The Cravens Estate from “Commander in Chief”

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As I mentioned a few weeks back, because of my love for Matt Lanter, the Grim Cheaper and I recently purchased and sat down to watch the first – and only – season of the short-lived television series Commander in Chief, on which the cutie actor portrayed the role of First Son Horace Calloway. I absolutely fell in love with the show and immediately started creating a list of locations to stalk from it, the most important being Pasadena’s former Cravens Estate, now the American Red Cross’ San Gabriel Pomona Valley Headquarters, which was used several times to stand in for the White House on the series. And as soon as the GC and I finished watching the final episode, I dragged my dad right on out to stalk the place. I have actually written about the Cravens Estate once before, back in July of 2008 just a few months after I first started my blog, but it was a very brief post and did not include any photographs of the interior of the property. So, I figured the place was definitely worthy of a re-post.

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The Cravens Estate was originally built in 1930 for Mr. John S. Cravens and his wife Mildred and was designed by San Francisco-area architect Lewis P. Hobart, who was also responsible for constructing the City by the Bay’s Grace Episcopal Cathedral and the Crocker Building on Market Street. After migrating to Pasadena in 1900, the Cravens first commissioned an English-style mansion to be built on a 16-acre plot of land on what was then known as “Millionaires’ Row”. Three decades later, after vacationing in France, the couple decided to tear down their existing abode and build a new one based upon the design of the the Chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte, located just south of Paris. That new manse became known as the Cravens Estate and it cost a whopping $310,000 to construct, making it one of Pasadena’s most expensive homes at the time. After the Cravens, who had no children, passed away in the 1940s, the property went through a succession of owners until finally being donated to the American Red Cross in 1962, whereupon it became their San Gabriel Pomona Valley Headquarters. The mansion is both a Pasadena Cultural Landmark and a Landmark of Historical Significance. In 2010, it was chosen to be used as the Pasadena Showcase House of Design, whereupon numerous designers came in and completely restored the property, which had lost a bit of its luster over the years, back to its original grandeur.

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When I originally dragged my dad out to stalk the estate, I was hoping that we might be allowed to take a quick peek at the interior of the property and snap a few pictures. Well, imagine my surprise when the SUPER-nice receptionist said that if we were interested we could schedule a full-blown tour of the building. If we were interested? IF WE WERE INTERESTED??? Um, heck yes, we were interested!!! So I immediately scheduled a tour and dragged my dad back out to the estate once again just a few days later. What we ended up being given, though, was not what I had expected at all. Our SUPER-nice tour guide was extremely excited over how much I already knew about the estate and my enthusiasm for its filming history, so she wound up taking us on a TWO-AND-A-HALF-HOUR excursion through the property during which she showed us its every nook and cranny, including the attic area, the servants’ quarters and the basement. I can honestly say that it was one of the best stalking experiences of my life! Even my dad enjoyed it! The estate, which boasts four levels, 50 rooms, and just under 20,000 square feet of living space, is an absolutely remarkable piece of property! Pictured above is the entryway, which features hand-painted murals depicting the grounds of the Chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte.

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Our tour included the Cravens Estate’s reception room;

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dining room;

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Mrs. Cravens’ former sitting room;

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a sun room;

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the media room;

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one of the original bathrooms;

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the upstairs balcony;

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the bridal room;

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Mrs. Cravens’ original closet;

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and the back side of the estate.

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The area of the home that I was most excited about seeing, though, was the kitchen, which stood in for the White House Residence’s kitchen on the first few episodes of Commander in Chief.

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The Cravens Estate kitchen was actually remodeled in 2010 for the Pasadena Showcase House of Design, but thankfully, as you can see above, it still looks very much the same as it did on the series.

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We also got to see one of the property’s upstairs rooms . . .

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. . . which was featured on Commander in Chief as the office of First Gentleman Rod Calloway (aka Kyle Secor).

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And we were shown the central stairwell and glass-plated dome area . . .

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. . . which popped up in the series as a White House stairwell in the episode titled “The Price You Pay”.

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I just about died when our tour guide said I could pose for a picture on that very same stairwell. LOVE IT!

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The exterior of the Cravens Estate also appeared in “The Price You Pay” episode as a supposed Washington, D.C.-area restaurant where President Mackenzie Calloway (aka Geena Davis) and her husband, Rod, take Attorney General nominee Carl Brantley (aka Alan Arkin) and his wife, Sue (aka Elizabeth Dennehy), out for dinner.

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The Cravens Estate was also used extensively as Dalton Academy during this past season of Glee – a show which has gotten so bad that I can hardly bear to watch it anymore. Anyway, it first showed up in the Season 2 episode titled “Never Been Kissed” in the scene in which Kurt Hummel (aka Chris Colfer) spies on a rival Glee club known as the Warblers. Kurt later transfers to Dalton and joins the Warblers, after which time the estate was featured regularly on the series. Areas of the estate which appeared on the show include the central staircase;

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the entryway;

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the reception room;

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and the dining room.

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The Cravens Estate was also featured weekly as the supposed Falls Church, Virginia-area JAG headquarters on the television series of the same name. According to the official Cravens Estate website, JAG producer Donald P. Bellisario used to regularly receive letters from fans stating that they had searched high and low for the property while on stalking expeditions in Falls Church, Virginia, not realizing that it was actually located right here in Pasadena.

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The Cravens Estate was also used extensively as the Silverberg & Blake law firm where Robert Clayton Dean (aka Will Smith) worked in the 1998 thriller Enemy of the State. Areas which appeared in the movie include the exterior;

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the dining room;

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the central stairway;

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and the same upstairs room that was used as Rod Calloway’s office on Commander in Chief.

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In the 2001 movie Swordfish, the estate was where Stanley Jobson’s (aka Hugh Jackman’s) daughter, Holly (aka Camryn Grimes), went to school.

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The back of the estate stood in for the French Consulate where a limo was bombed towards the beginning of the 2007 flick Rush Hour 3.

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The estate’s reception room also appeared in Rush Hour 3.

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According to the book The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations, the above-pictured scene from the 2001 movie Traffic, in which Robert Wakefield (aka Michael Douglas) is briefed by the White House Chief of Staff (aka Albert Finney), was filmed in a room at the Cravens Estate, although because only a tight shot of it was shown, I am not able to verify this or make a guess as to the exact room where filming took place.

