JAMES DEAN's Hometown Tour of FAIRMOUNT, IN

[Music] well hello everyone me and my mom are on our way to well we're going on a little road trip today aren't we mom it's my mom and I days with Jordyn the lion begins now now entering Indiana well we had to make an unplanned stop and it's not because we found where we were looking for it's because we found this guy and I couldn't believe what I was seeing now let's keep going and an unexpected airplane well my friends we are at stop number one you guessed it today is James Dean day and actually tomorrow is going to be James Dean day as well but we want to start out here in Marion Indiana where James Dean was born then we're gonna move on down to Fairmount and we're gonna see where James basically lived his life until he was 18 well here's our first little tidbit - James Dean a movie actor star right here on the corner of where his birth place used to be 1931 Jimmy was born a legend in his lifetime a very very short one now it's kind of cool is that they have put a whole little monument to him over here now originally there was another plaque that was here and it was dedicated oddly enough by Charlie Sheen so let's take a look this whole area that we're now standing on this used to be where the apartment building was that his family was living in when he was born says American actor James Dean was born on February 8 1931 in the Seven Gables sorry seven gables apartment house which stood at this site he starred in three motion pictures east of eden rebel without a cause and my personal favorite giant and of course we have logged his death site crash in 1955 James Dean died at the age of 24 he was laid to rest at Park Cemetery in Fairmount 10 miles south of here which we will eventually get to now let's check this out what a great little monument to him huh I've seen other people's videos online this was not always here so looks like this monument is respectfully done and it's pretty new now let's head out of here we're gonna go to Fairmount I really liked it in this plaque they have a picture of the old building in there as well with a little childhood picture a Jimmy right here pretty nice so it looks like that plaque the Charlie Sheen had helped dedicate probably not there anymore because it wasn't the ones I've seen in any other pictures or anything online well as we're entering Fairmount you can tell that not only was James Dean from here but so was Garfield well there you go guys there's the famous Fairmount water tower with Garfield and James Dean both on it what a cool thing to have your face on a water tower like that that's kind of cool I like it well when Jimmy's family moved out of Marion they moved here he lived here in 1933 so you'd been about two years old for a short time because by the age of five the whole family him his mother and father decided to move out to Santa Monica and that's where they remained for the next four years until unfortunately Jimmy's mother passed away and his father decided to send him back here to live with his aunt and uncle and be raised out here and my mom was saying well that was very common back in those days if the mother passed that the father did not raise the child as a single parent so Jimmy would live with his aunt and uncle for nine years out of the farm from 1940 until 1949 when he graduated high school now speaking of high school let's go to the high school and in case you want to see the other side of the house this is the house from another angle young James Dean well folks welcome to Mayberry I'm kiddin but it does say the Mayberry garage well unfortunately behind me is where the high school the James Dean went to originally was let me tell you what happened so if you look online you can find tons of photos of the old Fairmount high school that once stood here and probably every video that you look up on Fairmount will have a picture of that high school now the high school that quit using in the I believe the mid 80s now what happened was the high school they just really never had a plan for it and over all that time it just kept deteriorating and deteriorating and you know Morris he made his music video and he was even up in some of the rooms and this is where James Dean kind of developed his love for acting he had a teacher here named mrs. Knowles that was a speech teacher and she was also the acting teacher and got him interested in those kind of things and he loved her so much that he in fact cited her as his favorite teacher one day she was given an orchid by a student as a gift and he asked if he could borrow the orchid and he took it to his next class which was art class and he painted an orchid he painted that orchid and gave it to her and said here you'll be able to keep it forever now and I believe in the museum here they do have that painting now they had originally planned to do something with this high school because it was such a classic looking high school but everything in it started falling apart because nobody took care of it if you look at some videos people that got inside like the stairwells had fallen apart it was just in total disarray so at one point they bulldozed half which was this half of the high school and they have this half left and they were going to do something with it they said they just couldn't keep figuring out what they wanted to do and then they didn't have quite the money to