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Hot Professional & College Sports Guys
- Thread starter mikeyank
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kgmets
BSB God
I would have never guessed James Dean.
Thank you for responding KG! 
I was very surprised to learn all that seemingly new (to me at least) information about him. As far as I knew, his earliest teen years and high school life were quite normal and uneventful. It was enlightening to find out that he was such an overachiever at such an early age. And as I said, I was thrilled to find this out in light of the the fact that we all know that he was not to be given much time here on Earth. From the start of his Freshmen year at 14 he only had 10 years left. And by only 24 y/o he was already gone. Now he is forever young. And he seems to feel relatable to every new generation that comes along.
To me at least his life, image and legend give off a vibe of a man out of time. Like he was much more forward thinking and evolved than the mid 20th century in which he lived. I've always felt that about Mae West for instance too. Like she was at least 75 to maybe 100+ years ahead of her time. And some time machine dropped her off backwards into our much earlier time period. Her personality made much more sense and seemed much more suited for the later part of the 20th century and even well and deep into the 21st. She seemed like such a delightful oddity and anomaly being wedged into the 1920's and 30's as she was. They didn't know what to make of her. haha
For James Dean with his sexual non-conformity to the hetero norms of his day and an insistence on living life on his own quirky unique terms, he showed the world a different possible path for his fans and onlookers. He was way too advanced and forward thinking for the era in which he lived. When I see certain pictures of his beautiful cat-that-ate-the-canary smirk and grin, he gives me the vibe of someone who is in on some kind of inside cosmic joke, and in possession of certain worldly wisdom and foreknowledge that he knows the rest of us haven't caught onto yet.
I was very surprised to learn all that seemingly new (to me at least) information about him. As far as I knew, his earliest teen years and high school life were quite normal and uneventful. It was enlightening to find out that he was such an overachiever at such an early age. And as I said, I was thrilled to find this out in light of the the fact that we all know that he was not to be given much time here on Earth. From the start of his Freshmen year at 14 he only had 10 years left. And by only 24 y/o he was already gone. Now he is forever young. And he seems to feel relatable to every new generation that comes along.
To me at least his life, image and legend give off a vibe of a man out of time. Like he was much more forward thinking and evolved than the mid 20th century in which he lived. I've always felt that about Mae West for instance too. Like she was at least 75 to maybe 100+ years ahead of her time. And some time machine dropped her off backwards into our much earlier time period. Her personality made much more sense and seemed much more suited for the later part of the 20th century and even well and deep into the 21st. She seemed like such a delightful oddity and anomaly being wedged into the 1920's and 30's as she was. They didn't know what to make of her. haha
For James Dean with his sexual non-conformity to the hetero norms of his day and an insistence on living life on his own quirky unique terms, he showed the world a different possible path for his fans and onlookers. He was way too advanced and forward thinking for the era in which he lived. When I see certain pictures of his beautiful cat-that-ate-the-canary smirk and grin, he gives me the vibe of someone who is in on some kind of inside cosmic joke, and in possession of certain worldly wisdom and foreknowledge that he knows the rest of us haven't caught onto yet.
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tampa24 I must say that I find your research on JD to be most informative. I have been following your biography here with interest and at the same time kind of felt I was lagging behind in this class....Not being much of a "sports" enthusiast other than a passing interest in how the pants fit and a pretty face, I didn't have a clue who you were writing about until I saw the diploma. In the older pictures you posted I thought he looked familiar but certainly didn't recognize him in the earlier pictures (with glasses). While not realizing who you were writing about, and thinking it was a famous sports figure, I thought that I would go along for the ride; however, once I realized who it was everything changed in what I thought I knew about him. I do remember seeing a biography about him a long time ago I don't remember the indepth information you shared as part of the biography about him. Anyway, thank you for the schooling. I will also share that my interest in movies and moviestars during that era was only marginally better than "sports", I did find him interesting as an actor, along with quite a few others, but mostly from a sexy standpoint. In my "old age" I guess I have developed an appreciation beyond the surface level in this "play" called "life". At the time I was much more interested in Verdi and Mozart.
mikeyank
Long time forumite
As long as we've gone here on this thread, (totally non "Hot Professional & College Sports Guys" related), but as I've always said the forum often meanders like a river, so here is a very interesting video of much pertinence to this particular website. 