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The estate was also where Chauncey Gardiner (aka Peter Sellers) and Eve Rand (aka Shirley MacLaine) attended a cocktail party in the 1979 movie Being There.

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The estate also stood in for the University of Minnesota dorm where Brenda Walsh (aka Shannen Doherty) briefly lived in the Season 4 episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “So Long, Auf Wiedersehen” and “The Girl from New York”.

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In the Season 5 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “Look Into Their Eyes and You See What They Know”, the estate stood in for Beecher Academy, where Edie Britt’s (aka Nicolette Sheridan’s) son Travers (aka Stephen Lunsford) attended school. After Edie’s death, the women of Wisteria Lane – Bree Hodge (aka Marcia Cross), Lynette Scavo (aka Felicity Huffman), Gabrielle Solis (aka Eva Longoria), Susan Mayer (aka Teri Hatcher), and Karen McCluskey (aka Kathryn Joosten) – travel to the school in order to bring Edie’s ashes to Travers.

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The entryway of the Cravens Estate was transformed into a restaurant in the Season 3 episode of Mad Men titled “The Gypsy and the Hobo” for the scene in which Roger Sterling (aka John Slattery) takes Annabelle Mathis (aka Mary Page Keller, who, ironically enough, also had a recurring role on Commander in Chief) out for dinner.

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Fellow stalker/Jennifer Love Hewitt-aficionado Owen also let me know that the estate appeared as Parkdale Academy in the Season 4 episode of Ghost Whisperer titled “Delusions of Grandview”.

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Both the exterior . . .

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. . . and the interior of the property were used quite extensively in the episode.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The American Red Cross’ San Gabriel Pomona Valley Headquarters, aka the Cravens Estate from Commander in Chief, is located at 430 Madeline Drive in Pasadena. Here is a map link to the location. You can visit the property’s official website here. If you would like a tour of the estate, please call to schedule an appointment first.

Alicia Silverstone’s “The Kind Diet” Book Signing

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This past Wednesday night I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to my favorite local bookstore, Vroman’s (which coincidentally just appeared in the most recent episode of Modern Family, but more on that later), to attend the book signing and discussion for Alicia Silverstone’s new lifestyle tome The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet.  Even though I am not in any way, shape, or form a vegan, I was absolutely DYING to attend the book signing because, as I have mentioned a few times before on this blog, not only is Clueless one of my all-time favorite movies, but Alicia and I happened to grow up in the same hometown – San Mateo, California – so I have always had a very special place in my heart for the actress.  Because I am a diabetic and on a very strict, virtually no-carbohydrate diet, though, and because most vegan diets that I have read about tend to favor carbs, I was not actually interested in purchasing a copy of Alicia’s book for myself.  But my good friend Nat, who actually attended San Mateo High School – Alicia’s alma mater – is a vegan and she absolutely LOVES Alicia’s book – and her lifestyle blog, The Kind Life – so I decided I would purchase a copy for her as a little “just because” present.  Which is how the GC and I found ourselves heading over to Vroman’s at about 5 p.m. this past Wednesday night.  And, as always, before the event got started, I sent him outside to snap some photographs of Alicia when she arrived.  Winking smile

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The signing began right on time, at 7 p.m., but for some reason it was VERY strictly monitored.  No photographs WHATSOEVER were allowed during the event – not when Alicia walked into the room, not during the discussion session, and not while standing in line waiting to have our books signed.  We were told shortly before her arrival that each guest would be allowed one – and only one – posed photograph with Alicia (which I could NOT have been more excited about as most celebs will not actually pose for pictures during a signing), but otherwise photographs of any kind would not be allowed.  To enforce this, two quite burly Pasadena policemen were on site and they threatened to remove anyone who was even spotted with a camera in their hands during the event!  So I was extremely thankful that the GC had managed to snap some photographs of Alicia outside of the store.

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Alicia, who is currently pregnant, was ABSOLUTELY adorable in person and much taller than I had expected her to be, although she was wearing some fairly tall heels.  She walked directly to the podium upon arrival, introduced herself, and started speaking about why she decided to write The Kind Diet, which was an extremely surreal moment for me as it was like watching the Haitian immigrant debate scene from Clueless (pictured above) come alive before my very eyes.  I kept having to pinch myself to make sure that it was all really happening and that I wasn’t actually at home sitting in front of my television set.  I have to say that in person, Alicia reminded me A LOT of Cher, her Clueless alter-ego.  In real life, Alicia has the same mannerisms, facial expressions,  and vocal tendencies that I had grown so familiar with from watching the movie over and over again.  And I can honestly say that I love Alicia even more now than I did before.  The actress came off as extremely charming, warm, genuine, and sweet.  She was also poised, well-read, and wildly knowledgeable about veganism, holistic medicine, and healthy nutrition.  I was riveted listening to her and, while not a vegan, found myself agreeing whole-heartedly with the vast majority of what she had to say.  She also handled herself incredibly well when one of the audience members asked her an asinine question about veganism and pregnancy, in which he tried to make Alicia look bad.  (Honestly, if you don’t agree with her lifestyle and are not a fan of hers, then why come to the event????)  Alicia responded to him, though, with honesty, wit, and a bit of snarkiness and ended up making him look like a complete and total moron.  As we left the event, I found myself wondering how she managed to do that!  I cannot tell you how much I would love to be able to tell a rude person off without breaking my cool and all the while seeming poised and charming.  But I digress.  I was most surprised to hear Alicia speak about diabetes and veganism.  As it turns out, her diet does not favor carbohydrates at all and is actually very similar to the diet I am currently on, so it looks like I am now going to have to buy a copy of the book for myself! 

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After Alicia’s speech, which lasted about thirty minutes, we all lined up to meet the actress.  Alicia really took her time with all of her fans and seemed to have an incredibly warm and open personality.  And, as promised, every guest got to pose for a photograph with her, which I was absolutely floored about! 

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Nat’s signed book is pictured above.

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Alicia’s inscription reads, “Dear Natalie, Thank you for loving the book!  <3, Alicia Silverstone”.

