(Collection of Warren Beath)
-These telegrams were taken from Steve Trilling's files: The
Jack L. Warner Collection, USC Cinema-Television Library. Trilling
was the executive assistant to Jack Warner. The telegrams have grammar
and punctuation mistakes in them, just the way they were originally typed
out so many years ago.
WG-14. NEW YORK NY FEB. 5, 1954.
KAZAN (VIA MAYER) TO JL ------ FOUND NEW BOY THAT
I MOST ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT AND WHO, COULD MAKE PICTURE THIS SPRING SO WE
DON'T HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL JUNE. ALSO HAVE GIRL I LIKE AND WILL TEST
BOTH OF THEM WEEK FROM TUESDAY.
WG-1. NEW YORK NY FEB 8, 1954.
MAYER TO TRILLING AND ORR ------ KAZAN DESIRES SEE
TEST FILM JIMMY DEAN LEE PHILLIPS. ALSO TEST LUCY ANN MCALEER WITH
KARL MALDEN. PLEASE AIR EXPRESS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
WG-2. NEW YORK NY FEB. 11, 1954.
KAZAN (VIA MAYER) TO JL (CONFIDENTIAL) ------ DEAR
JACK: DID NOT HAVE GOOD REACTION WILLIAMS SCRIPT BUT WILL STUDY AGAIN THIS
WEEKEND AND CALL YOU FIRST OF WEEK. THINK I FOUND RIGHT BOY FOR EDEN
AND TESTING TUESDAY. THRU CUTTING WATERFRONT END NEXT WEEK BUT FIRST
WANT TAKE VACATION AND AFTER THAT WILL GO WORK AGAIN. THOROUGHLY
TIRED RIGHT NOW. BEST.
WG-4. NEW YORK NY FEB. 23, 1954.
KAZAN (VIA MAYER) TO JL ------ SCREENED JAMES DEAN
TEST YESTERDAY AND AM SURE HE'S THE BOY FOR CAL. ALSO THOUGHT GIRL
EXCELLENT AND TESTING ANOTHER EXCELLENT GIRL TODAY. BELIEVE IF SPEND
ANOTHER WEEK HERE CAN HAVE ENTIRE MOVIE CAST BEFORE GOING ON VACATION SO
DEPARTMENTS CAN WORK ETC WHILE I AM LUXURIATING IN THE SUN. WILL
SEND YOU DEAN TEST TONIGHT AND WILL EAGERLY WAIT YOUR REACTION. ALSO
WILL SEND BY END OF WEEK CAST AS I THINK IT SHOULD BE. FOR FATHER
AND MOTHERWOULD LOVE TO HAVE JIMMY STEWART AND BETTY FIELD. SURE BETTY
AVAILABLE. PLEASE CHECK RE STEWART. LOVE. GADGE.
WG-13. NEW YORK NY MAR. 1, 1954.
MAYER TO JL ------ KAZAN ADVISES DEFINITELY USING
JIMMY DEAN FOR ROLE CAL. PROCEEDING FINALIZE CONTRACT.
Another telegram, date unknown, probably March 1954. Dean already had the part of Cal Trask.
MAYER TO TRILLING ------ KAZAN AGREEABLE WE PROCEED
JULIE HARRIS. WILL KEEP YOU INFORMED. RETURNING HARRIS TEST
FOR KAZAN USE. HE PLEASED BASIVA SET. KAZAN DEAN ARRIVING AMERICAN
AIRLINES FLIGHT ONE AT 555 PM YOUR TIME APRIL 8TH. THANKS INFORMATION
PAUL NEWMAN. LOCAL MCA OFFICE AWAITING CONFIRMATION FROM WASSERMAN.
MEANWHILE WE MAKING PLANS SEND HIM COAST AFTER TV BROADCAST SUNDAY NIGHT.
WILL ADVISE FLIGHT DETAILS. WILL AWAIT WORD RE CONTRACT.
WG-3. NEW YORK NY FEBRUARY 11, 1955.
TO BLUMENSTOCK ------ RE DEAN. HE HAS BEEN
ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE. HAS BEEN EXTREMELY UNCOOPERATIVE AND REFUSED
TO SEE FINE LINEUP OF NEWSPAPER INTERVIEWS WE HAD SET FOR HIM. FINALLY
CONVINCED HIM TO SIT FOR INTERVIEWS WHEREUPON HE FOULED HIMSELF UP AND
GOT ONE MAGAZINE WRITER SORE AS BLAZES. HAVE ASKED KAZAN GIVE US
ASSIST AND CONFIDENTIALLY GADGE SAYS HE DOESN'T WANT TO BE FATHER CONFESSOR
TO THIS KID. COULD HAVE USED DEAN TO GREAT ADVANTAGE FOR EDEN BUT
WAY HE IS ACTING HE CAN DO US MORE HARM THAN GOOD. HE NEEDS GOOD
SCRUBBING BEHIND EARS.