do it so what they ended up doing was when they demolished that first half of it they removed the stage because Jimi had performed on that stage they actually took it apart piece by piece and the plan last I heard was to reassemble it in a park for part performances so that people can use it forever now I don't know if that's happened I'll ask while we're here but since all those videos the school has been bulldozed and literally they're out there bulldozing it right now you can see the bulldozers over there so so long - James Dean's high school man it must have I mean it just really must have been in such bad shape they couldn't even salvage any of the front and I believe right here they used to have a fair Mountain High School sign at one point that's all that's left well since they're demolishing it all I just asked the workers if I could take a sum of the brick and he said sure go for it and I'm even gonna take a little piece of the front walkway as well well we're coming up on the old Winslow farm where Jimmy used to live we got a swing by and take a look don't we well here it is after Jimmy was sent back from Santa Monica after his mom died this is where he was sent to his aunt and uncle's farm where he would live here for about ten years and his young nephew Marcus still lives here and runs the farm I saw online that out in the barn there's some handprints of Jimmy still in the concrete his basketball hoops still out there so cool to see that this still exists and they even keep his uh his room upstairs Wow so cool to see now we've made it over to the back Creek Friends Church and this was Jimmy's church Jimmy actually performed in a play here when he was a young man and they still hold a festival here in Fairmount every year just a couple of weeks ago actually on the anniversary of Jimmy's death and they come to all the spots that Jimmy used to frequent including like I said his church however this was not the church that they had his funeral ceremony in as you can imagine they had to have a a pretty big Church for that because they're gonna a lot of people and this church just unfortunately couldn't accommodate the crowd so that's Jimmy's history here but we will eventually end up at the other friend's church literally that's what it's called Friends Church and we'll see where Jimmy's funeral was held now what's kind of interesting is when you're standing here at the church there's a little cemetery this isn't this that Jimmy is buried in but if you look straight across the cemetery you can actually see the Winslow family farm that we were at and that was where Jimmy lived from 1940 until 1949 when he decided to head out and start his career as an actor now this is actually one of my personal favorite stops that I really wanted to make because not only did I I've always had this weird fascination with Indian motorcycles I think it's because I love Bamba and singing la Bamba sing brother Bob ride around in it but this one is right to the left of the church we were at where Jimmy attended church and this was where he got his Czech motorcycle he has a he had a yellow Czech motorcycle that is actually in a museum here that we will see and the interesting story is that his aunt and uncle decided to buy it for him because he was so fascinated and he used to ride it all over Fairmount there's pictures of him riding that yellow it was to Czechoslovakia in motorcycle but they just called it the Czech and this is where they got it right here at Carter's and it was said that Jimmy spent a lot of his time just hanging out here you know especially right here in between the the door in the garage he would stand there and hang out while they would work on motorcycles and stuff inside how cool is that man I mean Jimmy's fascination with motorcycles is legendary I mean he was always just a need for speed kind of dude I mean he was a professional racecar driver I mean literally professional and it had won many awards first second place trophies and that all kind of started from his fascination with the motorcycles right here now I think would be kind of crazy to not go in I mean we can't go in but we can definitely look in the the window and see what it looks like in there right sure they maybe they use it for something now man that's where Jimmy would have been looking around for motorcycles and if you actually look above the Indian sign you can see that it says district something district number something then it says 1894 fair mouth so my mom said she thought this looked like it was an old schoolhouse building or something like that now my mom really wanted to come on this trip she doesn't to be on camera because this is you know she this is Jordan's vlog this is my thing but she loves cemeteries so this was why we had to come and make her a part of this of course so this is her favorite part but I wanted to include everything James Deana we could so here we are at Park Cemetery where Jimmy was laid to rest and it's kind of a sad story because it hasn't been a peaceful rest not entirely now let's go see his grave and I'll tell you what I mean by that and you can tell they get a lot of visitors when they have something like this like I said every year on September 30th or the weekend closest to September 30th they have a big tribute in Memorial for James Dean and it happens all over Fairmount but it always ends here and there