Kevin Nelson, Writer

James Dean: Intensity Personified

Kevin Lynn Nelson — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:18:19 +0000

2.4.12. Here's a fine shot of James Dean, above, sitting in a race car at the start of a race, ready to rock. You see his intensity and see that he was no Hollywood poseur when it came to automobile racing; he was into it. As I write in Wheels of Change, I thought the photo was taken in Bakersfield. But no, it was Santa Barbara, as author Lee Raskin points out here, while adding some nice details about other people who were involved:

Hi Kevin...I forgot to mention earlier that the photo you used in your book of JD ...was taken by photographer, Frank Worth at Santa Barbara, May, 1955. Jimmy is actually sitting in #75, a RHD Ferrari Mondial, owned by Johnny von Neumann (standing on other side of Jimmy with hands on the door in photo), who was the Porsche dealer and owner of Competition Motors in Hollywood. This Ferrari was raced by JvN's step-daughter Josie in the ladies class at Santa Barbara. In my James Dean: At Speed book, there is a sequence of photos taken by Frank Worth and my text as the narrative.

My post last time was a letter from Lee about Dean, which you can see right here. [end]

The Real Scoop on the Life and Death of James Dean

Kevin Lynn Nelson — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 22:47:20 +0000

1.29.12. Recently received this letter from Lee Raskin, author of James Dean: At Speed, a 50th anniversary collection of photos and stories about the actor's all too short life and car crash death. So long after his passing, Dean still moves people. I found this out after Wheels of Change came out. It included a chapter on Dean and the circumstances of his death; this in turn generated a letter from a car enthusiast who wanted to correct the record on something I had said. Lee Raskin is also interested in making sure the real James Dean story is out there, not just the myths, and I applaud him for it.

Hi Kevin...It was nice to read your article on James Dean with real facts, and a nice contribution by Steve Conlin of LA to match the 9-30-55 color photo taken at the Mobil station. James Dean continues to live on with this particular photo, which is undoubtedly worth a thousand words!

Yes, Rolf Wutherich, Dean's mechanic/passenger took the photo of Jimmy and the Porsche Spyder at the Mobil station at Beverly Glen and Ventura Blvd. in Sherman Oaks. Too bad that both Bill Hickman and Sandy Roth were out of the shot, but Jimmy's '55 Ford Country Squire and the loaned car trailer made it into the frame. James Dean: At Speed was the first to publish all of this historic information about this photo and hundreds more.

Four hours later, the two-car crash took place on CA Rt. 466/41 near Cholame. The Leica survived the fatal crash as it had been stowed behind the passenger seat of Rolf Wutherich. Competition Motors' owner, Johnny von Neumann, coincidentally arrived 30 minutes after the accident, and retrieved the camera from the wrecked Spyder. It was given to Rolf Wutherich, who had four color prints (three taken at Competition Motors and the final one at the Mobil station) developed. They were later published in Porsche, AG's Christophorus Magazine.

I also wanted to mention how much I enjoy owning your Wheels of Change. Perhaps we can meet up one day at AutoBooks in Burbank for each other's book talks as well! Best regards...always keep your revs up! Vroom, Vrooom!

Lee Raskin, James Dean historian/author

[end]

New (Old) Review of Wheels of Change: 'Superbly Entertaining,' Say the Brits

Kevin Lynn Nelson — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 17:54:46 +0000

Aug. 29, 2011 The other day at the vintage races at Laguna Seca, I picked up a couple of copies of Classic and Sports Car Magazine, an entertaining English monthly about vintage cars. One of them was an old issue dating back to July 2010. Last night I was reading it and lo and behold, stumbled upon a review of Wheels of Change that I had never seen before. They liked the book in England too! If you're curious, here is the review:

My New Screensaver

Kevin Lynn Nelson — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 20:25:44 +0000

Aug. 26, 2011 We spotted this Jaguar GX75 in the concept car section on the grass near the front door of the Pebble Beach Lodge at last Sunday's Concours d'Elegance. Unable to afford to buy one at this time, I snapped this picture and it's now the screensaver for my iMac. Nice wheels, dude!

