Here is an interview conducted with Val Holley, author of the book James
Dean: The Biography. My thanks to Val Holley for taking time out from
his schedule to accommodate me.
1) Could you give me a brief bio of Val Holley?
VH: Like James Dean, born and reared in a small agricultural
community (Utah in my case), and like Dean, I knew there had to be something
more. In real life I am a law firm librarian, and research has always been
a passion. I hope to write other biographies, perhaps of Frank Sinatra
and also of the great Hollywood gossip columnist Mike Connolly. I love
living in Washington, DC, but my one unfulfilled adult fantasy is to live
in New York.
2) Are you a James Dean fan? I assume you are. What was it about Dean that made you become a fan?
VH: Yes, I'm a Dean fan, but I am more a fan of his life as a
whole than of his movie career. Dean is eternally mysterious and I have
always sought to solve the mystery, although that may not be possible.
I am especially interested in how he related to his times, i.e., the enormous
post-war energy in the arts that were concentrated in New York, including
theatre and live television.
3) Why do you think Dean is still popular after all these years?
VH: I think Dean remains popular because he asks a lot of his
audiences. His screen portrayals, which is how most people know him, are
of complicated human beings. Dean himself was complicated and not easy
to figure out.
4) What is your favorite Dean film, and why?
VH: East of Eden, not really because of Dean but because
of Kazan's vision of the edgy, disturbing story he wanted to tell.
Kazan was clever enough to let Dean be Dean, though.
5) Do you have a favorite photo of Dean? Which one and why?
VH: I like the photo of Dean with Jeannetta Lewis at a UCLA fraternity
dance in the Martinetti biography. It shows him in a happy, seemingly relaxed,
candid moment, long before he realized he was a star and started posing.
6) Over the years, many people have speculated about Dean's personal life and whether he was gay, bisexual, etc. It seems that Rogers Brackett was one man whom Dean had a relationship with. How do you feel about that (people speculating about Dean's personal life)?
VH: Why shouldn't they speculate? The wish to know Dean's sexuality
is a legitimate human impulse, but because his sexuality was so ambiguous,
no one can know for sure what he was. It's unlikely that he knew
what he was; he admitted in a letter to Barbara Glenn that he didn't know
who he was. He had sex with many
different men and he had sex with many different women. He died too
young to have decided whether or not to swing either way. And of course,
had he lived,
he would have been free not to decide, as well. He keeps us guessing,
which is a significant factor in his continuing appeal.
7) If you had the chance to meet Jimmy, what would you have said to him?
VH: I would have said to him, "Brando was right -- you should
be in psychotherapy."
8) Do you think many young people revere Dean today, or is it just the older people who grew up with him?
VH: Somehow, every new generation seems to discover James Dean.
They seem to identify with the challenges he faces in his movie portrayals.
9) Have you ever visited the crash site? What were you feeling when you saw it? Did it feel a bit creepy?
VH: I have driven past the crash site but only stopped at the
monument about a mile away. I did not have any vibes.
10) Dean would have been 70 this past February 8, 2001. What do you think he would be doing today if he were alive?
VH: Dean was rarely able to comprehend the greater good of working
together with fellow cast members, directors, etc., for the overall benefit
of the project, whether in television or film. Movie studio protocol seemed
cripplingly annoying to him. This probably would have driven him into independent
film production -- assuming he had the sophistication in business necessary
to make independent films. Since he smoked and drank to excess, it is not
clear how long his looks would have lasted; thus his years as a movie idol
may have been scant.
11) What inspired you to write the book, James Dean: The Biography?
VH: There were really two reasons I wanted to write a Dean biography: first, there had never been a commercial Dean biography with footnotes -- i.e., no one had cared enough to document what they wrote about him. Second, no one had written what was painfully obvious -- that Dean's career was possible because he managed to be attractive to the right men.
12) After writing the book, was there anything about Dean that you discovered that maybe the public never knew about?
VH: Most any author has to live with information that comes to light after he has [been] published. In Dean's case, there are stretches of his adult life about which we still know little, including the correct chronology. I have learned that some of the events in Dean's life happened earlier than I assumed in my book. To me this is not trivial; it is of utmost importance.
Perhaps the biggest remaining "unknown" about Dean's life, that is worth knowing, is his experiences with psychotherapy. We know he consulted at least two psychiatrists and there may have been more. What work did he do in therapy? This is very difficult to research.
Barbara Leaming's 1998 book on Marilyn Monroe was, to me, remarkable because, despite the dozens of Monroe biographies that already existed, Leaming had access to records of Monroe's psychiatrists and was able to make a lot more sense out of Monroe's words and actions than had previously been possible. This will probably never be possible with Dean. One of his psychiatrists, Carel van der Heide, may not have preserved his files or donated them to an archive. Another, Judd Marmor, told me personally that he would never discuss his work with any patient because it is unethical. (Marmor did not deny that Dean had been a patient.)
The only alternative is for someone trained in psychology, etc., to "diagnose" Dean with hindsight, based on the composition of his letters (and yes, his handwriting, too), interviews with the press, and on eye-witness accounts of his behavior. Such an investigation is bound to uncover a great deal of material. For instance, it is highly probable that Dean was an abused child, a fact that has never figured in biographical analysis of him, although it should. There are also strong indications that he had a number of disabilities such as Attention Deficit Disorder and Bipolar Disorder.
Clearly there is much remaining biographical work on Dean to be done.
13) You have obviously been to Fairmount. What do you remember about your trip there?
VH: I've been to Fairmount at least 25 times. The townspeople
always give me the impression of having something to hide. As I said in
my book, the greatest
thing about Dean's Indiana background is that he rose above it. We
would not care about Dean if he had not chosen to leave.