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!

JAMES DEAN PUBLICITY PHOTO from DOVER PUBLISHING

JAMES DEAN  Warner Brothers 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!)

(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.

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.

(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.

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

37th ANNUAL JAMES DEAN FESTIVAL : SEPTEMBER 27th – 30th, 2012

This festival is always a lot of James Dean themed fun and testifies to the lasting popularity of the actor, who back in the 1950's I was being promoted by United Artists to replace. We're linking to one of the pages of the Fairmount Historical Museum which has more information about the festival. Gas prices are high but this might be the time to get in your car and take a drive across this great United States for a vacation.

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!

FAIRMOUNT HISTORICAL MUSEUM : JAMES DEAN FESTIVAL 2011

The 2011 James Dean Festival runs from Thursday, September 22nd through Sunday, September 25th.

The festival's main attractions will be the Annual Museum Days and the Annual James Dean Run.

Linking to the Fairmount Museum for more information!

(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.

(353) MARLON BRANDO or JAMES DEAN THE SCREEN TESTS

Recently we found these screen tests on YouTube and thought you'd enjoy taking a look at them. James Dean and Marlon Brando have both become acting legends.


AND MARLON BRANDO testing FOR THE ROLE THAT JAMES DEAN GOT

(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.

OUR ARCHIVE REVISITED (127) ELVIS AND MOVIE ROLES/MARLON BRANDO? JAMES DEAN? ELVIS PRESLEY?!

From Thursday, April 3, 2008

(127) ELVIS AND MOVIE ROLES / MARLON BRANDO? JAMES DEAN? ELVIS PRESLEY?!

Now, friends, Elvis is criticized for his movie roles these days and I have to admit that he came to be disappointed with his acting career and where movies took his music, but in the early 1960's Elvis was generally open and enthusiastic with making movies. Hollywood was still a movie-making town and it was important to Elvis to be in the Los Angeles area to make them.

Elvis was being offered roles that had been written for actors with great prestige like Marlon Brando and James Dean.

"King Creole" was written by Harold Robbins with the original title, "A Stone For Danny Fisher." James Dean was supposed to star in it. (The movie James Dean is most often known for, "Rebel Without a Cause," was also offered to Marlon Brando, who did a screen test for it.) Marlon Brando was supposed to star in "Flaming Star," which had been written with him in mind but Elvis stared instead.

Elvis would think "If this role is good enough for Marlon or James Dean it's good enough for me." The studios would add some songs, turn a script into a musical, give the job to Elvis... Elvis could read a script one time through and know his lines and he was the consummate professional on the set, treating people from all walks of life with courtesy.

JAMES DEAN JAMES DEAN JAMES DEAN

Today is the anniversary of James Dean's tragic death in a car accident. You can use the search this Google blog feature to read previous blogs on James Dean, the actor whose shoes I once tried to fill.

DENNIS STOCK THE PHOTOGRAPHER ON JAMES DEAN

JAMES DEAN is celebrated each year at a special JAMES DEAN FESTIVAL in his hometown, and that festival is happening starting tomorrow through Sunday, September the 26th, 2010. We're linking to the OFFICIAL JAMES DEAN site which will take you to another link about the festival.

JAMES DEAN and I both grew up in the country, and after his death, after I was being promoted by UNITED ARTISTS as THE NEXT JAMES DEAN, Dean's family welcomed me to visit the farm, and photographs of me were taken there that I still own.

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!)

(330) ELVIS PRESLEY FUN IN ACAPULCO

I went on the set when Elvis was making FUN IN ACAPULCO in 1963!

First the camera crew had entourage member, musician, and songwriter Red West (who now has a great acting career of his own going!) sit and ride on a bike. They had some huge cameras - from the floor up - and a background of Acapulco that had already been filmed and then synchronized it with Elvis riding. In the movie it looks like he's riding in that Mexican city, but he never left the soundstage.

That was the state of movie magic at the time!

