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  • How To LA
    Pasadenas In Disguise
    On film, they're the Midwest and East Coast
    By  Monica Bushman
    Published October 30, 2023 3:37 PM

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    Brad Pittt in a scene from the film “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.” He is standing near a hedge on a cement walkway by the sidewalk outside a two-story white Colonial-style home with black shutters on the windows. He’s wearing white pajamas and a white bathrobe, holding a white cup of coffee and looking down at the ground.
    A still from the 2005 film “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” directed by Doug Liman.
    (
    Samanta Helou Hernandez
    /
    LAist
    )

    Topline:

    For decades, cities east of downtown L.A. — including Pasadena, South Pasadena and Altadena — have been a big draw for film and TV location scouts. Veteran location scout and manager Rick Schuler says the "denas," with their wide variety of single-family homes and tree-lined streets, are most often used as stand-ins for the Midwest or East Coast.

    Why it matters: Schuler says there's so much location scouting that goes on in L.A. for film and TV (and commercials too) that he likes to say that there's "no door" that "hasn't been knocked on at some point or the other." Some filming locations have become tourist destinations unto themselves — like the Halloween houses in South Pasadena or the Back to the Future house (also known as The Gamble House) in Pasadena. And when a location that was spotlighted in film or TV becomes a point of interest, it can sometimes also help get folks interested in historical preservation.

    Listen to the conversation:

    Listen • 24:08
    From 'Halloween' To 'Back To The Future': Why Filmmakers Love Pasadena and South Pas

    Go deeper:

    Listen • 24:08
    From 'Halloween' To 'Back To The Future': Why Filmmakers Love Pasadena and South Pas

    There isn't as much filming going on in Los Angeles right now due to the ongoing actors' strike and only recently resolved writers' strike. But for decades, cities east of downtown L.A. — including Pasadena, South Pasadena and Altadena — have been a big draw for film and TV productions.

    Veteran location scout and manager Rick Schuler says the "denas," with their wide variety of single-family homes and tree-lined streets, are most often used as stand-ins for the Midwest or East Coast.

    Schuler recently took the How To LA team on a tour of some filming locations, used in movies like Halloween, Back to the Future and Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

    A small-town feel in L.A. County

    The city of South Pasadena, Schuler says, is often a go-to destination when a film crew wants a location that has the feel of a small, Midwestern town.

    And interestingly, the city does have a historical connection with the Midwest — the Anglo founders of South Pasadena and Pasadena, back in the 1870s, were from Indiana.

    Probably the most well-known filming location in South Pasadena is the “Michael Myers” house at 1000 Mission St., which was featured in the 1978 horror classic Halloween. In the film, and subsequent sequels, it’s the home of the killer, Michael Myers.

    A view of the outside front of a two-story Victorian style blue house with white and red trim and a brown roof, flanked by tall trees. A brick path leads to the front porch with a sign out front that reads “1000 Century House.”
    The "Michael Myers" house in South Pasadena featured in the 1978 film "Halloween," set in a fictional town in Illinois.
    (
    Samanta Helou Hernandez
    /
    LAist
    )
    In a still image from the 1978 film “Halloween,” actress Jamie Lee Curtis, playing the character of Laurie Strode, walks along a sidewalk in front of an old, off-white two-story Victorian home with a porch and four windows, two on each side of the home. While she looks at the house, away from the camera, a tall tree is to her right, and next to the house is a smaller, one-story bright white home.
    A still from the 1978 film “Halloween,” written and directed by John Carpenter.
    (
    Shout! Factory
    )

    The Victorian-style home, built in 1888, is one of several South Pasadena houses featured in the film and is meant to be the fictional town of Haddonfield, Illinois.

    “But they chose South Pasadena,” Schuler says, because “South Pasadena is like an everywhere American city, basically from the Midwest or the East Coast. And what makes it that are the tree-lined streets, the type of architecture that's here. And it feels like a small town.”

    Schuler says there’s also a good number of brick buildings in South Pasadena, which you don’t see too much of in L.A., and lots of big camphor trees that form canopies over streets.

    A view of the front of the South Pasadena Public Library on a sunny day. There is a green lawn out front, several different types of trees, including some palm trees on the right. Two light posts flank the cement and brick walkway to the arched front entrance.
    The South Pasadena Public Library is surrounded by trees, including some pesky palms.
    (
    Samanta Helou Hernandez
    /
    LAist
    )

    The only tree that’s a problem? Palm trees — a dead giveaway that you’re in L.A.

    “Palm trees can be the bane of our existence,” Schuler says. Or at least, they used to be. “In the age now of CGI and all that kind of stuff, they can quickly now say, ‘Oh, we can remove that.’”

    There are other workarounds too that don’t involve computers. For example, near the Pasadena home that Schuler found for the 2005 movie Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which was set on the East Coast, the film crew disguised the tree trunks of some palm trees that line the street.

    “We wrapped them with two semi-cylinder, oak-looking or camphor-tree-looking shells,” Schuler says. “And so we did like 10 feet of that” because only the tree trunks could be seen in the frame.

    Being from the Midwest himself though, Schuler says South Pasadena and Pasadena aren’t exact matches for the region.

    “I think we've created kind of a movie version of the Midwest with a white picket fence, dormers [on the house] and wood shingles. And that kind of thing does exist there, but there's all kinds of other styles there too.”

    Knock, knock. Can we film at your house?

    Another big challenge to filming in residential neighborhoods, Schuler says, is getting the support of a homeowner to use a specific house.