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As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, fave show Modern Family recently did some filming on location at Vroman’s Bookstore.  The final scene of the Season 2 episode titled “Two Monkeys and a Panda”, in which Mitchell Pritchett (aka Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Cameron Tucker (aka Eric Stonestreet) peruse various books on parenting, took place near the store’s Current Event’s section.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Vroman’s Bookstore is located at 695 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena.  You can check out the store’s upcoming signings here.  You can purchase Alicia Silverstone’s book The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet here.  You can visit Alicia’s lifestyle blog, The Kind Life, here.  And you can check out future L.A.-area book signings and other celebrity events on my Upcoming Celebrity Events page here.

72 North – The Real Life Emerald City Bar from “Grey’s Anatomy”

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While Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I were watching True Blood being filmed in Pasadena last Wednesday night, we got to talking with the owner of The Old Towne Pub about all of the filming that has taken place in the area over the years.  The owner was extremely knowledgeable and clued us in to a lot of locations that neither of us had previously known about, the most exciting of which for me was the downstairs bar of the former McMurphy’s Restaurant & Tavern, now 72 North, which is used as the supposed Seattle-area Emerald City Bar where all of the Seattle Grace interns hang out each week on the hit television series Grey’s Anatomy.  I was EXTREMELY interested in stalking McMurphy’s upon finding out that after filming the Season 2 episode of the series titled “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” on location there, producers had an exact replica of the place rebuilt at ABC Prospect Studios, where Grey’s Anatomy is lensed, that they then used for filming each and every week, which I thought was just about the coolest thing ever!  Even though I have never watched Grey’s Anatomy, finding that out was like discovering that Central Perk from Friends was modeled after a real life coffee shop that one could actually visit!  So incredibly cool!  Sadly, McMurphy’s Restaurant and Tavern closed its doors a few years ago and the new owners completely gutted and remodeled the place, renamed it Dullahans, and it subsequently closed down yet again just a short while later.  It was then sold once again to new owners and renamed 72 North.  Miraculously though, through all of the changes of ownership and the extensive remodel, the downstairs bar area was left untouched and still looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did when Grey’s Anatomy first filmed there back in 2005.  YAY!  So, this past Friday night I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place.

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Ever since Emerald City Bar, or Joe’s Bar as it is also sometimes referred to on Grey’s Anatomy, appeared in the “Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head” episode, it has been featured almost weekly on the series as the regular hangout of Meredith Grey (aka Ellen Pompeo), Christina Yang (aka Sandra Oh), Derek Shepherd (aka Patrick Dempsey), and the rest of the Seattle Grace gang.  The above screen captures were taken from the “Raindrops” episode, during which filming took place at the actual downstairs bar area of McMurphy’s Restaurant & Tavern.

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The above screen captures were taken from later episodes of the series, during which filming took place at the studio-built replica of the bar.

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The downstairs bar area at 72 North is currently only used for special events and private parties, but one of the super-friendly bartenders offered to open it up for me so that I could snap a few pictures of the place.  And even though Bartender Joe’s Seattle-inspired decorations were of course no longer in place, the bar is still very recognizable from the series.  So incredibly cool! 

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Unfortunately, I did not get a great picture of the bar’s front doors while I was stalking the place, but you can kind of see them in the above photograph.

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72 North’s downstairs room can actually be reached via an exterior staircase much like it was portrayed on Grey’s Anatomy.

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72 North has a kind of sports/dive bar-type atmosphere, but, let me tell you, the food they serve there is nothing short of FABULOUS!  This is not your ordinary bar food in any way, shape, or form!  The chicken was cooked to absolute perfection and, as I have mentioned numerous times before, I am extremely picky about my chicken.  The GC and I ordered up a vegetable plate while we were there  and not only was it amazing, but it was also absolutely HUGE!  It was literally the size of a platter one would serve at a party!  And the cost of that vegetable dish?  Because it was happy hour, the tray was only $3!  I am not kidding!  Our entire meal came to $27 and we each had a cocktail!  Needless to say, the GC was absolutely THRILLED upon receiving the check and told me that we could go back to stalk the place anytime I wanted.  Winking smile

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: 72 North, aka the real life Emerald City Bar or Joe’s Bar from Grey’s Anatomy, is located at 72 North Fair Oaks Avenue in Old Town Pasadena.  The downstairs bar is the area that is shown on the series.  You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

Watching the Filming of “True Blood”

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Last Wednesday evening I got a text from the owner of POP Champagne & Dessert Bar – my very favorite restaurant and the spot where the Grim Cheaper and I held the rehearsal dinner for our wedding last August – alerting me to the fact that the hit HBO television series True Blood would be filming at his eatery the following evening beginning at 9 p.m.  He invited me to come down to watch and even though I’ve never seen even one episode of the vampire series, I was beyond excited!  I immediately called up Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and asked him to join me as True Blood is his very favorite show.  So, the next night at around 8 p.m. the two of us headed out to POP and were floored to see those ubiquitous yellow filming signs that I so love on the streets surrounding the restaurant.

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True Blood was actually first being shot inside of The Old Towne Pub, a bar that is located right next door to POP, and when filming wrapped there, the production was then set to move outside, to POP’s back entrance, which, oddly enough, was standing in for the front entrance to The Old Towne Pub.  Confused?  I was.  For whatever reason though, even though the two doors look very similar (POP’s back entrance is pictured above left and The Old Towne Pub’s entrance is pictured above right), producers had decided that POP’s back door suited their filming needs better than The Old Towne Pub’s actual entrance.  

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And even though only POP’s back door and the alleyway directly outside of it would be appearing in the episode and none of the restaurant’s actual interiors would be seen, the eatery was required to close its doors during the shoot.  So, I ,of course, just had to take a picture standing in front of the sign announcing that POP would be closing early that evening.  Love it!

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According to one of the crew members that we spoke with, the Old Towne Pub and POP Champagne Bar were being used for a flashback scene that was taking place in a punk bar in 1980’s London.  The courtyard outside of the two bars and the alleyway were dressed to look like 1980’s London for the shoot and there were several British cars parked there, which was very cool to see. 

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The sides of the alley were also packed to the brim with all sorts of filming equipment and props.