Thanks Mikey. That was both bizarre and delightful. haha And I totally agree that the forum has its own twists and turns. Sometimes you just go with the current and find out what new and unexpected adventure or conversation just happens organically in the moment.
kgmets
BSB God
Thank you for responding KG!
I was very surprised to learn all that seemingly new (to me at least) information about him. As far as I knew, his earliest teen years and high school life were quite normal and uneventful. It was enlightening to find out that he was such an overachiever at such an early age. And as I said, I was thrilled to find this out in light of the the fact that we all know that he was not to be given much time here on Earth. From the start of his Freshmen year at 14 he only had 10 years left. And by only 24 y/o he was already gone. Now he is forever young. And he seems to feel relatable to every new generation that comes along.
To me at least his life, image and legend give off a vibe of a man out of time. Like he was much more forward thinking and evolved than the mid 20th century in which he lived. I've always felt that about Mae West for instance too. Like she was at least 75 to maybe 100+ years ahead of her time. And some time machine dropped her off backwards her into our much earlier time period. Her personality made much more sense and seemed much more suited for the later part of the 20th century and even well and deep into the 21st. She seemed like such a delightful oddity and anomaly being wedged into the 1920's and 30's as she was. They didn't know what to make of her. haha
For James Dean with his sexual non-conformity to the hetero norms of his day and an insistence on living life on his own quirky unique terms, he showed the world a different possible path for his fans and onlookers. When I see certain pictures of his beautiful cat that ate the canary smirk and grin, he gives me the vibe of someone who is in on some kind of inside cosmic joke, and in possession of certain worldly wisdom and foreknowledge that he knows the rest of us haven't caught onto yet.
Very interesting. My first answer of George Mikan was wrong as was my second choice of Buddy Holly.
Thank you for responding SFP!
First off, there's nothing wrong at all with being interested in Verdi or Mozart if great music moves you. That's cool!
You SFP seem to have really resonated with where I was going here (and the journey I personally went through) in my telling of JD's early story. Thank you to everyone in here who has gotten some enjoyment and maybe some enlightenment from hearing about JD's early life. That was always my goal all along. For me personally this really did kind of take on an unexpected life of its own. I was clued in to the very first basketball pic seemingly at random online. Because I obviously have an interest in this particular thread I thought posting the one pic of James Dean playing basketball in high school would be fun and entertaining for the rest of you. I figured somebody would clue in immediately (or fairly quickly) as to who it was. As I gathered more pics of him to be able to unexpectedly extend the game a little longer, I learned so much more about his teen years than I had ever known or heard of before in popular culture.
After more digging online and the more I learned about JD's early years, the more this turned into a little project and a labor of love. The more I learned, the more I wanted to be able to tell and share this story. And I wanted to be able to tell more of this very moving early story of James Dean's life before the cat was out of the bag. I was becoming deeply emotionally moved and touched by the themes of mortality and the idea of the legacies we (and JD in particular) leave behind.
While I was surprised that nobody guessed his identity sooner, I also knew that once I put out his first and middle names, the name of his basketball team (The Quakers) and his high school being located in Indiana...that he would be getting fairly easy to google. As I've alluded to I came to see it as a blessing in disguise that nobody named him. Because I realized it would allow everyone to see him more objectively as a human being first, before all the later reputation of his Hollywood stardom would alter the perception of this blank-slate young guy as a high school student.
All this new info about little Jimmy Dean humanized him for me and made him much more three dimensional. Getting to see him as a vulnerable young kid trying to find his way in life really put him in a whole new light for me. It gave me an even greater understanding and appreciation for all that he accomplished here in such a short period of time. My appreciation for him up to this point (like you SFP) had always been focused more on his looks, his handsomeness, his style, his aura, his charisma, his manner of dress, and his sexiness. In my mind as one born after his lifetime, I always respected him and his life story as indeed being fully worthy of Hollywood Legend status, even as I didn't really have an expert knowledge of his actual acting skills or of all of his famed movie roles.
I also though always had a deep respect for the way he unapologetically marched to the beat of a different drummer. Even back then his contemporaries tried to pigeon-hole his sexuality into convenient labels like gay or bi. But regardless of what anybody wanted to label him, he just marched on doing his own thing. haha In hindsight he really was way ahead of his time in so many ways.
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Yes. As it went along I can see how Buddy Holly would have seemed a good possible guess.