(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.

(354) MISSING PICTURES MISSING PETE! (HOW I MET MARLON BRANDO!)

One day my friend Pete Tambunga took me down to the Dick Cavett Show.

The show started in 1968 and went on for a few years. He was friends with Marlon Brando and wanted to introduce me to Marlon!

(Pete was also friends with Marlon's son Miko.) He knew Brando from their mutual Native American involvments. I'm also a bit Native American, a great grandmother was Cherokee, now Eastern Band Cherokee, near Murphy, North Carolina.

Dick had a talk show and interviewed so many of the famous over the years. He was (and is) an intellectual and so the conversations could be sophisticated. But when we met, Pete, who had a way of turning phrases around (I still use Tambungaisms), and me started telling jokes.

Someone took out a camera and took a picture of me, Marlon and Pete. Then Pete took one of me and Marlon. So I want to see those pictures again, though not as much as I'd like to talk to Pete again!

On the show Marlon is talking about social causes, in particular the racism experienced by Native Americans. Surprise! We're linking to the DICK CAVETT BLOG website THE OPINION PAGES from the New York Times above!

PS: FROM WES : This is the show! Marlon was coming out of the studio and yelled "Hey Pete!" And then Pete introduced us. He gave Pete a hug and then me a hug.

(283) HONEY BABY on CLOCK

Meeting all the great talent that came through those doors at American Music was inspiring to me. I had worked a bit recording in the Brill Building in New York, doing demos, listening to songs that were being written for me in mind by songwriters like Neil Sedaka. Well, when I went on to record on CLOCK records in New York, a fellow named David "Baby" Cortez wrote this one for me...



THANKS TO ARNE once again for being the first to post this on Youtube, and with so much care to the video !

Now, I had very little time to prepare to record and record this record - both sides - and I wish I'd had more time .

I sang "Honey Baby" when I visted my high school in Murphy, North Carolina, and performed a stage show there.

CHEROKEE SCOUT NEWSPAPER - MURPHY NORTH CAROLINA MENTIONS THIS BLOG

"We’re not the only business or resident who has come up with informative and interesting ways to spread whatever word they want online. One such site is by Murphy native Wes Bryan at www.wesbryan.blogspot.com, where he shares plenty of stories about his life in music.

David Brown Editor

YES, I also use the Internet from time to time to see what's going on back home by going to the Cherokee Scout website! Wes

Click on the title above to get to the Newspaper !