Top 10 most amazing location finds

[Tom]

It´s 2020 and we have been searching together for around 20 years now for unknown locations. Only 32 locations in the whole series (around 3%) are left. Time to line up the most amazing cases and their stories behind. 

Here is my Top 10 (irrespective of who found it) based on mystery and story how it was found:

1. Drug lab in Milk Run. Finding an abandoned location is always hard but this one was masterclass especially as it was found 7 or 8 years ago when Google and historic aerials where not as good as today.

2. The Ramrod motel in Streetwise (together with Romano´s apartment). Same category as above. Was a Group effort. Simply amazing. Where did we look around? Even up to Hialeah!

3. The consulate in Rites of passage. Good example of never giving up, especially trying out different Google search terms for pictures.

4. Bravo Gym in Down for the count. Also amazing group effort. Only hint we had was the number (3555)

5. The video dating service in Love at first sight. We looked behind the moon to find it, but the address was always visible .Just not readable. Thanks to German label Koch and the best BluRay encoding ever it was easy. Just took 30 years to find ....

6. The beach hotel in the Pilot. We knew that it must be way north of Miami Beach but it took a long group effort to find it.

7. Burnett´s villa in Redemption in blood. Despite a unique coastline, we were off for several years. Gave up on it, one relentless detective brought us back on track and then we had it within one day.

8. The upscale home in teaser of Deliver us from evil. In fact we had only one still from the front to find it. No Google street view and no realtor photos available. And when we found it, one of us contacted the owner to be sure. The owner family´s son, a lawyer, re-created the episode photos so accurately that we even could match it electronically with the episode stills. Simply amazing story!

9. Zito´s funeral site in Down for the count 2. We always knew it was a south beach hotel but never found it. Reason. It was the only hotel not within the usual Ocean Drive/Washington/Collins Ave grid but a few blocks outside. We nailed it with small little details and an old photo showing exactly the spot where the casket was displayed.

10. The alley where Castillo showed his martial arts for the very first time. Golden Triangle Part 1. Strawberry´s in Hialeah. I even forgot who found it and how but it simply stands as one of the trickiest locations to find especially as they hardly ever shot in HIaleah.

Looking forward to reading other detectives´ top 10.

Edited October 10, 2020 by Tom

[Dadrian]

11. The party house from Rites of Passage. I wanna buy it and throw a party. 

[Tom]

vor 21 Minuten schrieb Dadrian:

11. The party house from Rites of Passage. I wanna buy it and throw a party. 

with or without hookers ?  Will Stan&Larry be enough fun for ya?

[Dadrian]

6 minutes ago, Tom said:

with or without hookers

It would be for forum members only, so I guess we would find out...  

[Tom]

vor 1 Minute schrieb Dadrian:

It would be for forum members only, so I guess we would find out...  

You´re probably in the wrong forum pal. I hope you did not post the Miami Vice stuff on the hooker board. That would be embarassing 

[airtommy]

9 hours ago, Tom said:

1. Drug lab in Milk Run. Finding an abandoned location is always hard but this one was masterclass especially as it was found 7 or 8 years ago when Google and historic aerials where not as good as today.

It was 9 years ago, but that was the incorrect location.  It is very cool that behind-the-scenes footage was instrumental in finding the general area.  It was 5 years ago that I found the correct location using Historic Aerials.

 

[Tom]

I am adding number 12 and 13 now to the list, based on how it was found and the lessons learned from it.

12. Knox apartment in Death and the lady

It was obvious from the get that this is an old Art Deco (=Miami Beach) building close to other locations in this ep (e.g Corsair at 101 Collins Ave, also gone), based on the unique railing shown in the exterior shot. Google did not yield anything as the building was long gone and no picture could be found with that unique railing, even MDPL guides had no clue. On 1986 historic aerials there was a potential building near the other locations on the 100 Collins Ave block, but only seen from above with no chance to prove if it is the right one. In Buddies the Leonard Hotel at 54 Collins was used but the unique railing was not to be seen there.

The solution was: google search is not a fully complete search engine for old Miami pictures. When trying Pinterest instead (which is usually referenced within Google searches, but not this time!) I found the album of a Hungarian guy with 10.000+ pictures of old Miami, structured by area and street and he had an old picture of the Leonard Hotel at 54 Collins Ave that was exactly taken at the inside yard with the unique railing as seen in the episode and an exterior picture of the building facade where the railing was as well in earlier times. 

Bottom line: don´t base picture searches on Google only and be lucky that a guy from Hungary has more private interest in preserving and structuring old Miami photos than the US locals. If he had all of them in one folder without structure (he had a specific folder just for the 100 block of Collins Ave!), it would have taken years to locate the specific proof pic in question.

