I asked my teenage grandson after he said, “Cool,” over my shoulder while he watched me manipulate this picture.
“Wasn’t he the Rebel without a Cause guy?” Bobby said and his answer surprised me.
Though James Dean was from my era I barely knew who he was myself until I visited his grave in Fairmount, Indiana. But then celebrities don't interest me much until after they're dead. I wouldn't go across the street to see most entertainers perform but would travel many miles to visit their grave-site and then only as long as it was on my route.
James Dean was a legend in his own time and became immortalized by his death.
His tombstone has been stolen a couple of times and had to be replaced once. Once it was found in a field behind the cemetery.
The farm where James was raised, by his aunt and uncle, is about a mile down the road from the cemetery. The farm has been heavily renovated and modernized and I’m sure looks nothing like the homestead where the boy grew up.