User:PorshaBoy/sandbox

James Dean. Existing text is X. These are well thought out proposed changes to update the existing WIKI entries and to remove many 'factoids.' Lee Raskin (PorshaBoy) Author/historian, James Dean At Speed, 2005

Text from James Dean Wikipedia to be changed From X to Y. This is X:

On September 30, 1955, Dean and his mechanic Rolf Wütherich set off from Competition Motors, where they had prepared his Porsche 550 Spyder that morning for a sports car race at Salinas, California. Dean originally intended to trailer the Porsche to the meeting point at Salinas, behind his new Ford Country Squire station wagon, crewed by Hickman and photographer Sanford Roth, who was planning a photo story of Dean at the races. At the last minute, Dean drove the Spyder, having decided he needed more time to familiarize himself with the car. At 3:30 p.m., Dean was ticketed in Mettler Station, Kern County, for driving 65 mph (105 km/h) in a 55 mph (89 km/h) zone. The driver of the Ford was ticketed for driving 20 mph (32 km/h) over the limit, as the speed limit for all vehicles towing a trailer was 45 mph (72 km/h). Later, having left the Ford far behind, they stopped at Blackwells Corner in Lost Hills for fuel and met up with fellow racer Lance Reventlow. After leaving Lost Hills, Dean was driving west on U.S. Route 466 (later State Route 46) east of Cholame, San Luis Obispo County, when a black-and-white 1950 Ford Custom Tudor coupe, driven from the opposite direction by 23-year-old Cal Poly student Donald Turnupseed (1932–1995), moved to take the fork onto State Route 41 and crossed into Dean's lane. The two cars hit almost head-on. According to a story in the October 1, 2005, edition of the Los Angeles Times,[35] California Highway Patrol officer Ron Nelson and his partner had been finishing a coffee break in Paso Robles, when they were called to the scene of the accident, where they saw an unconscious, heavily breathing Dean being placed into an ambulance. Ambulance attendants were attending to a barely conscious Wütherich who had been thrown from the car and was lying on the shoulder of the road next to the mangled Porsche Spyder. Wütherich survived with a broken jaw and other injuries. Dean was taken to Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival at 5:59 p.m. by the attending emergency room physician. His last known words, uttered right before impact when Wütherich told Dean to slow down when they saw the Ford coupe in front of them about to drive into their lane, were said to have been: "That guy's gotta stop... He'll see us."[36] According to the postmortem, it is believed that Dean's head struck the front grill of the other car. This impact and the accompanying crash resulted in Dean suffering a broken neck, plus multiple fractures of the jaw, arms and legs, as well as massive internal injuries. He is believed to have died around 10 minutes after the crash upon examination in the ambulance. For years, it was rumored that Sanford Roth, Dean's photographer friend riding with Hickman in the Ford Country Squire as it followed the Porsche, took photos of Dean trapped in the wrecked car, dead or dying. Such photos never surfaced in public. Contrary to reports of Dean's speeding, which persisted decades after his death, Nelson said "the wreckage and the position of Dean's body indicated his speed was more like 55 mph (89 km/h)."[35] Turnupseed received a gashed forehead and bruised nose and was not cited by police for the accident. He was interviewed by the Tulare Advance-Register newspaper immediately following the crash, saying that he had not seen Dean's car approaching, but after that, refused to ever again speak publicly about the accident. He went on to own and operate an electrical contracting business and died of lung cancer in 1995.[37] Wütherich died in a road accident in Germany in 1981 after surviving several suicide attempts. While completing Giant, and to promote Rebel Without a Cause, Dean filmed a short interview with actor Gig Young for an episode of Warner Bros. Presents[38] in which Dean, instead of saying the popular phrase "The life you save may be your own" instead ad-libbed "The life you might save might be mine." [sic][39] Dean's sudden death prompted the studio to re-film the section, and the piece was never aired—though in the past several sources have referred to the footage, mistakenly identifying it as a public service announcement. (The segment can, however, be viewed on both the 2001 VHS and 2005 DVD editions of Rebel Without a Cause) __________________________________