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According to one of the security guards that we spoke with, actors Stephen Moyer, who plays Bill Compton on the series, and Ryan Kwanten, who plays Sookie Stackhouse’s brother Jason, were in attendance that evening (at least I think that is what he said, but again I have never seen the show, so I cannot be positive of who was actually there).  Sadly though, we did not spot either of them.  We first watched the filming from a distance in the courtyard area behind the two bars, but we unfortunately could not see very much from there at all.  Then the owner of The Old Towne Pub, who had been standing with us, informed us that we should venture upstairs to the courtyard’s outdoor patio where we would have a much better vantage point.  Well, wouldn’t you know it, just as we made our way up to the second story patio, both Stephen and Ryan were wrapped for the night and walked off of the set.  Apparently they took photographs with several fans who were also watching the filming on their way out, too, so Mike and I majorly lost out!!!  While we were on the patio, we did get to watch a scene being filmed with some of the episode’s guest stars, though, which I was floored about.  Even though I do not watch the show, as you all know I LOVE to watch filming of any sort, so I was in absolute heaven.  And the crew truly (pun intended!) could NOT have been nicer, either.  The first crew member that we spoke with upon arriving at POP was actually a real a-hole and I was fearful that they all might be unfriendly towards us.  But, as it turned out, I really needn’t have worried as the rest of the crew was INCREDIBLY friendly and answered all of our questions about the filming and allowed us to take as many pictures as we wanted.  YAY!  One of them even came up to me to chat about the jacket I was wearing as he had just bought the exact same jacket for his girlfriend for Christmas.  LOVE IT! 

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The following evening, I dragged the GC out to stalk the The Old Towne Pub so that I could snap some picture of the restaurant’s interior where filming had taken place.  Our original plan was to grab a bite to eat there, but unfortunately the restaurant does not serve food and the two of us were absolutely starving, so we did not end up staying.  The server on duty was super nice, though, and let us take all of the photographs of the place that we wanted even though we were not actually eating there.  I definitely plan on re-stalking this location after the True Blood episode airs and doing a more in-depth post on it as an episode of the HBO series Hung was filmed there as was the 2000 movie Bedazzled.

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Mike took the above video on his iPhone of the two guest stars rehearsing the scene that we watched being filmed.  He also took all of the photographs which appear in this post, so, a big THANK YOU goes out to him for allowing me to share them all on my site.  THANK YOU, Mike, from MovieShotsLASmile 

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

POP's back door

Stalk It: POP Champagne and Dessert Bar is located at 33 East Union Street in Old Town Pasadena.  You can visit the restaurant’s official website hereTrue Blood was filmed at POP’s back entrance on Aayes Alley, which is denoted with the pink arrow in the above aerial view and which can be reached from East Holly Street.  The episode was also filmed inside of The Old Towne Pub, which is located at 66 North Fair Oaks Avenue, directly behind the Container Store, in Old Town Pasadena.  You can visit that restaurant’s official website here.

The Chase House from the Pilot Episode of “My So-Called Life”

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Ever since fellow stalker Andrew tracked down the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles from the “So-Called Angels” episode of fave show My So-Called Life, I have been itching to re-watch the entire series from beginning to end as I have not seen it in years.  So, I immediately went out and purchased the most recently-released boxed set of the show and finally sat down to start watching it last night.  While doing so, I became a bit obsessed with locating the house where the Chase family – Graham (aka Tom Irwin), Patty (aka Bess Armstrong), Angela (aka Claire Danes), and Danielle (aka Lisa Wilhoit) – lived, because, as an astute fellow stalker named Somerset pointed out to me a while back, it was not the same property that was used for the other 18 episodes of the show

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Unfortunately though, there was virtually nothing for me to go on for this particular stalk – no house number, no visible street signs, not even a full view of the exterior of the property.  But then, all of a sudden, like a lightning bolt from the sky, I spotted a clue – a very important clue.  In the scene in which Angela waits for Rickie Vasquez (aka Wilson Cruz) to pick her up to go to Let’s Bolt nightclub, I noticed that the streetlights on Angela’s street were round.  And while I had seen those streetlights (pictured above) before, I had only ever seen them in one place – in one very small section of Pasadena.  The trees that lined Angela’s street also looked very familiar to me and I had an inkling that they might be the very trees that are located along Pasadena’s oft-filmed Madison Avenue. 

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So, I began my search for the Chase home on Madison Avenue and, using Google Street View, found the property almost immediately!  YAY!  And I ran right out to stalk the place first thing yesterday morning.

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And while the full exterior of the house is never actually shown in the pilot episode of My So-Called Life, as you can see in the above screen captures and photographs, the location of the window to the right of the front door and the roof lines of the front porch match up perfectly to what appeared onscreen. 

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The house across the street matches up perfectly, as well.

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As does the house that is located at the end of Angela’s street.

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The tree that is visible in the background of the scene in which Brian Krakow (aka Devon Gummersall) and Angela are shown arguing also looks exactly the same today as it did onscreen.

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And amazingly enough, the tree that Brian sits in at the end of the episode is actually there in real life and still looks EXACTLY the same today as it did in March of 1993 when the pilot was filmed!  SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

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When Angela gets dropped off by the police at the end of the episode, instead of going directly home, she and Brian walk north on Madison Avenue to the corner of Madison and Alpine Street, where Angela spots her father talking to a woman who is not her mother.  That area also looks much the same today as it did during the filming.

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And, according to the DVD commentary by series creator Winnie Holzman, director Scott Winant, and executive producer Marshall Hershkovitz, the interior of the property was also used in the filming of the episode.  Oh, what I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that house!

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After the Grim Cheaper got off work yesterday evening, I dragged him back out to the house so that he could snap a picture of me reenacting that famous shot of Angela and Brian standing in the middle of the street.  Oh, I cannot tell you how long I have wanted to take that picture!  I was literally skipping to the car on the way there.  Sigh!

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On a side note – the creators of My So-Called Life, whose production company is named “The Bedford Falls Company”, threw in quite a few references to their favorite film It’s A Wonderful Life in the pilot episode of the series –  including the scene in which Angela changes her clothes behind a bush a la Mary Hatch (aka Donna Reed) and a scene in which Brian wears a shirt with the number “3” on it, a la George Bailey (aka James Stewart).  Love it, love it, love it! 