was a man named Nicky bazooka that used to lead a funeral procession here on a motorcycle and unfortunately he passed away a few years ago but it is something they have kept up and there's always flowers up at Jimmy's grave so let's take our directions right here and head up the hill to see Jimmy getting close mom are you excited I'm excited not weird to say when you're at a cemetery that you're excited but we're we're ghoulish in that way my mom and I both love cemeteries well here we are the first grave we've come upon is aunt and uncle Winslow Marcus and or teens and then right next to him is James Dean and his parents went in an ethyl right here you can see in this stone that people have left all kinds of memorial comments and cigarette butts and I'm kind of glad that we came when we did because they just had the festival for Jimmy about two weeks ago so we're really getting to see it in its best state they can see that there's all kinds of little mementos here that people have left for him as well as lipstick prints as we see everywhere twenty four years old if you don't know the story and you haven't seen the vlogs Jimmy was a as I said a professional racecar driver and he had just got a new Porsche about two weeks before and he was gonna take it up for a race and as he was working his way up the grapevine unfortunately he he was coming around a curve and a man didn't see him and they collided and Jimmy was Jimmy's life was cut short so while we were at the Carters motorcycle shop you know it's tradition you see people here have left coins on top and a lot of times they leave stones you can see guitar picks and many things here including a stone with foreveryoung which was a song written about Jimmy so while we were at card use I picked up a few stones off the ground and I'm gonna leave him here on his grave because that's what you're supposed to do I guess so here the stones from Carter's where he got his first motorcycle and my mom wants to put a coin down so we're gonna put a coin down look at all the cigarette butts and even people writing notes on pumpkins for him it's nice to be remembered when he only made three movies he'll always be forever young and in fact Morrissey was such a James Dean fan that when he left the Smiths he made a music video in Fairmount filmed it in the snowy streets of Fairmount and in fact went into James Dean's high school look at that James Dean now what I was telling you we're at the motorcycle shop was that it hasn't been a totally peaceful death because his tombstone has been stolen three times originally the tombstone was stolen in I believe 86 and they replaced the tombstone and then within like two months the next one was stolen now as I understand nobody ever found who did it but like a couple of years afterward the original tombstone head was found in a dumpster in Fort Wayne Indiana of all places so I don't believe this is the original headstone but I'm not sure either now I do know if you followed my vlogs long enough and you've ever seen me hike up to the Griffith Observatory they have a bust of Jimmy there and that was actually commissioned by Jimmy by an artist and it was right before he died so the artist really took a lot of extra care into bringing Jimmy's soul because he said when Jimmy came in and told me what he wanted we sat and talked for a long time so I could really get to know him I really wanted to make it personal and so that's not the only bust they actually have a second identical bust that was originally out here but they were having problems that people that kept stealing it so they have now moved it to a park in the middle of Fairmount that we're gonna go see now what's interesting is this this is the second or the opposite side of his headstone I've never really seen this before where they did the name on both sides but I did see that there's a woman that's been attending his memorial festival every year for like god I want to see like over 10 years and this wreath on top is actually left by her Naomi Yamada and I put this you're now famous but that's one of the weirdest things I've ever seen is somebody leaving a duckface photo of himself for James Dean and one of the reasons that I wanted to tell you guys about Naomi Yamada is that one of her traditions when she comes here every year is that she makes all kinds of origami and leaves it here and guess what it's still here obviously I mean we're only two weeks away from but you can see all these little she leaves origami animals and birds and things like that that's what's all over the ground over here and I guess he'll always have smokes until next time James Dean we will definitely be back in this area there's a lot of stuff I want to see and this will not be my last trip here so now that we've made it to Fairmount I'm going to show you where a very very famous photo of James Dean was taken of him walking right up this street well how about that a picture of James Dean right there Natalie wood on the other side now this is not the original no parking sign that we see in the photo but basically right here on this sidewalk where we're standing James Dean's walking right up here and you can see the edge of this building and you can see the bank in the background with that big dome so I'll match that photo up for you right here and as you can tell right across from where he took that photo they have a