JAMES DEAN
TOMORROW NEVER COMES
James Dean became a legend, worldwide. This book tells how he did it.
COMMEMORATING THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH OF JAMES DEAN
(FEBRUARY 8, 1931-SEPTEMBER 30, 1955)
ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF BLOOD MOON’S AWARD-WINNING ENTERTAINMENT ABOUT HOW AMERICA INTERPRETS ITS CELEBRITIES.
WWW.BLOODMOONPRODUCTIONS.COM
JAMES DEAN
TOMORROW NEVER COMES
A MYTH-SHATTERING TALE ABOUT AMERICA’S OBSESSION WITH CELEBRITIES.
DARWIN PORTER & DANFORTH PRINCE
JAMES DEAN
Tomorrow Never Comes
Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince
Copyright ©2016, Blood Moon Productions, Ltd.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
www.BloodMoonProductions.com
Manufactured in the United States of America
ISBN 978-1-936003-49-5
Front cover design by Richard Leeds (Bigwigdesign.com)
Back cover design by Tiffany Voorhees
Distributed worldwide through National Book Network
(www.NBNbooks.com)
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A Word About Phraseologies
Since we at Blood Moon weren’t privy to long-ago conversations as they were unfolding, we have relied on the memories of our sources for the conversational tone and phraseologies of what we’ve recorded within the pages of this book.
This writing technique, as it applies to modern biography, has been defined as “conversational storytelling” by The New York Times, which labeled it as an acceptable literary device for “engaging reading.”
Blood Moon is not alone in replicating, “as remembered” dialogues from dead sources. Truman Capote and Norman Mailer were pioneers of direct quotes, and today, they appear in countless other memoirs, ranging from those of Eddie Fisher to those of the long-time mistress (Verita Thompson) of Humphrey Bogart.
Some people have expressed displeasure in the fact that direct quotes and “as remembered” dialogue have become a standard—some would say “mandatory”—fixture in pop culture biographies today.
If that is the case with anyone who’s reading this now, they should perhaps turn to other, more traditional and self-consciously “scholastic” works instead.
Best wishes to all of you, with thanks for your interest in our work.
Danforth Prince
President and Founder
Blood Moon Productions
ALSO FROM BLOOD MOON PRODUCTIONS—NEW AND COMING NEXT!
In time for the elections, from biographers who crafted earlier exposés of The Reagans, The Clintons, The Kennedys, and many of the most prominent stars of Golden-Age Hollywood, this is about a campaign that’s unprecedented in the history of The Republic. Breathlessly irreverent, it presents the saga of Trump, Inc. as an “only in America” story within a culture that’s as noteworthy (and bizarre) as its protagonist.
DONALD TRUMP
THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING
Softcover, 500 pages, with photos, available everywhere in September, 2016.
Another proud and presidential addition to Blood Moon’s award-winning Babylon Series.
ISBN 978-1-936003-51-8
PREVIOUS WORKS BY DARWIN PORTER
PRODUCED IN COLLABORATION WITH BLOOD MOON
BIOGRAPHIES
Bill & Hillary, So This Is That Thing Called Love
Peter O’Toole, Hellraiser, Sexual Outlaw, Irish Rebel
Love Triangle, Ronald Reagan, Jane Wyman, & Nancy Davis
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, A Life Beyond Her Wildest Dreams
Pink Triangle, The Feuds and Private Lives of Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal, Truman Capote, and Famous Members of their Entourages.
Those Glamorous Gabors, Bombshells from Budapest
Inside Linda Lovelace’s Deep Throat, Degradation, Porno Chic, and the Rise of Feminism
Elizabeth Taylor, There is Nothing Like a Dame
Marilyn at Rainbow’s End, Sex, Lies, Murder, and the Great Cover-up
J. Edgar Hoover & Clyde Tolson Investigating the Sexual Secrets of America’s Most Famous Men and Women
Frank Sinatra, The Boudoir Singer. All the Gossip Unfit to Print
The Kennedys, All the Gossip Unfit to Print
Humphrey Bogart, The Making of a Legend (2010), and The Secret Life of Humphrey Bogart (2003)
Howard Hughes, Hell’s Angel
Steve McQueen, King of Cool, Tales of a Lurid Life
Paul Newman, The Man Behind the Baby Blues
Merv Griffin, A Life in the Closet
Brando Unzipped
Katharine the Great, Hepburn, Secrets of a Lifetime Revealed
Jacko, His Rise and Fall, The Social and Sexual History of Michael Jackson
Damn You, Scarlett O’Hara, The Private Lives of Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier (co-authored with Roy Moseley)
FILM CRITICISM
Blood Moon’s 2005 Guide to the Glitter Awards
Blood Moon’s 2006 Guide to Film
Blood Moon’s 2007 Guide to Film, and
50 Years of Queer Cinema, 500 of the Best GLBTQ Films Ever Made
NON-FICTION
Hollywood Babylon—It’s Back! and Hollywood Babylon Strikes Again!
