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.
Showing posts with label Akron Beacon Journal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Akron Beacon Journal. Show all posts
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.
Monday, January 17, 2011
MARK J. PRICE - AKRON BEACON JOURNAL : A FRIEND TO US and THIS BLOG
MARK J. PRICE, a writer for the AKRON BEACON JOURNAL has been a friend to us and this blog since 2003, when he first connected with me, Wes Bryan, in order to do an article about me for his column. The AKRON BEACON JOURNAL was an important part of my discovery as THE NEXT JAMES DEAN, which lead to recording and acting contracts with UNITED ARTISTS. (The links to the articles we posted in 2007 are now expired.)
Last year Mark and I reconnected and I did another short interview with him which still appears on some databases. It was fun for me and me and my family feel gratitude.
Just wanted you all to know that MARK is now WORKING ON HIS OWN BOOK!
We want to wish him the best with that and say hello again.
Wes
Last year Mark and I reconnected and I did another short interview with him which still appears on some databases. It was fun for me and me and my family feel gratitude.
Just wanted you all to know that MARK is now WORKING ON HIS OWN BOOK!
We want to wish him the best with that and say hello again.
Wes
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
CHRISTINE WHITE HELLO HELLO HELLO!
I've been thinking of my life long friend who I met before my NEXT JAMES DEAN days, Christine White, an accomplished actress who dated James Dean, and who we've blogged about before. In one of the great synchronicities of my life, a year before I ever imagined I would be discovered in Akron (That picture of me on the banner is my ROTO cover circa 1957), or have a career in the music business, I met Christine on a short vacation trip - my first - to Hollywood.
Today, I want to say a special hello to Christine, who is one of my angels on earth in my life! (And you'll be hearing more about her in the future as my early 1960's Hollywood days continue!)
Today, I want to say a special hello to Christine, who is one of my angels on earth in my life! (And you'll be hearing more about her in the future as my early 1960's Hollywood days continue!)
Saturday, November 3, 2007
(64) SAM PHILLIPS and SUN RECORDS : WHO DISCOVERED WHO?
When Colonel Parker bought Elvis' contract with Sam Phillips for his local Memphis label at Sun Records, he then sold Elvis to RCA for much more. Of all the artists who recorded at Sun, Elvis Presley emerged to be the most musically impactful of them all.
There' a controversy about Sam - just how interested he really ever was in Elvis - just how much insight he had that Elvis would be famous. Was he just a man who had a small struggling business who rarely turned away income or someone who was a visionary?
A woman named Marion Keister is the key here.
Elvis made his first record at Sun. A vanity recording that he paid a few dollars to record, "My Happiness," which was given to his mother as a gift. At the time he had graduated from Hume high school in Memphis a couple months earlier and was working as a parts driver for a local electric company. He was not yet with the Blue Moon Boys - Bill Black and Scotty Moore, though he may have met them here or there. He was helping support his family and still putting clothes on layaway. He made this record with Marion Keister as the producer. Of course when it came to a vanity recording there wasn't a lot of production considerations. It was basically no budget. Yet, vanity and other no budget recordings today hold the history of Rockabilly and early Rock and Roll. Marion remembered Elvis. She talked him up to Sam Phillips.
Came the day that Sam needed some singers for a project and it was Marion who suggested he call Elvis in. Sam was impressed. One thing lead to another. Marion had a background as a DJ and as a singer herself. She and Elvis would also cross paths in the military.
Sun Records is associated with many people who were in early Rockabilly and early Rock and Roll. Their attraction to the label has much to do with Sun being "it" in Memphis - the location - as well as a building reputation based on who else used the studio. No doubt as some of them succeeded others wanted the luck of the studio to rub off on them. Did Sam Phillips really "Discover" so much talent or did they "Discover" his studio?
I have to back up a bit here and say that a few people claimed to "Discover" me who were onto my road to success after I started to ride it. I always credited the Akron, Ohio photographer who insisted I looked like James Dean, Irving Waitzkin. He took me to the Beacon Journal and had photographer Bill Samaris there take photos of me for that Roto Cover that made all the difference.
Here's the History of Rock site on Sam Phillips.:
There' a controversy about Sam - just how interested he really ever was in Elvis - just how much insight he had that Elvis would be famous. Was he just a man who had a small struggling business who rarely turned away income or someone who was a visionary?
A woman named Marion Keister is the key here.
Elvis made his first record at Sun. A vanity recording that he paid a few dollars to record, "My Happiness," which was given to his mother as a gift. At the time he had graduated from Hume high school in Memphis a couple months earlier and was working as a parts driver for a local electric company. He was not yet with the Blue Moon Boys - Bill Black and Scotty Moore, though he may have met them here or there. He was helping support his family and still putting clothes on layaway. He made this record with Marion Keister as the producer. Of course when it came to a vanity recording there wasn't a lot of production considerations. It was basically no budget. Yet, vanity and other no budget recordings today hold the history of Rockabilly and early Rock and Roll. Marion remembered Elvis. She talked him up to Sam Phillips.
Came the day that Sam needed some singers for a project and it was Marion who suggested he call Elvis in. Sam was impressed. One thing lead to another. Marion had a background as a DJ and as a singer herself. She and Elvis would also cross paths in the military.