The movie also starred actress Ursula Andress, who had once briefly dated James Dean, and who went on to marry Producer John Derek.

The movie title song was first demo'ed by P.J. Proby. When a songwriter wrote a song with a singer in mind and in this case a song for an Elvis Movie so Elvis, the demo was made to sound as much as possible as that singer.

P.J. who has a strong voice and could sound much like Elvis, was chosen. Here is a Youtube video that features both! I think they both sound great.



This Youtube video has more than one song on it. Elvis looks terrific and towards the end there you can see the blonde beauty, who is Ursula.


Christine here: I'm catching up slowly on Elvis movies. This year I saw Jail House Rock, Double Trouble, and - just the other day - Fun in Alcapulco.

DENNIS STOCK (Who Took That Photo of James Dean Walking Down the Street in New York)

We're linking to the Los Angeles Times news article, from yesterday, January 14, 2009, which starts on today's front page and goes into the Obituaries about DENNIS STOCK, who took that great photo of James Dean in 1954, walking in Times Square in New York City..."

"Stock didn't know Dean was an actor until he'd finished talking to him." It wasn't apparent in his appearance," he told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in 2005. "He was not a neat dresser per se. He looked tired, but he was pleasant and interesting."Stock went with Dean to a sneak preview of "East of Eden" in Santa Monica, but the actor stayed outside with his motorcycle while Stock watched the movie. Overwhelmed by Dean's performance, Stock proposed doing a "visual biography" on Dean. "I knew this guy would take off," he recalled. The famous Times Square photo of Dean was just part of Stock's photo essay that appeared in Life magazine in 1955..." Dennis McLellan reporting, January 14, 2010

I met and talked to Dennis briefly while out with my friend who had been James Dean's friend, Christine White

WES and I are working on our blog right now but...

though we have postings coming up on DENNIS STOCK, the photographer most known for the iconic 1954 pre-fame photo of James Dean in New York, and the article on when ELVIS PRESLEY met President Richard Nixon, both in the LA TIMES, we are, perhaps like billions of other people in the world, in shock about the earthquake destruction in HAITI.

Since the news hit, the appraisals of the situation there seem to be getting worse and worse.

3rd world nations do not seem to be up to the earthquake safety features of buildings built here in California. Though our economy is almost Great Depression Era here, we are filled with pride that our great United States of America is sending aid. According to the latest LA Time articles, it's estimated that there are 40,000 to 55,000 dead and 3 million effected - about 1/3rd the population of Haiti. A rare phone works. Water needs to be made pure to drink. Dead bodies line the roads, another health endangerment. Natural disasters like these really make you think about your own life, how precious it is, and how it ought to be lived.

Christine Trzyna

PHILIP RHODES MY FRIEND and MARLON BRANDO'S

This is a memorial for an old friend - old? He must have been 95!

I'd been thinking about Philip and couldn't find the address book I had his number in. When I called yesterday, it was only to learn from Philip's grieving wife, Marie, that Philip had passed away early this year.

Phil was a true genius in the art of movie make-up - a silent giant - and collaborated with Marlon Brando for years, to get his look just right for his films. He had known John Barrymore and was a friend to Orson Wells. Phil and I spend hours talking about Hollywood and James Dean. I enjoyed listening to Phil's stories, and his philosophizing. He was a true gentleman of the kind they don't make any more, an ascot tucked into his shirt, immaculate. The last time I saw him he was having a little "power lunch" at DuPars, a diner famous for its pies, with a group of his friends. -Wes Bryan

I met Phil through Wes at the library where he and I first met. One time Phil talked to me about making noses and adding to chins with wax. He was one of those artistic individuals who always had a project. And he would go to book sales and giveaways and load up the trunk of his car, because he had the kind of mind that always craves knowledge.

He had vivid blue eyes and a youthful quality that defied his years; he had lived in Paris in the 1920's. I can only hope that I will live as long and be able to contribute creatively as much as Phil did. - Christine Trzyna