East of Eden

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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Years ago, when I worked in New York, I knew a writer who used to hang out with James Dean. That was before Dean became a celebrated actor – when he was a shady street hustler in the Big Apple. A somewhat sordid beginning for the future star of “East of Eden,” “Rebel Without a Cause,” and “Giant.”

According to my friend, Dean was nicknamed “The human ashtray” because he enjoyed having cigarettes extinguished on him. Ouch!

You see, James Dean was bisexual, engaging in relationships with both prominent men and women. When asked about his sexuality, he once responded, “No, I am not a homosexual. But I’m also not going to go through life with one hand tied behind my back.”

Dean lived in NYC from 1951 until he was swept off to Hollywood. However, his film career lasted only 16 months before he died in an automobile crash in his shiny new Porsche 550 Spyder on his way to a race meeting in California … just before production was completed on “Giant.”

As one wag summed it up: “Die young, stay pretty.”

Despite only appearing in a trio of films, the “cultural rebel status of James Dean is just as strong in the 21st century as it was at the height of his popularity in the 1950s.”

“James Dean epitomized … the male hustler. It was part of his incredible magnetism … He used to stand on Times Square to earn money so he could go to Lee Strasberg and learn how to be Marlon Brando.” Later on, it’s said he had a “kinky sadomasochistic” affair with Marlon Brando, in which Brando was the dominant partner and Dean the submissive one.

He was born James Byron Dean to a farming family in Marion, Indiana, on February 8, 1931, growing up in nearby Fairmount. “When Jimmy was 11 and his mother passed away, he began to be molested by his minister,” Elizabeth Taylor told the story. “That haunted him the rest of his life. In fact, I know it did. We talked about it a lot. During ‘Giant’ we’d stay up nights and talk and talk, and that was one of the things he confessed to me.”

Dean had several uncredited roles from 1951 to 1953 before starring in “East of Eden” (1955).

Based on the John Steinbeck novel, a thin retelling of the Biblical Cain and Abel story, the film was an epic family drama set in the Salinas Valley of California. Directed by Elia Kazan, it tells of a wayward young man (Dean) who vies for the affection of his deeply religious father (Raymond Massey) against his favored brother (Richard Davalos).

They wrestle with the Biblical “fact” that since Abel died before he had children, everybody must be descended from Cain. However, the family discovers that familial friendship can prevent disaster by the realization that “mankind may be flawed but redemption can be found.”

The primary message in “East of Eden” deals with the power of free will over fate. The last word uttered in film is “Timshel!” – which translates from the Hebrew as “Thou mayest,” rather than “Thou shalt.” That means we have a choice. With “timshel,” Cain would have had a choice to either rule over sin or not.

Film critic Kenneth Turan wrote that “East of Eden” is “not only one of Kazan’s richest films and Dean’s first significant role, it is also arguably the actor’s best performance.”

You can catch a retrospective showing of “East of Eden” at Tropic Cinema on Monday, September 9.

“An actor must interpret life,” James Dean once said. He delivered a persona that was “forever on the cusp of adulthood, a representation of angry anti-establishment social disillusionment, an enduring representation generations have looked to as an interpretation and projection of their own inner lives.”

Yes, Dean remains in our collective minds as a Rebel Without a Cause – “a person who is resistant to popular ideas and/or institutions in society but has no specific focus for their defiant behavior.”

In 2021, Esquire magazine declared, “It’s time we let James Dean be the queer icon he is.”

When filming “Giant,” Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson (a closeted gay at the time) took bets on who could get James Dean into bed first. Liz lost her bet just days later.

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com