Summer of ‘85

SStandtand BByy MeMe INTERMOUNTAIN NEWS B&W PHOTOS / Craig Harrington COLOR PHOTOS / Columbia Pictures

Above, Rob Reiner directing his young actors during the memorable train trestle bridge scene over Lake Britton in the movie “Stand By Me,” which at the time of fi lming was still called “The Body” (inset) based on Stephen King’s novella. 35 years ago when Hollywood came to Burney to fi lm two scenes of a classic

By Aaron Williams River Phoenix, Jerry O’Connell and fans of the movie - inside the store and Ron Harrington Corey Feldman starred under director “I had an old antique following the junkyard escape. Rob Reiner in the movie adaption of Don Kerns, the fi re chief in Mountain Thirty-fi ve years ago, in the summer Stephen King’s novella “The Body.” meat display case that I’d Gate, had a fi rst-hand seat for the of ’85, four boys set out on an adventure Fans around the world know it resurrected. They came in fi lming in the summer of 1985. Kerns, to fi nd a dead body. Their path would better, perhaps, as the movie “Stand By and painted the walls an awful then-owner of the Maahcooatche Store take them into the north state to Hat Me,” which was released in 1986. in Hat Creek and the community’s Creek and Lake Britton as Wil Wheaton, The story focuses on a set of four yellow....It was a big deal. They volunteer fi re chief, said the fi lm’s were at my place for location scout came in to the store a full two days.” looking for a place to shoot one scene. “I had an old antique meat display - DON KERNS who in 1985 owned case that I’d resurrected,” Kerns the Maahcooatche Store in recalled. “They came in and painted the Hat Creek which was used to fi lm walls an awful yellow. the store scene in “Stand By Me.” “I had to take everything off my shelves and they stocked it with products from that era.” friends who explore the area near the Kerns said he was paid about imaginary town of Castle Rock in search $1,000 per day for the production. of a dead body in the summer of 1959. “It was a big deal,” he said. “They Narrated by Richard Dreyfuss, the story were at my place for a full two days. weaves the four in and out of danger They set up overnight and then fi lmed while forging those unmistakable bonds the next two days.” of childhood friendship. The exterior of the store – And while much of the area Quidaciolu’s – was actually fi lmed in surrounding “Castle Rock” was fi lmed Junction City, Oregon, and no longer in central Oregon, two notable scenes stands. But the scene inside the store were fi lmed in the Burney area over was fi lmed at Kerns’ Hat Creek store. about a week’s time: the infamous It’s the part where Wheaton’s character, trestle bridge scene where O’Connell Gordy, goes to buy Cokes, hamburger and Wheaton “narrowly” avoid getting and buns as the clerk, played by Near the train trestle bridge over Lake Britton, left to right: actors crunched by the train, and perhaps one veteran character actor Bruce Kirby, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O’Connell and Wil Wheaton. that is not as well known among many asks about Gordy’s deceased brother

