Hoosiers remember James Dean; childhood recalled

FAIRMOUNT, Ind. -- Nearly 50 years after his death, some of James Dean's former classmates are counting on his enduring fame to help save their decaying alma mater.\nFairmount High School alumni gathered Saturday in a 1950s-era gymnasium behind the decrepit, 103-year-old building for their sixth annual reunion. Inevitably, talk turned to their movie star classmate.\nWilma Jean Underwood Soultz-Brown, a classmate of Dean's, said she and others don't remember him as a Hollywood legend but as someone who "was just like the rest of us."\n"He drove the tractor when we had class parties out at the Winslow Farm -- and we always had a hay ride," she said.\nSoultz-Brown supports the idea of saving the original school building, which includes the auditorium where Dean first gave speeches and performed in plays overseen by the school's drama teacher, Adeline Nall.\nA California company, Historic Properties LLC, has spent nearly $500,000 stabilizing the brick school and plans to launch a fund-raising campaign this fall targeting Hollywood actors who were influenced by Dean's rebellious acting style.\nPlans are for shops, a performing arts center, space for the Fairmount Public Library and historical retrospectives of both Dean and Jim Davis, the "Garfield" creator who is also a Fairmount alum.\n"I think his fame will help save the school, but it will take money from out-of-town money to do it for a town with only about 3,000 people," said Chuck Woodruff, a 1957 graduate.\nThe school's old gym, where Dean played on the school's basketball team, partially collapsed a couple of years ago and has been removed.\nDean gave his first acting performances on the high school's stage. After graduating in 1949, he headed west to California, attending UCLA before moving to New York, where he was accepted in the prestigious Actors Studio. He had several roles in television and on Broadway before landing his first starring film role in "East of Eden."\n"Rebel" followed and filming for "Giant" had just wrapped when a station wagon collided with Dean's new silver Porsche Spyder near rural Cholame, Calif., on Sept. 30, 1955. He died instantly.\nBob Pulley, who ran high school track with Dean, said he was hesitant to phone Dean the last time he visited the town in early 1955. By then, Dean was on his way to stardom.\n"My mom convinced me to call, and I said, 'What do you want to do?' We went out and partied, and he was not 'big time.' He was the same," Pulley said.