WES BRYAN - TEEN DELIGHT

WES BRYAN - OLD NEWS CLIPPING - THE NEXT JAMES DEAN

This image of me was in the Salt Lake Tribune Review in 1957. When Buddy Knox and I went on tour, we hit every state but Alaska, Hawaii, and Utah!

It captures me in my "Next James Dean" phase when I was signed to United Artists. The full article explains that I have been signed at United Artist with two contracts; one for their new music label and the other as an actor.

Although I threw myself into my music career wholeheartedly, I hadn't completely given up on acting when I moved to Los Angeles in the early 1960's.

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.

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.

(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.

GOOGLE READER - RSS FEED - WILL GO DOWN JULY 1 2013

Just to keep our followers and other friends and readers up to the latest in Google Blogger History!

Google has announced that the Google Reader, and RSS feed features which some of you use to read this and other blogs, will be history (go down permanently as far as anyone knows) in about 2 weeks, on July 1, 2013.

There are other RSS Readers out there and we will post ON THIS POST if there are any recommendations or suggestions about those products or services. *****

You can always go Old School and BOOKMARK this site.

If you use word search on Google, Yahoo, Bing, or any other SEARCH ENGINE, we are aware of another half dozen or so WES BRYANs out there.  We suggest "WES BRYAN MUSIC" as the best word choice.

WE HAVE BLOGGED USING FREE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES FROM THE VERY BEGINNING and we are grateful for the opportunity to do so.  However, even some of the world's richest companies sometimes decide that a free product or service is not worth it to them to continue.

While we're at it, we know we miss - and you probably do too - our wonderful slideshow of stars which was one of the products we have also used for free as provided by PHOTOBUCKET.

Well, we put up the Valentine's version of that slideshow this year, and a week later, when we went in to take down the Valentines there was no longer any EDITING OPTION.  Not only that, there is no longer any option to make NEW SLIDESHOWS!  PHOTOBUCKET IS ALLOWING US TO PRESENT THE SLIDESHOWS (the moving boxes) that we already made and posted.  For this we are grateful!

Hopefully we can soon reinstall a slideshow!

Christine

***** Update : We're being told that FEEDLY and DIGG will have readers.  FEEDLY is an option now, DIGG in the near future.

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.

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.

(399) STRICTLY OFF THE RECORD : SALT LAKE TRIBUNE REVIEW :

Some newspapers used pictures of me supplied by United Artists and other's went without. Here's one that the Salt Lake City Tribune Review published with one of my publicity photos. Christine and me found this one in a newspaper database. My father was the person on the family who kept scrapbooks of my career when I was too busy on the road to keep track.

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.

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.

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.

JAMES BYRON DEAN BLOG

Here's a myspace blog by a devoted JAMES DEAN Fan which also mentions me...

JAMES BYRON DEAN February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955

The next few blogs will be in Honor of JAMES DEAN.

If he hadn't died in that terrible car crash Hollywood wouldn't have been looking for The Next James Dean. But I met his good friend Christine White while a tourist in Hollywood for the first time, well before I ever thought I would be an actor or singer, long before I was discovered.

I was a fan of James Dean's, and I wanted to know everything there was to know about him, so that I could fulfill what seemed to be my destiny of stepping into his shoes as a United Artists' actor.

LINK TO A 1957 ARTICLE IN THE LA TIMES ABOUT THE NEXT JAMES DEAN

I have a stash of magazines and articles about me, most of which my father managed to save for me. I was too busy traveling to even think about it at the time. Recently we found an article about me circa 1957 in the LA Times archive. You can get to the article by clicking on the title above. Have fun!