(479) JAMES DEAN THE ICONIC ACTOR and WHAT THAT HAS TO DO WITH ME and MY DAD

People say to me, especially when they see this blog, Wes, you met so many interesting people!

I have.

I've also lived my life as a private citizen and private person for many years since those days when I was part of a scene in New York, on the road, or in Los Angeles.

Today I'm a retired senior citizen, and so many of my friends and associates, one's I've written about, have passed.

You know, I did meet and have friendships with many people who became famous - more famous than me - Elvis Presley being the most famous of them all, but it's funny because the person I wanted to meet and never could, besides Marilyn Monroe, was James Dean.

My dad was initially not for my having a career in entertainment.

Dad was teaching me the home building and remodeling trade and we were in Akron, Ohio working when my picture hit the Akron Beacon Journal Roto Magazine cover, and it was a photographer on staff there who saw the resemblance and did that cover.

I always credited him with "discovering" me but I also had to my credit Jimmy Bowen, who was in Akron and liked a demo I did in a kitchen, and a local DJ who played my demo, too.

Soon Hollywood was sending telegrams and calling me as was New York - United Artists.

I went visiting my dad, and remember being in a movie theatre in the South with him where we'd gone to watch a James Dean movie together. Dad got the full picture of whose shoes I was supposed to fill then, especially because early on I was "discovered" and promoted to be "The Next James Dean," after the real James Dean's death, on September 30, 1955.

Since beginning this blog, we've focused on music, because there was a fork in the road for me early in life, and that was acting or music and I took music,  but  this month we're taking a detour to focus a bit on Jimmy.