James Dean Behind Wheel Of Race Car Lobby Card 8 THE JAMES DEAN STORY 1957 Bio
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:23136492 | Modified Item: No |
| Country/Region of Manufacture: United States |
(This looks MUCH better than the picture above.) James Dean behind wheel of race car Lobby Card #8 THE JAMES DEAN STORY 1957 biographical documentary Original Studio Vintage This 11 x 14 inch Lobby Card would look great framed on display in your home theater or to add to your portfolio or scrapbook! Some dealers buy my lots (see my other auctions) to break up and sell separately at classic film conventions at much higher prices than my low minimum. A worthy investment for g...ift giving too! PLEASE BE PATIENT WHILE ALL PICTURES LOAD After checking out this item please look at my other unique silent motion picture memorabilia and Hollywood film collectibles! COMBINE SHIPPING COST AND SAVE $ See a gallery of pictures of my other auctions HERE! This LOBBY CARD is an original release (vintage, from the original Hollywood studio release) and not a digital copy or reproduction printing. DESCRIPTION: A cut above the usual cheesy paste-up "tribute", The James Dean Story is imbued with a modicum of style thanks to fledgling film-director Robert Altman. Most of the film consists of clips from Dean's three starring pictures (East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant), with tantalizing glimpses of his pre-star career. One such glimpse, a snippet from the 1951 TV religious special Hill Number One, has popped up in virtually every Dean retrospective since. Altman's inherent cinematic gifts are evident in the impressionistic "re-enactment" of Dean's fatal auto crash. Narrated by Martin Gabel, The James Dean Story isn't terribly deep, but it's a good shorthand overview of one of the most powerful screen presences of the 1950s. CONDITION: This quality vintage and original Lobby Card is in Near EXCELLENT condition (old yes, with minor patina/aging/slight smoke odor and tiny pinholes in the corners from once being stapled) -- it has sharp, crisp details and it is not a re-release, not digital or a repro. It came from the studio to the theater during the year of release and then went into storage where the collector I bought them from kept them for many years! I have recently acquired four large collections from life long movie buffs who collected for decades… I need to offer these choice items for sale on a first come, first service basis to the highest bidder. SHIPPING:Domestic shipping would be PRIORITY and well packed in plastic, with several layers of cardboard support/protection, insurance and delivery tracking. International shipping depends on the location, and the package would weigh close to 2 pounds (1 pound, 15 ounces) with even more extra ridge packing. PAYMENTS: Please pay PayPal! All of my items are unconditionally guaranteed. E-mail me with any questions you may have. This is Larry41, wishing you great movie memories and good luck… BACKGROUND: While it's rarely shown in retrospectives of his work, Robert Altman's The James Dean Story (1957), is easily one of the more offbeat and poetic examples of documentary filmmaking. Officially cited as his second feature (Altman's first was The Delinquents, 1957), The James Dean Story was co-produced and co-directed with George W. George, a former writing partner of Altman's, as a serious exploration of the young actor's mystique and impact on the youth culture of the fifties. Rounding out Altman's crew was cinematographer Lou Lombardo who shot the bulk of the interviews and transition footage for the film and would remain a close collaborator of Altman's for many years.Originally Marlon Brando was approached to do the film's narration and he gave it serious consideration. In Robert Altman: American Innovator by Judith M. Kass (Popular Library), the actor said, "Toward the end I think he (Dean) was beginning to find his own way as an actor. But this glorifying of Dean is all wrong. That's why I believe the documentary could be important. To show he wasn't a hero; show what he really was - just a lost boy trying to find himself." In the end, Brando refused the offer and Warner Brothers took over the project from Altman, hiring Martin Gabel, a former member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre Company, to narrate the documentary from a script by Stewart Stern. The latter had not only co-written Rebel Without a Cause but had also been a close friend of Dean's.In direct contrast to contemporary documentaries on movie stars, The James Dean Story avoids sensationalism, industry gossip, or celebrity talking heads and instead offers an introspective and occasionally stark portrait of the Indiana farm boy turned superstar. The documentary begins with James Dean's childhood, when, at the age of nine, he was sent to live with relatives in Fairmount, Indiana and progresses from there through his brief Hollywood career. There are interviews with Dean's aunt and uncle in Fairmount, the man who sold him his first motorcycle, former UCLA fraternity brothers, the highway patrolman who sped to the scene of Dean's fatal car wreck, and Arleen Langer, a New York girl who had a crush on him during his struggling actor days. Some of the rarely seen material includes a screen test for East of Eden (1955), a highway safety film Dean made with Gig Young, and Altman's re-enactment of Dean's high-speed car wreck as well as numerous photographs and film clips from Dean's career. Altman also provides a virtual travelogue of Dean's old stomping grounds from his Indiana childhood (with footage of the Fairmount cemetery, the train station, and the Dean farm) to his New York City days (Rube Goldberg's apartment, Georgie's Restaurant) to California hangouts like Schwab's drugstore.It was during the making of The James Dean Story that Altman became introduced to the zoom lens which he would soon incorporate into his unique style of filmmaking. He also learned a new technique for presenting archival photographs on film from renown still photographer Louis Clyde Stoumen who called his process "photo motion." This method dispensed with the traditional presentation of static images, instead adding movement to the photograph as the camera closed-in on specific details in close-up.After Altman completed principle photography and editing on The James Dean Story, he sold it to Warner Brothers who hired musician Leith Stevens to compose a jazzy, evocative score for the film. The studio also coaxed teen idol Tommy Sands to sing the theme song, "Let Me Be Loved, " written especially for the movie by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans. Then, for some inexplicable reason, WB held up the release of The James Dean Story for over a year and a half. By the time the documentary was released to theatres, the young actor's death was no longer topical so the studio buried it in double features with a grade-B horror flick, The Black Scorpion (1957). Not surprisingly, The James Dean Story fared poorly at the boxoffice and has rarely been screened since that time. Seen today, Altman's second film is definitely a curiosity piece. While the narration has its share of literary cliches and pretentious phrases - "He prowled through the night like a hunter" - the film is still a moving and often unconventional approach to deciphering the James Dean myth. Altman obviously felt some kinship with the ill-fated actor since he too was a mid-Westerner who found success in Hollywood, but he would later take a less favorable look at the James Dean phenomenon in his own production of Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982).
