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!)

JAMES DEAN BORN COOL : DOCUMENTARY : JAMES DEAN FESTIVAL 2013 LINK!

The film-makers have decided to post this on YOUTUBE and that is VERY COOL!  Featuring family and friends, made originally in 2002!
JAMES DEAN COMMUNITY FESTIVAL 2013 LINK

(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.

(401) MIDNIGHT EARL WILSON : HE ANNOUNCED THAT I LOOKED A LOT LIKE JAMES DEAN

An Evening News copy of an Earl Wilson Column that mentioned me! (We couldn't get it to enlarge so you could read it, but you can try!)

EARL WILSON was the syndicated columnist who announced that I'd been signed to United Artists and that I looked a lot like James Dean. One of the hardest working journalists that ever lived, Earl didn't just rely on contacts to give him information, he continued to interview even as the years went by. Being mentioned by Earl ever so briefly was a dream come true for the up and coming actor - singer - songwriter I was back in New York.

We're linking to his New York Times obit above which sings his praises.

We learned that Earl's son, Earl Junior, gave his father's papers to Ohio State college, the school he had graduated from.