This article originally appeared on CinemaRetro
Roy Rose and his horrific and historic gas station.
BY MARK CERULLI
Deep in the heart of Texas there’s a nondescript gas station on the side of a sleepy road… You can’t buy gas there. They don’t sell lottery tickets, and the closest neighbors are a herd of cows. But this gas station has a unique place in horror film history as a key setting of director Tobe Hooper’s iconic 1974 film, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
The station was in serious disrepair when it caught the eye of Texas Chainsaw Massacre mega-fan Roy Rose who “fell in love with the movie since I was ten years old.” Why? “It’s the most realistic horror movie there is, nothing else is even close,” Roy explains. He then set about living his dream – approaching the station’s original owner to buy it. A few years (and many phone calls later) his persistence paid off – the station was his. “I told my wife and my kids, ‘Let’s go! We’re moving to Texas…’” Roy chuckles.
Tall and bearded, the Ohio businessman shrugs off the two years of hard work it took to bring the station back from its sorry state. He stocked it with a vast array of horror masks and figures, plus rows of licensed Chainsaw-centric t-shirts you can’t find anywhere else. A stickler for details, he tracked down the same outdoor chairs and even the same type of front door seen in the movie, finding them on Craigslist, then shipping them to Texas for a princely sum.
But Roy’s vision included much more than just creating an out-of-the-way horror boutique. First, he added… barbeque from a huge, custom-made smoker. “Oh, we got the best barbeque,” Roy says confidently. This Cinema Retro scribe can truthfully say that the gas station’s smoked brisket was tender and juicy and their sausage was delicious – not too spicy, with a satisfying snap. Roy’s Gas Station Chili also hit the spot, served with plenty of white bread to sop it up with.
Inside the horror emporium.
(Photo copyright Mark Cerulli. All rights reserved.)
Roy also turned the gas station into a tourist destination by building cozy one-room cabins that can be rented for one night or longer. Once a year he screens his favorite film at the compound (“I always pay the licensing fee,” he points out) and holds a horror convention where surviving cast members sign autographs and mingle with fans. “Fans come to the gas station, meet the stars and we also have live music.”
On the day of my visit, original TCM actor Allen Danziger (Jerry, the van’s driver) arrived to discuss his merchandising plans (get ready for “Chainsaw Jerry’s Beef Jerky”). After chowing down on a smoked sausage sandwich, the former Bronx native was ready to talk about making the historic film. “For me it was a lark, I wasn’t an actor,” Allen explained. He just happened to have worked on director Tobe Hooper’s first film, Eggshells (“It was a psychedelic, hippy dippy kind of thing”) so he was a shoo-in for a part in Chainsaw.
CR’s Mark Cerulli with TCM actor Allen Danziger in front of the same model van he drove in the film.
Fortunately for Allen, he didn’t have to spend much time inside the actual Chainsaw house. “People were puking and getting sick after a take, it was awful,” he recalled. Remember all those dead animals on the walls and dangling from the ceilings? They weren’t rubber props, they were REAL dead animals – roadkill! “Occasionally I would get a whiff of Gunnar (Hansen) and that was enough.” (Hansen was the 6’4” Icelandic-born actor who played the murderous Leatherface in the film.) “Gunnar and I became real good friends,” Allen said, adding, “He was very bright with a good sense of humor…” Sadly, Hansen passed away in 2015 at age 68.
After filming ended, Allen visited the director in the editing room. “Tobe showed me some scenes and asked what he could do to improve them. I jokingly said ‘Have the seats facing away from the screen.’” That did NOT go over well with the prickly filmmaker. “I didn’t see any more rushes.” But once the film was edited and retitled – from Headcheese to the more familiar The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Allen was sold on it.
When asked what he wanted fans to remember about the game-changing movie, Allen said, “That a group of young people gave their all…” He did mention that promised shares in the film’s profits never materialized – but such is showbiz. (TCM grossed over $30 million on a $140K budget.)
Gas station barbeque- “It’s the meat!”
After his two Tobe Hooper roles, Allen landed a small part in Willie Nelson’s Honeysuckle Rose and then his acting career hit the skids. “I had a rapid rise and a meteoric fall,” Allen laughs, explaining that he went into social work and had his own entertainment company. Now 77, Danziger credits the film’s intense realism to its long-lasting success. “None of us were known but there was the believability that this all could happen. I mean, it’s Texas.”
Look for Roy’s Cult Classic Convention in Bastrop, Texas in February, 2021, headlining Bill Moseley (Chop Top in TCM 2), Caroline Williams (TCM 2), Camille Keaton (I Spit on Your Grave), Joe Don Baker (Walking Tall) and others TBD. Check Roy’s creepy empire by clicking here.
HOW TO GET THERE
The Gas Station is located in Bastrop, Texas, about 30 minutes outside Austin. Car Rental or Uber/Lyft are your best options in terms of getting there. If you opt for a ride sharing service, offer to buy the driver a plate of BBQ while you shop for your Chainsaw treasures as it might be quite a wait to get a ride back into town!
Posted By
Mark
Categories
Uncategorized