James Dean gallery on the move

FAIRMOUNT, Ind. (AP) The curator of a gallery of James Dean memorabilia plans to move the display from the film star's hometown.

The new location in Gas City is less than 10 miles north of Dean's hometown of Fairmount, but gallery owner David Loehr hopes the new site's proximity to the interstate will attract more visitors.

About 10,000 people visit the James Dean Memorial Gallery each year to see artifacts such as a liquor flask that belonged to Dean and a piece of his car.

of Dean. That's more than three times the population of Fairmount and nearly twice that of Gas City.

Construction of the new 6,000-square-foot gallery three times as large as the present building is expected to begin shortly, with the opening set for next February.

Officials in Fairmount, which hosts a James Dean festival each September, said they didn't expect the gallery's move to distract people coming to see where the actor grew up and was buried after his 1955 death in a car crash.

The local historical museum houses its own collection of memorabilia related to Dean, star of the 1950s films Rebel Without a Cause,'' East of Eden'' and Giant.''