I’m pretty sure the Winter Hollywood Show in Los Angeles was earlier than it had ever been before, so consequently I was destined to take not one, but two vacations before I had even gotten out of the first month of 2017. The fun began on the morning of Wednesday, January 4, when I spring out of bed at 4:30, got showered and ready and left the house by 5:30. I picked up my Dad and drove to the Indianapolis airport, arriving by about 8am. Dad then took my car back to his house, and I waited for my 9:47am flight by eating some Aunite Anne’s in the airport.
I sat next to a young couple in the aisle seat, thankfully beside the girl rather than the boy. We got in earlier than our estimated 11:35am arrival time, but we didn’t have a gate yet. Meanwhile Bob had been waiting at the Wiley office and once I gave the all clear, they came over and picked me up. The first order of California business was to grab something to eat and we chose Sizzler as our meat destination. I thoroughly enjoyed scarfing down their smoky bacon burger as the three of us chatted.
Afterward Bob and I dropped Jimmy back off at his office, and we began the first of our three days together tooling around L.A. and Hollywood, mostly scouting TV locations. Since I had began posting to my Facebook page , I had really doubled down efforts to find houses used prominently in any sitcom I could find. Add this to some final resting place visits of various sitcom stars, and you might call this trip sort of a sitcom odyssey.
I had given Bob a list of locations I’d like to see, most of which I found on the internet, and then he grouped them together by location and added some things of his own, either things he thought might interest me, or things he wanted to see that were in the area. I wasn’t shy about crossing off a few that didn’t interest me, but was also happy to visit any other place he wanted to see. And of course, he came up with some great spots as well.
We began our mission in Santa Monica, at the Woodlawn Cemetery, one I had never been to before, at which we arrived at about 2:15 local time (don’t forget I had gained three hours). There were a few pretty good ones here, highlighted below:
Winston and Weston Doty were Ohio-born twins who appeared in a few of the very earliest Our Gang comedies in 1922-23, as well as the 1924 version of Peter Pan. They were killed at age 19 during the New Year Flood in Los Angeles in 1934.
Jack Hanlon was also a member of the silent Our Gang who starred in three of the series silent films in 1927, as well as appearing with Buster Keaton in The General. This is the first time I had seen Jack’s grave since his passing in 2012. I had last visited him in March of 2011.
Irene Ryan was best known as Granny Daisy Moses in The Beverly Hillbillies, a role for which she was twice nominated for an Emmy.
I’m still sad that I never got to meet Harvey Korman, star of the variety offering The Carol Burnett Show, as well as several Mel Brooks films including Blazing Saddles and High Anxiety.
Hal Smith was probably best remembered for his role as Otis the town drunk in The Andy Griffith Show, but he was also well-known for his voice-over work, which included the role of Owl in Disney’s Winnie the Pooh series, and in The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and Top Cat
Glenn Ford had a long a distinguished career in film, not the least of which included Gilda, Pocketful of Miracles, The Money Pit, and Superman.
Barbara Billingsley is of course most famous in her role as June Cleaver in Leave It to Beaver, a role she reprised in its sequel The New Leave It to Beaver. She was also the hip, jive-talkin’ woman from Airplane!
Ted Bessell portrayed Donald Hollinger, the boyfriend and fiance of Marlo Thomas’s character in the sitcom That Girl.
Although she has nothing to do with sitcoms, Sally Ride is certainly a notable woman in history, both as the first American woman (third overall) and the youngest American astronaut to travel in space.
Also in Santa Monica was the supposed apartment complex which was really a house that had been used in the opening credits of Three’s Company. This one had been discovered in 2012 by a zealous fan that had been searching for over two years!
The ‘apartment’ as seen in the lead-in of Three’s Company
The apartment was actually a single family dwelling
Thanks to the fence, this was the best I could to to get in a photo with it
The next location was one I had always wanted to see too. Those familiar with Bewitched will doubtlessly recognize the house below as the Stephens residence, and while this house is actually located on the Warner Bros. ranch (where one might also find the I Dream of Jeannie house and the Friends fountain, and many other iconic locations), the house facade that was used was actually modeled after a real one… this one…in Santa Monica.
The house on the Warner Ranch as seen in Bewitched
The mirror image version, which served as its model
Our final stop in Santa Monica was a bit of a disappointing one, as it was so well-gated that only the rooftop of the house was available. This house is notorious as being the house in which Marilyn Monroe was found dead in 1962 and age 36.
Vintage photo of the house in which Marilyn Monroe died
Thanks, gate. You can at least see the tile roof.
Back in 2011 I had visited the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery and in fact had done a pretty extensive posting on the graves I saw there. You can find that original posting here, which I am updating with these new graves that we saw on this day after leaving Santa Monica. And they’re here too:
Producer Irwin Winkler and his wife Margo (who starred in Goodfellas) are both still alive, but they’ve got their final resting place all picked out…
Peter Falk is best known for his role as Columbo and his role in the mega-comedy It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Although his grave reads “I’m not here, I’m home with Shera” (Shera being his wife), he’s really not. He’s here.
The son of Sylvester Stallone, Sage Stallone sadly died at the young age of 36, after starring with his father in Rocky V.
It’s a little hard to read the inscription on the grave of Donna Reed, but this is where TV’s consummate housewife from The Donna Reed Show, Oscar winner for From Here to Eternity, and legendary screen wife of Jimmy Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life, is laid to rest.
The last time I was at Westwood, the gravestone of science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, who penned the classic Fahrenheit 451, was in place but he was still alive. After passing away in 2012, he was laid to rest under the stone.
Jack Klugman had his hand in both the dramatic and sitcom world, as he starred as Oscar Madison in the TV version of The Odd Couple, as well as his own series Quincy M.E. and the film Twelve Angry Men, not to mention four roles in The Twilight Zone series.
Last but not least is the fabulous plaque grave marker indicating the final resting place of the wonderful Don Knotts, star of The Andy Griffith Show, Three’s Company, The Incredible Mr. Limpet, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, and numerous other films and TV series in which showcased his talent.
It was getting close to 6pm when Bob and I made our way to our central hub in Hollywood, the Super 8 Motel on Western Avenue. We checked into our room, and then quickly headed out to the nearby historical Vista Theatre to check out their current offering La La Land at 7pm. I enjoyed the film quite a lot, especially seeing it in a Hollywood theater with a hot dog. It was no small testament to the film that I never fell asleep, despite still being on Ohio time. It also inspired Bob to make a few additional stops on our journey to check out some locations that were used in the film.
Hollywood home base
What a great place to see this Oscar nominated musical
The Vista had their own handprint courtyard; I’m here with the prints of Oscar winner Martin Landau
The movie was enjoyable enough that even this hot dog didn’t overshadow it
Even though I had stayed awake for the movie, that didn’t mean I didn’t crash quickly and hard once we got back to the room. We’d have another full day of location scouting the next day. This time we might even throw in a few DDD’s…
My Winter 2017 Hollywood trip will continue…
Leave a Reply