STRAY CATS RACE WITH THE DEVIL : DEDICATED TO JAMES DEAN

STRAY CATS OFFICIAL SITE! link here!  One of the most successful Rock-A-Billy revival groups going!

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.

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

WES BRYAN OCTOBER 1959 HEP CAT MAGAZINE

 "ROMANTIC TEEN SINGING - ACTING SENSATION"

THE NEXT JAMES DEAN FAN PHOTO - THAT'S ME!

I was based in New York in the late 1950's though I spent more time on the road when my career went from acting to performing music. I took private acting lessons at Actor's Studio and made the rounds. This was a fan photo used by United Artists, where I was signed, to show my James Dean-like appearance. My looks were not identical to Jimmy's but even his family thought I could play him in a bio-pic about his life.

FROM OUR ARCHIVES : (11) CHRISTINE WHITE, JAMES DEAN, & ME

FROM OUR ARCHIVES from October 27, 2008

(11) CHRISTINE WHITE, JAMES DEAN, & ME

Uncanny as it is, before I was "discovered" to be The Next James Dean, I took my first trip to Hollywood, and it was my fate to meet one of Jimmy's best friends! Dad and I were on a respite from home building. I loved to read all the fan magazines and I wanted to see the streets that all the stars - including James Dean - walked on.

So I headed to Los Angeles, California for the first time. I was coming out of a department store when I saw a beautiful young blond woman on the street. I recognized her from one of the movie magazines I'd read, an article called "The Girl He Left Behind." He meaning James Dean. The blond was CHRISTINE WHITE, a great actress in her own right. She and James Dean had auditioned together for the famous and prestigious Actors Studio in New York and both got in. James Dean might have been the youngest actor to be accepted there. Like James Dean, Christine White was active in television, live theater, and movies.


I introduced myself and Christine and I spent a few hours talking in a restaurant over tea. I asked her to tell me everything she knew about Jimmy. Christine and I would pick up our friendship years later when I moved to Los Angeles and I am blessed with her friendship to this day. Christine White is a devout Christian. I can tell you that she's played the part of angel in my life! Christine White is a regular speaker at the James Dean Conventions and has made many appearances in biographical films about James Dean.

CHRISTINE WHITE on IMDb World's Largest Movie Database linked above!

(378) ABOUT THE TIME I MET ELVIS IN 1957 : WES BRYAN

The Brooding James Dean type? So the photograph says. That's me, Wes Bryan, in New York about the time I was signed to a contract with United Artists to act and also to sing about 1957. It was about the time that I met Elvis Presley while on a UA tour of the deep south, which included Memphis.

I was optimistic about life and worked hard. Traveling, meeting people, and performing around the country brought me out of my shyness and into my confidence about my abilities.

(352) THOSE ACTING SINGING SONGWRITING SENSATIONS! (DO YOU THINK JAMES DEAN COULD HAVE MADE A HIT RECORD?)

A number of the artists we're talking about here (including me) fell under the category of "ACTING - SINGING SENSATIONS."

Elvis Presley was probably the most successful at turning a music career into a musical acting career. Bobby Darin did it well. Pat Boone, Frankie Avalon, so many others sang as actors in movies.

James Dean played the bongos. He liked Jazz.
DO YOU THINK JAMES DEAN COULD HAVE MADE A HIT RECORD?

Many of us had multiple creative talents or interests.

For me it was (way back then) sculpture and photography.
Today I still play my guitar and it seems I'm always working on a song in my head.

JAMES DEAN OR MARLON BRANDO?

If you could be either
the Next James Dean or The Next Marlon Brando
which would you be?

OUR ARCHIVE REVISITED : (85) THE NEXT JAMES DEAN? NOT !

OUR ARCHIVE REVISITED:

Post (85) THE NEXT JAMES DEAN? NOT ! from December 7, 2007

If you're wondering what happened to THE NEXT JAMES DEAN, as I was called by United Artists when I first signed with them in 1957, and as they promoted me, well, once he got to Hollywood, he couldn't help but give some thought to pursuing acting again.

At first, when Elvis introduced me to people, he too brought up the James Dean comparison. Then one day I asked him not to do it. And he never did again.


Still, Elvis asked me a few times if I would like a bit part or to be an extra on one of the movies he was filming. I always turned down the idea. More than one of Elvis' friends or employees did take a bit part or act as an extra on his films. To Elvis this was more of a way of keeping his friends around him than giving someone their big break into better roles, but it was interesting and fun to be on a set with Elvis. I visited him on sets from time to time.


Elvis made more money for his acting than James Dean ever did.


I have to admit that my acting aspirations were also so high at one time that I just couldn't imagine taking a bit part or being an extra. And, as it turned out, I had two close calls with acting stardom before I finally gave up on that aspect of my career, that is if you consider close calls with stardom to be part of a top agent's stable...

EBAY AUCTIONS HOT ON WES BRYAN !

I HAVEN'T SEEN THIS PHOTO OF MYSELF IN YEARS! WHILE THE ONE BELOW IS A BLACK AND WHITE OF MY RECORD COVER. Both pictures were taken by my then manager and used by United Artists for Press releases. Of interest is the back of the second photo which mentions my record as the United Artist Label's first release on a typed sheet of paper. And that these photos prove my likeness to James Dean.


