What is James Dean wearing here??

[eugenesque]

James Dean was from my hometown. He rode motorcycles with my Uncle in the late 40s during high school and when back home in the early 50s. I met him in 1951 at my Grandparent's usual Sunday dinner at their home. I remember him as a strange kinda quiet guy ( of course I was quite young then ). I was at his Funeral. He is buried very close to my family. My first Wife is his cousin and our Daughter is his second cousin.

Its so surreal reading this. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Sloan1874]

James Dean was from my hometown. He rode motorcycles with my Uncle in the late 40s during high school and when back home in the early 50s. I met him in 1951 at my Grandparent's usual Sunday dinner at their home. I remember him as a strange kinda quiet guy ( of course I was quite young then ). I was at his Funeral. He is buried very close to my family. My first Wife is his cousin and our Daughter is his second cousin.

And with this post, HD wins the entire internet for the rest of the year!

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Thanks for that backstory. You're probably one of the few people that can see past the icon status of the man. Are you happy or ambivalent about his legacy in our popular culture?

I'm happy with it. Of course he was quite different as a small town boy growing up in Fairmount, Indiana. Although he was indeed quiet and moody even then, his burr haircut and thick glasses at FHS was a far cry from the pompadoured movie star idol that returned home on visits. However he had changed and 'become' what was actually seen on the screen. I think he did portray, although often over dramatically, many of the sensitivities plaguing many teenagers and young adults of that time period.

 

[Seb Lucas]

Its so surreal reading this. Thanks for sharing!

I'ts not surreal, it's remarkable. Surreal would be if a hippopotamus was making toast on a surfboard in HD's anecdote. Sorry - pedantry over.

 

[eugenesque]

I'ts not surreal, it's remarkable. Surreal would be if a hippopotamus was making toast on a surfboard in HD's anecdote. Sorry - pedantry over.

Haha I stand corrected!

 

[Peacoat]

HD, I know you are from Fairmount, and we have discussed my making a motorcycle trip up there to visit his grave, but I never thought to ask you if there was a James Dean connection - probably because of the age difference between you and Jimmy. Now we all know, and it is cool.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Peacoat...There is also a James Dean Gallery and Fairmount Museum displaying quite a bit of his memorabilia and also even a '65 graduation pic of yours truly . Before you head this way contact me and I'll take you on the Grand tour of his homestead and places of interest.
HD

 

[Peacoat]

Peacoat...There is also a James Dean Gallery and Fairmount Museum displaying quite a bit of his memorabilia and also even a '65 graduation pic of yours truly . Before you head this way contact me and I'll take you on the Grand tour of his homestead and places of interest.
HD

Thanks will do.

 

[Edward]

@Seb, yep, it's right up there with Once Upon a Time in America IMHO.
And you're right, Elvis and Brando both lived to get middle-aged and fat. There's nothing wrong with that (I did it too), but saying "He was handsome when he was young, before he got fat", takes some of the shine off that iconic status.

Brsando is the interesting comparison. While Brando may have lost his looks, he certainly retained his credibility, not lessdt with The Godfather. For some actors, I think losing their youthful, pretty boy looks can be the making of them as it lets them get the better roles (Brad Pitt being a good example of this - look at the turnaround in the quality of his output from circa Se7en...). Whether Dean would have been the Mature Actor or the Faded Former Pretty Boy is a matter of conjecture, of course, though certsinly the subtlety of his performance in somethingl ike Rebel would suggest he had quality in him.

 

[Edward]

I'm happy with it. Of course he was quite different as a small town boy growing up in Fairmount, Indiana. Although he was indeed quiet and moody even then, his burr haircut and thick glasses at FHS was a far cry from the pompadoured movie star idol that returned home on visits. However he had changed and 'become' what was actually seen on the screen. I think he did portray, although often over dramatically, many of the sensitivities plaguing many teenagers and young adults of that time period.

That must have been fascinating. I've grown up in a small town and been no both sides of seeing and being the person who got out for the big city coming back, all glammed up, but never experienced anything quite so big. It must be a fascinating insight to the media build-up and the Hollwood machine to have that comparison from direct experience.

