If you loved James Dean in the Eighties

[TinselSniffer]

When I was 13, which was 1985, my school friends and I were obsessed with the 1950s actor James Dean. I had my bedroom walls covered with posters of him, wore a baseball jacket like he wore, read books about his life etc, although strangely I never watched any of his films as they weren't on telly! I remember thinking about him and crying on September 30 1985 which would have been the 30th anniversary of his death.

This made me think. The equivalent today would be my granddaughter (16) having an obsession with Kurt Cobain who has been dead 30 years this year. This really has shook me because I remember Kurt dying so clearly (loved Nirvana) but in the 80s it seemed like the 50s were impossibly long ago, the dim and distant past surely? And this has made me feel so old.

Also, this means that next year - 2025 - will be the 70th anniversary of James Dean's death. I might light a candle on September 30th and shed a little tear in remembrance of him and my own youth.

He was an attractive face and died young. That's the appeal.

The man himself was reported by the people who's worked and socialises with him as being a very troubled man with a lot of issues and unsavoury habits as well as the reckless behaviour that caused his death.

Oh I was 14 in 1985 I remember the James Dean phase I had posters and was into baseball jackets . I think it was just nostalgia and Americana rather than a tribute fashion there was similar with Marilyn Monroe. My children are adults and I can remember the Kurt Cobain and Heath Ledger after his death phase with my dds.

My eldest DD is obsessed with Kurt Cobain (as was I at her age so I fully get it lol).

Yes my post wasn't really about him, more about the passage of time and how it bends and contracts and takes you by surprise.

I'm no longer obsessed with him or even find him good looking really and I still haven't seen a James Dean film all the way through! 😂 I have no idea why he was such a big thing in the Midlands in the mid 80s but the availability of memorabilia etc suggest it wasn't just me!

Yeah I'm in Scotland and it was definitely a thing here. I know I said it was an Americana thing but maybe it's a tennage angst nobody understands me thing. So we "related" . The marketing was good though his face was everywhere.

I have no idea why he was such a big thing in the Midlands in the mid 80s but the availability of memorabilia etc suggest it wasn't just me!

I think the shop Athena had a lot to do with it.

I know what you mean re timings. I was really into the 60s when I was a teen in the late 80s/early 90s, I had posters of the Beatles, had my hair cut in a Mary Quant style, owned black and white pop art dresses etc. The 60s seemed a long time ago and very different from the 80s. But that would be the equivalent of my 14-year-old being "really into" the early 2000s, which doesn't seem nearly as different to now as 1963 did to 1989.

I had a Marilyn Monroe obsession as well, in fact my walls were covered in pictures of stars from the 30s, 40s and 50s! Jean Harlow, Louise Brooks, Rita Hayworth. The equivalent of a teenager today idolising Ursula Andress or Doris Day. Can't imagine it really; I wonder if I was just unusual?

The film stars were the height of glamour though black and white posters were the height of sophistication for a teenagers bedroom wall. Yes I agree blame Athena

@SilverSimca exactly!

I think a lot of it was to do with a kind of 'death cult' teenage goth angst mentality too. We were definitely preoccupied with how he and other stars died young. The ones who were still alive and aged didn't interest us in the same way!

The book Hollywood Babylon was incredibly influential to me. Tales of lurid scandals and death, and some very morbid photos now I come to think of it! I'm amazed my parents weren't concerned about me 😂

Exactly — most 80s James Dean fans liked him as a beautiful piece of vintage Americana, and have never watched his films. He was pretty much Nick Kamen in the 501 ads.

I remember reading a novel set in NYC but remarkable for its timelessness — very few references to anything that located it in time other than clearly latter half of 20thc but before personal computers, internet, mobiles. And then suddenly the protagonist, who is 27, makes a reference to crying over James Dean’s death when she was aged 13.

These were two of my favourite posters on my bedroom wall.

OP I get you, I had this weird ‘what is life’ moment the other day when I was watching a TOTPs from Christmas 1995 with my
two little dds and explaining to them
who everyone was (some of the songs I still have on playlists - Oasis forever!) any way, I had that time bendy vertigo feeling when I realised this music to my girls was what 60s music was to me as a child in the 90s!

I always remember my mum talking about people who died before I was born in disbelief they’d gone - John Candy was one who really upset my parents they adored him (who doesn’t!) They always said things like “can’t believe he’s gone” but now I say the same about the likes of Heath Ledger and Whitney!

I know exactly what you mean: I remember our English teacher going all misty-eyed about Woodstock and the revolutionary spirit of the late 1960s, when we were doing GCSEs in 1990 - and thinking, Jeez, that was history. When in fact it was only just over 20 years ago, ie, more recent than the millenium, the original line-up of Take That, and fecking Facebook.

That's interesting @Craicbaby

And yes Nick Kamen and the vintage American aesthetic in general was hugely popular. I bought singles of Marvin Gaye, Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke around this time and played them to death, along with Marilyn Monroe singing Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend/Heatwave.

And of course Back to the Future was massive (I went to see it twice in the first week) and Marty went back to an impossibly gorgeous and fascinating 1955. Which would be like us going back to 1994, which to me seems like last week!

James Deans influence was huge in late 80s and early 90s, I remember Two main characters from Beverly Hills 90210 dressing up like James dean?
even the hair.

I would have thought River Phoenix , Jeff Buckley , Kurt Cobain to todays Teens what James Dean was to us in the 90s.

I'm so pleased so many of you get what I mean. Hi to my fellow oldies who don't believe they can be that old 👋

In fairness, the man could act, which sets him apart from Nick Kamen.

Athena, Levi’s and Wrigley’s gum were very much pushing the late 50s, early 60s aesthetic for a few years in the late eighties. Music too - Reet Petite, My Baby Just Cares For Me being on Top Of The Tops with claymation videos, for example

Back To The Future visited an ‘ancient’ past that was closer to 1985 than we are to it now.

Christ, we’re getting old! 😉

Damn, in the time it took me to post (with my elderly fingers 😉 ) my point had already been made!

I suppose the revival of 80/90s band t-shirts (Nirvana/GnR, etc) is a similar timegap as the Levis throwbacks of the 80s.

One of the runners up from The Apprentice was talking about how his pie recipe was one handed down to him by his nan all the way from the 90s, like it was the Dead Sea Scrolls!

Ha! Nans "medieval" pie😃

Sure, but most of the kids who had his posters on the wall in 1985 had never seen Giant or Rebel Without A Cause. He was just a pretty vintage face like other bits of 50s nostalgia.

I similarly was in love with Marlon Brando though I did love his movies - not just the aesthetic. I didn’t like Dean I guess because I didn’t like the movies but now when I think about it- there’s not much difference.

I told my daughter about when I saw Nirvana live in the 80s just the other day (she’s 16) and her eyes nearly popped out of her head.

I'm of a similar age to you. We did an assignment in English around 1987 ish. We had to watch "Rebel...." and write something based on it. That's when I fell in love with him. Bought posters etc from Athena. I often wonder if he'd lived,what he would have gone on to do...😔