    The first step is knocking on the door, then explaining why you’re there, but also not giving them too much information too quickly.

    “What we would have to do is talk to the people [about] whether they want to do it,” Schuler says, “and then eventually [explain that] yes, we need to move you out into a hotel, we want to take all your stuff out and put it in storage, we want to bring our stuff in…”

    And depending on what city you’re in and what time of day or night you want to film, productions also need to get sign off from a certain number of neighbors.

    A front view of a white, two-story Colonial-style home with black shutters on either side of all the windows. A cement walkway cuts the lawn in half. There is an American flag and pumpkins decorating the porch. Separating the lawn and sidewalk is a large hedge. A lamppost is on the right and two large trees partially obscure the house.
    A house in Pasadena featured in the film "Mr. & Mrs. Smith."
    (
    Samanta Helou Hernandez
    /
    LAist
    )
    Brad Pittt in a scene from the film “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.” He is standing near a hedge on a cement walkway by the sidewalk outside a two-story white Colonial-style home with black shutters on the windows. He’s wearing white pajamas and a white bathrobe, holding a white cup of coffee and looking down at the ground.
    A still from the 2005 film “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” directed by Doug Liman.
    (
    20th Century Fox
    )

    A photo of a photo on an Iphone showing the Leslie family with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. You can see part of a hand holding the phone and in the background, behind the phone, is a man standing barefoot on a wooden floor, wearing black shorts and a long-sleeve yellow t-shirt.
    Robbie Leslie shows a photo of his family with actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who filmed “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” in part, at the Leslie’s home. Robbie is on the far left.
    (
    Claire Fogarty
    )

    In the case of the Colonial-style Mr. & Mrs. Smith house on San Pascual Avenue in Pasadena, which was only used for outdoor shots, the owners also agreed to let the film crew drive a car up onto their lawn, build a temporary garage in the backyard, and even set off a small explosion.

    Robbie Leslie, whose parents own the home, and who was 7 years old at the time of filming, remembers it as a great time.

    “We were put up in the Ritz Carlton a couple miles away and I remember putting it to good use,” Leslie says. “I would always go down to the bar after school and ask for a bowl of cereal, which they would always provide. And it was fun.”

    “Now it's kind of like every icebreaker thing that I ever need. I can be like, ‘Oh, have you ever seen Mr. & Mrs. Smith? That's our house … [and] no, it didn’t really get blown up.’”

    A variety of architectural styles

    Another draw for film location scouts are the variety of homes in the “denas.”

    Just down the street from the main Mr. & Mrs. Smith house is a Tudor-style house that was also used for a short scene.

    A view of an all-brick home with a green lawn out front. The roof is sharply angled, like a triangle, with a smaller triangle in front, forming the main entrance. There is a chimney on the left side of home, with shrubs and flowers out front and a medium-sized tree to the right. Two alarm company signs are in front of the flower bids on either side of the home.
    A house in Pasadena featured in the film "Mr. & Mrs. Smith."
    (
    Samanta Helou Hernandez
    /
    LAist
    )
    In this still photo of a scene from “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” Brad Pitt’s character is crouched down, wrestling a man on the ground in a driveway. Pitt is wearing a white undershirt and boxer shorts. A gray car door is open on the left and to the right you see part of a brick home with an angled archway and a large tree.
    A still from the 2005 film “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” directed by Doug Liman.
    (
    20th Century Fox
    )

    And it’s just a short drive across the city to the iconic Craftsman Back to the Future home (or Gamble House) which is a popular tourist destination with architecture buffs and film-lovers alike. It was designed by the renowned architectural firm Greene and Greene.

    A view of the Gamble House in Pasadena, from the brick walkway. The grass outside the home is greenish brown and the house itself is covered in brown shingles, two stories tall, with an open-air patio on the top floor. The beams of the roof are visible as they extend out beyond the structure of the home itself. A chimney is visible in the center of the roof and the cement-looking short front wall is partially covered by an ivy-like climbing plant. About four small, bright green spikey palms or succulents sit in planters on the short wall.
    The Gamble House in Pasadena which was featured in "Back to the Future."
    (
    Samanta Helou Hernandez
    /
    LAist
    )

    Though, in the case of the Gamble House, Schuler says it now may be too well known now to use in other films. “Not so much because it’s the Gamble House, but more because it was in Back to the Future.”

    And even though having a house become somewhat “off limits” isn’t a great thing for location scouts like him, Schuler says: “in some sense that's good, because we showcase certain things that people sort of get interested in preserving.”

    Other film locations to check out in the "denas"

      • Jamie Lee Curtis’s character’s home from “Halloween” in South Pasadena at 1103 Fairview Ave.
      • The house from “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” (1985) at 1848 Oxley Street in South Pasadena
      • The Spanish-style mansion from the classic 1974 film “Chinatown” at 1315 S. El Molino Ave. in Pasadena
      • From “Back to the Future”: George McFly’s house at 1711 Bushnell Ave. and Lorraine’s house at 1727 Bushnell Ave.
      • The “Father of the Bride” house from the 1991 film: 843 South El Molino Ave. in Pasadena (The film was set in nearby San Marino)
      • Morgan Freeman’s character’s Victorian-style house from the 1995 thriller “Seven”: 919 Columbia St. (meant to be East Coast)
      • Jon Voight’s character’s Colonial-style house from the “National Treasure” films: 1030 Buena Vista St. (meant to be D.C.-area)

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