movie is taking place in Chicago, they film at a location near an ‘L’ Train. Which is exactly what they did in Never Been Kissed. 🙂 In the movie, Drew’s home is located directly beneath a set of ‘L’ Train tracks. Chas just recently visted the Windy City and was kind enough to stop by Josie’s house to take some pictures for me. SO COOL!

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Big THANK YOU to Chas for finding these locations and sharing his pictures of Josie’s Chicago home! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Never Been Kissed house is located at 368 North Ridgewood Place in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles. The home Josie lives in as an adult is located at 930 West Newport Avenue in Chicago, Illinois.

July 10, 2009April 20, 2010

Vincent Price in Thriller

At the risk of this site dwelling far too excessively on the recent sad passing of pop star Michael Jackson, I just had to write one more blog post about him. Or, rather, about his legendary music video Thriller and one of its main filming locations.

I received an email last night with the above photograph attached from fellow stalker Marlon, who happened to be driving by the Palace Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles and noticed the words “Michael Jackson Starring in Thriller” posted on the marquee. It seems that in honor of MJ’s passing, the historic theatre restored its marquee to how it appeared in the iconic music video that was filmed there just over twenty-six years ago. Well, sort of. What the Palace marquee actually spelled out in the Thriller video were the words “Vincent Price Thriller” – Vincent Price, of course, being the notable horror film actor who lent his voice to the rap portion of Michael’s famous song. Maybe someone over at the Palace should have watched the video before restoring the marquee! Sheesh! You know, if they had me on staff they would have gotten it right. 🙂 Anyway, let me tell you that after seeing Marlon’s photograph I just about died!!! And, even though it was about 11 O’clock at night, I begged my fiance to run me right over there to see the marquee for myself. He, of course, denied that request, so I had to wait until this morning to make the trek out to Downtown Los Angeles.

Apparently, though, another fastidious MJ fan had informed the Palace of their marquee faux-pas, because by the time I got there they had fixed the wording to read “Vincent Price in Thriller”. Now, I don’t mean to be nit-picky or anything, but for the record in the video there was no “in” written on the marquee. It simply stated “Vincent Price Thriller”, but I guess I have to just let that one slide. 🙂 Extraneous “in” or not, I was still SO excited to see that marquee in person! For a filming locations buff and huge MJ fan, seeing the Palace marquee brought back to the way it was when Thriller was filmed was . . . well, a thrill! 🙂 I could not have been more excited! And what an amazing tribute to Michael!

The Los Angeles Theatre, which did not have a cameo in the Thriller video, but is located right across the street from the Palace, also put up a marquee memorial to Michael.

While stalking the Palace, I managed to snap some photographs of its beautiful Florentine Renaissance style entrance. The theatre’s antique ticket booth, which can be seen in the background of Thriller, has sadly since been removed, but you can see some great photographs of it here.

According to fellow stalker and the author of one of my very favorite stalking books, Harry Medved, the loft area of the Palace was used as Christian Bale’s magic workshop in 2006’s The Prestige and as Jeff Bridge’s art studio in 1998’s The Big Lebowski and the theatre’s back door was used as the entrance to Club Silencio in David Lynch’s oddball movie Mullholland Drive. To learn more about the Palace and its nearly one hundred year history, you can check out the post I wrote about it last October here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Palace Theatre is located at 630 South Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles. The theatre is currently closed to the public, but you can certainly stalk its exterior. I am not sure how long the Michael Jackson memorial marquee will be left up, but in this stalker’s opinion it should remain there forever. 🙂

July 1, 2009July 1, 2009

Will Ferrell’s Streaking Scene

A few weeks ago, while out stalking in Montrose, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I decided to pinpoint the exact location where Will Ferrell went streaking in the 2003 movie Old School. Although it’s fairly common location knowledge that the streaking scene took place on Honolulu Avenue in the City of Montrose, I actually first heard that information straight from the horse’s mouth last July when I saw Will Ferrell speak at my acting school. During the question and answer session of Will’s presentation, one of my fellow students raised their hand and asked Frank the Tank himself where the streaking scene had taken place. Love it!! 🙂 Amazingly enough, Will remembered the general location where that scene had been filmed and ever since then I have been meaning to stalk it. So, a few weeks ago, Mike and I set out to do just that.

With our Blackberries in hand, the two of us walked up and down Honolulu Avenue watching Will’s streaking scene on YouTube while trying to find the exact location. And sure enough, we did! 🙂 We were actually able to pinpoint Will’s streaking spot by matching up the Montrose Shopping Park Directory sign . . .

and some windows that were shown in the background of the scene. YAY!

While we were stalking Honolulu Avenue, one of the super-friendly local shop owners informed us that the Montrose Bakery and Cafe, which is located just down the road from Will’s streaking spot, was also featured in Old School. The Cafe’s exterior stood in for the exterior of the University Cafe where Luke Wilson and his friends have a pow wow about how to save their fraternity. Interestingly enough, though, the Cafe’s interior was not used in the filming. The interior scenes were filmed at another location altogether.

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You can watch Will Ferrell’s absolutely hilarious – but NSFW – streaking scene here. “We’re going streaking! Yeah! We’re going streaking through the quad and into the gymnasium! Come on, everybody! Come on, Snoop, Snoop-a-Loop! Bring your green hat!” LOL LOL LOL

On a bittersweet side note, I dragged my mom out to Montrose earlier today to snap some more photos of the “streaking street” and we noticed the above tribute to Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett posted outside of a local shop named Pure Sunshine Beauty Supply. It seems everyone the world over is mourning Michael and Farrah’s untimely passings. 🙁

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Will Ferrell’s streaking scene took place on the block of Honolulu Avenue located between Market Street and Ocean View Boulevard in Montrose. Frank’s wife is driving East on Honolulu Avenue when she first spots Frank. She stops the car right around 2246 Honolulu Avenue to let him hop inside. Montrose Bakery and Cafe, aka the University Cafe, is located at 2325 Honolulu Avenue, also in Montrose.