FAIRMOUNT - The church where thousands mourned James Dean will be open to the public this year as fans from all over the country converge on Fairmount to remember the actor on the 50th anniversary of his death.
Every year Dean is recognized during Fairmount's Museum Days festival, which is the last full weekend in September. An annual memorial service is held at Back Creek Friends Church on Sept. 30 - the date in 1955 when the actor was killed in a car accident. This year, visitors also will be able to get a rare look at Fairmount Friends Church, where Dean's funeral took place, said Gale Hikade, president of the Fairmount Historical Museum.
"It's usually never open because it just takes so many people to cover it," Hikade said. "People have to be there to answer the questions for the service and that kind of thing, there's just not enough people to go around."
A special group from the church, 124 W. First St., will guide visitors through from 9 a.m. to noon Sept. 30, with the annual memorial service to follow at 1 p.m. in Back Creek Friends Church on Sand Pike.
"So many of the people, including myself, were not at the funeral," Hikade said. "I wasn't even in town then, but this is the church, this is the way it looked when Jim was there, those are the kinds of things that are asked."
Organizers of the memorial service and the Fairmount Museum Days/ Remembering James Dean festival, which runs from Sept. 22 to 25, also are preparing for the 50th anniversary by securing extra volunteers and preparing vendors. The festival includes music (this year including recording artists Lou Christy and Mitch Ryder) vendors, antique cars and many Dean look-alikes or dress-alikes.
Hikade expected this year's crowds to be larger than the more than 30,000 who typically come to the events.
"Just because of the phone calls we have been receiving (at the museum)," he said. "Just from all over the place, you name the state or the country and we've had a phone call from it."
Museum volunteers have had to explain to some of those callers that the Fairmount events in September are separate from James Dean Fest, which is June 3 through 5 at the Marion Municipal Airport.
"We're also getting a few phone calls asking if we're still going to have the event in September," Hikade said. "We're just trying to get enough publicity to show we are still having ours."
Although celebrities including actor Martin Sheen and Elizabeth Sheridan, one of Dean's former girlfriends, have attended the memorial service or festival in the past, no one is sure who will show up this year, memorial service organizer Phil Zeigler said.
"We just play it by ear every year," he said. "I don't know who's going, if there will be any celebrities here or not this year.
"I'll tell you for the 50th anniversary we'll probably have a lot of overseas fans here," he continued. "The church is always packed anyway, regardless of what year it is."