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It’s A Wonderful Life is also playing in the background of the scene in which Angela apologizes to her mother.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Chase house from the pilot episode of My So-Called Life is located at 1025 South Madison Avenue in Pasadena.  The tree Brian sat in at the end of the episode is located in front of the house at 1014 South Madison Avenue.  Angela spots her father talking to the mysterious woman at the southeast corner of South Madison Avenue and Alpine Street.  And, finally, the famous shot of Angela and Brian standing in the middle of the street was filmed in front of 1014 and 1025 South Madison Avenue with the camera looking north on Madison towards Alpine Street.  The Mr. Deeds house is located just three doors down from the MSCL pilot house at 989 South Madison Avenue.  The house that was used as the Chase home in the other 18 episodes of the series is located at 1110 Glendon Way in South Pasadena.

The “It’s A Wonderful Life” Train Station

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If there is anything I have learned over the past ten-plus years that I have lived in Southern California, it is that stalking tips often come from the most unlikely of places.  Take for instance this past weekend.  The Grim Cheaper’s father has long been a collector of model trains, so last Sunday afternoon the GC headed over to the Whistle Stop train store in Pasadena to do some Christmas shopping for his dad.  While there he stumbled upon some vintage locomotive photographs taken by photographer Stan Kistler.  Amazingly enough, one of those photographs happened to be a May 1946 image of the former Santa Fe Lamanda Park Train Station in Pasadena which at the time was dressed to appear as the Bedford Falls Train Station for the filming of It’s A Wonderful Life!  And while the GC did not actually purchase the photograph for me (he didn’t earn that nickname for nothin’!), when he got home he immediately told me about it and, let me tell you, I almost fell out of my chair!  I could not believe that one of the most famous Christmas movies of all time had been filmed right in my own backyard and that I had not previously known about it!  Because the GC had failed to write down – or remember – exactly which station had been used in the filming (men!), I immediately ran right over to the Whistle Stop to find out.  I also purchased the photograph (which is pictured above), not for myself, but for fellow stalker David in Seattle, as It’s A Wonderful Life is one of his all time favorite movies. 

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Written on the back of the photograph was the information that I was seeking.  The It’s A Wonderful Life train station was actually the now-defunct Santa Fe Lamanda Park Station located at the intersection of East Walnut Street and North San Gabriel Boulevard in Pasadena.   Sadly, the station was torn down in 1953. 

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And even though the station is no longer in existence, I just had to stalk its former site.  The above photograph is what the intersection of North San Gabriel Boulevard and East Walnut Street looks like circa 2010.  As you can see, there is no sign of the former station anywhere, which I had expected.  What I had not expected, though, was the fact that there was also no sign of the former railroad tracks.  Before arriving at the intersection, I had  been convinced I would be able to find some small remnant of the tracks somewhere in the vicinity.

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What I did spot while I was there, though, was an elevated section of the road that looked to be just about the same size as a set of train tracks.  That area is marked with the pink lines in the above photograph.

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Another view of that elevated portion of land is pictured above.  I am guessing that the former railroad tracks are located just beneath that area of land and that instead of actually removing the tracks when the Santa Fe Railroad Line was dismantled in the 1950s, workers simply just poured cement over them leaving what you see above.

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So, if my hunch is correct and that bit of land is in fact the former home to a set of train tracks, then I am fairly certain the patch of grass pictured above is where the Lamanda Park Train Station used to be located.  But again, that is just a guess.

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The station was featured towards the beginning of It’s A Wonderful Life in the scene in which George Bailey (aka James Stewart) and Uncle Billy (aka Thomas Mitchell) wait to pick up Harry Bailey (aka Todd Karns), who has just returned home after graduating from college, at the Bedford Falls train station.

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Pictured above is a close-up view of the vintage photograph I purchased for David.  The “Bedford Falls” prop signs are denoted with the pink arrows and one of the production’s lighting rigs is denoted with a blue arrow.  So incredibly cool!  You can see a photograph of what the Lamanda Park station looked like back in 1936 on the Palomar Skies blog here and here

A very MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of my fellow stalkers!  I hope you all have a fabulous holiday with your loved ones.  Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Former Train Station Location

Stalk It: The former Lamanda Park station, aka the Bedford Falls train station from It’s A Wonderful Life, was located at the intersection of East Walnut Street and North San Gabriel Boulevard in Pasadena.  My best guess as to the station’s exact location is denoted with the pink arrows in the above aerial view.

Our Movie Locations-Themed Scavenger Hunt

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My good friend/party planner extraordinaire Natalie Drees has become famous in our circle over the past few years for creating absolutely amazing customized scavenger hunts.  She plans one for pretty much every event she hosts and not only are they insanely fun, but they also provide a fabulous way for people to get to know each other.  So, once it was decided that our rehearsal dinner would take place at POP Champagne & Dessert Bar in Old Town Pasadena and that all of our family and friends would be invited, I asked Nat if she wouldn’t mind creating a movie locations-themed hunt to cap off our evening.  And, thankfully, she said yes!  Because Nat lives in San Francisco and therefore does not know the Pasadena area all that well, though – nor is she particularly into this thing that we call stalking – she enlisted the help of fellow stalker Owen to carry out the endeavor.  And I have to say that the two pulled it off beautifully!

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Natalie figured that most of our guests wouldn’t be quite as into filming locations as I am, so she based the scavenger hunt not around finding where a specific production was filmed, but around finding particular restaurants and bars in Pasadena that also happened to be filming locations.  If teams could subsequently figure out what was filmed at each particular restaurant or bar – by talking to their servers or using their iPhones – extra points would be awarded, but filming location knowledge was not in any way required to participate.  Besides figuring out which location each clue referred to, teams would also be required to obtain specific items from each location in order to complete the hunt.  As always, each team was given a set of pens, a bag to collect all of our scavenger hunt items, and a book detailing our assignment, the rules of the game, and the clues.

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The booklets were handed out at the end of the rehearsal dinner at POP Champagne Bar and my best friend Kylee, who was managing the hunt, gave all of the teams five minutes to read them over, before yelling out “On your mark . . . get set . . . go!”.  At that point our entire group of fifty literally RAN out of the restaurant!  It was like a mass exodus and I can only imagine what our fellow diners were thinking!  LOL  The scavenger hunt clues read as follows:

Clue Number 1 –  

It’s been said “men want

a lady on the street . . .”

Perhaps women want

An “uomo” who can take the heat.

Once they find him,

They’ll take some “pane”.

Bring it  back to the judge

And you’ll “vincere”.