You've seen this one before since it was used IN COLOR for the first colored record cover for a 45 RMP ever! (Elvis' came out very soon after!)

The Morning Call, according to the poster, was the Allentown, Pennsylvania local newspaper circa 1957. Now the Tribune, if we're reading that correctly! In some archives there are lots of press release materials.

(264) AUGUST 5 1962 : MARILYN MONROE MY FAVORITE and ELVIS'

Marilyn Monroe was Elvis' favorite actress - and mine. She was an "older woman" but ahead of her time.

She was born Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1, 1926 in Los Angeles.

On January 14, 1954, Marilyn married baseball star Joe DiMaggio at San Francisco's City Hall.

On August 5, 1962, Marilyn was found dead.

We heard all the horrible rumors that made it into books as exposes years later at the time. We were upset by Marilyn's death. The idea that anyone so young would have overdosed on prescription drugs was almost unthinkable.

Joe orchestrated her funeral, giving her the dignity and respect in death that he didn't think she got in life. No big Micheal Jackson extravaganzas like the recent one, which cost the tax payers of Los Angeles County, which is in a Great Depression-like economy right now, something like 2.5 million for the day.

.

Despite his fame, Elvis and Marilyn never met. They didn't run in the same Hollywood circles. I almost met her in New York when I was studying acting with Lee Strasberg at Actors Studio.

ME AND THE MOVIES - IN RESPONSE TO COMMENTS SENT

Friends, Thank You for sending comments and questions to me and Christine about my acting career. Let's try and let this blog answer some of those.

If you read from the beginning of this blog, you know that I was given a tremendous opportunity to be an actor early on. Then, well... The details of what happened with my acting career are in my unpublished memoir and might even shock you, but my focus became my music career.

This blog is focusing on my life in music because ultimately that is where I went when I followed my own North Star. Still, I feel that I learned so much about life being in New York young, studying acting and James Dean, and being part of a generation who emerged into the 1960's at a time when technology was advancing rapidly, allowing us to perform live on radio and television, moving from black and white to color, and, more than anything, living through changes in social attitudes and conditions that were reflected in music.

We posted a comment someone sent in that said this:

"The United States of America, that you grew up in, is rapidly falling apart. God bless you and your generation that lived and thrived in a country unique in human history. I am so sorry to see the rapid demise of a democracy that stood alone for such a brief moment in world history. Never again, in our brief life time, will we see a time when a young man from North Carolina could rise from the masses to follow a dream that all humankind shares. God bless you, Wes Bryan."

Now I appreciated the God Bless, but actually both Christine and I have more hope than this person. We still think that common people have a chance to rise up from their beginnings and become famous or at least have a great career. We know it happens all the time even if it is a rare thing and it happens more in this great United States of America than anywhere else in the world because here you don't necessarily live the life you were born into.

How much is anyone's fate we don't know. We know that hard work alone won't do it, though hard work is necessary. It is always fascinating, if not downright mystifying, to see how some idea takes hold and spreads, how trends come and go. So we want to encourage you all to know what it is you want out of life and then try your damnedest to make that happen! You never know if you don't try...

Wes and Christine

(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.

HELLO to CHRISTINE WHITE ! ONE OF MY ANGELS !

Just wanted to say hello to my long time friend Christine White, who I met in Los Angeles before I had a clue I would ever have a taste of fame, and who was so helpful to me when I relocated from New York to Los Angeles in 1960. Christine, you are one of my angels. I always think of you on Sundays!

Wes

(Friends you can use the search feature of this Google Blogger to read previous posts that include CHRISTINE WHITE...)

THE NEXT JAMES DEAN FAN PHOTO

Photo WES BRYAN - TEEN DELIGHT September 1959

SEPTEMBER 1959. I was 22 years old. This is STARDOM MAGAZINE...

Photographed in the finest old movie star mode, and frequently compared to the late, great, actor James Dean, through the years people would look at me and ask themselves "Is that what James Dean would look like if he were 40, 50, 60, 70?" I can only disappoint. In my opinion, feature by feature, I never looked that much like Jimmy, but there was a resemblance, and the Deans told me I had the same slump posture and a way of walking and moving that was like their grandson when I visited them on the farm to prepare for my role as James Dean.

This article, calling me a Teen Delight, was a bit erroneous as I was not a teenager myself in these photos, but I was supposed to be every teenage girl's delight, and the magazines ran articles about me that gave many teenage girls every reason to fantasize about me. I received thousands of letters, huge, heavy bags of fan mail. It was exciting but to tell you the truth at the very start I was petrified. It took the experience of performing and meeting people all over the country to relax into stardom. And, as part of stardom, I met other stars. I met most of them with ease but once in a while I had a total fan reaction myself.

It was growing up in the Smokey Mountains and having sensible down to earth parents and kin that served me well when I was meeting people.

(36) Goodbye UNITED ARTISTS! Hello CLOCK RECORDS!

I'll leave the details about my departure from United Artists for my memoir, but without getting into the circumstances that propelled me, the short of it is that I quit.