 

13. Police warehouse in Badge of Dishonor

It was likely that this another downtown location close to the other locations (only downtown) in this ep. It was unclear whether the police storage was real or not which was important to derive whether they rather did a long journey for the real thing or just did a convenience trip nearby for a dressed warehouse. The unique search pattern was clear: diagonal parking in front of a long stretched warehouse building. No find on Google or historic aerials though also not near the other Miami River locations. Knowledgeable Miami police officers asked could not recognize the warehouse and said it was fake.

The key clue was to realize the correct orientation of the building. The exterior scene was filmed during the day in full sunshine. The shadow indicated that the diagonal parking had to be on the N-side of a W-E stretched building. With that clue and another search near the other locations a matching building was a 5 minute find just between two other locations on 1986 historic aerials, but the final picture proof was missing. Final proof was a reverse check of the address that led to a location fan site of an old Bud Spencer movie filmed in Miami in 1977 where that long gone building was in plain sight in the background. 

Bottom line: correct orientation (N-S) of location sketches is extremely important as you don´t see the wood from the trees when you program yourself to a wrong search pattern (the orientation that you are presented on TV). And, the fan location site with picture proof of that exact area was a nice coincidence of course, especially that they had pictures of now and then and stated the address, which enabled me to find it quickly with a google search by that address. It was the only source to prove that building. And, as a by product, we learnt the real addresses of Miami Police storages at the time of VICE from eye witnesses and that this location was not a real Police warehouse but an ordinary warehouse with nice set dressing.

 

 

Edited March 16, 2021 by Tom

[C Glide]

Several more great one's come to mind such as both of caroline's houses which were unknown for a very long time. Hackman's hideout in Deliver Us From Evil.... The list could go on as there are hundreds of locations I got great pleasure out of searching for and finding. Some harder than others but always a joy. Some locations are also special because of who I first went to the location with or later took to it and shared the experience. Countless great days over the years being on location and most of what I know about SE Florida is due to location hunting. Half dozen come to mind that are special because I was there with Dan Jimenez who took great interest in the locations but sadly has dropped out of touch for a while. Heck even the original OCB (from Brother's Keeper) was unknown for many years.

[Tom]

vor 5 Stunden schrieb C Glide:

Several more great one's come to mind such as both of caroline's houses which were unknown for a very long time. Hackman's hideout in Deliver Us From Evil.... The list could go on as there are hundreds of locations I got great pleasure out of searching for and finding. Some harder than others but always a joy. Some locations are also special because of who I first went to the location with or later took to it and shared the experience. Countless great days over the years being on location and most of what I know about SE Florida is due to location hunting. Half dozen come to mind that are special because I was there with Dan Jimenez who took great interest in the locations but sadly has dropped out of touch for a while. Heck even the original OCB (from Brother's Keeper) was unknown for many years.

of course all locations are worth mentioning as to finding them is always a challenge and each of them has its own history or story behind.

But we cannot make a Top 1000 lists as we have that many locations in the series approximately (including re-uses of course).

The cases I like most are the ones that had the most interesting path to the solution and where we never thought we´d make it due to scarcity of clues and then found it either by coincidence or by real tough detective work. That´s how I came up with my list above.

 

 

[Tom]

14. Zito´s torched house in Made for each other

Somehow the same mystery category as the Milk Run drug lab  (razed house, completely remodelled neighborhood) .... and ultimately it was in the same street just 300m away from it!

We have searched all over downtown near the other locations, but key was the dolly grip´s hint (Jimmy Green) who worked on this scene and remembered the approximate area because there was a 7-11 at the opposite corner where somebody was shot the same night they filmed this. Therefore he remembered that this was close to the Miami River southbank. Luckily the distinctive garage in the background was seen in other scenes of this and other episodes too, as was the 7-11 on the corner. Cool find that I will never forget!

[Tom]

15. The Tijodee horse farm in One way ticket

Now we can add this location too with a remarkable story how it was found. Airtommy found that there is fine print on the horse truck passing by in the background and asked if someone can read it with BluRays. When trying to do that the print was not readable but two horse names were on a plate on the stables. A reverse check on the horse on a breeder database led to the owner and then to the Tijodee farm the horse owner and his brother had in Homestead. Another website delivered the address for the farm. 
Bottom line: the clue was always there and we did not see it. And: even the smallest clue is important! 

[daytona365]

what about Tucker's apartment in "Smuggler's Blues", the breeze block imprint on the floor of stage D...? ;-)

[Tom]

vor 7 Minuten schrieb daytona365:

what about Tucker's apartment in "Smuggler's Blues", the breeze block imprint on the floor of stage D...? ;-)

Yes you’re absolutely right. As this was proof for a studio location after crew members have confirmed it as studio it escaped my memory. 