 

[Seb Lucas]

Brsando is the interesting comparison. While Brando may have lost his looks, he certainly retained his credibility, not lessdt with The Godfather. For some actors, I think losing their youthful, pretty boy looks can be the making of them as it lets them get the better roles (Brad Pitt being a good example of this - look at the turnaround in the quality of his output from circa Se7en...). Whether Dean would have been the Mature Actor or the Faded Former Pretty Boy is a matter of conjecture, of course, though certsinly the subtlety of his performance in somethingl ike Rebel would suggest he had quality in him.

That's on the money, Edward. Of course talent won't help you build an enduring career any more than looks. You also need resilience and a good agent. I also wonder about the role substance abuse has played in the lives of so many other "icons" of Dean's era - Natalie Wood, Dennis Hopper, Elvis, Marilyn...

 

[Edward]

That's on the money, Edward. Of course talent won't help you build an enduring career any more than looks. You also need resilience and a good agent. I also wonder about the role substance abuse has played in the lives of so many other "icons" of Dean's era - Natalie Wood, Dennis Hopper, Elvis, Marilyn...

Managerial abuse seems to have been a big part of it with Elvis. The story long-believed was that his prescription-drug dependency (and the rest) kept him from touring internationally, but there are those who were there at the time who now claim it was actually Tom Parker's paranoia that old criminal charges would catch up with him and block him from re-emntering the US that led him to dump Elvis in the movies for so long, and limit his live work. It is interesting to speculate what Elvis might have done had he been working as a musician during the era of Hendrix and the Doors..... Heck, what if he'd worked around Dylan? Dylan has always been a fan of Elvis, and one of Elvis' best recordings, imo, remains In the Ghetto, his only really political song. Can you imagine what might have turned up had Elvis been out of the movies and been insprirecby Dyland to push harder for more numbers like that, in the era of the CRA?

Marilyn fscinates me becuse I'm baffled by her. Undoubtedly talented and funny (though oddly asexual to me, but then I've never been attracted to the kind of baby-voiced, vulnerable girls they constantly had her play), but so very, very far from the kind of person who shoul have the quasi-feminist icon she seems to have for some. A very trgic case; even if the Kennedys hadn't had her executed, I doubt she'd have been long for this world.

 

[Lost Ronin]

My Mum was a teenager in the 50s, and adored James Dean. I was very fortunate to have her share her views on him with me over the years, and why he was so important to that generation, why he meant so much to them. He was part of a societal shift that, I guess if you weren't there to experience it, words alone don't do it justice. Elvis and rock'n'roll were a part of it, too, a big part, but there was something in the sensitivity of Dean's acting that reached out to the adolescents of that time. They connected with his characterisations, with the 'crazy mixed-up kid', with the loner and the rebel.
it was as though Dean's acting exhibited what they were feeling in the postwar Western world.

I wish Mum was still alive so I could tell her about your post, HD. In true 50s fashion she'd have said, "that story's the living end!"

My mother was born in 1942, so she too was a teenager in the mid to late 1950's. Hearing her talk about it all always fascinated me as a boy. I've always felt I was born in the wrong time. I wish she were still alive so I could ask her so much more. Amongst other things.

 

[2jakes]

This movie comes close;
"American Graffitti." ('73)
Funny, nostalgic, and bittersweet look of
a generation which I grew up in.

I became aware of James Dean after September of '55.

Before that time, we had no one.
"Rock & Roll" at the start was not
allowed on every radio station.
High school had strict dress codes.

We had no identity until Dean came
along.
Sadly he was gone too soon.
But the movie "Rebel..." kept it going.

My mother's teen years had Glenn Miller
& Tommy Dorsey (Boogie-Woogie).
And the dress code and things were a
bit stricter than mine.

And my grandma had Valentino,
flapper dressrs and Jazz music
dancing.
I never got the chance to ask her how
it was for her. I can only imagine!