James Dean is the quintessential icon, an enduring figure whose popularity continues to grow.  This coming September 30, 2000, will be the 45th anniversary of Dean’s death.  Yet, it seems that he never goes away — it is remarkable how his image has lasted all these years.  Since his death in 1955, his image has become larger than life.  Teenagers wanted to emulate him, girls wanted to mother him, fathers detested him — and overall, he left an indelible mark on cinematic film and pop culture.  Why is Dean still popular after all these years?  Well, for one thing, his mixed, anguished emotions dwelled into the minds of American youth in his three intensive roles he portrayed in his films: East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, and Giant.  Teenagers for the first time, found a figure they could relate with.  His films have somewhat aged over the years, but his performances remain captivatingly powerful.  The way he glares at Raymond Massey, in East of Eden, with scornful resentment as he tried to suggest an idea to plant beans instead of lettuce — only to have it rejected.  The look of anguish, hurt and confusion on his face when he yells out, “You’re tearing me apart!” in Rebel Without a Cause.  And the look of arrogance and defiance, in Giant, as he taunts Rock Hudson after striking oil, while covered in it.  These three roles were the ingredients of the Dean legend.  With DVD taking over people’s escapist activities, only Rebel Without a Cause has been released.  The transfer onto DVD format is remarkable, far superior to videotape.  The picture quality is crystal-clear, Dean’s handsome face has never looked better.  After viewing Rebel Without a Cause on DVD, you couldn’t tell that it was filmed in the 1950s (although the clothes, hair-styles, cars and slang of that era date the movie).  It looked like it could’ve been filmed recently.  It is rumoured that Giant is to be released on DVD later this year.  There is no word yet if East of Eden will be released.
        Ron Martinetti, author of the book The James Dean Story identified with Dean’s image from the very beginning.  “I have been a Dean fan,” Martinetti said, “since I was eleven years old.  I used to go to Times Square when I was a kid to buy Dean movie stills.  I identified with Dean, especially in Rebel Without a Cause since he felt isolated.”  What is Martinetti’s favorite film?  “Rebel Without a Cause is my favorite Dean movie.  However, Giant is a close second.  Rebel is important because of its total originality - the film dealt with the anguish and resentment of a group no one cared about or paid any attention to: middle class youths.  Dean and Nick Ray gave them a voice and raised their protests to the level of art.”
        In the book, The James Dean Story, Martinetti had the good fortune of interviewing Rogers Brackett, the well-known Hollywood producer who lived briefly with Dean — and who got him several bit parts in a few Hollywood films.  Brackett refused to do any interviews after Dean’s death and Martinetti explains how he managed to get him to consent.  “I think I found Alec Wilder,” Martinetti continues, “in the phone book.  I am not sure, the world was a more innocent place in those days. I just called him probably. I think he did not want to talk. He did not like Dean and harbored many resentments.  But he talked to me anyway and put me in touch with Rogers. He said Rogers would never give an interview.  But as lady fortune would have it, Rogers had read an article I had written on William Buckley (for a Columbia University Magazine) and liked it. Buckley's droll, fey sense of humor would have appealed to Rogers. So Rogers said, ‘Well if you really want to talk to me, you can come to Catalina (where he was then living in a beach bungalow).’  So I went to Santa Catalina by Seaplane and the rest is history, or semi-history.  Rogers and I stayed in touch, but when I entered law school in 1979 I lost track of him.  He died in 1980, I believe. He was a generous and selfless person. Those who knew him when he was young said he was a great stage director, and his work in the early days of radio is legendary.  That the hacks of Hollywood never recognized his talent and potential is not surprising.  What more can I say?”
        When Martinetti began writing the book, he had no preconceived notions of Dean’s rumoured bisexuality.  “When I began the book,” Martinetti explains, “I had no idea of Dean's sexuality. But after I began my research, I heard about Rogers from Wilder and I think others. There was this undercurrent of rumors.  After Rogers agreed to talk, I realized I had a responsibility to tell the truth but to do so in good taste. After the book came out, Rogers and Alec Wilder were very complimentary.  Dizzy Sheridan had mixed feelings. I think she would have preferred me to leave out the Brackett relationship.  Incidentally, Rogers, Dennis Stock, and Dizzy all promised me exclusive interviews, and only Rogers kept his word.”  In the book, The James Dean Story, Brackett told Martinetti, “My primary interest in Jimmy was as an actor - his talent was so obvious.  Secondarily, I loved him, and Jimmy loved me.  If it was a father-son relationship, it was also somewhat incestuous.”
        Warren Beath, author of The Death of James Dean, is another fan.  “I thought he was,” Beath said, “very unusual and mysterious, and I was interested in how he had become who he was, and why he died so young.  What gave the idea for Beath to write the book?  “I was just interested,” Beath explains, “in the story of his accident, and found it dramatic and interesting.  It happened near where I lived, and I thought it was a pretty important event, with social and cultural impact we are still feeling to this day.  My proximity to the death site made me feel I had a connection, I guess.”
        Beath thinks Dean is still popular because, “he did what he did better than anyone before, or after.  He died young and so his image is still luminous-- and mysterious.”  What is Beath’s favorite Dean film?  “I like the first 45 minutes of Rebel and Eden, but especially Rebel.  The music is enchanting, the colors are vivid, and it depicts a world I want to enter.  He creates a marvelous character in Jim Stark, who is really not very interesting as scripted.  But he transfuses him with intensity and quirkiness which makes him an actual person in a film full of ‘characters.’  It always leaves me feeling I have seen James Dean the person, whereas I've only seen performances by the other players.”