Proposed text to be changed by Lee Raskin (PorshaBoy) This is Y/Changes to read: On September 30, 1955, Dean and his Porsche factory-trained mechanic, Rolf Wütherich, set off from Competition Motors in Hollywood. Earlier in the morning, Wutherich had prepared the Porsche 550 Spyder for the sports car races at Salinas, California. Dean originally intended to trailer the Porsche to Salinas behind his Ford station wagon, crewed by friend and stunt man, Bill Hickman, and photographer, Sanford Roth, who was planning a photo story for Colliers Magazine of Dean at the races. Because the new Porsche didn’t have enough ‘break-in’ miles prior to the race, Wutherich recommended that Dean drive the Spyder to Salinas to get more experience behind the wheel. At noon, the group had coffee and donuts at the Hollywood Ranch Market on Vine Street across from Competition Motors (not the Farmer’s Market on 3rd and Fairfax Ave. as most stories relate) before leaving around 1 p.m. They stopped for gas at the Mobil station on Ventura Blvd and Beverly Glen in Sherman Oaks around 1:30 pm -- where the legendary photo was taken by Wutherich of Dean standing next to his new Spyder. The group then headed north onto Rt. 99, across the ‘Gravevine,' and toward Bakersfield. James Dean At Speed, Lee Raskin, author; Pgs. 111-115.

At 3:30 p.m., Dean was stopped by California Highway Patrolman, O.V. Hunter at Mettler Station on Wheeler Ridge, south of Bakersfield, for driving 65 mph (105 km/h) in a 55 mph (89 km/h) zone. Hickman, driving behind in the Ford with the trailer in tow, was also ticketed for driving 20 mph (32 km/h) over the limit, as the speed limit for all vehicles towing a trailer was 45 mph (72 km/h). After receiving the speeding citations, Dean and Hickman turned left onto Rt. 166/33 (to avoid going through Bakersfield’s slow moving, 25 mph downtown district), a short-cut all of the race drivers took, called ‘the racer’s road,’ which led them northwest to Blackwells Corner at CA Route 466. At Blackwells Corner, Dean and Hickman stopped briefly only for refreshments. They met up with fellow racers, Lance Reventlow and Bruce Kessler, who were also on their way to the Salinas races in Reventlow’s Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Coupe.* Kessler recalled, "The last thing we talked about was getting together for dinner at Paso Robles, about 60 miles away. Lance and I then headed onto Route 466 in the Mercedes as Jimmy and his group remained at Blackwells Corner."** James Dean At Speed, Lee Raskin, author. Pgs. 116-118. Bruce Kessler interviewed by author, Lee Raskin, James Dean At Speed. pg. 118. About ten minutes later, Dean was driving west at high speed on U.S. Route 466 toward Paso Robles. The Porsche Spyder had crested Polonio Pass and was heading down the long Antelope Grade, passing all the cars along the way, toward the junction of Route 466 and 41 -- when Dean suddenly, spotted a black-and-white 1950 Ford Custom coupe, driving east on 466. The time was approximately 5:45 p.m. PST. The Ford's driver, 23-year-old Cal Poly college student, Donald Turnupseed, was also driving at a high rate of speed and passing cars along the way. Then suddenly, the Ford came across the center line, spiked its brakes, and turned in front of the Porsche to take the north-east fork onto Route 41. Dean quickly tried to power steer the Spyder to the right -- to 'side step' the oncoming Ford, but there wasn't enough space or time. The two cars came together almost head-on in a horrific crash. The Spyder flipped over once into the air and landed on its wheels, sliding off into a little gully just northwest of the junction. The sheer velocity of the impact sent the much heavier Ford broad siding counter-clockwise thirty-nine feet down Rt.466 in the west bound lane. James Dean At Speed, Lee Raskin, author, Pgs. 123-127. According to a story in the October 1, 2005, edition of the Los Angeles Times,[33] California Highway Patrol Captain Ernest Tripke and his partner, Corporal Ronald Nelson, had been finishing a coffee break in Paso Robles, when they were called to the scene of the accident at the Rt. 466/41 junction. Before Officers Tripke and Nelson arrived, James Dean had to be extricated from the Spyder's smashed cockpit as his left foot had been crushed between the clutch and brake pedal. Dean was severely injured as he took the brunt of the crash. Nelson witnessed an unconscious and dying Dean being placed into an ambulance, and a barely conscious Wütherich, who had been thrown from the Spyder, lying on the shoulder of the road next to the mangled Porsche. Dean and Wutherich were taken in the same ambulance to the Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital, 28 miles away. Dean was pronounced dead on arrival at 6:20 p.m.,PST by the attending emergency room physician, Dr. Robert Bossert. James Dean At Speed, Lee Raskin, author, Pgs. 121-129.

