Community Corner
The Ultimate Tour of Studio City Taken for Carpenter Fundraising
Thor Jonsson and his family go on a three-hour tour of Studio City for all the highlights.
Thor Jonsson was trained as an architect and so he and his wife Lisa were very interested in finding out about the secrets of Studio City.
They were the high bidders at the big annual auction of the Studio City Patch Tour that was going to help Carpenter Community Charter and be led by editor Mike Szymanski and local know-it-all Jack McGrath.
Lisa Jonsson was very excited that she could not only pick four stores listed on Studio City Patch in the Marketplace for $25 gift certificates, but also pick a restaurant to eat at. She picked the family-run Raphael because she had not been there, and she knew that there was a great connection to Carpenter. (In fact, the chef and the son of the owner met at Carpenter when they were kids!)
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The helpful gentlement at Enterprise Rental (branch rental manager Jacob Elliott) gave us a special rate for the six-seater mini-van that would take us around the area, and a few of the celebrities told us they would not only stop and say hi, but show us around their homes.
We’ll give you the highlights of the tour, and they will be displayed on the map, but we will not give you exact addresses of houses. There will be links you can explore of articles and off-site links as well as business listings of all the places we mentioned.
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So, just before we went on the tour last weekend, Lisa was sick (in fact she had pneumonia!) I was concerned she may even have had West Nile Virus which has been plaguing Studio City!
Because we already had the van, and a appointments planned, Thor decided to go on the tour with us and brought two friends, Lisa’s sister Ida Villanueva-Heisler (who also has a child at Carpenter), and Christel Saha. They are locals, but they discovered a lot of new things about their neighborhood.
(Before anyone gets insulted, we did not cover all parts of Studio City, we didn’t get as far as Coldwater Canyon or Fulton, and we certainly didn’t get to all the fascinating spots, but if you think of ones we dreadfully missed, please list them in the COMMENTs area below!)
This tour takes approximately three hours
* The tour started at Raphael on Ventura Boulevard and we headed east.
We discussed the unique garden wall of Raphael, Studio City Music and the Great Wall at the Studio City Car Wash.
We took a detour off Ventura and showed them William Shatner’s house and a curious house nearby that was designed by Seattle architect Robert Oshatz. Further up the road is Miley Cyrus’s new place, but it is too far up a windy road, and nothing can be seen anyway.
Sam’s Green Paw is the very environmentally-friendly dog boarding place, and Oil Can Harry’s is one of the longest-running gay clubs in the area.
Platinum Live was owned by Bob Barker, and is one of the places the Beatles held a press conference when they first came to the United States and played at the Hollywood Bowl.
Former Hanna-Barbera building
(head up Cahuenga, past Barham)
Bridge of Invasion of the Body Snatchers
(Right at Mulholland, up Woodrow Wilson)
Valley View Elementary Art Mural
(Continue up Woodrow Wilson then right at Mulholland)
Pass the houses of Rudy Vallee, Ricki Lake, Quentin Tarantino, Dan Duryea, Arsenio Hall, Molly Ringwold,
Justin Timberlake, Errol Flynn and the Ozzie and Harriet Nelson family.
(Stop at Universal Overlook)
Chemosphere House at 7808 Torreyson Dr.
(Head west along Mulholland) Charlie Sheen, Jack Nicholson, Marlon Brando had homes near this stretch.
(South on Laurel Canyon)
(Right at Pacoima Court)
Jack McGrath’s childhood home.
Fryman Canyon area, where Teri Hatcher, George Clooney, Ed Asner, Michael J. Fox, Gene Autry and many others lived and still live.
(North again on Laurel Canyon. Pass Carpenter Community Charter School)
(Left on Maxwellton)
Houses of Ed Begley, Bill Nye, George Wendt, Stan Laurel, the place Malcolm in the Middle was shot.
(Take Cantura to Whitsett north)
Discuss the former Queen Mary, now Serra, Hallmark, Kriser’s.
(Cross the Los Angeles River)
Campbell Hall & the new building
(Right on Moorpark)
Samuel French/Art Director’s Guild
Sculptures by Karl Johnson along Radford
(Woodbridge to Laurel Canyon)
(Right on Moorpark/ left on Radford)
Radford Bridge Underpass ghost
(Sarah west over to Walter Reed Middle School right on Irvine)
The completely Green House at 4426 Irvine
(left on Moorpark toTujunga Village)
Robert Blake's wife murder location at Kraft
(right on Tujunga, left on Dilling)
Stone House on Klemp
Robert Blake’s former house
Mike Farrell from MASH
(cross Colfax and the left on Ventura)
Back to Raphael
THE END
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