'Christine' Film Set
Valencia, California

[GAS STATION SCENE] [NEXT-DAY PHOTO]

Gas station set from Columbia Pictures' "Christine" (1983).

Contributor Jon Lewis writes: "Various scenes of the film were shot around Santa Clarita including Valencia Liquors on Lyons Avenue and a stretch of Magic Mountain Parkway. A full-size gas station set was constructed (garage bays, gas pumps) on the southeast corner of McBean Parkway and Valencia Boulevard (where the Corner Bakery is today). The night before the photo was taken, the gas station was blown up. The photo was shot looking northeast toward Saugus."

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Directed by John Carpenter from the novel by Stephen King and screenplay by Bill Phillips, "Christine" is the story of a possessed and murderous cherry-red 1958 Plymouth Fury that falls into the hands of a nerdy high school kid, Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon), who is an outcast until the car begins to alter his character. But the boy and his car go too far. Ultimately the boy is killed and the car is destroyed. Or is it?

Carpenter used several locations in what he later called the "boonies"; Valencia was considerably more rural in 1983. The gas station was a movie prop erected at the southeast corner of Valencia Boulevard and McBean Parkway, roughly where the Corner Bakery would later go. Locals were warned in advance of the nighttime explosion, which could be heard miles away. "Mobico" is fictitious.

The stunt coordinator is longtime Valencia resident Terry J. Leonard. The cast includes John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky and 2007 Newhall Walk of Western Stars honoree Harry Dean Stanton.

Other Santa Clarita locations include Valencia Liquor on Lyons Avenue and a stretch of Magic Mountain Parkway.

Postscript: It wasn't the first time a local gas station featured into a Carpenter film. Check out these scenes from 1982's "Halloween III."

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JL8301: 9600 dpi jpeg from copy print