JAMES DEAN a biography, Ballantine Books, New York

For my third and final post on the actor James Dean (1931-1955), who died on this date 60 years ago, I've selected the front covers of the very first book to be written about his life, by the screenwriter William Bast (1931-2015).

JAMES DEAN was published by Ballantine Books of New York, it was subtitled  'A Biography', though in Bast's words it's really "designed specifically as a personal description" of his friend as he knew him. The cover photographs for both the dust jacket of the hardback and the paperback edition each use an image from the famous portraits of Dean taken by Roy Schatt. 

Today, the hardback is rarely seen and commands a high value in the collectors market, but the 35c paperback is fairly common as it must have sold hundreds of thousands of copies following its publication in 1956. 

Ballantine's Hardbound Editions retailed at $2.75

Walking on West 68th Street, New York, 1954

In 1957, one year after Bast's 'biography', the next book on James Dean was a cheapo 25c paperback issued by New York's Popular Library - these days well remembered for their pulpy crime novels with wonderfully fetching cover art - which aimed to capitalize on the cult of Dean. 

Unlike Bast's pioneering attempt, this one slipped through the cracks of history, almost without trace: Popular Library W 400

However, Dean fandom continued to thrive during the 1960s, but with no further books - until the publication of David Dalton's acclaimed biography 'The Mutant King' in 1974, which was without doubt instrumental in igniting a mass revival of interest in all things Dean. 

And in the subsequent decades, filmographies, further biographies, umpteen newspaper and magazine articles, photograph books, academic essays, TV and radio documentaries, fanzines and fansites continue to explore every conceivable aspect of the legend of James Byron Dean...

Still available to listen: You're Tearing Me Apart: Rebel Without a Cause at 60

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06ccwh3

The Triumph & Tragedy of Jimmy Dean

---NOW following on from my previous post, here is very likely the earliest example of a comic strip telling the story of actor James Dean, who died 60 years ago this month. 

It was published in 1956 within 'ELVIS AND JIMMY' a rather odd magazine which is split into two distinct sections. The first half is a series of black and white photographs accompanied by an article called 'How it Feels to be Elvis' written by a journalist from a Memphis-based newspaper. 

Published by 'The Girl Friend - The Boy Friend Corporation', New York

The second half is a 32 page black and white comic strip entitled 'The Tragedy and Triumph of Jimmy Dean', made up of 70 panels drawn by Lou Cameron, perhaps best known at the time for his work on horror comics and the long-running series 'Classics Illustrated'. Cameron eventually became a prolific writer of crime and western novels.

The idea of using illustrations rather than photographs is explained in the opening panel which suggests that a photographer would inevitably not have been on hand to document such personal moments in Dean's life. Instead, his story is captured in ink by Lou Cameron - who quite possibly could have written the piece as well. 

It's ironic though that Dean was in fact one of the most oft-photographed stars of his day, but perhaps it was cheaper to hire a comic book artist than shell out for over 30 pages of costly press or archive photos?

However, it's a fascinating piece that came out in the flurry of hastily put-together one-off tribute magazines in those first years after Dean's passing - and here is a selection of some of Cameron's panels, beginning with the funereal-style opening page:

The right half of the final panel - which is a two page spread. Hovering in the sky above the wreckage of Dean's Porsche Spyder on Route 466 is a portrait of the dead star by the artist Norman Nodel.

For the price of 50c, 'Elvis and Jimmy' readers could send off for a special 10" x 8" copy of Nodel's portrait. Unlike the magazine which is not too uncommon, these art portraits must be exceedingly rare now...

The Life and Death of James Dean in Amazing Pictures

A rather unusual combination of comic strip and photographs was published by 'Top Spot' in September 1959, four years after the death of actor James Dean - which will very soon be exactly 60 years ago.

There had been an enormous output of magazine articles around the world about the life and times of Dean in the those early years after his tragic, untimely death at the age of just 24 years old. This one was printed in the UK by Fleetway Publications, and was distributed as far as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Rhodesia and Nyasaland (now Zimbabwe and Malawi). 

'Top Spot' was also a short-lived effort - and in its two-year run there's a heady mix of comics, pin-ups of cinema starlets and short adventure stories. All squarely aimed at a male teenage market who had perhaps moved on from reading comics like Lion or Buster.

In this interesting five-page spread, there's a rather barbed final statement aimed at Hollywood itself - that it should "be blamed for cheapening Dean's greatness as an actor". But significantly, six decades on Dean's acting method is still clearly an influence to today's aspiring performers...

Enjoy the piece - and you should be able click on each page and view them as larger images...

Do LISTEN To:

You're Tearing Me Apart: Rebel Without a Cause at 60

It's impossible now to separate the cult of James Dean from the film that defined a teen-age. 

The mystery and mystique of Rebel, drawing on rare, never heard archive - and the making of a legend:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06ccwh3

CINEMASCO, London E1

Ripped & Torn Film in Cinemascope, flyposted in London E1. I photographed dozens of these some 25 years ago....

Watford Chemical Co. Ltd.

I've got plenty of photographs that I took during a period in my life when I had something of a fevered fascination to collect images of bygone London (then).

Back in the 1980s, I'd spend much of the time exploring my various haunts - in particular East London. Building up a private archive of places that seemed to linger forever battered and broken - and then would suddenly disappear in a blink of eye.

One such building was the headquarters of the Watford Chemical Co. Ltd. in Copperfield Road, London E3, a largely industrial street that is situated alongside the Regent's Canal. These days, it is the superb Ragged School Museum that draws visitors from all over to Copperfield Road, where they can experience the beautifully reconstructed classrooms that were designed by Dr Barnardo to educate the poor children of the area between 1877 to 1908.

The Museum opened its doors several years after the photograph was taken, and some decades on from the era when this chemical manufacturer must have been a laboratory bubbling with activity. Not sure why they were based in London E3, and not Watford in Hertfordshire?

I wonder how many people were employed at the works, and who out there may still have memories of all those emulsifying agents and chemicals manufactured on the premises?

Circa late 1980s. Where have all sundry chemicals gone?

Big Jig's Famous London Scenes

I'm just following up my two previous postings about the Good-Win 'Big Jig' puzzles. I've now finally tracked down all four of their markets of London 400 piece jigsaws issued in the 1950s as Series 5 thru 8 of FAMOUS LONDON SCENES.

Of course, numbers 6 and 7, Covent Garden and Billingsgate Markets, have both since moved from their nineteenth century buildings. In 1974, 'New' Covent Garden relocated to Nine Elms, and in 1982 the fish market was shunted further east along the Thames to its present home on the Isle of Dogs.

I know nothing about 'nevin' who painted the series - nor how popular the jigsaw puzzles were at the time. A previous owner had written 3/- in pencil on the back of one of the boxes.Perhaps that's what they paid for it at the time, when budget puzzles like these were so plentiful.

Billingsgate Market in Lower Thames Street at 8.25am, packed with porters and fish. The 1870s building is now an 'up-market' events venue...

5. Smithfield Market, looking towards St Bartholomew's Hospital. The Red Phone Box is still there...

6. Covent Garden, one for the tourists now...

7. Billingsgate. Note 'GOODWIN & CO' on the most prominent sign. A little plug for the publishers of the jigsaw!

8. Petticoat Lane - for more on this one, check my post in Feb 2015...

Draw Me!