After Five / July 2020 / Page 7 Wil Wheaton and veteran character actor Bruce Kirby in the store store, Quidaciolu’s, was shot in Junction City, Oregon, the interior scene from the fi lm “Stand By Me.” While fi lm of the exterior of the of the scene was fi lmed at the Maahcooatche Store in Hat Creek. while he scoops the meat from Kerns’ never really that close, if the train was case. It lasts perhaps two minutes of even there at all. For parts of it, Reiner on-screen time. used short female stunt doubles with “It was surprising they had all those their hair cut short. In other parts of it people there for two days for about with the actors, they used a 600mm three minutes in the fi lm,” Kerns said, long-focus lens that, when shot at the adding one of the actors would grab telephoto end, compressed the image. sodas and candy from the other part of In addition, there were shots of the the store as a production aide would boys running as if there was a train come by and pay for what was taken. behind them when, in fact, there wasn’t. “I’ll tell you, that River Phoenix was a A front projection special eff ect was little terror,” Kerns said. used. These proved to be a problem for It’s not entirely certain, but the short Reiner, who had to manufacture a little scene very early in the fi lm where Gordy drama. buys the True Police Cases magazine “Rob didn’t think we were scared in his hometown’s store may have been enough and I remember it’s the one shot inside the Maahcooatche Store as time Rob raised his voice,” Wheaton well. recalled in a special documentary Craig Harrington, publisher of The feature from the “Stand By Me’ DVD. Intermountain News and After Five “Now, the train was so far behind Magazine, was allowed on the set to them there was no real danger that take photos of the train trestle scene, anything would happen to them,” Reiner some of which are shown on these The late River Phoenix appearing to mug for the camera. Don Kerns, said in the DVD. “When I had a close pages and which were published that who owned Maahcooatche Store in Hat Creek at the time, called up of them running I wanted them to summer of 1985 in The Intermountain Phoenix “a little terror.” be terrifi ed and crying and all this…and News. He also was outside they weren’t doing it. We had a dolly Maahcooatche Store when that scene track set up where the dolly grips were was being fi lmed. Gauntlet,” “Escape From Alcatraz,” and “It took forever to paint it back and I pulling this camera along the tracks to “No one, not even the audio guy, “Firefox.” hate to paint,” he joked. keep up with them running and it was was allowed in the store while they were “It was interesting that while they As for the famous train scene, what hard. One after the other. Finally, I said fi lming,” Harrington said. “The only other were shooting inside the store, we used to be a quiet tucked away location to them ‘if you two aren’t going to be local person who visited the fi lming were outside and Ferris would share has become fairly well known. frightened…these men are tired. They at the Maacooatche Store was Clint with me how ‘Clint would never shoot Filmed on the McCloud River don’t want to push this camera anymore Eastwood’s fi lm editor, Ferris Webster, it that way,’” Harrington said. “I’m not Railroad, the 80-foot tall trestle was and the reason they have to keep doing who was living in Hat Creek at the time.” sure exactly what he was referring to, located above Lake Britton and the it is because of you; you’re not doing’… Webster’s career as a fi lm editor whether it had to do with the directing, scene is one of the more dramatic in the and I started yelling at them ‘If you’re began in the early 1940s and continued audio work, instructing the actors, movie. It features all four boys running not going to cry because you’re worried through the early 1980s for such fi lms something else, or just the overall from the train, with Wheaton and that that train is coming after you, then as “The Magnifi cent Seven,” “The Great production.” O’Connell falling behind as Wheaton you better start crying because I’m Escape” and the original “Manchurian In the end, Kerns said the production tries to help O’Connell get up and get going to come after you.’ They started Candidate.” He also edited a number team paid him extra to remove all the moving as the fast-approaching train crying and I said ‘Roll the camera’ and of Eastwood’s fi lms, including “High stuff they’d brought in as props and gets closer and closer to them. they started running, and they started Plains Drifter,” “Magnum Force,” “The repaint the store’s interior. But through movie magic, it was crying.”

Page 8 / July 2020 / After Five And the rest is cinematic history. “Man, looking back, how brilliant was Rob Reiner?” O’Connell said. “Look at that performance he got out of me. That’s not me acting when that train is chasing me, that’s Rob Reiner. That’s all Rob Reiner.” The fi lm crew also apparently lost a camera during the trestle scene. “I was there when the camera that was set up on the tracks to record the train crossing the trestle was inadvertently struck by the train when it didn’t stop in time,” Harrington said. “I believe it was on the third take and so they had to go with what had already been shot. I was told it was a special camera, one of only two or three in the world, and was broken in the collision. I don’t know if it was later repaired and usable again, but never again on that fi lm.”

Third scene cut Harrington said there was actually a third scene fi lmed in Burney that was apparently cut from the fi lm. “I remember a scene that took place inside a kitchen where movie crews remodeled the homeowner’s kitchen,” he said. “Even though the scene was edited out, the homeowner said she didn’t care as she got a remodeled kitchen for free.” Above, director Rob Reiner, right, and Aerosmith’s music video for actors (left to right) Wil Wheaton, River “Livin’ On The Edge” Phoenix and Jerry O’Connell walk back A section of the same McCloud to shoot another take at the train trestle Railway line was later featured in the bridge over Lake Britton. Left, a still from 1993 music video for Aerosmith’s “Livin’ that scene with O’Connell and Wheaton. on the Edge.” Reiner used a 600mm long-focus lens In the scene, guitarist Joe Perry that compressed the image as shown plays a solo in front of an oncoming here to make the actors appear closer to train (fi lmed using the front projection the train than they actually were. There special eff ect), before stepping off were also shots of the boys running as the tracks at the last second. The if there was a train behind them when, bridge across Lake Britton and the in fact, there wasn’t. A front projection McCloud Railway train are featured for special eff ect was used. In other shots 39 seconds starting at 2:19 from the where the train was close to the actors, beginning of the video. Reiner used female stunt doubles who The popular video for the song were shorter and had cut their hair. In earned the band a Viewer’s Choice the 15th anniversary DVD release of the award at the 1993 MTV Video Music fi lm, Reiner said then that it was one of Awards. the only scenes he every storyboarded.

The bridge and store recently The Maahcooatche Store, above, when it was for sale in 2019. The second story of the store was rented out as living quarters. The train trestle bridge, left, is one of two Rail Trail bridges at Lake Britton where the Great Shasta Rail Trail Association is partnering with the U.S. Forest Service to restore the two former railroad bridges. The bridges and the trail are owned by the GSRTA, which is converting the former 80-mile McCloud Railway between McCloud, Hambone and Burney to a public trail for hikers and bicylists. PHOTO / Stephen Moehle

After Five / July 2020 / Page 9