Little River Inn General Manager Printha Worthen and Inn Publicist Cammie King Conlon played host today to three Japanese visitors who were following the “James Dean Trail.” Writer Michio Michael Higashi, Editor Makoto Fukuda and Photographer Naonari Kohira arrived on the Coast last night from Rakuda (”Camel” in Japanese – a symbol of the blending of eastern and western), an upscale bi-monthly lifestyle magazine produced in Tokyo. I joined them for breakfast.
They came to the U.S. on a two-week whirlwind trip to gather material for a feature story on towns and locations made famous in movies, including Mendocino and Little River (East of Eden), Wyoming (Shane), Arizona (O.K. Corral) and Petaluma, California (American Graffiti).
While Printha talked about James Dean who stayed in Room 102 at the Little River Inn during the filming of East of Eden in 1954 and the Inn’s history of five consecutive generations of owners, we ate Ole’s Swedish Pancakes in the restaurant. Coincidentally, filling in as a server for the day and waiting on the group’s table was Cally Dym, operations manager, granddaughter of Inn Founder Ole Hervilla.
When Cammie pulled out publicity photos of herself as five-year-old Bonnie Blue Butler, the daughter of Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) in Gone With The Wind, there was a burst of smiles and recognition by Higashi, Fukuda and Kohira that they were dining with a real movie star. 
Printha took the group on a tour of the inn property and to Mendocino to see areas where East of Eden and Murder She Wrote were filmed.
Higashi said that James Dean is cult figure in Japan. Of course, it’s no secret that the Japanese are great lovers of the American West and western movies.
We also talked about other movies made on the Mendocino Coast.
