"Stand by me" was actualy filmed at Borwnsville, Oregon, USA.

These contemporary photographs of the location were shot by me in August 2004 / 2005, 18 / 19 years after filming!

Movie Scene:
Gordie Lachance (Wil Wheaton) in Town of "Castle Rock"
The story play in summer 1959.

Shooting Location: Town of Brownsville, Spaulding Avenue.

Brownsville is a small town of 1500 people located in the southern Willamette Valley of western Oregon, founded in the1840's. Downtown Brownsville is a wonderful collection of 1880's to 1920's buildings with many historic houses dating back to the 1850's.

Brownsville, 18 years after making the movie.

Shot at intersection: N Main Street and Stanard Avenue.

The names of all the towns (except Castle Rock) in the movie (set in Oregon) are real places in Maine, where author Stephen King grew up and lives.

Shot at N Main Street.


The main characters are Gordie Lachance (Wil Wheaton), and his three friends Chris Chambers (River Phoenix), Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman), and Vern Tessio (Jerry O'Connell).

Filmed at intersection: N Main Street and Park Avenue.

Movie Scene:
Gordie Lachance (Wil Wheaton) and
Chris Chambers (River Phoenix) in Town of "Castle Rock".

Filmed at Backyard of the Bluepoint Cafe at the N Main Street.

To keep in character while off-camera, Kiefer Sutherland often picked on Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O'Connell.

The following scenes were filmed at
N Main Street of Brownsville.

Mr. Quidacioluo is played by Bruce Kirby, whose real last name is Quidacioluo.

Visit the beautiful town of Brownsville! Here the official site:
www.historicbrownsville.com

N Main Street at Brownsville.

Stand by Me is a 1986 adventure-drama film directed by Rob Reiner.

The title comes from a song with the same title by Ben E. King (which plays during the closing credits) and is based on the novella The Body by Stephen King, who called it his favorite adaptation of one of his works up to that point.

Shooting Location: Cottage Grove, Oregon, USA.

The Railroad has been removed in 1988, two yaers after making the movie. Now is a bike path named: "Row River Trail".

This bridge is located at "Mosby Creek" Trailhead.

This bridge was very hard to find!
Don't go to the information center, that's a trap!

Memorable film scene on the railroad with
Gordie Lachance (Wil Wheaton)
Chris Chambers (River Phoenix)
Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman)
Vern Tessio (Jerry O'Connel)

See the Map of the "Row River Trail"
at Cottage Grove, Oregon, USA.


The actress pictured on the cover of a vintage movie magazine is Elizabeth McGovern, who was at the time engaged to director Rob Reiner.

This bridge over "Mosby Creek" was one of several locations immortalized on the silver screen.

Movies filmed along the railway included "Stand By Me", "Emperor of the North" with Ernest Borginine, and in 1926, "The General" with Buster Keaton.

The railroad has built in 1902 and has gone in 1988, two years after making the movie.

The railroad scenes has been shot on the
Gooseline-Railroad in Cottage Grove, Oregon USA.

Through the boys' misadventures and conversations, the viewer learns about each character's personality.

This contemporary photograph of the location was
shot by me in August 2004.

Harms Park, Cottage Grove, Oregon, USA.

The gang sing "I ran all the way home" - this was the theme tune to, All the Way Home which starred Frances Lee McCain, Gordie's mother.

Movie Scene:
Gordie Lachance (Wil Wheaton) and
Chris Chambers (River Phoenix) on the railroad.


While filming the scene in which Ace Merrill takes Gordie's brother's Yankees cap, Kiefer Sutherland's first instinct was to put it on, rather than hand it to Eyeball Chambers.

Reiner told Sutherland not to put the hat on as a way of showing that Ace was stealing it just to be cruel to Gordie and not because the hat itself was at all important to Ace.

Sutherland and Wheaton both confirm in the DVD's behind the scenes documentary that the reason that Gordie never gets the hat back from Ace is that Ace threw it away immediately after stealing it from Gordie.

While practicing his lines, Jerry O'Connell was incredibly impressed that, as an 11-year old, he was being allowed to swear.

It's a beautiful walk on this trail.

At the insistence of director Rob Reiner (an avid non-smoker who campaigned for anti-smoking laws in California), the cigarettes smoked by the boys were made from cabbage leaves.

Searching for old railroad stuff...

All these fine young actors deliver an astounding performance with range and depth of emotion, but it is River Pheonix that steals the show with an outstanding performance in this, one of his first movie roles It's a great tragedy that he left us so soon, as he was truly talented. River Phoenix died in 31 October 1993.

Dorena Lake, Cottage Grove, Oregon, USA.

Corey Feldman and director Rob Reiner tested thirty different laughs before deciding upon the one for Teddy Duchamp.

The laugh happens to be similar to that described in King's story.

Shooting Location:
Lake Britton Bridge in McArthur Burney Falls
Memorial State Park.

This was shot on the McCloud River Railroad's Lake Britton Bridge in Burney Falls State Park. The railroad passes over the river just east of where Highway 89 does.

The train, by the way, is the No. 25, owned by the
McCloud River Railroad, and engineered by Malen Johnson.
It had previously appeared in a scene from
"Bound For Glory" in Stockton.