        Beath gives his thoughts on the speculation with Dean’s personal life.  “He was apparently homosexual, but I was never very interested in his sexuality. It's the most frequently asked question, though. It's only interesting to me as regards [to] him evading the draft, and with the way it queered him with his hometown, even after he was dead. And the homosexual following...it seems significant. He is a sort of androgynous alternative to all sorts of sexual confusion. Not that homosexuality is a sexual confusion.  Though I think it seems that way to heterosexuals. Dean sort of bridges the gap between a man and his feminine side.”
        With regards to the accident and whose fault it was, Beath says, “Ultimately, God must take responsibility for everything.  He is either all-powerful, or not.  Turnupseed and Dean were both responsible for the accident, and also responsible for all the accidents they did not have that day.”  Beath sums up Dean by stating bluntly, “God bless him, he was very contradictory and complex.  It's so sad the way Curtis Management has castrated his image and put him on neckties and cookie jars.  They're accomplishing what Dean's death could not accomplish - obliterating his self-crafted image, and making him ridiculous.  He gets less interesting to me each time CMG markets some piece of crap with his name or face on it.  Screen savers, coffee mugs - some rebel, huh?  His family has made him into a Pokemon.”
        David Loehr, the world’s greatest collector of Dean memorabilia, mentions how he first became a Dean fan.  “In 1974 a friend,” Loehr explains, “gave me The Mutant King for Christmas.  I didn't know anything about Dean at the time.  I read it during a cross country bus trip from Massachusetts to Los Angeles.  In LA, I saw Eden for the first time at a film festival.  I was knocked out.  It was on a big screen.  When it ended I just sat there crying.  Later that same year I saw Eden, Rebel, Giant and The James Dean Story at another film festival at the LA County Museum of Art.  I picked up a poster, another book, a button, and that was it.  I started collecting everything on Dean that I could find.”
        Loehr believes Dean’s legend is still popular because, “he had three good roles with three good directors that still hold up today as strong films.  I think a lot of his popularity stems simply from the way he looked and moved. He had charisma.”  With regard to a favorite film, Loehr says, “Usually my favorite is whichever one I am watching at the time, but if I had to pick one it would be Eden.”
        Loehr has met members of Dean’s family, as he tells it, “I was fortunate to meet Ortense on several occasions.  She was a very sweet and soft spoken woman.  Marcus Sr. was already gone when I first visited Fairmount in 1979.  I met Jimmy’s dad, Winton a few times, and he walked through the James Dean Gallery once.  Looking at Winton you could see Jimmy.  He would slouch up against a doorway, and his smile and laugh was just like Jimmy's.  I remain friends with Marcus Winslow Jr., and his wife Marylou and their two sons Coy and Chuck.”
        Loehr was fortunate to meet Dean’s drama teacher, the late Adeline Nall.  “Adeline and I were very close,” Loehr remembers, “and she was the very first person that I met on that first visit to Fairmount. I went into the Historical Museum which was in a room on the second floor over a store on Main Street. I walked in and she said, ‘Hello, I'm Adeline Nall.’  We kept in touch for years until I finally moved to Fairmount and opened the Gallery.  She would visit often and would just sit and talk to visitors for hours at a time.  She was a very sweet woman.  It was very sad when she died, and I was flattered when her son David asked me to be a pall bearer at the funeral.  She is dearly missed by many.”
        In Fairmount, Indiana, where Loehr runs the James Dean Gallery, he has seen many types of fans.  “Running the James Dean Memorial Gallery,” Loehr says, “I see all types of people who are Dean fans.  All ages, colors and nationalities.  There are lawyers, bikers, punk rock kids, jocks, college kids, you name it.  You can't pinpoint a Dean fan by looks.  We get a surprising amount of elementary school kids doing school reports on him too, so his popularity keeps on going with each new generation.”  Loehr sums up Dean this way, “[He was] multi-faceted, multi-talented, determined, dedicated, complicated and unique.”
        Robert Rees, an acknowledged video archivist-collector, who has worked on a couple of James Dean documentaries: Forever James Dean and James Dean, a Portrait, gives his thoughts about the fascination with Dean.  "His impact is more private now," Rees points out, "but we are still moved by his image.  At one time or another we've all been young and lost, and in search of our identities.  At the time of his death, Dean was doing what he said made him feel most alive.  He said racing was the only time he felt whole and, like Icarus, the tragic Greek hero, he flew too high and left us too soon.  By doing so, James Dean, a doomed artist, remains for us forever youthful."
        Dean’s legacy will continue, if teenagers continue rebelling against their parents, putting on a T-shirt and jeans, smoking a cigarette, and walking with a strut.  It is the cool, brooding defiance that Dean brought so well to the forefront.  People might not be watching Dean on a daily basis, but somewhere out there, on some cardboard cutout, a picture on a restaurant wall, or a poster in a poster shop, he'll be watching.  So few people make that much impact.
 

© Copyright 2000 by Brandon Yip
-Special thanks to Warren Beath, David Loehr, Ron Martinetti, and Robert Rees
 
 

Martinetti sharing a drag with Dean

(Photo courtesy of Ron Martinetti)

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