OR: STAND BY ME 40TH ANNIVERSARY
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BROWNSVILLE, Oregon (KEZI) — Thousands of Stand by Me fans from around the world traveled to Brownsville on Saturday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the iconic film.
Organizers estimate more than 3,000 people visited the small town, which has a population of less than 2,000. On the fourth Saturday in July, Brownsville transforms into Castle Rock, the fictional town featured in the 1986 movie.
“I think it’s probably pretty rare to be able to go and see a movie location in a real city that was filmed 40 years ago that really hasn’t changed very much at all,” said Nick Short, who traveled from England for the event. “So, it’s very, very easy to see where key shots were taken.”
Visitors could take walking tours throughout the filming locations, participate in a pie-eating contest and interact with several original cast and crew members.
“It’s a little bit astonishing,” said Kent Luttrell, a Stand by Me cast member who played the dead body of Ray Brower. “You just never know when you make a movie. Is it going to be good? Is it going to do well? I think it’s nice to have people that are excited about something or enjoy something to the degree that they’ll come out and celebrate it.”
Since the film’s release, visitors have made the trip to Brownsville, but the official Stand by Me Day started back in 2007. Event organizer Linda McCormick says planning the day-long festivities takes months of work, but with fans from at least four continents traveling to Oregon for the celebrations, she says it’s all worth it.
“When you come here and you see the faces of these people, it’s not like going to a carnival or a fair or a Broadway show,” McCormick said. “These people, these are things they’ve dreamed of doing. So to be able to fulfill a dream, you can’t even put money on that.”
For many fans in attendance, the trip to Brownsville is about more than just seeing the filming location. Short says the movie’s themes resonate differently as viewers age.
“When I first saw it many years ago, I was quite a young guy. It just struck me as a great adventure story about four kids going on a trail, finding a dead body,” Short said. “But I’ve watched it many times since then and, of course, as you grow older, you see different things in the film. It’s about friendship, it’s about loss, it’s about the realization that you’re not stuck with how you were born, you can actually be whoever you want to be.”
The celebration wrapped up at Pioneer Park with an outdoor screening of Stand by Me on the lawn.
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