McFly Monday

I recently added another “Back to the Future” filming location to my list: Whittier High School, aka Hill Valley High School in the “BTTF” franchise. Both John Lasseter (of Pixar fame) and Richard Nixon (37th President of the U.S.) attended the hallowed halls of this school.



A fence surrounds the entire complex, so it was impossible to get any decent closeup shots or spend a lot of time trying to figure out what was filmed where.



It would appear that the Administration section of the complex…



is the section that is featured in these frames:







The building retains its Art Deco charm, with plenty of interesting details:



The Vic Lopez auditorium was constructed in 1946:



Previous blog posts covered my visits to the Gamble House in Pasadena:



…aka Doc Brown’s home:



The Blacker House:



…used for interiors of Doc Brown’s:



The First Methodist Church in Hollywood:



…where the Enchantment Under the Sea dance was held:



The most iconic building is the Courthouse set from the Universal lot, which has been built and rebuilt so many times I have doubts that anything from 1985 is still left of it. Here’s what it looked like in 2004:





During my 2004 visit to Universal, the DeLorean was rusting outdoors for all to paw at:



There are still a few filming locations for “BTTF” for me to visit. Stay tuned!

See more Daveland photos at my main website.

Balboa Park: Back to the Future

This spring, imagine my amazement when I saw a group of DeLoreans parked in the lot near the Balboa Park Automotive museum. What’s a DeLorean you ask? It was a rear-engine two-passenger car manufactured by DMC (DeLorean Motor Company) from 1981-1983. It was known for looking cool but poor performance. The company went belly up. Why would anyone care about this car today? How about this shot from the blockbuster film “Back to the Future”? That might ring a bell for you. Yup…Doc Brown’s time machine used a DeLorean.



NOW maybe you can understand my amazement at seeing five DeLoreans at Balboa Park last March.



A frequent Daveland reader/commenter (who shall remain anonymous) identified the guy in the green shirt as Alexander Wolfgang Tietz:



He’s a local DeLorean owner; I think he’s also a cameraman for some news agency, a field guy that hefts around the big shoulder mounted rigs. I’ve met him at numerous car shows. He embraces “Back to the Future” but will never convert his DeLorean into a time machine. It doesn’t stop him from doing birthday parties dressed as Doc Brown, though.

Hey…a guy’s gotta’ make a buck, right? Based on his Instagram page, it looks like his car was part of a St. Patrick’s Parade in San Diego. Here’s one of the original DeLoreans used in the “Back to the Future” movie when I saw it back in 2004 parked at Universal Studios in Hollywood.



In a previous post, I also showed the Gamble House in Pasadena, which was used for the exteriors of Doc Brown’s house in the movie:



See more photos at my main website.

The Wright Tour Pt. 5

I had never heard of the Millard House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Unfortunately, we were not able to tour the inside, so had to be content with a stalker's view from the outside. There were still plenty of cool details to document for this textile block home.









The back gate afforded another view of the home:



Hopefully in the near future the new owners will allow this beauty to be seen by the public. Oh the responsibility of owning a Frank Lloyd Wright creation!



Lunch that day was at The Raymond, a historic restaurant in Pasadena.



Once the caretaker's cottage for a much larger and grander hotel, it is the last remnant of that property.













After lunch, we were able to visit the Blacker House, another Greene & Greene architectural masterpiece.



What an entrance; can you imagine your driveway being this grand?



Like the Gamble House, the craftsmanship of the woodwork was magical.



The front door:



We were asked not to post interior photos as it is a private residence, however, since the entryway was used in the movie "Back to the Future" as Doc Brown's house, I figured most of the world had already seen this!







Last stop for the day was Pasadena Woodworks.



Founded by James "Jim" Ipekjian in 1972 as Ipekjian Custom Woodwork. Jim's early career involved building custom furniture in a variety of styles including early American, French, contemporary, and Greene and Greene, which led him to being hired by the owners of the Blacker House to reproduce all of the home's light fixtures. Jim became their project manager and oversaw all of the trades throughout the restoration. He was also commissioned to reproduce all of the furniture and lighting for the house which continues to this day.



Jim's son, John "Jack" Ipekjian graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in American history and then joined ICW in 2006. Since then he has tried to learn as much as he can from his father. Today he designs and builds furniture and lighting. In 2014, John established his own business called Pasadena Woodworks. Jim and John continue to work on projects together. Ipekjian Custom Woodwork focuses strictly on custom projects while Pasadena Woodworks focuses on limited production furniture and furniture-related products.



John told us that this early piece of his was not really all that good. Of course, it was one of my favorites!



As you can imagine, I was exhausted by the end of this day!

More Frank Lloyd Wright architecture photos at my main website.

The Wright Tour, Pt. 3: The Gamble House

For me, good architecture can be thought provoking and even life changing; I can think of at least three times that my jaw dropped and I rethought my sense of design and style because of what I had seen. First was the tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's Studio in Oak Park Illinois, followed by Taliesin West in Arizona. The most awe-inspiring sight was seeing the atrium of the West Baden Springs Hotel for the first time. On my recent Frank Lloyd Wright tour in Pasadena, a fourth time had to be added to the list when I was able to go through the Gamble House by Greene & Greene. If it looks familiar to you, then you have probably seen the movie "Back to the Future," where it served as the home of Doc Brown.



Built in 1908, The David B. Gamble House was designed by architects Charles Sumner Greene and his brother Henry Mather Greene. The Gamble family generously gifted the home to the city of Pasadena in 1966 in a joint agreement with the University of Southern California, aka USC.

The garage, which now serves as the museum store:



Listening to the tour guide as we stood on the front porch seemed like it lasted for an eternity.



GET ME INSIDE!



Detailed view of the stained glass on the front door, as the outdoor light streams into the front entrance.



Loved this little sculpture that hung by the entryway staircase:



This staircase is a masterpiece. The soft rounded corners of the wood make it appear velvety soft.



The last interior shot I was able to take before a tour guide appeared out of the back and sternly announced that photos were not allowed.



The rest of today's post is an assortment of outdoor shots of the Gamble House as well as some views from the second floor overlooking the backyard.













The Gamble House is reason enough alone for me to hightail it back to Pasadena in the near future.

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