Dad pointed out that I had signed my seven year contract underage because UA didn't want to let me go. My dad had first expressed big doubts about my becoming an "Acting-Singing Sensation," but had become my biggest fan. Now he was on my side when it came to leaving United Artists. Dad wanted me to have a new manager - Elvis' Colonel Tom Parker!

I quit United Artists having traveled thousands of miles on tours and after having made countless television, radio, and record hop - dance party performances, and after having had a Gold Record.

I quit having studied acting with Lee Strasberg at Actors Studio, having auditioned for some movie roles and having appeared in promotionals for other star's films. (We called them movies then.) I quit having the highest hopes to play the late, great James Dean in the bio pic.

But I was also tired of the James Dean comparisons. There were those who were glad I had failed. How could I have ever dared try to "be" him? When could I be myself?

United Artists had decided they could not make the movie. I was told that if they had gone forward with it, I would have had the role. I'd beat out a few other guys including Dean Stockwell for the part, and it meant everything to me to know that James Dean's own family had put the good word in for me that they wanted me to play Jimmy!

I quit United Artists having honed my performance and interviewing skills to perfection. I quit while having great respect for Max E. Youngstein, who had personally signed me to their new label to launch it, and having appreciated all that United Artists had done for me - the publicity, everything. I quit because it was the only choice, in circumstances that were devestating to me.

But I was still young, healthy, talented, and ambitious, and maybe more than anything I had made a lot of friends in the business.

This was when Bessie Little, the publicist entered my life. She had written about me - and many other stars - before, but she had never met me. A woman executive at United Artists who knew the inside story of my circumstances ran into singer Bobby Darin in a cafeteria and urged him to have me come up to see her. That woman personally introduced me to her publicist friend Bessie Little.

(I wrote a bit about Bessie Little earlier in this blog, on the September 10th, 2007 - blog post #23.)

Record companies trying to track me down called Bessie's office.

After I left United Artists there was a record label bidding war for me!

This gave me hope that I still had a career ahead of me! Bobby Darin was thinking of changing labels himself, despite the success of "Splish Splash." Frankie Avalon, Buddy Knox, Ersel Hickey, and other friends in the music business had urged me to change labels.

The new Clock label was owned by veteran English-born EMI record man Wally Moody and his son Doug Moody. In about 1958 they had Dave "Baby" Cortez, known for "The Happy Organ." The Moodys, who had managed to produce a high percentage of hit records for a small label, won me.

Clock Records had a unique record label design with an alarm clock going off on it, as you'll see when you click on this RCS discography link.

On the CLOCK LABEL I recorded "Honey Baby," and "So Blue Over You."

IT WAS THE SUMMER OF 1959!

A bit on Clock Records... Link to PAISLEYHAZE site!

Little did I know that an even more exciting phase of my life was beginning for me, and that it would be some of my best friends in the business who would give me that hand up when I needed it!

To this day I am grateful for those friends along the way,those friends who never gave up on me!

(13) ACTORS STUDIO : LEE STRASBERG & JAMES DEAN & MARLON BRANDO

United Artists had me audition with Lee Strasberg at the famous Actors Studio in New York City, where James Dean and Christine White and Marlon Brando had studied acting.

Stasberg accepted me and I began to take Method Acting classes. He reported to United Artists that I was "a natural."

I was strong and muscular from home building and I actually thought I was more a Marlon Brando type than a James Dean type. Marlon had taken Method Acting but then switched over to studying with Stella Adler.

I was being groomed to play James Dean in a bio pic, they would call it today, about his life.

Link above to the OFFICIAL WEB SITE OF THE STRASBERG THEATRE INSTITUTE!

http://www.marlonbrando.com
OFFICAL WEB SITE OF MARLON BRANDO!

The Official Web Site of Marlon Brando has links to his biography, pictures and much more.

(11) CHRISTINE WHITE, JAMES DEAN, & ME

Uncanny as it is, before I was "discovered" to be The Next James Dean, I took my first trip to Hollywood, and it was my fate to meet one of Jimmy's best friends! Dad and I were on a respite from home building. I loved to read all the fan magazines and I wanted to see the streets that all the stars - including James Dean - walked on.

So I headed to Los Angeles, California for the first time.

I was coming out of a department store when I saw a beautiful young blond woman on the street. I recognized her from one of the movie magazines I'd read, an article called "The Girl He Left Behind." He meaning James Dean. The blond was CHRISTINE WHITE, a great actress in her own right. She and James Dean had auditioned together for the famous and prestigious Actors Studio in New York and both got in. James Dean might have been the youngest actor to be accepted there. Like James Dean, Christine White was active in television, live theater, and movies.

I introduced myself and Christine and I spent a few hours talking in a restaurant over tea. I asked her to tell me everything she knew about Jimmy. Christine and I would pick up our friendship years later when I moved to Los Angeles and I am blessed with her friendship to this day. Christine White is a devout Christian. I can tell you that she's played the part of angel in my life!

Christine White is a regular speaker at the James Dean Conventions and has made many appearances in biographical films about James Dean.

CHRISTINE WHITE on IMDb World's Largest Movie Database linked above!