[Tom]

16. the gallery in One way ticket

I think this find is worth a story as well. We have been wondering about the gallery for years, but no find on all typical gallery stretches. A mysterious hint from a new member in March 2020 that a gallery on Kane Concourse was used led nowhere as we found no match and the user never replied to questions.

The breakthrough came when, after the horse farm find (that came through the name plate of the horse in the stable) we paid attention to the pictures hanging in the gallery scenes. Two of them were unique Andy Warhol portraits of and personal gifts to a famous Miami art dealer, Dorothy Blau. Upon checking her gallery locations in Miami we found that she not only ran her own gallery but led another one next door and that door exactly matched the door we see in the background in the episode.

[Tom]

17. Tucker´s drug den in Smuggler´s blues

we had a long search for that location and argued whether it is studio or real as the drug den was a full apartment with kitchen and veranda and big associated effort. We had a suspect for a real location based on the breeze blocks used. But then we found out that these garden variety breeze blocks are used everywhere and the studio assumption increased. Apart from ex-crew members who remembered it was studio we got final proof for studio when @daytona365 found a studio scene in Evan (the neo nazi shooting range on stage D) that was filmed 3 months later that had still the "negative" imprint of the breeze blocks sprayed on the studio floor when they were apparently processed there for set building! What an unbelievable find (and sharp eye)!

[Tom]

18. Enriquez villa in Fruit of the poison tree (also the dinner scene of Madsen and Boyle was filmed there)

another remarkable story massively hinged on deep research plus coincidence. In June 2020 we found a 2017 book about the works of architect Kenneth Treister in Miami. He also designed Villa Ipe (the Yakuza house in Rising sun of death) on Anchorage Way and the book contained the only interior pics of that long gone location that was reused in Jack of all trades in season 5. Coincidence has it that Treister also redesigned the place next door, the historic William Jennings Bryan house, a coral stone house with inner court yard and included a picture of that center court that matched exactly with Enriquez villa with blue jacuzzi and glass roof above. We were so focused on the Villa Ipe pics when we found that book that we did not pay attention to the one pic from the Bryan house next door that Treister included on the same page as one of the Villa Ipe photographs. We had it in front of us for 1 year without noticing before we finally, in August 2021, realized that we had it right there all the time. As the Germans say: sometimes you can´t see the forest from the trees. 

Edited August 23, 2021 by Tom

[Tom]

19. the clinic in Rites of passage

We suspected - due to pink exterior looks and interior stone columns - Villa Viscaya, El Jardin house, checked the Biltmore and other similar looking places, even suspected two different locations, but zilch. I even magnified and compared all stone column patterns in Miami I could find with the columns in the episode. Nada.

Then, one day when checking two unknown locations in Miami Squeeze, I decided to watch the final scenes in Ross´ residence again- although the location, a classic Walter DeGarmo designed house that @daytona365had found in June 2020, was known already. And suddenly, it hit me that the stair guiderail pattern in that scene was the same as the one in the clinic. Luckily the house was sold in 2021 and had plenty of interior realtor pics to compare. And all clinic scenes, exterior and interior, including the stone columns, turned out to be a match with the private home that we thought was used first in season 5, but was in fact in series already very early on.

[Tom]

20. Club Delirious in Prodigal Son

We thought for years we had that one, as a certain focus puller remembered this club was a studio set. But it always looked to big to me for set with lightning, awnings and other details too sophisticated for studio B at Greenwich Studios. Suddenly, in June 2021, an actor from Prodigal son posted a call sheet on Facebook, revealing that the restroom scene in Club Delirious was a studio set (and the drag queen scene that we thought was studio was in fact filmed at Ziegfield´s).

A few days later, when checking Woolfson Archives footage of another location in that episode (Val´s apartment, in fact filmed in Miami Beach at Gina´s apartment complex), I stumbled across completely new Woolfson material to me: DJ walking from his trailer into a club in Hallandale, allegedly to film scenes for Prodigal son. It was clear that this was the right episode, as Paul Michael Glaser was interviewed and DJ wore the same clothes he wore most of the time in NY and in Club Delirious. A brief exterior shot showed a sign "Club 21" above the entrance. Reverse check revealed that this was a gay club in the 80s that got closed in the early 90s and was located next to the I95 in Pembroke Park/Hallandale Beach. It is still a strip club today, with the building untouched.

In order to get final proof I scanned all social media for people remembering Club 21. As it was a gay club, there was a strong but very small community hailing the 80s experience there and I found around 35 pictures of the interior. All were close ups from guys at the bar, no detail visible to link it to the episode. Only one single picture had some part of a stage and a glass brick wall visible. That part was exactly seen in the episode twice, very briefly, but a clear match.

In the end, the focus puller was right, the club was a studio set, but only one toilet scene. Most of it was a real club, just north of Miami.