big mural of him right there so one of the great things about Fairmount that I read online was that structurally it has not changed pretty much ever some of the businesses may have changed but the actual look of it has never changed they said if Jimmy were alive today or came back today he would recognize this town that's pretty cool to hear check out that old cool sign up sign up there I love that arms hunt funeral home this is where James Dean's funeral was held the viewing my mom was saying you know she said I almost don't understand why they would bury him here when it would be so hard for people to visit but then when you hear about all the stories of how popular he is and people stealing the bust and stealing the headstone you can totally understand even if that's happening out here how bad it would have been in Hollywood if it were in maybe a cemetery like that but huh the last viewing at James Dean you know honestly I don't I'm guessing they probably didn't even do an open casket for that I wouldn't think pretty sad James Dean Memorial Park the new home of the second James Dean bust like I said the first one is at the Griffith Observatory where he filmed rebel without a cause but there were two of them and when Kendall made these like I said James had requested him to make these and he wanted to put Jimmy's full soul into it come on man give the guy some respect these spiders around here have no they have just no respect here there it is the second bust and like I said they had to remove it from the cemetery because unfortunately people kept trying to steal it but I believe Ken put his initials and signed it right there there's a pretty nice plaque about James now when Kendall started this he actually started this sculpture the night well the day that James Dean died and now they have it here for the fans not so much for James but for the fans to come and pay their respects and and they say though even though James Dean was known as the rebel without a cause in real life he was a pretty good scholar when he went to school here even went attended UCLA and you know honed his love of theater while he was here a fair amount on that stage of the high school that's now gone this drugstore right here on the corner was a hangout at James Dean as well he and his basketball team in high school used to hang out there during the the day after school well my mom and I decided to stop and get a bite to eat the closest place that we could find that was open was a Mexican restaurant and as soon as we pulled up we saw painted on the windows James Dean fans that's us so I do have to apologize the beginning of the video I mentioned that um you were gonna get a second video tomorrow and I was really excited to do it unfortunately online it didn't say that this particular day that we are here is one of their days they're closed so even though I have plans for the next couple of days before I head back to California I am gonna come up here on when they're open days and I'm gonna vlog that place because I want to see it so bad I know some of the things that are in there my mom and I after all this is said and done we're gonna go to after we eat we're gonna go to the James Dean gallery look at some of the art grab a couple of t-shirts and then we're gonna head back out to the Winslow farm and you know see if we can get an option or an opportunity I guess I should say to to meet Marcus and maybe see those handprints if if it's possible oh yeah a nice place huh well I got the tacos al pastor one of my favorites the pork and my mom got some sort of enchilada deal I don't know what what that is well we've made it to the James Dean gallery free admission and a nice statue at Jimmy right here on the front truth be told we came for the t-shirts I don't know if we're gonna be able to get my mom and me in these pictures if we put our heads through there I don't think it'll work see we just missed it well here a lot of the t-shirt options pretty great we're gonna make our way through the gallery now here's the literature now let's go walking around look at all this memorabilia how great is that that's just incredible so much stuff I see some autographs signed by an Doran which was I believe that was his mother and rebel without a cause oh wow look at this okay so you guys remember we were out at the cemetery and I mentioned that Nikki bazooka had passed away and he used to do the wreaths this is his motorcycle and his outfit it's pretty cool I'm glad that they were able to memorialize him here look at all the memorabilia in here this is great and then over here you can see 1941 life at Fairmount he would have he would it just came back from California then here's a Letterman sweater from 1954 now that is a watercolor that Jimmy did of a bullfighter and he actually in his New York apartment had a had some bull horns and a bullfighter cape in there now this is a piece of the curtain that was on the stage at Fairmont high where James Dean performed in the school plays check this out whoa this is awesome that is the original gate from rebel from the alley see right here if you remember that when he's peeking over the gate right there that's the same exact one how cool is that and check this out this is a replica hell's drivers club car from the movie life but if you see in this picture remember when we were out at the farm and we're gonna go back out