James Dean rolled out of bed Friday morning and caught a bus near Beverly and Western, transferred to a Red Line train and reported for work on Hollywood Boulevard with Batman, Elvis and Capt. Jack Sparrow.
Marilyn Monroe was supposed to join him, but she didn't show.
Earlier in the week, I had spotted James and Marilyn working together in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre, posing for photos and hoping for tips.
I wondered what their story was.
Were they a couple?
Did they just get off a bus from the Midwest with big dreams?
And have things calmed down on Hollywood Boulevard since Elmo, Chewbacca and Freddy Kruger were arrested after altercations with passersby?
James Dean, whose real name is Gerard Christian Zacher, dialed Marilyn but got a recording saying the service had been cut off.
"I know she was excited about coming," he said, concerned about what might have happened to her. No, they're not a couple. Just friends who have discovered that more tourists flock to them when they stand next to each other.
We crossed the boulevard with Zacher in character. When I first saw him, earlier in the week, he was James Dean in "Giant," but on this day he was dressed for "Rebel Without a Cause." Cuffed jeans, T-shirt, light jacket and fake cigarette. Very cool, and moody, too, like a young man whose parents were tearing him apart.
Zacher is a little guy who, at 39, could pass for 25. It's tough out there, he says. Not only are some tourists abusive, but a lot of the reenactors are aggressive beggars, tarnishing the images of the others. He doesn't even talk to Catwoman, he says, and one of the Elvises and a Capt. Jack Sparrow don't respect the unwritten code of professional conduct.
That code says don't wander off the sidewalk and onto the footprints of Hollywood legends. Perform for the tourists, but never harass them, even when they take your picture and stiff you on a tip. On a good day, Zacher says, behaving professionally can bring $200.
"Chewbacca was arrested for head-butting a Star Line tour guide," Zacher says with disgust, noting that a Marilyn Monroe had also accused Chewbacca of a lewd act. "And a Batman was arrested during an anti-Bush demonstration, then kicked out the police car windows."
Zacher said he sent e-mails to the mayor and to City Council President Eric Garcetti asking them to meet with him and discuss ways to regulate street performers and "class it up." You've got Batmen coming in by the busload, he said, and it gets out of control at times.
