James Dean, My Earliest Idol

At the age of seventeen, I was a wild child. I went to see Rebel Without A Cause starring James Dean, my earliest idol. My street gang friend and I were in full dress, wearing our club jackets, brogans, and sporting Levine Hats: white-banded black dago-block hats with red feathers.

Each member of our gang had purchased his dago-block from Mr. Louis Levine at the original Levine’s store on Washington Avenue in the garment district of St. Louis. Mr. Levine personally steam-heated each hat and then hand-shaped it in front of you by forming a crease down the center, an indentation on each side, and a final shaping of the front brim downwards while pushing the rear brim upwards slightly. As his final step, Mr. Levine would burn your initials into the hatband. Then he would hand you a white card on manila stock that read: Like Hell This Hat Belongs To You! Below that was a line for the owner to write his name. And as soon as the new owner donned the Levine Hat, he felt much taller. And definitely prouder with the huge ego stroke it gave him.

Ah, yes – my friend and I dressed almost identically, as the individuals we thought we were. We sat in the movie theater seats, two cocky young dudes full of ourselves – with our boots on the seats in front of us and our new dago-blocks pulled down real low. People took great care to walk around us, not wanting to create a disturbance by challenging two young idiots.