Wally's Gas Station
(Part I)

After I published Randy Garrett's Metropolis and Mayberry, several readers asked questions about the location of Wally's Filling Station. Below is correspondence from Jerry Krumm that will answer those questions.

Hi, My name is Jerry Krumm and am an avid fan of 40 acres. I assisted Randy
in the Metropolis and Mayberry web site by providing many of the video
captures.

I have first hand knowledge of 40 acres as I was an extra in a movie made
there in 1975 entitled Switchblade Sisters (the working title when we
actually made the film was The Jezebels). I have attached two JPEGs of me in
the film. In one I am just across the street from the Mayberry courthouse
having turned the corner from the backside of Ellies drugstore. I am in the
overalls. The girl in the foreground is just about to throw a fire bomb at a
Food Service truck. In the other I am running out of Teen Post #12. (I am
in the red shirt.) This is the corner building just across the street from
the Grand Theatre. (If you are standing in front of the Grand looking
straight at it, the Teen Post is the next building over to the left.

As per Wallys, we must thank Jack Thompson. Jack is a fellow 40 acres fan.
Jack got the ball rolling when he questioned what he thought was a glimpse of
the Tara mansion from Gone With the Wind in a 1951 episode of Superman
("Mind Machine"). This wetted my whistle and I started digging in and getting
the dirt on 40 acres history. I have many aerial photos of 40 acres from
1928 to 1976. As you probably know, in 1977 they paved paradise and put up a
parking lot (well, an industrial park). I solved the mystery of Tara and
where it stood on 40 acres. But I was perplexed as to the location of Wally's
Filling Station. I sent many an email to lots of folks but go no response--until
Jack Thompson stepped in and solved the mystery.

Watching TAGS over and over and over, I appeared to me that across the street
from Wallys was a string of trees. But it is not the string of trees that
run along side Ballona Creek (the creek is always easy to see and a dead
give-away of where you are. Well, wouldn't ya know, they fooled us. Actually,
across the street from Wally's is the Real McCoys' house (thru 1963) and then later
the huts from Gomer Pyle USMC.

Let Jerry show you more about the location of Wally's Filling Station