"What's the deal with this kid James Dean?" What if we took a sober look now that 50 years have passed.

James Dean
has been idolized, memorialized, patronized and supersized. Why can't the world get enough? We seem to revere those who die in stardom to degrees that defy rational thought.

What makes this legend?

• Extraordinary talent
• Charisma
• Good looks
• Brooding Charm
• Fortune/misfortune
• Timing
• Being unpredictable

James Dean had "it". From the tragic background to the immortal future. Generations have and will likely continue to recognize this "it' factor in Dean. A young man who it seemed had just barely touched his brush to the canvas had audiences swooning. He had only begun to create in an effortless fashion what was left to blossom after his death, as if to say "No big deal".

More that 50 years ago Dean died in a car crash before two of his three films had even been released. Waves of his persona still ripple through the culture of youth in America to this day.

The fish that got away is always a better story. It is true that James Dean was a good actor, I would even say great. But let's not forget that there have been many a rival with I dare say an equal share of talent, charisma and sex appeal, who have lived too long or matured too much or just not gotten the lucky breaks at just the right time. To piece together this phenomenon, to reconcile the mystery of such gargantuan celebrity we need to study not James Dean alone but indeed Americana.

I believe that if James Dean had lived into his 30's he would have destroyed a great deal of his own celebrity. Some think he would have just kept growing like Elvis. But if you think Elvis was self distructive, just take a better look at James Dean, his character and background and you will find something simmering below the surface that would have boiled over before long.

I believe if he had lived long enough to fall from grace as most celebs do inevitably, this would have been far better for the culture of youth. Just as I believe if Evil Kenival had been an insurance salesman I might still have my front teeth today.

We love to adore, we love to worship, it is how we are wired. We are waiting for some luminary to be sainted or some great philanthropist or artists work to be anointed with those words "his works and deeds shall live posthumously and be immortalized".With those entities that we deem to be beyond reproach our focus is magnified. When one has passed beyond the boundaries of mortality they become simply irresistible. James Dean became the perfect Icon for restless youth of the 50's looking for someone to emulate and to worship. To emulate someone when there is even the most remote possibility of that person knowing and being flattered is not as cool. Death made him perfect. James Dean was also a more appropriate target for the affection of awkward or misguided youth. It seemed that a whole generation was drifting from tradition and ecclesiastical notions, searching for it a new doctrine which people like Dean and Brando were improvising. They were free agents

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