Elvis pays a visit to James Dean

James Dean was killed in his sports car on September 30, 1955.   I'm not sure whose idea it was, but a few weeks after his death, my friends and I had the idea of visiting his gravesite in Fairmount, Indiana . My friends being Jack, his future wife Marty, Bill Logan, Sue, and Sharon. We all piled into Bill Logan's 1953 Plymouth Belvedere 2-door hardtop and headed for Fairmount, James Dean's hometown.

We arrived at James Dean's gravesite later that morning and there were a few people at the gravesite. We noticed that there wasn't a single blade of grass around his headstone and there were numerous chips out of the headstone. I assume people were taking souvenirs. So as we were all getting back into the car, a 1955 pink and black Ford Crown Victoria pulled into a parking space several spaces down from where we were parked, and out comes this man and woman. The man had a striking resemblance to Elvis Presley, i.e., long sideburns, dark hair, etc. None of us thought it was really Elvis except for Marty, who said, "Look, there's Elvis Presley." Marty was determined to get out of the car to go to talk to Elvis, and we were all trying to restrain her.  She was adamant about going to this man and pestering him. We finally convinced her that Elvis would not be driving a Ford. He would be driving a Cadillac. Based on that statement, Marty got back in the car.  

We all saw the specials on television about the life and death of James Dean, one on the Ed Sullivan Show and another on the Steve Allen Show. Between those two programs, the Winslows were interviewed. The Winslows were James Dean's Aunt and Uncle and nephew Mark. So we all knew what the farmhouse looked like and what the Winslows looked like. Then, I'm not sure, it seemed like either Sharon or Sue, but in retrospect I think it was probably Marty, who said, Lets see if we can find the Winslow's farmhouse. After driving out around in the country surrounding Fairmount for a bit, we saw a white colonial type house that looked like the Winslow house we saw on television. Lo and behold, out in the front yard was this little kid playing. Either Sue or Sharon rolled her window down and said, Are you Marky Winslow? The little boy said, Yeah, come on in. So we all got out of the car and went into the home. Mrs. Winslow was very cordial and polite and she invited us to sit down. Shortly after that, Mr. Winslow came in. He too was very friendly and gentlemanly and he sat down with us. They proceeded to tell us about the life of James Dean on a very personal level. The Winslow's were being overwhelmed by admirers of James Dean (like we were doing). One thing they were told by James Dean's agent just after his death was that this would all die down in a couple more weeks. It is still going on today!  

Mrs. Winslow went into another room and brought back a family photo album. She passed around photographs of James Dean that no one outside their home had seen up until then. What struck me was one photo I was looking at of a previous Christmas morning at the Winslows. James Dean was opening up a Christmas present and he was sitting in a big overstuffed chair. I looked down at the chair I was sitting in and it was the same chair. The Winslows were very courteous. They didn't give you the bum's rush and we felt like we could sit there and talk to them all day. But we finally had asked them about all the questions we could think of and we had pretty much covered James Dean's life. We all piled back into Bill's Plymouth and motored home.

Dale