NOVELS
Blood Moon,
Hollywood’s Silent Closet,
Rhinestone Country,
Razzle Dazzle
Midnight in Savannah
OTHER PUBLICATIONS BY DARWIN PORTER
NOT DIRECTLY ASSOCIATED WITH BLOOD MOON
NOVELS
The Delinquent Heart
The Taste of Steak Tartare
Butterflies in Heat
Marika (a roman à clef based on the life of Marlene Dietrich)
Venus (a roman à clef based on the life of Anaïs Nin)
Bitter Orange
Sister Rose
TRAVEL GUIDES
Many Editions and Many Variations of The Frommer Guides, The American Express Guides, and/or TWA Guides, et alia to:
Andalusia, Andorra, Anguilla, Aruba, Atlanta, Austria, the Azores, The Bahamas, Barbados, the Bavarian Alps, Berlin, Bermuda, Bonaire and Curaçao, Boston, the British Virgin Islands, Budapest, Bulgaria, California, the Canary Islands, the Caribbean and its “Ports of Call,” the Cayman Islands, Ceuta, the Channel Islands (UK), Charleston (SC), Corsica, Costa del Sol (Spain), Denmark, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Edinburgh, England, Estonia, Europe, “Europe by Rail,” the Faroe Islands, Finland, Florence, France, Frankfurt, the French Riviera, Geneva, Georgia (USA), Germany, Gibraltar, Glasgow, Granada (Spain), Great Britain, Greenland, Grenada (West Indies), Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jamaica, Key West & the Florida Keys, Las Vegas, Liechtenstein, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Maine, Malta, Martinique & Guadeloupe, Massachusetts, Morocco, Munich, New England, New Orleans, North Carolina, Norway, Paris, Poland, Portugal, Provence, Puerto Rico, Romania, Rome, Salzburg, San Diego, San Francisco, San Marino, Sardinia, Savannah, Scandinavia, Scotland, Seville, the Shetland Islands, Sicily, St. Martin & Sint Maartin, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, South Carolina, Spain, St. Kitts & Nevis, Sweden, Switzerland, the Turks & Caicos, the U.S.A., the U.S. Virgin Islands, Venice, Vienna and the Danube, Wales, and Zurich.
BIOGRAPHIES
From Diaghilev to Balanchine, The Saga of Ballerina Tamara Geva
Lucille Lortel, The Queen of Off-Broadway
Greta Keller, Germany’s Other Lili Marlene
Sophie Tucker, The Last of the Red Hot Mamas
Anne Bancroft, Where Have You Gone, Mrs. Robinson?
(co-authored with Stanley Mills Haggart)
Veronica Lake, The Peek-a-Boo Gir
l
Running Wild in Babylon, Confessions of a Hollywood Press Agent
HISTORIES
Thurlow Weed, Whig Kingpin
Chester A. Arthur, Gilded Age Coxcomb in the White House
Discover Old America, What’s Left of It
CUISINE
Food For Love, Hussar Recipes from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with collaboration from the cabaret chanteuse, Greta Keller
AND COMING SOON, FROM BLOOD MOON
Donald Trump, The Man Who Would Be King
Lana Turner, Hearts and Diamonds Take All
Rock Hudson, Erotic Fire
WITH ACKNOWLEDGMENTS TO A CAST OF HUNDREDS OF OTHER PLAYERS,
THIS BIOGRAPHY OF JAMES DEAN IS DEDICATED TO STANLEY HAGGART, ROGERS BRACKETT, ALEC WILDER, & WILLIAM BAST
WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO EARTHA KITT & GERALDINE PAGE
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
A HOOSIER FARMBOY WANDERS ALONG HOLLYWOOD’S BOULEVARD OF BROKEN DREAMS.
Rogers Brackett, Joan Davis, Beverly Wills, the pretty boys of Henry Willson’s Dream Factory, John Carlyle, George Cukor, Spencer Tracy, William Bast.
CHAPTER TWO
SHACKING UP WITH THE A-LIST LEGENDS OF HOLLYWOOD.
