Radio: The Dean Cult

TV last week hysterically joined the weird posthumous cult of James Dean (TIME, Sept. 3), by featuring the late young actor on three shows and two networks. Harvest, starring Dorothy Gish and Ed Begley, reappeared on NBC’s Robert Montgomery Presents; I’m a Fool, with Natalie Wood, on General Electric Theater (CBS); and The Unlighted Road was shown on CBS’s Schlitz Playhouse of Stars for the third time. All three shows exploited the Dean legend for frankly commercial purposes. “He’s hotter than anybody alive,” cried one NBC executive. The pulse-takers backed him up: Harvest, in which Dean was originally only a featured player, bludgeoned the opposition with a sizable 24.3 Trendex rating with Dean billed as star.