This pictures of the film location were shot by me in
August 2005.

The last steam locomotive, No. 25 continued to operate sporadically from 1982 through 1986, with an average of one to three trips run per year.

The film contrasts the four main characters, who are depicted as well-meaning and relatively virtuous, with a gang of bullies led by a local hood, "Ace" Merrill.

Hollywood called on McCloud in 1986 when it used the McCloud to film parts of the movie Stand By Me.

Several scenes were shot on and around the railroad, with the highlight being one sequence that featured the four main characters of the movie being chased across the Lake Britton Bridge by a train.

The train consisted of the No. 25, a fire service tank car, a flat car, the railroad's Burro crane, a side-dump ballast hopper, and a caboose.

The filming of the movie proved to be one of the last runs of the No. 25 in its third career, as later that year or early the next the title for the No. 25 passed from the railroad to the museum as a result of a breach of contract issue.

Entering bridge at Brownsville, N Main Street.

The movie is based on a short story called "The Body" by Stephen King from a book of short stories called "Different Seasons" which also includes "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" which became The Shawshank Redemption and "Apt Pupil" (Apt Pupil).

N Main Street in Brownsville, Oregon, USA.

Wil Wheaton's grandfather starred in Wagon Train, so Wil's grandmother asked that Wagon Train somehow be worked into the dialogue, and it was.

Teddy Duchmap's House in the movie. It's still there today.

The Hous is located at intersection: N Main Street and
Park Avenue in Borwonsville, Oregon, USA.

This is Jerry O'Connell's motion picture debut.

The building looks mostly the same as it did in the movie.

Filmed at Stanard Avenue in Brownsville.

Another actor was originally cast as The Writer. After those scenes were shot, Richard Dreyfuss was cast in the role and the scenes were re-shot with him.

- Thanks for the picture to Fred -

The treehouse was built by the filmcrew.


Its easy to found the tree, go to:
School Rd. between Butte and Westview.

The location have changed through the years.

This pictures of the film location were shot by me in
August 2005.

The lead characters go on a journey into the woods to find the body of a boy named Ray Brower, who was struck by a train while picking berries in the woods.

Rob Reiner had trouble casting the role of "The Writer", first casting actor David Dukes, then going to Spinal Tap vet Michael McKean among others, before finally settling on high school friend Richard Dreyfuss.

Visit Brownsville, Oregon and make the Film-Location Tour!
Here the Map and all details.

- Thanks for the picture to Eric Johnson -

The story is narrated by the adult Gordie (Richard Dreyfuss), who makes brief appearances at the beginning and the end of the film. At the start, we see that Chris Chambers has died, but at the end we find out more about what happened. Gordie is grieving over this, and has become a writer, and we have just witnessed the story as he was writing it.

Biography in memoriam of River Phoenix:

Phoenix's Irish-Spanish father, John Bottom, and Bronx-born Jewish mother, Arlyn Sharon Dunetz, joined the Children of God cult in the late 60's and became missionaries, traveling throughout South America and adopting the surname "Phoenix." River Phoenix was born in Madras, Oregon and grew up in poverty. He and his sister often had to busk to make money for the family.

It was only after his starring role in the movie Stand By Me that River's family was able to buy a car that was not secondhand. He and his family were all vegetarians. He believed that eating animals was wrong and was the one who, as a child, convinced his family to become vegans. His opinions on the issue were so strong that when his actress girlfriend, Martha Plimpton, ordered soft-shell crab at a restaurant, he was reported to have begun to cry in disappointment. When he played the role of Gideon in the TV version of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, he insisted on using a rope for a belt, steadfastly refusing to wear leather.

Phoenix was one of five siblings who pursued careers in show business, encouraged by their parents. He had significant juvenile roles in Stand by Me, The Mosquito Coast, A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon, and Little Nikita, and was nominated in 1988, at the age of 17, for an Oscar for best supporting actor for his role in Running on Empty. He also portrayed a teenage Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. He met Keanu Reeves while filming I Love You to Death and later went on to star opposite Reeves in Gus van Sant's My Own Private Idaho. His friendship with both Reeves and van Sant continued beyond the movie.

River was also a friend of John Frusciante (guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers) and appeared on his debut album on the song "Soul Removal." He had a band called Aleka's Attic before he died.

Phoenix disliked being seen as just a sex symbol and usually refused to smile for photographs. Phoenix died at age 23 from a drug overdose of heroin and cocaine (speedball) outside the Viper Room, a Hollywood night club partly owned by actor Johnny Depp.

At the time of his death, Phoenix was acting in the starring role of the movie Dark Blood, which was never completed. He was cremated in Gainesville, Florida a few days later. Phoenix has four siblings, a brother, Joaquin (who is also an actor), and 3 sisters, Rain, Summer (who are actresses) and Liberty.


River Phoenix died in 31 October 1993 (aged 23).


(Picture of the viper room shot by me in August 2005)

" If I could only have one food to eat for the rest of my life? - That's easy. Pez. Cherry flavor Pez. No question about it. "

Vern Tessio played by Jerry O'Connell