SALINAS, Calif. - James Dean slouches in a chair pushed back on its hind legs. He's relaxing. His legs are crossed, his eyes are alert but staring at something unseen - his thoughts miles away.

Burl Ives stares down at him definitely assessing the then unknown actor, perhaps wondering what this scene-stealing young man is going to do next, perhaps waiting for him to topple over backwards, perhaps dismissing the moment while humming to himself his signature tune, "Jimmy crack corn and I don't care."

Both are actors but at this moment in the photograph they aren't acting. They're waiting for the next scene to take place, sitting on directors chairs in front of a freight car in the village of Spreckels, Calif., while a film crew is busy setting up the next shot.

Spreckels was a company town then (granulated sugar), just three miles south of Salinas, the setting for many of hometown boy John Steinbeck's stories including the one that brought these two seemingly different people together - the filming of Elia Kazan's version of Steinbeck's 1952 novel East of Eden. The year was 1954.

Yet the two actors weren't so different. Ives grew up in rural Illinois; Dean, the same thing, but Indiana. Perhaps the photo was shot after a conversation about back home and Ives was waiting for an answer from the distracted Dean.

Ives had supportive parents and loving brothers and sisters. Dean was an only child whose mother died when he was young while the family was living in Southern California. Dean's father sent him back to Indiana to live with relatives. They play sympathetic characters in the film. Sam the Sheriff (Ives) knows that Cal (Dean) is the unloved son of a bully and a mother who abandoned the family.

On April 10, 1955, East of Eden was released to wide acclaim. Lines formed at movie houses around the country and four young stars took their places in Hollywood's pantheon: Julie Harris, Richard Davalos, Lois Smith and James Dean.

To help celebrate the 60th anniversary of the film's release, The (Salinas) Californian, which, like USA TODAY, is a Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper, published 52 photographs of the filming of East of Eden from its archives.

See full article here.