Here is a letter from Jack Warner, to Elia Kazan, dated March 10, 1954.
Dear Gadg:
Thanks for your letter. I sympathize with your trials and tribulations on WATERFRONT. However, now that it is behind you, with the rest you are going to get you will come out "fit as a fiddle and ready for love".
About the boy, Dean, inasmuch as your impression of him is a good one, we naturally will go along with you. You said he is an odd kid. I hope he isn't too odd as it is getting to the point now that when we make pictures with odd people, the whole machine is thrown out of order. You know it only takes one odd spark plug to make the motor miss. I, too, am fed up with people who are too odd. That doesn't mean Marlon Brando is odd. I am sure he knows the score and just makes everything tough in order to make himself different. However, the hell with Brando. He was in a picture called, THE WILD ONE and even the operators refused to stay in the booth. As our good pal, Billy Shakespeare said virtually 500 years ago, "The Play is Still the Thing".
Solly Baiano and Bill Orr are going to work on the casting problem. Julie Harris is a great talent and we are anxiously waiting the Gjon Wili test. Re: the cameramen, we will end up with someone you like and who has ability, I like your idea of going to Salinas as soon as you get here. However, I like your idea best that the script needs to be boiled down and forty pages taken out. Right now, I will settle for thirty-five. Every good wish from Steve and the gang.
Sincerely,
Mr. E. Kazan
167 E. 74th St.
New York, New York
Here is a letter from Giant director, George Stevens, to Jack Warner, describing details of the budget for Giant.
Dear Jack:
Eric Stacey informs me that you made inquiry of him if GIANT could be made for the budget figure and that he was at a loss to give you information on this matter short of a new script. Unfortunately, this note came to me too late before your departure to give you the following information:
Original budget, plus all added costs, came to $2,912,500. This was $412,500 over our agreed-to $2,500,000 figure. Since this date, no commitment to an expenditure has been made without regard to necessary reduction. Following is the summary of expenditures so far:
Three stars for cast, carried in budget at $350,000, have been pared to $296,000 --
Taylor - $175,000
Hudson - 100,000
Dean -
21,000
During filming of Rebel Without a Cause, James Dean injured his right hand, when he punched the desk in the juvenile officer's office.
From: Warner Bros. Studio
Burbank, Calif...HO 9-1251
Halperin
James Dean suffered a badly bruised right hand today (22) while doing a
scene in Warner Bros.' "Rebel Without a Cause."
Dean slammed his right fist into the side of a desk a little harder then
the script called for.
He was taken to Riverside Drive Emergency Hospital where x-rays revealed
no broken bones.
Dean will have to keep his hand wrapped in an elastic bandage for at least
a week, but the injured hand will not prevent
him from working.
Here is a letter typed by Tom Andre which addressed Dean's absence from the Giant set and the long painstaking process it took to find him.
TO: Eric Stacey
FROM: Tom Andre
7-25-55
James Dean was given a call for work (Interior of Truck - Process) on Stage 5 upon his dismissal Friday night, July 22, by both Rusty Meeks and Read Kilgore, second assistant directors, for 8:30 AM makeup, to be ready at 9:00 AM. He was told he would be through possibly by noon and arranged with Bob Hinkle (Texas Talk Coach) to get him a pickup truck to move his residence from 1541 Sunset Playa [sic] Drive to a new residence (address unknown) in Sherman Oaks. The truck was to be used after lunch on Saturday.
Saturday morning Dean was not in makeup at 8:30 and Rusty called his (Dean's) message service - HOllywood [not a typo, it's the way the document originally appeared] 7-5191. Meeks was told that Dean had been given a wake-up call at 8:00 and at 8:15. The message service rang through to Dean who told Rusty Meeks he would come right in. When he failed to show up numerous calls were made from 9:30 to 10:15 to his home, with no one answering.
Dean's agent was asked to try and locate him and called in and said that Dean was on his way in to the studio. That the "neighbors" had seen leave. Later the agent was again contacted and went to Dean's Sunset Plaza address. Dean was not there. The agent reported he also contacted Dean's new residence in the valley and that Dean had not been seen there.
At twelve noon the company broke for lunch and it was decided to leave the process equipment in case Dean showed up. Immediately following the lunch break, since Dean had still not appeared, the company moved to the Interior Reata Ranch House on Stage 4.
We obtained the make and license plates number of Dean's new car and I, Tom Andre, asked Mr. Stevens if we should contact Blayney Matthews in an effort to locate Dean. Mr. Stevens felt this should not be done.
At 4:00 PM Rusty Meeks finally contacted Dean, who said that he did not intend to come in to work. He said that when he got up in the morning he was "too tired to work."
TOM ANDRE
Here is the last autograph Dean ever gave, a speeding ticket he signed
just over two hours before the fatal crash:
(Collection of Warren Beath)