Wütherich survived with a broken jaw and serious hip and leg injuries that required surgery. Turnupseed was only slightly injured with facial bruises and a bloodied nose. After being interviewed by the CHP, Turnupseed hitch-hiked in the dark to his home in Tulare. Bill Hickman and Sanford Roth were some ten minutes behind Dean in the Ford station wagon. Roth took many photos of the accident scene, which are now owned by Seita Ohnishi, a Kobe, Japan businessman. Ohnishi, in 1977, also built a stainless steel memorial in tribute to James Dean at Cholame, just a mile west of the accident site. James Dean At Speed, Lee Raskin author. Epilogue, Pg. 135, 138. There have been many references over the decades about the actual accident. Who was driving the Porsche? And how fast? Was Turnupseed and Dean both recklessly speeding? What was said prior to the accident? Some say that Dean's last known words, uttered right before the impact but after Wutherich told Dean to slow down, was: "That guy's gotta stop... He'll see us."[34] James Dean historian, Lee Raskin believes, “This is pure conjecture about Wutherich saying anything to Dean, or Dean saying anything to Wutherich prior to the crash. According to the official States Attorney’s deposition, Wutherich couldn't recall the exact moments leading up to and after the crash.”* Lee Raskin, James Dean historian and author. Deposition of Rolf Wutherich, October 5, 1955. (Harry Murphy, Esq., Deputy District Attorney, County of San Luis Obispo, CA. at the Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital, Paso Robles, California.

At the official Coroner’s Inquest, held at the San Luis Obispo Court House on October 11, 1955, Turnupseed told the jury that he did not see the Porsche until after he was turning left onto Rt.41. After other testimony by the CHP, and witnesses to the accident, the Coroner's jury retired to deliberate. It came back with a verdict of "accidental death with no criminal intent" finding Donald Turnupseed not guilty of any contributory wrongdoing in the death of James Dean. The deceased Dean was also found not guilty of any contributory wrongdoing for the accident.* Although not charged with what could have been 'vehicular manslaughter, Turnupseed had never-the-less been dealt a devastating blow that would haunt him for the rest of his life. "Not only was he involved in an accident that resulted in one man's death, but it was a death that will never be forgotten, a death whose reverberations are still being felt all over the world." Lee Raskin, James Dean historian and author. "Coroner's Jury Finds Film Star's Death Accidental" San Luis Obispo Tribune,October 12, 1955. The Unabridged James Dean: His Life And Legacy from A To Z, Randall Riese, 1991. Pg. 534.

Turnupseed granted just one interview to the Tulare Advance-Register newspaper immediately following the crash, but after that, he refused to speak publicly about the accident. Turnupseed went on to own and operate a very successful family electrical contracting business in Tulare; only later, to die at age 63 from lung cancer in 1995.[37] Wütherich, who went back to Germany with many psychological problems, worked with the Porsche Factory's racing and rallye teams. He later died in 1981, in Kupferzell, Germany, when he lost control of his car and crashed into a house. * James Dean At Speed, Lee Raskin, author. Pg. 138. There is a chilling ironic epilogue to James Dean's fatal crash in 1955. While filming Giant, Dean also filmed a short Public Service Announcement (PSA) with actor Gig Young for the National Safety Council. It featured James Dean dressed as the young Jett Rink talking about how driving fast on the highway can be more dangerous than racing on the track. It ends with Dean, instead of saying the popular phrase "The life you save may be your own" he humorously ad-libbed, "The life you might save might be mine." This legendary black and white PSA, released following Dean's death, can now be viewed on YouTube.** Lee Raskin, James Dean Dean At Speed, 2005, Pg. 98. YouTube James Dean Driving PSA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU5N2SrEaZI