Have a question about Rod Lauren? Have information about Rod Lauren?Want to make a correction? I would be interested to hear from you.

Want more information about how I came to write this story? Scroll down this page or click here.

Contact The Author:

Author’s Note –

Back a few years ago, I wondered who the most famous person might be in the town I lived in.

We had a few former NFL players who were born here, and a couple of others who moved here when their careers ended – including a couple of Pro Football Hall of Famers – but the ones who were born here were mostly local legends, and the ones who were great moved out here from elsewhere after their careers ended.

In December 1969, a rock’n’roll band called the Rolling Stones – perhaps you have heard of them – flew into our little municipal airport and were shuttled a few miles to Altamont Speedway in the foothills on the western edge of town for a free concert that turned us into a “One-Day City of 300,000 People,” but Mick and Keith got right back out of here, not even spending a single night in one of our numerous motels. And, by the next day, we were back to being a town of about 15,000 folks.

Robert Redford came here in 1972 to film a scene for his movie “The Candidate,” turning a Tracy High School homecoming parade through our downtown into an ersatz campaign event. The scene is a less-than-ten-second blip in the film, and Bob and the film crew were in and out of here before the sun went down that day.

The superstar entertainer MC Hammer has lived here for many years, and raised his family here, and he’s always friendly and approachable – but Hammer was not born and raised here. (Oakland rightfully claims him.)

We have had a Playboy centerfold (see Miss December 1973) ¹ who was born and raised here, and a lot of great people who are “Tracy Famous,” but aren’t well known a few miles past our city limits.

Then, a short time later, an item in our local Tracy Press’ regular “Twice-Told Tales” column of historical hometown tidbits mentioned that a young man named Rod Lauren, who had grown up here when he was known as Roger Strunk, was starring in a movie that was playing at the Grand Theater downtown … back in 1963.

I was intrigued. We actually had a local kid who starred in a movie?

As it turned out, that kid had quite a story. He graduated from Tracy High, wanted to be an actor, moonlighted as a singer, and was discovered by RCA Victor in the most serendipitous way in the days when RCA Victor was going strong with another small-town singer named Elvis Presley.

Our local kid was given a new name and a big-budget publicity push, and he hit the American Top 40 with his first record. Appearances on TV shows hosted by Ed Sullivan, Bob Hope, Dick Clark, Perry Como and Steve Allen quickly followed.

He went on tour in the United States and Australia and acted in several movies – starring (or playing one of the leads) in a couple – and in a few TV shows (usually in bit parts, but with at least one memorable role in an episode of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”) but then, before he turned thirty years old, his career had faded … only to take a dramatic turn.

The remarkable story of his life is told – in three acts – in “I Dreamed: The Story of Rod Lauren. And Roger Strunk.” Why three acts? Because there clearly were three acts to his life.

Note that this story is being written “live”; it is incomplete, is being written and released in segments and fragments, and includes a discography, filmography, and other sections that are also works in progress.

– David Ferrell Jackson
Tracy, California

Credits

Many of the photographs and other ephemera included in this presentation are from the collection of the author, or were generously provided by members of the Strunk family and other fans of Rod Lauren. They are used with their kind permission.

Special thanks to the Tracy Press, whose archives are part of the Tracy Historical Museum‘s collection, and to my friends and neighbors here in Tracy, California – including quite a few who grew up with and shared their memories of Roger Strunk and his family.

While writing this story, I had the great good luck to hear from Nicky DeMatteo, who was among the young singing stars that ventured out in 1960 on the “Juke Box Stars Magazine Parade” concert tour – essentially the same ill-fated tour that Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper and Dion and The Belmonts had been on the previous year, which led to The Day The Music Died. Mr. DeMatteo and his wife, Julie, patiently answered my numerous questions about the Juke Box Stars caravan, and provided priceless insights about Rod Lauren during that tour. Give yourself a treat and listen to Nicky DeMatteo’s own songs from that era here.

Copyright Notice

Rod Lauren music used in this presentation are copyright by RCA Victor (used by permission of Sony Music) and Chancellor Records (used by permission of Universal Music Group).

All music is presented under license from ASCAP and BMI. Downloading, re-recording or any other form of copying or distribution is strictly prohibited under international copyright laws.

Certain photographs and images used in this presentation are from the private collection of the author and may not be copied, reproduced or otherwise published, distributed or used in any manner without the expressed written permission of the author.

Other photographs and images are used with the permission of the copyright holder; such copyright or ownership is noted with the specific item.

“I Dreamed” Cover Art: Concept by David Ferrell Jackson · Photo Illustration by Zahid Amin · Based on 1959 “I’m Rod Lauren” cover art (LSP-2176) courtesy of RCA Victor Records.

Footnote:

1. In her Playboy profile, Tracy was described as “a little town about 20 minutes’ drive from Stockton where she was born 23 years ago. … it has ‘a high school, one theater and one bowling alley.’ It also has a number of factories. Her father works in one of them; he’s a watchman for a paper company.” ↩︎