Monday, September 30, 2013
Sunday, September 29, 2013
JAMES DEAN PUBLICITY PHOTO from DOVER PUBLISHING
Dover allows the use of this photo for NON-PROFIT use and under FAIR USE. That means that if you credit Dover and use it on a blog or web-site or other place which is not a business (no advertising) and it's about James Dean for educational or personal purposes it's OK. If you want to use if on a site for profit/gain, contact Dover and pay up! (There's more than one reason we do not do advertising on this blog!)
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
JAMES DEAN BORN COOL : DOCUMENTARY : JAMES DEAN FESTIVAL 2013 LINK!
The film-makers have decided to post this on YOUTUBE and that is VERY COOL! Featuring family and friends, made originally in 2002!
JAMES DEAN COMMUNITY FESTIVAL 2013 LINK
JAMES DEAN COMMUNITY FESTIVAL 2013 LINK
Saturday, September 21, 2013
(480) POUT LIKE JIMMY
Back when Buddy Knox and me had our photos done by Bruno of Hollywood, I was still thinking about acting too, as many of my peers did - like Elvis Presley and Bobby Darin were doing. I had been promoted as a "singing - acting" sensation while with United Artists. I had traveled for years on the road as a singer, but I hadn't given up on acting.
Christine White, James Dean's friend and girlfriend before he was famous, was also in Hollywood and, as a successful working (early) television actress, she advised me to get another manager and agent for acting. I'd first met Christine as a tourist, one who read fan magazines, during a brief Hollywood vacation before I even lived in Akron.
She was sweet enough to make some introductions once we were both back in Southern California.
Dean was a country boy who went to the Big Apple and took up jazz and playing the bongos - a Beat. Then he went West, to California, to make movies and race cars.
I was a country boy who also went to the Big Apple and then West, to California, but though I owned some sports cars in my time, which I bought from music residuals, I didn't have what some say Jimmy did, the death wish.
I grew up in Murphy, North Carolina, and then Cottage Grove, Oregon. I remained a Southern boy. I might have been a Renaissance man but I wasn't Beat.
Dean was supposed to be moody. His family would say that too was just part of his promotion.
I was shy, but when they asked me to pose for pictures they expected me to "do" Jimmy, pouting. I was an actor who was supposed to live out of character! I never saw the facial resemblance between me and James Dean myself. I thought I looked like him from some angles. His family said I moved like Jimmy.
By the early to mid 1960's I was maybe the first person to give up on "The Next James Dean" promos. I wanted to be myself. I was a happy guy, out for fun.
Christine White, James Dean's friend and girlfriend before he was famous, was also in Hollywood and, as a successful working (early) television actress, she advised me to get another manager and agent for acting. I'd first met Christine as a tourist, one who read fan magazines, during a brief Hollywood vacation before I even lived in Akron.
She was sweet enough to make some introductions once we were both back in Southern California.
Dean was a country boy who went to the Big Apple and took up jazz and playing the bongos - a Beat. Then he went West, to California, to make movies and race cars.
I was a country boy who also went to the Big Apple and then West, to California, but though I owned some sports cars in my time, which I bought from music residuals, I didn't have what some say Jimmy did, the death wish.
I grew up in Murphy, North Carolina, and then Cottage Grove, Oregon. I remained a Southern boy. I might have been a Renaissance man but I wasn't Beat.
Dean was supposed to be moody. His family would say that too was just part of his promotion.
I was shy, but when they asked me to pose for pictures they expected me to "do" Jimmy, pouting. I was an actor who was supposed to live out of character! I never saw the facial resemblance between me and James Dean myself. I thought I looked like him from some angles. His family said I moved like Jimmy.
By the early to mid 1960's I was maybe the first person to give up on "The Next James Dean" promos. I wanted to be myself. I was a happy guy, out for fun.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
THE HOLLYWOOD BUG CONTINUES TO BITE ME : FROM OUR ARCHIVES POST (150)
(150) THE HOLLYWOOD BUG CONTINUES TO BITE ME
In New York acting was respected as a dramatic art and the stage was the place to be.
I studied at Actors Studio in New York with Lee Strasberg, who is now legendary.
The Studio System of Hollywood put actors on contract. The amount of money to be made was quite limited in those years compared to what successful actors demand and get today - very limited.