A Website for Those Who Love Cars and Movies

Kevin Lynn Nelson — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 16:11:39 +0000

Aug. 12, 2011 If you're ever watching a movie and you wonder about one of the cars shown in it, here's the website for you: Internet Movie Cars Database, or IMCDb.org. Similar to the all-movie site IMDB.com, only about cars, IMCDb.org is an encyclopedic site that identifies cars in the movies, including reader comments that tell you year, make and other features. Last night, as we were watching "The Fast and the Furious" (not the 2001 film with Vin Diesel, but the 1954 black and white "B" movie made by Roger Corman and set at the Pebble Beach Races and Concours d'Elegance, where I'm going next week), my wife flipped over to IMCDb on her iPhone to see what cars we were looking at. IMCDb catalogs most of the cars seen in the movie, including these two fine English sportscar imports.

1953 MG-TD

1953 Jaguar XK-120

Another Cool, Old Pebble Beach Racing Shot

Kevin Lynn Nelson — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 23:45:14 +0000

August 3, 2011. A coming highlight for me this month is a research trip to the Concours d'Elegance in Pebble Beach and the car racing at the Monterey Historics at Laguna Seca earlier that week. The trip is research—and research of the most delightful kind—for the new book I'm writing about imports and an American import car pioneer. As part of this research I've been exploring a photographic archive with great old black and white photos of the early days of the Pebble Beach Road Races, such as the one of Phil Hill a few blogposts below, and this one of a race driver who is not having his best day.

A Reader Writes: "Thanks for the information you share"

Kevin Lynn Nelson — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:51:00 +0000

July 27, 2011. An email today from a reader of the blog here at KevinNelsonWriter.com.

"Thanks for all the work you do and information you share. I have tried to be an educated memorabilia consumer since the late 1990s. I am currently finishing my thesis in Economic Crime Management, and my thesis topic is better educating consumers around sports memorabilia fraud. Keep up the great work and if you have any advice let me know."

Kevin Nelson responds: My pleasure, and thanks for the kind words! We cover lots of topics here at KevinNelsonWriter.com, one of them being fake memorabilia and the crooks who sell it. You keep reading and we'll keep providing the info.

Beauty and Beauty: Nice Legs, Nice Car

Kevin Lynn Nelson — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:35:05 +0000

July 26, 2011. Last night at the unveiling of the new Range Rover Evoque at the British Motors showroom in San Francisco, they were giving away an iPad2 to the person who took the most creative photo of the car and then uploaded it to Twitter or Facebook. I didn't get a chance to do that—I was too busy sipping on a Nadared martini cocktail and munching the flank steak pinwheels and mustard-grilled rocky jr. chicken bites, generously provided to the guests by our hosts—but I'm not sure this shot would have won me the prize anyhow. Although I like it. Nice wheels, I'll say.

By the way, for anyone interested in the Evoque, last night was a sneak preview for the new edition to the Land Rover line that will be available in the fall. Until then, feast your eyes. On the car, my friends the car!

[end]

For Your Reading Pleasure: Article About Roger Maris and Friend

Kevin Lynn Nelson — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 21:34:37 +0000

July 25, 2011. Check it out: Here's an article I wrote about Andy Strasberg, a San Diego sports agent and lifelong Roger Maris aficionado (and friend), who is helping to celebrate this, the 50th anniversary of Maris's record-breaking 61-home run season for the Yanks. The article was published in a magazine in June and just posted online. Click here and enjoy.

Insight into Car Guys, Circa 1950

Kevin Lynn Nelson — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 20:59:11 +0000

July 24, 2011. While embarking on my latest project, a book about an import car pioneer, I stumbled onto this vintage black and white photo of the great race driver, Phil Hill, after he had just won his first major sports car race, the 1950 Pebble Beach road race, the first one ever held there. It's a wonderful, and wonderfully fun, photo because not only is it a portrait of Hill when he was young and just coming into his prime as a driver, but it also provides insight into the minds of men who love automobiles and are passionate about them. Are the fellows here congratulating Hill on his triumph or better still, ogling the comely young lass presenting him with the winner's trophy? Nah, they're studying what's truly important.

