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MY OBSESSION AND QUEST FOR JAMES DEAN
Just got an overwhelming need to share this story so here it is...one of many James Dean related experiences. Back in the 80s I became obsessed with James Dean...obsessed is probably the best word I could use. I needed to find out everything about him. I wanted to be places he had been. I wanted to meet people he had met or knew or worked with or whatever...I was just tuned into James Dean....anyways...one day I turned on my TV and Entertainment Tonight was on and right when I turned it on they were talking about a James Dean teleplay exhibit at the Museum of Broadcasting in New York...well I took that as a sign that I had to go. They were showing rare teleplays he had been in and I figured that was the only way I was gonna get to see them so I was going. I had never been to NY...didn't know anyone out there...I just knew I had to go see this stuff and where there is a will there is a way and I was determined that I was destined to do this....so...I worked at the Apollo Theater in Chicago at the time housemanaging and box office...we had Pumpboys and Dinettes there at the time and I knew from the program that some of the actors in the show were from NY so I figured I would ask them about NY and what else I should see while I was out there...so I go backstage and Linda Rios the understudy was back there...I asked where everybody was and she said they were onstage rehearsing. I told her I wanted to ask some of them about NY...according to the program Linda was from Chicago and it made no mention of NY so I didn't even think to ask her about it but she said What do you want to know about NY and first of all where are you staying? I was like...I dunno...I was going to look into youth hostels and stuff and she said you can stay at my place....I was like huh? I didn't know you had a place in NY. She said she had a rent controlled apartment in Manhattan Plaza at 43rd and 10th and I could stay there if I wanted....wow...free place to stay...had to get the key from a friend of hers that lived in the building named Ronnie when I got out there...and Linda put me on a guest list. She told them I was her cousin and I would be staying in her apartment. I had to bring a snapshot and they put it in their guest book so every time I came in I had to check in at the desk with security...it was a building for theater and film people...She told me about flying into Newark and taking a bus to Port Authority that was only a few blocks away from her apartment building...There was an airline at the time called Peoples Express that cost 49.00 each way to fly to NY from Chicago. The first time I flew out I found out they always overbooked and you could give up your seat and catch the next flight and then get a free voucher for your plane ride...so I would always book the 7:30 flight give up my seat and then take the 9:30 flight to get out there so had a bunch of free rides out there too....I bought a membership at the Museum of Broadcasting so after paying that one time fee I could get into the museum for free...They showed two teleplays a week...so I would fly out at the end of one week and see the two from that week and then stay long enough to catch the next two from the following week and then fly back home and work at the theater and then fly back the next end of the week to catch four more....back and forth...I called Roy Schatt the photographer and told him I was in town for the James Dean exhibition at the Museum of Broadcasting and Roy said he didn't have an exhibition there but I was welcome to come over to the studio. I asked if I could buy a copy of his book. It was out of print at the time and he had some copies. He sold me an autographed copy for 25.00....We talked about Jimmy and he asked me which was my favorite picture in his book....I told him I really liked the one of him walking down the street on W.68th where he lived...with the wind against him....and there was another one I mentioned I can't think of at the moment...but there was this one where he was sitting on the couch and he had this mischievous look on his face and I told Roy that to me was Jimmy and that he captured his essence in that one....after that Roy was asking me all kinds of personal questions like how could I pick up on that and know that and I told him I was obsessed with James Dean and stuff just happened...lots of stuff concerning him just happened on my quest I guess...While we were talking an actress came in asking Roy about headshots and he shooed her away...told her to come back later he was busy...he had company...so we spent awhile visiting...don't remember too many particulars just he was fascinated that I picked up on Jimmy's essence in that photo or something...I went to his barber Louie and got my hair cut like Jimmy's just the top and sides...left the back long...we talked about Jimmy the whole time and Louie said my hair was just like Jimmy's same color dishwater blonde and wavy and everything....I had been in the barber shop about a half hour I want to say from 11am til 11:30 and I had one of those cheap digital watches on I always wore....when I left the barber shop I noticed my watch had stopped it was blank...I was on my way to the Museum of Broadcasting to see some teleplays...when I saw Keep Our Honor Bright...there was an actor in the audience watching it and the Museum of Broadcasting had him come up and say a few words...turned out he was one of the actors in the teleplay and he said he hadn't seen it since he did the show...it was live back then so he had actually never seen it...He talked about how generous Jimmy was with other actors. Like they would hang out at the drug store and he would always share information with other actors if he knew about an audition stuff like that...where other actors might keep that info to themselves to have less competition...he was eager to share info with his fellow actors...just an all around great guy that he loved having the chance to work with....so that was a neat added bonus....coincidence...ya right...later on that day my watch started working again but it was a half hour behind like I had lost time at the barbershop with Louie...weird stuff like that was normal for me back then...like I wanted to find Cromwell's Drug Store...it was no longer in existence but I knew it was at Rockefeller Center....don't know if you have ever been there but it is a huge place....so Cromwells could have been anywhere...I asked around....nobody knew...just kept roaming around there....finally I asked Jimmy to help me find it....just wanted to be in the space he spent a lot of time in....walking around that whole place only went into a Hallmark Card Shop that just happened to have a bunch of James Dean postcards in it......found out that David Loehr gave a walking tour of all the James Dean sights in NY or where they used to be...so one of my trips out there went on the walking tour where I met David and Lenny for the first time....Cromwells Drug Store was on the list of places and when we got to Rockefeller Center.....David stops in front of that Hallmark Card Shop and says this is the former site of Cromwells Drugstore...I just got those chills you get up the top of your back into your shoulders and neck...every time I tell that story I get those...Jimmy led me to Cromwells and now I had verification from someone who actually knew where it was located....wow...crazy stuff like that happened to me all the time....like I went with my friend Jerry Kinser to 54th St wanting to find the former site of Jerry's bar where Jimmy had spaghetti in NY and it was long gone but there was a hotel there and they had a bar so we went to the bar to have a drink in honor of Jimmy. They had a big screen in the bar and wouldn't you know it....they had racing cars in a race on the big screen and the music they had blasting in the background was Hall and Oats Dreamtime......you're living in dream time....yep sure was....crazy....