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The solution to Clue Number 1 was the restaurant Il Fornaio, which was featured in the 2000 movie What Women Want and was actually the very first movie I ever saw being filmed upon moving to Los Angeles.  Before purchasing a house, my parents and I lived in an apartment in Old Town Pasadena and we would walk down to Il Fornaio to grab a bite to eat at least once a week.  We got to know quite a few people who worked at the eatery and one night one of the servers let us know that Mel Gibson was going to be filming a movie at the restaurant the very next day.  So, my mom and I, of course, headed back there bright and early the following morning to watch!  It was an extremely cool experience for both of us and while we did not get to meet Mel Gibson, he did wave to us and say ‘hi’ several times while on his various cigarette breaks.  Anyway, Nat came up with the brilliant idea of using foreign words in each clue which correlated to the type of food served at the restaurants we were supposed to visit.  In the case of Il Fornaio, which is Italian, she used several Italian words – “uomo” translates to “man”, “pane” to “bread”, and “vincere” to “win”.  Well, once I read the words “women want”, I knew exactly which restaurant the clue was referring to and my team (which consisted of me and the GC, my best friend Robin and his girlfriend Steffi, and Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and his fiancé Ame) immediately headed on over there.  Unfortunately though, my mom, of course, also immediately figured out the answer to the clue and was right on our heels!  In the movie, Il Fornaio appeared in the scene in which Nick Marshall (aka Mel Gibson) has lunch with his daughter Alex Marshall (aka Ashley Johnson) after buying her a prom dress.

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One of the rules of the game was that all teams would have to purchase a round of drinks at each and every bar, so as not to anger the various managements by having large groups of people running in and out of the restaurants, causing a disruption.  When we arrived at Il Fornaio, Mike suggested that we each get a shot as we could drink them quickly and then be on to our next location.  Well, I am a complete and total lightweight and typically do not drink anything other than champagne and I really did not want to be doing shots at each and every bar we went into the night before my wedding, so I quickly ixnayed that idea.  But the next thing I knew, my friend Steffi had six full shot glasses lined up in front of her.  I immediately said, “No, I can’t drink a shot!” to which she replied, “These are champagne shots!”  I had no idea what on earth a champagne shot was, but she informed me that she had asked the bartender to pour a bit of champagne into six shot glasses.  The bartender at first balked at the idea, but when Steffi explained that I was a soon-to-be bride who only drank champagne, she agreed and poured us our “champagne shots”.  We are holding them in the above photograph and I can honestly say that that particular moment was one of my favorites of the entire wedding.  So incredibly cute!!!!!!

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Clue Number 2

Don may ride a white horse

To get to this filmed bar.

If he were in gay Paris

This would be more on par.

Once he arrived

A “serviette” he’d obtain.

In Pasadena it’s this,

Hopefully without a stain.

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The solution to Clue Number 2 was Cheval Blanc Bistro, which I blogged about back in December of last year and which was used in the original Father of the Bride movie as the spot where George Banks (aka Steve Martin) takes Bryan MacKenzie (aka George Newbern) for a drink.  Because there are not many French restaurants in Old Town Pasadena, this was an easy one.  Also tipping me off to  the clue’s answer was the fact that Don is my dad’s name, aka the name of the “father of the bride”.  Amazingly enough, my mom and her team were hot on our tail upon arriving at this particular bar, as well!  My aunt Lea, who was on my mom’s team, had asked the bartender at Il Fornaio if she knew of any French restaurants in the area and the bartender told her that the only place she could think of was Cheval Blanc.  My mom’s best friend, who speaks fluent French, immediately said “Cheval Blanc means white horse!  That’s the place!” and they took off for the restaurant.  At Cheval Blanc we were required to obtain a “serviette”, aka a “napkin”.

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Both my team and my mom’s team spent quite a bit of time at this restaurant and ordered a round of drinks and relaxed since we were so far ahead of all of the other groups.  And amazingly enough, my mom’s team happened to meet an actor while at Cheval Blanc and they got his autograph for an extra 50 points!  He wasn’t anyone famous, but he did have his own IMDB page, so he counted as a “star”.

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Clue Number 3 –

You can get a roll

In California’s 91105.

This filming location

You may not recognize.

You won’t need a fork,

But two pieces of wood

To experience

Lindsay’s favorite hood.

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The answer to Clue Number 3 was, of course, Maikobe Japanese Restaurant – aka the former Ruby’s Diner which stood in for the Peach Pit on my favorite show of all time Beverly Hills, 90210.  For anyone who knew anything about me or anything about the city of Pasadena for that matter, this clue was a no-brainer.  In an unfortunate twist of bad luck, though, Maikobe had unexpectedly closed its doors just a few days before our rehearsal dinner, so when we showed up there for the scavenger hunt, we could not go inside to obtain our “two pieces of wood”, aka a set of chop sticks.  Mike immediately started looking around for other sushi restaurants in the area and noticed one directly across the street from Maikobe (perhaps this is why the place went out of business! Winking smile) and ran right on over to grab some chopsticks.  BUT, amazingly enough, my mom’s team had happened to grab a set of chop sticks at Sushi Roku near Il Fornaio earlier during the hunt (they had gone in to collect matchbooks for extra points and the hostess had, for whatever reason, also given them chopsticks!), so as soon as her team realized Maikobe was closed, they immediately started running to the last stop on the hunt and ended up coming in first place!  So, yes, even though Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I were on the same team, we LOST the scavenger hunt!!!!!  Unbelievable!!!!  But at least now you can see where I get my stalking skills from!  In our family, the apple definitely does not fall far from the tree!  On a side note – you can see a great picture of what Maikobe looked like back when it was Ruby’s Diner here.

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Clue Number 4 –

At this Latin lounge with a fitting name

Their life together they can star living

Before their honeymoon, as husband and dame.

Ask for this in your drink-o.

Tie it in a knot with your tongue

To get an extra cinco.

