Pasadena locations – Page 2

July 14, 2011July 13, 2011

The “Bruce Almighty” Party House

Last week while going through the glove compartment of my car, I came across the Scott’s L.A. Audio Tour of Pasadena CD that I had purchased about seven years prior. For those who have never heard of Scott’s L.A., the family-owned company produces a series of audio driving tours of the Southern California area, all of which feature numerous famous locations, including quite a few that have appeared in movies and on television. Since I had not listened to the CD in years, I decided to spend a couple of hours re-taking the tour. And I am so glad that I did because there were a few locales mentioned on it that I had completely forgotten about, the most important of which was the party house from the 2003 movie Bruce Almighty. And even though I was not at all a fan of Bruce Almighty, because my girl Jen had filmed a scene at the house, I figured it was most-definitely stalk- and blog-worthy.

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In real life, the Bruce Almighty party mansion is known as the Stern House and it was originally built in 1938 by architects Garrett Van Pelt and Robert E. Alexander. The Mediterranean-style property, which sits on 0.83 acres of land, boasts 7 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms, and 7,146 square feet of living space. And even though the residence has a name and seems to be historic in some way, surprisingly I could not find any other information about it online.

In Bruce Almighty, the Channel 7 news team throws Bruce Nolan (aka Jim Carrey) a party at the supposed Vanderbilt Estate in New York in honor of his recent promotion. When Bruce’s girlfriend Grace Connelly (aka Jennifer Aniston) shows up at the party, she catches him kissing his co-anchor Susan Ortega (aka Catherine Bell) and a fight ensues out in front of the mansion.

And while I could not find any photographs of the inside of the property to verify this, I am fairly certain that a different residence was used to film the interior party scenes.

Ironically enough, while scanning through Bruce Almighty yesterday to make screen captures for this post, I noticed that the house belonging to Debbie (aka Lisa Ann Walter) in the flick is the very same property where the Simpson family lived in fave movie She’s Out of Control, which I stalked this past May.

I also came across this super-cute photograph on IMDB of my girl Jen and Bruce Almighty director Tom Shadyac which was taken out in front of the She’s Out of Control house. Love it!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Bruce Almighty party house is located at 1395 Ridge Way in Pasadena. You can visit the Scott’s L.A. website and purchase the company’s various tour CDs here.

July 8, 2011July 7, 2011

George’s Side Kicks Shoe Factory from “Father of the Bride”

Another Father of the Bride location that fellow stalker Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website, tracked down recently was the Side Kicks shoe factory owned by George Banks (aka Steve Martin) in the flick. And while I had been absolutely dying to stalk the place for what seemed like ages, I just could not seem to figure out where on earth it was located. Then last month Chas managed to get into contact with several of the movie’s crew members, one of whom not only remembered the exact address of the warehouse (432 South Arroyo Parkway in Pasadena), but also informed him that while the building was vacant at the time of the filming, it was now occupied by Snyder Diamond, a high-end kitchen and bath appliance retailer. And while I was BEYOND excited when Chas told me the news, because a new company had taken over the space, I did not have high hopes that it would be very recognizable from the movie.

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So imagine my surprise when I walked through the doors and discovered that the building looked almost exactly the same as it did when Father of the Bride was filmed over two full decades ago! I just about died of excitement and then proceeded to walk almost every square inch of the place, soaking in the many memories of the movie that came flooding back to me.

As you can see in the above screen captures, the ceiling area, windows, interior pipes and brick walls all still look EXACTLY the same today as they did onscreen in 1991. The only real difference is the fake kitchen and bath set-ups which have since been installed on the main floor.

I was most excited to stalk the warehouse’s upstairs mezzanine, which was used as George’s office in Father of the Bride.

Sadly though, that particular area has been completely gutted and all of the interior walls, doors, and windows removed and now looks entirely different than it did when the movie was filmed.

A view of George’s office area from the ground floor of Snyder Diamond is pictured above.

The circular staircase leading up to George’s office has also, sadly, since been removed.

The exterior of the Snyder Diamond building, which was not shown in Father of the Bride, is quite beautiful. The Tudor-style structure, which was originally constructed in 1922, is currently on the National Register of Historic Places. As I mentioned above, the property was vacant at the time of the filming, which allowed producers to come in and dress it as they pleased. Sometime after the movie was lensed, Thomasville Furniture moved in. They vacated the property in 2005, whereupon it was leased by Snyder Diamond. For whatever reason, when Father of the Bride Part II was filmed in 1995, location scouts found a different Pasadena area building to stand in for the Side Kicks factory.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website, for finding this location. You can check out Chas’ Father of the Bride filming locations page here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Snyder Diamond, aka George’s Side Kicks shoe factory from Father of the Bride, is located at 432 South Arroyo Parkway in Pasadena.

July 1, 2011June 30, 2011

Teddy Montgomery’s House from “90210”

As I mentioned in Tuesday’s post, there has not been a lot of time for me to do much stalking as of late and, because of that, I have been feeling a bit out of sorts. I am also in the process of giving up coffee (I know, I know, that’s crazy talk!), which further explains why I have been feeling so unlike myself lately. Not to mention that I am still pretty bummed out over my parents’ recent move. So yesterday morning I decided to return some normalcy to my life by doing a bit of stalking. Because I did not have much time, I decided to stick close to home and figured what better location to stalk than the house where Teddy Montgomery (aka Trevor Donovan) lives on fave show 90210. I found this location, as always, thanks to fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, who actually tracked the place down a little over a year ago. For whatever reason, though, I had yet to make it out there until yesterday morning. And please excuse the above photograph – I was alone when I took it and had to prop the camera up on the roof of my car and use the self-timer. LOL

Teddy Montgomery’s supposed-Beverly-Hills-area abode has actually appeared only once on 90210, in the Season 2 episode titled “Meet the Parent”, in the scene in which Teddy introduces Silver (aka Jessica Stroup) to his movie star father, Spence Montgomery (aka Ryan O’Neal), for the first time.

Areas of the house which appeared in the episode include the exterior;

the living room;

the study;

. . . and the backyard.

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In real life, the mansion, which was originally built in 1911 and sits on a .63-acre plot of land, boasts 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and a whopping 7,850 square feet of living space.

Sadly though, not much of the property, which according to the sign out front is named Villa Arroyo Vista, is visible from the street.

And the aerial views aren’t that great either. Thankfully though, I did some digging and found some fabulous interior photographs of the mansion, which you can take a look at here.

Villa Arroyo Vista has actually appeared several times onscreen. According to the Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations website, the mansion was also the site of the Christmas scene in the 1994 movie Star Trek: Generations.

And it was where Christina Aguilera shot the commercial for her Royal Desire perfume in late 2010.

Christina Aguilera commercial–Villa Arroyo Vista

You can watch the making of that commercial by clicking above.

According to my friend E.J. over at the Movieland Directory, the home was also used in the filming of the 2007 television series 12 Miles of Bad Road.

Big THANK YOU to Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Teddy Montgomery’s house from 90210 is located at 465 South Grand Avenue in Pasadena.