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ESIERDATS STARSJess Pearson Was Nowhere*After Followina AdviceJESS PEARSONthe picture/'HI was so disappointed, i couldn't sit throughBy NANCY ANDERSON Copley News ServiceHOLLYWOOD -Once upon a me, a couple of kids named ynn-Margrct and Jesse Pearson ,nd Broadway performer tamed Dick Van Dyke were ippearing in a Columbia Pic* ures movie called “Bye Bye Jirdie” which a lot of people bought would turn them into celebrated movie stars.Van Dyke’s chances looked great, because he was reprising a role he’d created with huge success on the New York stage. Pearson’s chances looked OK, because he was playing the title role, Conrad Birdie, ahElvis-like character in a gold lame suit so tight he couldn’t sit down.AndAnn-Margret?Weil, her role, to judge from the original show, wasn’t anything extra but she was an undeniably sexy young talent and, besides, the director of the film, George Sidney, thought she liad a lot of potential. So her chances looked good too.During the filming of “Birdie/’ Jess got offers to do this and that and the other thing as his next showcase, but his managers told him, “Don’t be in a hurry to make a deal. Cool it. Just wait until the movie is released and then see where you stand/’Jess amiably followed this advice and when the picture was released, he was—nowhere!JJe was scarcely in the movie at all.“I never even saw that picture,” Pearson says today. “I was so disappointed, I couldn’t sit through it.“I left the manager I had and after that I had no management.“About the wily acting jobs I could get were playing cowboys and Indians on television. ’ ’ However, this unfortunateturn of events became a blessing in disguise for the then-Jesse who is now Jess Pearson.(“1 dropped the ’e/ ” Jess explains, “because everybody around here thought Jessie was a girl’s name, and Jesse was a boy’s name. But, when anybody mentioned Jesse Pearson to a producer, he’d ask, ‘What does she do?’ ”)Be that as it may, forced by a dearth of acting offers to turn his attention elsewhere, Jess turned to narration, a field in which he’sdone quite well.His was the voice on “The Sea,” a spoken album produced by Anita Kerr and Bod McKuen, which earned for Pearson a Gold Record award. In addition, the National Association of Recording Artists nominated “The Sea” as “best spoken word album” of 1970.The next year, Jess won another Gold Record for another spoken album, “Home to the Sea,” which received the samenomination its predecessor had earned.Jess also narrated The Body Electric” and “The Poetry of Walt Whitman,” two of the most successful spoken word albums released by Rod McKuen’s company, Stanyan-Discus.He narrated the feature-length documentary film, “Manson,” which won in its category at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for a 1974 Oscar.And now his is the voice reciting the poetry and prophecy of Woody Guthrie on a new Cream album: “Woody Guthrie’s We Ain’t Down Yet.” The album was Jess’ idea.“A friend of mine was researching Guthrie’s life and ran across these prose vignettes,” he says. “He sent the stuff over to me, and 1 thought it was dynamite.”The “stuff” is a potpourri of Guthrie’s reflections upon a variety of homely subjects which, on the record, are interspersed with his music played and sung by Woody’s friends.Reminded that Guthrie was a controversial political figure, Pearson agrees that he was but says, “I don’t think his political reputation will hurt this record now.“We’ve all been through too much to worry at this late date about whether somebody might or might not have been a Communist.■“Anyway, a very good movie’s just been made about Woody Guthrie, and 1 think that will help the album sales.”As for Jess’ next project, he’s going to be seen as well as heard.If all goes according to schedule, when this appears in print, Pearson will be in New York in a show called, “Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dream Co»t.”
Newspaper Details
Valley Morning Star
Harlingen, Texas, US
Thu, Jan 27, 1977
Page 7
Full Page
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CA 19 Jun 2020
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