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The solution to Clue Number 4 was Vive Lounge, where fave movie A Lot Like Love was filmed.  At the time the movie was filmed, the place was a Chinese-Malaysian fusion restaurant named Nonya, but that eatery closed down back in 2006 whereupon Vive moved in.  Amazingly enough, very little of the  décor was changed upon the transition and the restaurant still looked almost exactly the same as it did in the movie.  Because there is only one Latin-themed lounge in Pasadena, my mom and her team were easily able to figure out what location the final clue was referring to.  Especially once they realized that “vive” translates to “live” in Spanish.  For winning the hunt, each member of my mom’s team was awarded with a bag of microwave popcorn and a pass for a free movie at any AMC Theatre.  So incredibly cool!  All in the all, the scavenger hunt turned out FABULOUS and all of our guests, even those who seriously lagged behind, absolutely LOVED it.  It was the perfect end to a perfect evening.  On a sad side note, though – the GC and I walked by Vive this past Friday night and discovered that it had closed it doors!  I can only hope that the new owners also choose to keep the original Nonya’s décor so that all of us stalkers can still appreciate it.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Natalie Drees can create customized scavenger hunts for parties and corporate events based upon any and all sorts of themes.  You can contact her via her event planning website Pop Planning.  Il Fornaio, from What Women Want, is located at 24 West Union Street in Old Town Pasadena.  You can visit Il Fornaio’s website here.  Cheval Blanc Bistro, from Father of the Bride, is located at 41 South De Lacey Avenue, also in Old Town Pasadena.  You can visit the Cheval Blanc website here.  The former Maikobe restaurant, aka the Peach Pit from Beverly Hills, 90210, is located at 45 South Fair Oaks Avenue in Pasadena, but is currently vacant.  Vive Lounge, the former Nonya restaurant from A Lot Like Love, is located at 61 North Raymond Avenue in Pasadena, but is also currently vacant.  You can visit the former Vive Lounge website here.

Lucky Baldwin’s British Pub and Cafe from “The Big Bang Theory”

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In the recently-aired Season 4 episode of fave show The Big Bang Theory titled “The Irish Pub Formulation”, Sheldon Cooper (aka Jim Parsons) refers to an Old Town Pasadena-area restaurant named Lucky Baldwin’s Pub.  Ironically enough, just a few days prior to watching that episode, fellow stalker John from Northern California had mentioned that very establishment to me in an email.  While John was vacationing in Los Angeles earlier this summer, he had ventured out to Pasadena and stopped by both POP Champagne Bar, my very favorite restaurant, and Lucky Baldwin’s Pub and had written to me to let me know about his experiences there.  Amazingly enough, I had never actually heard of Lucky Baldwin’s before receiving his email, but John said that the place had a good atmosphere so I made a mental note to check it out in the near future.  Well, imagine my surprise when just a few days later I heard the place referenced on The Big Bang Theory!  I am so incredibly thankful to John because had he not mentioned the bar in his email, I would have written the place off as a fictional locale that was created by the writers of the show.  So, once I knew that it was, in fact, a real-life establishment, I just had to stalk the place. 

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Lucky Baldwin’s is an incredibly cool little bar tucked away on a side street of Old Town Pasadena.  It is a low key, down-to-earth place that boasts an extensive menu of British pub favorites, including Bangers and Mash, Fish & Chips, and Pigs in a Blanket.  Because I have always been the type of girl who prefers chicken strips to chicken marsala, a place like Lucky Baldwin’s is truly right up my alley.  The only problem with chicken-strip-serving-type establishments, though, is that they tend to not feature champagne – my drink of choice – on their cocktail menu, but I am VERY happy to report that that was not the case at Lucky Baldwin’s!  A bar that serves pub food AND champagne – that is simply music to my ears!  Lucky Baldwin’s was first founded just over fourteen years ago, in July of 1996, by an Englishman named David Farnworth and his partner Peggy Simonian and was named after Elias Jackson “Lucky” Baldwin, the California businessman who founded Santa Anita Park in Arcadia and who owned the land that now makes up the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden.  In 2005, Farnworth and Simonian opened a second restaurant named Lucky Baldwin’s Delirium Pub a few miles away in the sleepy little town of Sierra Madre.  According to the Old Pasadena website, Lucky Baldwins is “truly Old Pasadena’s favorite secret hideaway” and I couldn’t agree with that statement more – the restaurant is definitely a secret.  I’ve lived in Pasadena for over a decade now and had never even heard of the place!  It is definitely going to be a frequent stomping ground for me and the Grim Cheaper in the future, though, because we absolutely loved the place.

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In “The Irish Pub Formulation” episode of The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon discovers that Leonard Hofstadter (aka Johnny Galecki) has spent the night with their friend Raj Koothrappali’s (aka Kunal Nayyar’s) little sister, Priya (aka Aarti Mankad).  To protect Leonard’s secret, Sheldon comes up with an “iron clad alibi” about that night which revolves around the fictional “fun-loving and morally-loose Miss Maggie Magarie”.  Of Maggie, Sheldon says, “You met her at Pasadena’s most popular Irish watering hole, Lucky Baldwin’s, where Maggie spends her nights tending bar with a head full of curls and a heart full of dreams.”  I think it is so amazingly cool that the writers of The Big Bang Theory, which is set in Pasadena, chose a real life locale to refer to in the episode. I love, love, love it when real life places are mentioned in movies and television shows. 

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They did get a couple of things wrong, though.  In reality, Lucky Baldwin’s is British, not Irish, and the restaurant does not currently serve pickled eggs or whiskey (or any other hard alcohol), as Sheldon alludes to in the episode.  But the Big Bang writers definitely did their homework on this one because, according to our waitress, the bar is a popular hangout for both Caltech and Jet Propulsion Laboratory employees.  On the series, Leonard, Raj, and Sheldon all work at Caltech, while Howard Wolowitz (aka Simon Helberg) is employed by JPL.  The Bob’s Big Boy in Toluca Lake, which was also mentioned in “The Irish Pub Formulation” episode of The Big Bang Theory, is also, in fact, a real life locale.  And while it might seem a bit crazy that I stalked this location due to a mere mention on a TV show, as you can see in this Yelp review, I wasn’t the only one to do so! 