Just remembered something else...the only time I ever got turned around in NY supposedly headed in the wrong direction but not really....I forgot where I thought I was heading but noticed the streets were in the 30s so decided since I ended up there I would stop by and say hi to Roy Schatt...when I got to his place he was out front and said it is a good thing you stopped by today cuz my wife and I are going to Europe tomorrow....hmmmmmm.......
I guess what brought this memory to mind was reminiscing with Sally Hinton and Mary Alice Rodes that I met back around that time...I met Mary Alice at the Museum of Broadcasting and her stays there were briefer than mine...she worked for Delta Airlines at the time so she just flew in to see the teleplays and flew back out the same day....she told me about the fan clubs and stuff....she is next to me in the group photo in Fairmount....
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151358905496951&set=a.10150513...
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150505973856951&set=a.10150505...
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151310100841951&set=a.10152147...
Jerry Kinser and I are bookends in this picture on the Winslow farm again...Lenny is in the middle...
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151358926781951.1073741828.6...
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tentativetimes.net%2Fde...
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152061649396951.1073741850.6...
surreal....so real....listen to the line about movie star eyes.
THE MAN WITH THE PLAN THAT WILL SEE YOU THROUGH....
just listening to this song remembering bringing those crazy chills on again...wow...
here is a song I wrote with James Dean in the lyrics https://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3...
here is a poem I wrote about Jimmy that I gave a copy of to the Fairmount Historical Museum back in the 80s...I know I gave a copy to David Loehr too but don't know if he ever used it for the Gallery or not... http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thestarlitecafe.com%2Fp...
maybe I should have said or warned you I was obsessed with a capital O or better yet a capital O-B-S-E-S-S-E-D.....well, I am sure you get the picture...the key word is was WAS...I must remember that word WAS obsessed....you can only imagine what I was like back then...oh brother.... I am sure a few old friends can vouch for me on that....David,Lenny,Steve, Justine, MaryAnn,Mary,Sally, MaryAlice...the rest of you know who you are...too many to name too many names....
one more pic compliments of Shayne Skinner.... https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10203042154838174&set=a.10200130...
here is another link to Shayne's pic of me n his mom in NY on the James Dean Walking Tour in case the other one doesn't work...it got lost somehow... https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153050004716951&set=t.67170695...
just came across this video that was done during this same time period recently posted by Deaners the movie that my friend Mary Ann Michna did that I was with her for a lot of both on and off camera..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RovOWmVg0Ms
just found this article about the time I brought a letter from Julie Harris to read at the James Dean Memorial Service in Fairmount back in the 90s...I had shared a link that disappeared cuz the website got deleted but found it once again while googling something else...funny how that happens...guess it was meant to be shared once again.... https://www.tentativetimes.net/james-deans-church-back-creek-friends/
A couple of memories from California trips regarding James Dean connections....I was at Mann's Chinese Theater with my friend Courtney and there was a guy recruiting audience members for a television taping so we went...they take you there on a bus and bring you back where you started from....so we get there...I forgot the name of the show but Don Knotts was in it so it was neat to see him up on stage but one of the guest stars on the show was none other than Dizzy Sheridan....I was really thrilled to see her up on stage....I had just bought a bunch of James Dean t-shirts and was debating whether or not I should hold one up to let her know I was a fan of his but decided against it...I didn't wanna freak her out...but it was really neat to see her in person even though I couldn't speak to her...also one night we were waiting for a bus and Martin Sheen was walking down the street on his way into a restaurant with a group of people...I didn't bother him I just smiled at him...he smiled back...When I was having my friend Courtney film me by the knife fight scene location for Rebel at Griffith Planetarium a guy was there that reminded me of Billy Gunn...not sure if it was him or not cuz I didn't ask him but I told him why I was there and he smiled and nodded and said don't let me chase you away.....