Clifton Webb, Joan Crawford, Walt Disney, Judy Garland, Cecil Beaton, Roddy McDowall, Cole Porter, Alfredo de la Vega,
CHAPTER THREE
A TV PRODUCER AT CBS “ADOPTS” A KID FROM THE STREET
Jack Benny, Barbara Payton, Hedy Lamarr, Walter Pidgeon, John Bromfield, Vince Edwards, The Bad and the Beautiful, a violent altercation with Humphrey Bogart, and a developing passion for bullfighting.
CHAPTER FOUR:
JAMES DEAN AND NICK ADAMS BECOME HOLLYWOOD HUSTLERS BEFORE SETTING OUT TO CONQUER NEW YORK.
“The Little Prince” tackles Tallulah Bankhead, Peggy Lee, Dizzy Sheridan, Merv Griffin, Martin Milner, Barbara Baxley, Robert Stevens, some casting directors in New York, and, in Indiana, the priest who molested him.
CHAPTER FIVE
SEE THE JAGUAR. THE PLAY’S A DUD, BUT JIMMY’S DEBUT ON BROADWAY GENERATES RAVE REVIEWS.
Grace Kelly, Sarah Churchill, Stanley Haggart, Lem & Shirley Ayers, Alec Wilder, Christine White, Kim Stanley & Brooks Clift, opera giant Frank Corsaro, a three-way with Jack Cassidy and Tom Tryon, and a “to-the-death” feud with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio.
CHAPTER SIX
JIMMY’S AFFAIR WITH STEVE MCQUEEN
Two ambitious but unknown actors, each a male prostitute, meet in a motorcycle repair shop in NYC. Their competition onscreen and after dark.
CHAPTER SEVEN
JIMMY’S JAILBAIT. HIS AFFAIR AND CORRESPONDENCE WITH BARBARA GLENN
He takes her virginity, slaps her around, borrows money he doesn’t return, sends her psychotic love letters, and talks about marriage.
CHAPTER EIGHT
JIMMY EMERGES AS A STAR IN THE EARLY DAYS OF TELEVISION
Teleplays for NBC, CBS, Campbell’s Soup, Kraft, Philco, General Electric, Westinghouse, U.S. Steel, and Schlitz. Down and dirty on the casting couch with playwright Bill Inge. Egomania and homophobia from Robert Montgomery, and Dark Dark Hours with Ronald Reagan.
CHAPTER NINE
JAMES DEAN VS. MARLON BRANDO
Rivals on screen, Master & Slave after midnight
CHAPTER TEN
JIMMY AFTER DARK AND ON THE STREETS OF MANHATTAN
Friendships and/or Feuds with Eartha Kitt, Truman Capote, Shelley Winters, Eli Wallach, Patricia Neal, Gary Cooper, and Dance Queen Katherine Dunham. Suicidal Dreams: To the horror of everyone at the Actors Studio, Jimmy slits his wrists onstage. Battle Cry and Dean’s ongoing feud with Tab Hunter. Getting Musical with composer David Diamond. How literary groupie and Playboy centerfold Alice Denham added James Dean to her list of sexual conquests.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
JIMMY’S CONVOLUTED RELATIONSHIP WITH TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
Auditioning replacements for “The Horse,” he interviews James Dean as his possible new lover, then invites him to be the father of a child he’d adopt.
Tennessee’s Lost Manuscript: Was it based on James Dean?
CHAPTER TWELVE
JAMES DEAN’S AFFAIR WITH MONTGOMERY CLIFT
Rebel actors neurotically feuding on their respective roads to self-destruction. How the millionaire murderer, Libby Holman, contributed to their feud.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
JAMES DEAN VS. PAUL NEWMAN
Actors of a similar “type” compete, collaborate, maneuver, and scheme for the same roles and the same lovers. How Newman stepped into Jimmy’s shoes, post-mortem.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THE IMMORALIST. JAMES DEAN OPENS ON BROADWAY AS AN ARAB “HE-SLUT” WITH A HUNDRED BITCHY TRICKS, INCLUDING BLACKMAIL.