Phil Hill, 1950 [end]

A Reader Writes: What Happened to Golf Audiobook?

Kevin Lynn Nelson — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 18:34:51 +0000

July 2, 2011. Recently I received this note from a reader: "I was wondering if the audio version of The Greatest Golf Shot Ever Made was ever digitized for CD? I know you mentioned it on your blog a few years back. I am a big fan of George S. Irving, and know someone who is a huge golf fan who would be so thrilled to have this, but alas, I no longer have a cassette player. Thanks."

The Greatest Golf Shot, now out of print, was a collection of golf stories and anecdotes made into two audiobooks, which were voiced by the highly honored Broadway actor George S. Irving. A few years back I received word from the publisher that they were going to turn the tapes into CDs, but that was the last I heard of it. You would think the author would know everything there is to know about his work, but the truth is, sometimes the author is the last to know. I frankly don't know what the state of this project is, but your letter has spurred me to look into it. I do still have a cassette player, but alas, I don't use it much. [end]

Websites For Young People to Learn About Finance

Kevin Lynn Nelson — Tue, 24 May 2011 22:06:59 +0000

May 24, 2011 One of my chief interests is in education, both for myself and my children. In fact, as a person who makes his living in writing and publishing, I'm vitally interested in the subject of education for all young people. If we don't do a better job of educating our kids, we are—pardon my french—screwed as a country. One neglected area of education is financial education, particularly for young people. If this subject interests you too, check out this article in a recent Investor's Business Daily about websites where kids can go to learn finance. Your children—and heck, you too—may benefit.

Telling Your Story Can Help You Achieve Your Business Goals

Kevin Lynn Nelson — Wed, 04 May 2011 20:27:35 +0000

May 4, 2011 Lately through my communications company, Southampton Media, we have been working with several firms on how to better tell their stories. We have created Power Points for them to present to venture capital investors, who are interested in potentially planting seed money into their companies to make them grow. Such investors need to know the financials of any project—the numbers must work out, no doubt—but like everyone else in the world, even the most hard-nosed businessmen/investors like to hear a good story, told well. Curiously though, I've found that many new as well as established companies and organizations have no idea how to tell their stories to potential investors, the public at large, or even their own customers. And yet effective storytelling can help you achieve your business goals, as this recent piece in Investor Business Daily shows.

A Forging Work of Art: Greg Marino's Mantle

Kevin Lynn Nelson — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 20:40:54 +0000

April 28, 2011 Having written a book about one of the best of the modern forgers, and arguably one of the best of all time, I occasionally hear from people who own corrupt autograph masterpieces created by Greg Marino. Marino forged perhaps a million autographs in his six-year criminal career, but without doubt his very best—his Sistine Chapel, if you will, the one that launched his career and that he truly mastered—was that of Mickey Mantle. Marino was a lifelong Yankees fan, and his Mantle forgery is a criminal consummation of passion, profit motive, and craft. The other day an email correspondent of mine, "Raiderman," sent me a lithograph he owns that was painted by Greg's father Angelo, and that bears Greg's famous Mantle. Here it is:

One Man Decides: "Should I Sell My $100,000 Collection?"

Kevin Lynn Nelson — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 18:25:18 +0000

April 19, 2011. Sometime after Operation Bullpen was released, I received a call from a chap named Randy Roberts, inviting me over to see his $100,000 baseball card and memorabilia collection at his house. But one thing led to another, and I never took him up on his nice offer. Time passed. Then I got another call from Randy, who said he was now thinking about selling his collection and that he'd love to have me see it before he did. So this time I said yes. I brought my sons with me, and we spent a pleasant morning looking at old baseball cards that are worth pretty good new money. Always the writer, I thought the question Randy was considering—whether or not to sell a treasured collection of keepsakes—was interesting, and worth further development. Click here for the article I wrote on it for Sports Collectors Digest.