You can watch the hilarious “alibi” scene by clicking above.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker John for telling me about this location!  🙂

And a BIG shout out goes to fellow stalker Debbie who is celebrating a special birthday today!   Happy Birthday Debbie!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Lucky Baldwin’s British Pub and Cafe, from The Big Bang Theory, is located at 17 South Raymond Avenue in Old Town Pasadena.  You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

The “Date Night” House

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Last night, the Grim Cheaper and I sat down to watch the movie Date Night which FINALLY came out on DVD this week.  We somehow missed seeing the flick in theatres when it first came out in April and I have been not-so-patiently waiting for it to be released on DVD ever since.  Especially since Mike, from MovieShotsLA, tracked down the house which belonged to Phil and Claire Foster (played by Steve Carell and Tina Fey, respectively) in it over four months ago.  Because I suffer from the need for immediate gratification, I actually stalked the place immediately after Mike told me its location and, as you can imagine, have been ABSOLUTELY DYING to see the movie ever since – even though the previews didn’t look especially promising.  I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised while watching it, too – despite what the reviews said, Date Night is a really cute movie!  It’s heartwarming and sweet and laugh-out-loud funny.  Not to mention the fact that Tina Fey and Steve Carell are exceptional in it!  Loved it, loved it, loved it!  But I digress!   

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Date Night Address Number

Mike tracked down the Date Night house pretty much immediately after seeing the movie in theatres.  He knew from the get-go that the supposed New Jersey-area home was actually located somewhere in Pasadena thanks to these JFX Online paparazzi photos taken of Tina Fey and Leighton Meester during the filming.  He also spotted an address number of “620” while watching the movie and from there used Google Street View to search all of the 600 blocks in the Pasadena area until he found the right residence.  Thank you, Mike!

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The Foster house actually shows up only a few times in Date Night, most notably in the ending scene in which Phil and Claire return home after their disastrous date in New York City.

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And I am very happy to report that not only does the home look exactly the same in person as it did in the movie, but it is also ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE.  In fact, it is almost too adorable.  Had Mike not found the property’s real life location and had I not seen the place with my own two eyes, I would have been absolutely convinced that it was a fake house located on a studio backlot somewhere in Hollywood.  The residence has that “studio” feel to it even in person and looks like it belongs on Wisteria Lane and not in the real world.  😉

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As you can see in these photographs of the inside of the home, the real life interior of the property was also used in the filming.

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And, ironically enough, the “Byzantine/Mediterranean” house that Claire tries to sell at the beginning of Date Night is located right next door to the Foster home, which makes things convenient for us stalkers.

On a Date Night side note – If you haven’t yet watched the bloopers reel featured at the end of the flick, you REALLY need to and can do so by clicking above.  They are absolutely hilarious and really show how much fun the movie must have been to work on.  It was actually watching stuff like this that first made me want to be an actor.  Yes, the hours are long and the work is tedious, but in what other kind of career does one get to laugh as much as this???  🙂

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Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding these locations!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Phil and Claire Foster’s house from Date Night is located at 620 Vallombrosa Drive in Pasadena.  The home that Claire tries to sell at the beginning of the movie is located right next door at 608 Vallombrosa Drive.

The Pasadena House Where the Prom in “Twilight” Was Filmed

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One location that I have been on the lookout for for what seems like forever now is the Pasadena-area home where part of the prom scene from the original Twilight movie was filmed.  I first found out about this location while browsing through Catherine Hardwick’s fabulous book Twilight: Director’s Notebook at my local bookstore.  According to Hardwick, after filming of the 2008 flick had been completed, it was decided that an additional conversation between Bella Swan (aka Kristen Stewart) and Jacob Black (aka Taylor Lautner) was needed to complete the prom scene, which had been filmed at a picturesque hotel in Oregon named the View Point Inn (pictured above).  Because the cast and crew had long since returned to Southern California, the movie’s location manager was called upon to find a property in the area that looked similar enough to the View Point Inn that a scene could be shot there without the audience realizing it was a different locale.  He found that location at a private residence in Pasadena and filming took place there in late August of 2008.  And even though I wasn’t a huge fan of the vampire movie, I was absolutely DYING to stalk the house.  The only problem was that, for the life of me, I could NOT find it.  Until I called in Mike, from MovieShotsLA, that is, who tracked down the property in record time – and without the aid of screen caps, I might add!

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Mike, who had yet to watch Twilight, knew that the prom scene had been filmed at a Tudor-style property with a long driveway, so armed with those two rather vague descriptions he went to work.  Late Wednesday afternoon, he ended up stumbling upon some sort of Twilight message board where a girl had posted a comment saying that a scene from the flick had been shot in her neighborhood on Arroyo Boulevard near the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.  From there, Mike used aerial maps to search the area for a Tudor-style house with a large driveway and eventually landed upon the right location.  Yay!  Thank you, Mike!  And, as soon as he gave me the address, I ran right out to stalk the place.  Sadly, though, not much of it can be seen from the road. 

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While not gated, as you can see in the above aerial images, the home is set quite a ways back from the street and is surrounded by a massive amount of foliage.

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And while a bit of it can actually be spotted through the tall trees which line the front of the property, because the view is so limited, this house, unfortunately, makes for quite a disappointing stalk.

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But that’s why God created real estate listings, which is where I snagged the two images pictured above.  🙂  The house, which was designed in 1915 by architect Stiles O. Clements, is currently for sale at a price that is only given “upon request”.  The property boasts seven bedrooms, TEN bathrooms!, five fireplaces, a separate one bedroom, one bathroom guesthouse, and sits on over 3.5 acres of land.  You can visit the home’s real estate listing and see a more close-up view of the property here.

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The scene shot at the Pasadena house was a very brief one in which Jacob warns Bella upon entering the prom that her boyfriend, Edward Cullen (aka Robert Pattinson), may be a dangerous individual.  Bella blows off his warning and then walks arm-in-arm with Edward around the corner and into the prom, at which point the location miraculously transforms into the View Point Inn.

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The scene was filmed on the lawn in front of the north portion of the home’s wrap-around driveway, which is denoted with the blue “X” in the above aerial image.

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I find it absolutely amazing that the location manager was able to find an area home that not only looked quite a bit like the View Point Inn, but one that was also situated in an Oregonian-like setting.  When I first heard that the scene in which Jacob walks out of the woods to talk to Bella had been filmed in Pasadena, I wrongly assumed that fake trees had been brought in to make the property appear more wooded and forest-like.  But in reality, the scene pictured above is what the grounds surrounding the house actually look like.  It truly is an incredibly piece of property! 

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The house where the beginning portion of the prom scene in Twilight was filmed is located at 1200 South Arroyo Boulevard in Pasadena.