Geraldine Page interprets James Dean and André Gide. Hatred backstage, as Louis Jourdan and Jimmy exchange venom. Both its playwright and its enraged director agree: “Working with this monster boy was my worst experience ever with an actor.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
EAST OF EDEN. PLAYING THE SON OF A WHORE, A STAR IS BORN
Jimmy irritates Elia Kazan and infuriates Raymond Massey. His Oscar nomination places him in direct confrontation with Hollywood’s Old Guard.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
JIMMY’S AFFAIR WITH MARILYN MONROE
Baby Doll, Bus Stop, the Actors Studio, and how a farm boy from Indiana seduced the Sex Queen of Hollywood. From the twisted wreckage of their ashes, icons emerge to enchant the world.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
TALES FROM THE FBI: J.EDGAR HOOVER, HOT ON JIMMY’S “TAIL”
How Jimmy got caught shoplifting and “red-handed,” and how he managed to avoid getting blacklisted and the Red Channels list.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
JAMES DEAN AND HIS AFFAIR WITH THE WOOLWORTH HEIRESS, BARBARA HUTTON
How he rejected her offer to make him her all-expense-paid “Toy Boy,” and how he séguéd their association into a friendship and love affair with her son, Lance Reventlow.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
THE BEAUTY AND THE BILLIONAIRE: JAMES DEAN “AVIATES” WITH HOWARD HUGHES AND TERRY MOORE
America’s richest eccentric demonstrates what unlimited money can do in Hollywood. In and out of bed with “The American Emperor.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
JAMES DEAN & PIER ANGELI
A tangled web of Hollywood affairs. Everybody sleeping with everybody else’s lovers. Vic Damone, Marisa Pavan, Marlon Brando, Natalie Wood, and John Derek. Changing partners with Ursula Andress.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
JAMES DEAN VS. VAMPIRA, EARTHA KITT & THEATER MOGUL ARTHUR LOEW, JR.
How Vampira, the weirdest TV personality of her era, lured and later cursed Jimmy with Black Magic. How Sammy Davis, Jr. pulled Jimmy toward Satanism, the occult, and a fascination with coffins. Jimmy’s affair with Toni Lee Scott and America’s (male) sweetheart,” Van Johnson. Inconclusive interludes with Tony Perkins, Lilli Kardell, and various “Unsavory Aliens of the Night.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE
How a low-budget experimental film ignited the angst of teenagers everywhere. The murky sexual dynamics of Sal Mineo, Natalie Wood, and Nicholas Ray. How Jayne Mansfield, Jack Simmons, Dennis Hopper, Johnny Weissmuller, J. Paul Getty, Grace Kelly, and Alan Ladd contributed to the offscreen dramas. And how Nick Adams’ self-anointed role as a Hollywood gopher for newbie Elvis Presley eventually led to his murder.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
GIANT
How a short, nearsighted farmboy from Indiana became the biggest tycoon in Texas; and how a lesbian author, a gay leading man, a sultry, bed-hopping beauty, and a bisexual rebel brought a sprawling saga to the screen.
EPILOGUE: DEATH IN THE AFTERNOON
Drive Fast, Die Young
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
RECORDING THE VOICES (AUTHORS’ BIOS)
Chapter One
A HOOSIER FARM
BOY
WANDERS ALONG HOLLYWOOD’S BOULEVARD OF BROKEN DREAMS
The “Live Fast, Die Young” Rebel Asserts, “Live as if You’ll Die Today”
THE SYMBOL OF MISUNDERSTOOD YOUTH, A LITTLE BOY LOST AND IN SEARCH OF HIMSELF, REMAINS FOREVER YOUNG
“A young man must be courageous in the bedroom. Try anything—life’s too short to worry about what’s perverted.”
—James Dean
“How big is your cock, dah-ling?”
—Tallulah Bankhead to James Dean
James Dean was twenty years old, a UCLA dropout, and without any real cash. The year was 1951, and the July 4th holiday was about to bring business in Hollywood to a halt
Los Angeles: The corner of Sunset Blvd. at Vine in the 1950s.
The dingy low-rent apartment he occupied at 1216 North Edgemont had peeling paint and “hot and cold running cockroaches” (Jimmy’s words).
His friend, Ted Avery, also a struggling actor, supported himself working as an usher at CBS. He let Jimmy sleep on his sofa while his wife was away. The arrangement was temporary, and Jimmy needed to find another place to sleep and hang out…and soon.
That morning, Avery and Jimmy shared some cups of coffee, the only edible thing they could find in their otherwise empty kitchen cabinets.
The previous evening, Jimmy had consumed the last edible object remaining in their larder, dried oatmeal from Quakers. After boiling it on the stove, he mixed it with the remains of a sticky-looking jar of marmalade, the only thing left in their refrigerator.
Money (the lack thereof) was a problem, and Avery suggested that Jimmy should get a job as a means of keeping their meager household afloat. The acting gigs each had managed to attract seemed like memories from the distant past.
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