Another Winning Review for Wheels of Change

Kevin Lynn Nelson — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 18:55:41 +0000

April 18, 2011. Choice, a publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries, posted a winning review of Wheels of Change, my award-winning book on the history of automobiles in California. In recommending the book for purchase by libraries, the reviewer describes it as "a great deal of fun and full of information. Author Nelson writes beautifully, with an air of wonder, appreciation and enthusiasm. One gets the feeling that he likes the people he writes about and is genuinely sad that so many have passed on." Indeed.

A Stocking Stuffer for all the Wondrous Readers of this Blog: "The Christmas Tie," A Children's Story

Kevin Lynn Nelson — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 18:15:31 +0000

BY K.L. NELSON

One Christmas, a boy named Daniel thought he would like to buy his father a gift.

But what? He did not know what his father liked or needed.

Trying to get ideas, he watched his father get ready for work one morning. He saw him put on a coat and tie. His father often wore neckties to work.

“That’s it,” thought Daniel. “I’ll get him a new tie. A Christmas tie!”

The Acceptance Speech I Never Gave, For the Book Award That Almost Was

Kevin Lynn Nelson — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 19:02:52 +0000

Wheels of Change was one of three books nominated for "Best Book of the Year," an annual award presented by the Los Angeles Motor Press Guild, the most prestigious organization of automobile journalists and industry professionals in the country. Awards were given in the categories of photography, articles, audio-visual, and books. The awards dinner took place Dec. 7 at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, and about 150 people attended. Jay Leno appeared and made some opening remarks.

Designed to honor "excellence in automotive journalism," the awards are presented in the name of the late Dean Batchelor, a truly excellent writer and journalist and one of the founding fathers of the hot rod revolution in this country. Book of the Year honors (and the Batchelor Lifetiime Achievement Award) went to Can-Am Cars in Detail, by Pete Lyons, who spoke briefly when he came to the podium to accept his award. The ceremony was not set up for Lyons and the other winners to give acceptance speeches, and so even if Wheels had won I likely would not have said much. But because it was Pearl Harbor Day, it started me thinking about what I would have said if a) the judges had chosen my book and b) if I'd had the guts to actually stand up and say the things I was thinking. This, then, is the acceptance speech I never gave, for the book award that never was: [...more...]

'The Social Network' and Operation Bullpen

Kevin Lynn Nelson — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 23:11:08 +0000

[Here is an email I sent recently to the producer of the—someday, I hope—Operation Bullpen movie. A script based on my book has been finished and it is now being peddled around Hollywood although there are, as yet, no takers. I thought ‘The Social Network,’ the (relatively) new movie about the founding of Facebook by Mark Zuckerberg, has some parallels with the Bullpen story, as I say here…]

Hi L-

Saw "The Social Network" last night. I liked it and it spurred some thoughts on "Operation Bullpen," the movie. Give me just a minute or two to share them with you. "The Social Network" opened with a $24 million weekend box office and there's not a car crash or any violence to be found anywhere in it. That's reassuring, since I know that's one of the things you've heard from people about the Bullpen script: Not enough sex and violence.

Actually, "The Social Network" doesn't have much sex either, does it? No actual sex scenes, just party scenes and the suggestion of sex, but that's all. God knows the Bullpen story has lots more sex than that, with hookers and Vegas strippers and sex and drug parties on the Bada Bing boat. And it's got the criminal element to boot—the fact that all these formerly law-abiding guys are committing widespread fraud while being hunted down by the FBI. "The Social Network" has no big stars in it, unless you count Justin Timberlake, who's very good. Of course, it has a script by Aaron Sorkin, who's a superstar screenwriter and superb, and a hot director whose name I can't recall but who is clearly a hot property too. Interestingly, Kevin Spacey is one of the producers—isn't he Trigger Street Productions?—and clearly Kevin has a sharp eye for material, because he also produced "21." [ more ]

A Thanksgiving Message from Miss Sook

Kevin Lynn Nelson — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 19:22:28 +0000

This is a passage from The Thanksgiving Visitor, by Truman Capote (a beautiful short story, by the way, that can be read as an adult and enjoyed or read with children, who will equally enjoy it):