Sun Records is associated with many people who were in early Rockabilly and early Rock and Roll. Their attraction to the label has much to do with Sun being "it" in Memphis - the location - as well as a building reputation based on who else used the studio. No doubt as some of them succeeded others wanted the luck of the studio to rub off on them. Did Sam Phillips really "Discover" so much talent or did they "Discover" his studio?
I have to back up a bit here and say that a few people claimed to "Discover" me who were onto my road to success after I started to ride it. I always credited the Akron, Ohio photographer who insisted I looked like James Dean, Irving Waitzkin. He took me to the Beacon Journal and had photographer Bill Samaris there take photos of me for that Roto Cover that made all the difference.
Here's the History of Rock site on Sam Phillips.:
Sam Phillips at the Tennessee Encylopedia - Clearly a Son of the State! Link above!
Decide for yourself: With Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and many others on the Sun Label, was Sam Phillips all he's said to be?
Sunday, August 26, 2007
(9) HOLLYWOOD CALLS THE COVER BOY
Through a series of events I explain in more detail in my memoir, I found myself on the cover of the Roto Section of the Akron Beacon Journal in March of 1957. A photographer in town, Irving Waitzkin, insisted I looked like James Dean. Irving asked a photographer at the Akron Beacon Journal, Bill Samaris, to take some pictures of me.
The result was a call from Hollywood! A production company associated with the movie studio United Artists wanted to give me a screen test. Dad thought I might be chasing a rainbow, but when a follow-up telegram arrived, my friends who hung out at Kippy's Diner were enthusiastic for me. I packed my bags and headed west. I was put up in the Knickerbocker Hotel, the same Hollywood Hotel that Elvis stayed in when he was making his movie "Love Me Tender," with Debra Paget.
In Hollywood I was photographed from every angle to prove my James Dean-ness and read lines with a starlet. Then I played my guitar, and because my brother Junior taught me so well, I was good. I sang a song I'd written and a few others. Soon I would have a United Artists movie contract and, a first, a contract with United Artists to make records and tour as a teen idol.
The result was a call from Hollywood! A production company associated with the movie studio United Artists wanted to give me a screen test. Dad thought I might be chasing a rainbow, but when a follow-up telegram arrived, my friends who hung out at Kippy's Diner were enthusiastic for me. I packed my bags and headed west. I was put up in the Knickerbocker Hotel, the same Hollywood Hotel that Elvis stayed in when he was making his movie "Love Me Tender," with Debra Paget.
In Hollywood I was photographed from every angle to prove my James Dean-ness and read lines with a starlet. Then I played my guitar, and because my brother Junior taught me so well, I was good. I sang a song I'd written and a few others. Soon I would have a United Artists movie contract and, a first, a contract with United Artists to make records and tour as a teen idol.
Link to LOVE ME TENDER - Elvis' first movie on IMDb the worlds largest movie database
(Some pictures of Elvis and Debra!)
Elvis singing "Love Me Tender" on a You-Tube video presentation!
DO YOU BELIEVE IN FATE?
Friday, August 24, 2007
(7) AKRON, THE RUBBER CITY, OHIO I'M DISCOVERED TO BE THE NEXT JAMES DEAN!
I traveled to build homes with my father as his apprentice. I wanted to be a finish carpenter. Dad and I built in several states. We were adding garages and additions to homes in Akron Ohio, The Rubber City, in 1957, when I was discovered to be THE NEXT JAMES DEAN off a cover of the Akron Beacon Journal - Roto Section.
In September of 2003, Akron Beacon Journal write Mark J. Price published an article about my discovery, which the newspaper back in 1957 was so instrumental in. The article was entitled THE AKRON IDOL!
A teaser of Mark J. Price's article is under Cuyahoga Falls History-Kippy Articles on the net. (Down temporarily!) Kippy's was the diner I hung out in where all the Akron Beacon Journal people came to have lunch, and where a photographer named Irving Waitzkin took an interest in me. Irving took me to the staff photographer, Bill Samaris, who shot the cover photo. Once the cover hit the stands my life was changed forever!
In September of 2003, Akron Beacon Journal write Mark J. Price published an article about my discovery, which the newspaper back in 1957 was so instrumental in. The article was entitled THE AKRON IDOL!
A teaser of Mark J. Price's article is under Cuyahoga Falls History-Kippy Articles on the net. (Down temporarily!) Kippy's was the diner I hung out in where all the Akron Beacon Journal people came to have lunch, and where a photographer named Irving Waitzkin took an interest in me. Irving took me to the staff photographer, Bill Samaris, who shot the cover photo. Once the cover hit the stands my life was changed forever!
LINK TO ARTICLE REMOVED - EXPIRED on JAN 11, 2011
THE AKRON BEACON JOURNAL has an archive of articles written by Mark J. Price, who frequently mines the archives for old stories as inspiration for new articles.
*** Here's Mark's Article on My Discovery and Kippy's Restaurant
LINK TO ARTICLE REMOVE -EXPIRED on JAN 11, 2011 CT
PLEASE NOTE THAT MARK J. PRICE IS STILL WORKING ON THE AKRON BEACON JOURNAL and is working on a BOOK of his own right now!
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