Even when an actor made millions for the studios on a picture, or a top agent like Henry Wilson was going to negotiate for you, the actors take was limited. Of course some stars managed to get their contracts rewritten for more money. Wealth for many didn't come outright from pay or overnight but from investing what they earned in real estate - land especially - in Southern California, which had experienced a first surge of the building boom after World War II.
So you had to love acting and love it enough to do it knowing you might never make a lot of money. You had to appreciate the many perks that came with being a famous actor, including meeting people and making connections that could do you some good, but you had to earn it all the time. You had to do things their way.
Just as James Dean had moved to Hollywood and making films, many of my peers, including of course Bobby Darin, looked forward to a movie acting career. It was one thing to make grueling promotional tours around the country, one radio or television station after another, and another to be known almost instantly around the whole country because you were seen in the movies. So long as the move from stage to screen included musicals, it made sense to the viewing public that an actor would launch into song.
In New York acting was respected as a dramatic art and the stage was the place to be.
I studied at Actors Studio in New York with Lee Strasberg, who is now legendary.
The Studio System of Hollywood put actors on contract. The amount of money to be made was quite limited in those years compared to what successful actors demand and get today - very limited.
Even when an actor made millions for the studios on a picture, or a top agent like Henry Wilson was going to negotiate for you, the actors take was limited. Of course some stars managed to get their contracts rewritten for more money. Wealth for many didn't come outright from pay or overnight but from investing what they earned in real estate - land especially - in Southern California, which had experienced a first surge of the building boom after World War II.
So you had to love acting and love it enough to do it knowing you might never make a lot of money. You had to appreciate the many perks that came with being a famous actor, including meeting people and making connections that could do you some good, but you had to earn it all the time. You had to do things their way.
Just as James Dean had moved to Hollywood and making films, many of my peers, including of course Bobby Darin, looked forward to a movie acting career. It was one thing to make grueling promotional tours around the country, one radio or television station after another, and another to be known almost instantly around the whole country because you were seen in the movies. So long as the move from stage to screen included musicals, it made sense to the viewing public that an actor would launch into song.
Saturday, September 14, 2013
MIDNIGHT EARL WILSON : HE ANNOUNCED THAT I LOOKED A LOT LIKE JAMES DEAN : FROM OUR ARCHIVES POST (401)
An Evening News copy of an Earl Wilson Column that mentioned me! (We couldn't get it to enlarge so you could read it, but you can try!)
EARL WILSON was the syndicated columnist who announced that I'd been signed to United Artists and that I looked a lot like James Dean. One of the hardest working journalists that ever lived, Earl didn't just rely on contacts to give him information, he continued to interview even as the years went by. Being mentioned by Earl ever so briefly was a dream come true for the up and coming actor - singer - songwriter I was back in New York.
We learned that Earl's son, Earl Junior, gave his father's papers to Ohio State college, the school he had graduated from.
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
WES BRYAN IN CENTRAL PARK "TRICK PHOTO" TAKEN BY MY MANAGER IN NEW YORK
I had to really look at this fun photo to recognize it as Wes Bryan, but it is, and probably because he is not so recognizable it was barely used. His manager at the time took the photos which played up his James Dean-ess and they were distributed in publicity packages to the press by what Wes calls the "United Artists Publicity Machine." The clue here is the overcoat, as James Dean was famously photographed in one walking around New York City.
A copy of this photo has been on sale at e-Bay (and thus the vintage image distortions) for about $25.00 and is rarer than some of the other publicity photos out there.
How'd they do that?
Christine Trzyna
Sunday, September 8, 2013
WES BRYAN ON THE COVER OF THE AKRON BEACON JOURNAL'S ROTO MAGAZINE 1957
Local Akron, Ohio photographers and journalists and DJ's, as well as Southern Boys like Jimmy Bowen, Buddy Knox, and even Elvis Presley, were influential in my career - and this 1957 cover was my lucky break. It makes me wonder about the role of Fate in a life.Thursday, September 5, 2013
(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.
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.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
MARTIN SHEEN QUOTE on ELVIS PRESLEY and JAMES DEAN
"Jim Dean and Elvis were the spokesmen for an entire generation. When I was in acting school in New York, years ago, there was a saying that if Marlon Brando changed the way people acted, then James Dean changed the way people lived. He was the greatest actor who ever lived. He was simply a genius."
- Martin Sheen
