East of Eden (1955) Cast and Crew Signed Softball. A Reach “Pacesetter" horsehide softball, covered on all sides with signatures of the cast and crew of East of Eden (Warner Bros., 1955), including stars James Dean (in his lead film debut), Julie Harris, Jo Van Fleet, and three other headliner actors from the production, director Elia Kazan, cinematographer Ted D. McCord, ten other crew members, cast member William “Bill" Phillips, scene artist George Hopewell, and 27 others, most likely extras and others in Mendocino connected to the filming in some capacity. All signed in blue-green ink, with Kazan signing under a boxed handwritten title of the film.
Portions of East of Eden were filmed in Mendocino, California, including a scene filmed in Mendocino High School's gymnasium, and the original shooting of the film's ice house scene in a building across the street from the high school. These and other details, as well as this softball – then unlocated and presumed to have “disappeared" – have been documented in Bruce Levene's James Dean in Mendocino: The Filming of East of Eden (1994).
Diameter 3 ½". Signed by all in blue-green ink. Signatures clean and bright with only superficial surface wear.
Provenance: Glenn W. Mason, by descent from Bertha Mason (1913 – 2000); Mason was the Secretary to the High School Principal and School District Superintendent in Mendocino and received the ball in the 1970s. Accompanied by a letter of provenance from Glenn W. Mason. Proceeds from the sale of this lot benefit the Ephemera Society of America.