to the farm again here's Jimmy pushing Marcus who I hope we get to me in this hell's driver little soapbox car now this is pretty cool this is um this is showing that Jimmy used to be a model for the shot stuff the shot jackets I actually have a shot jacket they are american-made leather jackets for bikers and that's not his original jacket but that's a replica of what he wore because you can see up in the picture it's got that collar just like this one look at that paper mache face of him that's great and then Shelley I think if I remember it Shelley had one of these in her house she had one of those little replica pieces like that and here you can see what the Year originally looked like when it was first out of the gravesite before they moved it on top of those bricks up here and then right there in the Fairmount newspaper it's saying that they were gonna erect a memorial for Jimmy now if you look down here there's all kinds of fan mail addressed to James Dean at Warner Brothers and different membership cards from the James Dean fan club so that would have been probably I would have to guess during giant where he was a banned from driving his motorcycle in the studio lot for for basically racing it now in the back is a place called rebel rebel that just has all kinds of cool thrift stuff but uh definitely still in the theme of that 1950's you can see all the dishes and everything that you can buy from that era and they didn't forget about him because there he is here you can buy your James Dean pillows and your James Dean custom-made jean jacket they must have known I was coming because they had some extra sunglasses for me check out this old record player how cool is that this old hi-fi nice dice check this out these tables that are made out of basically caps deBeer all the way down to the handles and like all the look at that it looks like it's been like weaved around and and like a rope fashion and that bill up there is what my friend Scott Michaels has tattooed on him that pictured Jimmy right on his forearm look at all those memorial pins now that is stellar look at how that's made like in pieces I love that there is a life mask of James Dean the Warner Brothers made during Giant and here's a great picture of Kenneth Kendall working on those busts those two busts that exist and that red replica jacket was actually worn by the man who played James Dean in the movie Richard Thomas played him in the movie called September 30th 1955 and those little penny loafers down there those are James Dean's as well owned and worn by James Dean and then right down here this pass is a visitor's past that Jimmy got one of his friends when he came to visit him on the Warner Brothers lot thought that was pretty cool and sadly this is a model reproduction of the the crash how the crash happened Jimmy's car would have been over here and that's the car that was making a left-hand turn that hit him now this bottom case is dedicated to a d'Alene Knoll the woman who I told you she was the one that was Jimmy's speech and theater teacher when he went to Fairmount high school Adaline all now this is pretty cool because we walked by this it didn't dawn on me until just now that I have actually seen a picture of Jimmy doing this I believe he did this when he was at UCLA he performed in that so I'm picking up some shirts I'm picking up some souvenirs that I'm gonna mail out to some patreon so you guys might get a fair amount James Dean gallery comb you might get a bumper sticker and who knows what else well we're heading out a fair amount again and we're gonna go back out to the Winslow farm and I think we're gonna end the video out there but I wanted to show you a little bit of this because if Jimmy spent all of his time in town with all those pictures that match up and even going to school but he lived out here thinking how often that motorcycle what it came up and down this road well we're gonna end the vlog out here at the old farm and there's a picture of Jimmy that I showed you guys earlier in this vlog pushing that little soapbox with Marcos in it and that photo was taken I believe right here there Jimmy's pushing him right down this driveway and you can see the house in the background [Music] fear big James Dean fan or you're not I hope this made you a James Dean fan and that you will kind of get to imagine what Jimmy's life is really like out here in Indiana before he became a big star thank you Peter Angeles for making a contribution to my channel and thank you all for watch and I hope you like I said I hope you guys enjoyed getting to experience what would have been James Dean's old haunts have a great night and we'll see you all tomorrow good [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Daze with Jordan the Lion

Views: 65,955

Keywords: daily vlogger, travel vlogger, urbex, golden age, hollywood, travel advice, abandoned, old hollywood, history, tourism, cinema, filming locations, adventures, forgotten, travel, my trip, daze with jordan the lion, jordan the lion, daily vlog, vlog, vlogger, vlogging, lifestyle, scandals, film, los angeles, anthony bourdain, tourist, adam the woo, James dean, Fairmount, Indiana, Rebel, Rebel without a cause, Giant, Cemetery, Celebrity, Hometown, Legend, East of eden, fairmount indiana

Id: iazEAeRHUVs

Length: 32min 39sec (1959 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 13 2018