this one's for the movie lovers

One of the best things about living in SoCal is being close to where all the magic of movie-making happens. I've devoted entire Saturdays to driving around looking at the sweet old houses of Jimmy Stewart, Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles, etc., as well as lots of houses that were used in my favorite films.

When I stumbled on this guy's flickr page, it was like hitting the jackpot. He has page after page of these photos! Here are some of my favorites:) 

I was smitten with this house the minute I saw it on You, Me and Dupree. I can't resist a cute craftsman! Here's a still from the movie (on top), and on the bottom is a picture of the actual house in an LA neighborhood.

The Orpheum Theater on Broadway in LA. They didn't have to change much to get it looking like a 1960's street for the movie That Thing You Do!

This adorable street from That Thing You Do is in Orange, CA ... in fact, it's just around the corner from where we attend church! There's some great places to eat around there, so this street is very, very familiar to me;)

It's hard to recognize this beautiful, green neighborhood in LA as the desert-like "Bailey Park" from It's a Wonderful Life, but it is! Here's a fun fact for you that I learned from the It's a Wonderful Life DVD special features: the entire movie was filmed in LA, in the summer, during an intense heat wave! In the iconic scene where Jimmy Stewart is running down the streets yelling "HELLO BEDFORD FALLS!" as the snow falls, he was actually in LA in the sweltering heat!

This little house has come a long way from it's bare, dusty beginnings when it was used as a house in "Bailey Park" in It's a Wonderful Life.

In I Love You, Man, Sidney was a laid-back guy who didn't worry too much about landscaping. It looks like the real owners in Venice Beach, CA try a little harder.

If you've ever been to the Griffith Observatory in LA, you know that they're very proud that the observatory was practically a main character in Rebel Without a Cause. Here's a still from one of the many scenes that takes place there. I can't believe you used to be able to drive right up to it. That must have been nice. Now you have to park half a mile down the mountain and hike up!

Pasadena is full of charming old homes and streets just like this one, and I've driven by this house a few times to show it to visitors from out of town! It's just as cute in person as it is in the movie, though it looks a little smaller in person. It's the home from Father of the Bride:)

How adorable is this little LA house from Nightmare on Elm Street? I want it! Should I buy this one first, or the one from You, Me and Dupree? Decisions, decisions.

By now you've probably caught on to how obsessed I am with the city of San Diego. This gorgeous hotel is the Hotel Del Coronado, and it's beautiful inside and out. I was just there with my buddy Jillian! It was featured in the movie Some Like it Hot.

In fact, here we are in virtually the same spot as Tony Curtis was!

Hope you enjoyed your house tour through Hollywoodland:)