James Dean was blackmailed by a former male lover who threatened to out him on the eve of his big-screen break, in accordance with a brand new e-book.
In “Jimmy: The Secret Life of James Dean,” which drops Tuesday, writer Jason Colavito claims the ill-fated Hollywood icon shelled out $800 to promoting govt Rogers Brackett solely days earlier than his first film, “East of Eden,” premiered, averting a public scandal that will have value him his profession within the homophobic Nineteen Fifties.
In excerpts revealed by DailyMail, Colavito particulars the disastrous affair which left Dean feeling sexually exploited.
“I didn’t know it was the whore who paid – I thought it was the other way around,” Dean reportedly mentioned.
The $800 blackmail — round $9,395 right this moment, per the Federal Reserve Financial institution of Minneapolis — was an infinite sum at a time when a person’s median wage within the US was round $3,100 per 12 months, per DailyMail.
Dean and Brackett met in 1951, when Dean was a parking valet subsequent door to CBS studios, the place the radio drama “Alias Jane Doe” — produced by Brackett’s promoting company — was recorded.
Rich and older than Dean, Brackett was “struck by the golden beauty of the youth who took his keys,” in accordance with Colavito. When Dean instructed the exec that he was an actor, Brackett reportedly mentioned he would maintain the good-looking teen in thoughts for roles on the radio present.
Not lengthy after, Colavito says a “smitten” Brackett discovered a component for Dean on “Alias Jane Doe,” and Dean rapidly grew connected to Brackett.
“Although these feelings scared Dean, Brackett unlocked something Dean had kept so closely guarded that it had threatened to break him,” Colavito claims.
When a destitute Dean discovered himself on the verge of homelessness, Brackett allegedly requested the actor to maneuver in with him. However the relationship grew tense.
“Jimmy was like a child. He behaved badly just to get attention,” Brackett reportedly mentioned of Dean years later. “[H]e was a kid I loved, sometimes parentally, sometimes not parentally.”
After a tumultuous romance, the pair parted methods and Brackett moved to Chicago whereas Dean relocated to New York Metropolis.
Regardless of their distance, an impoverished Dean accepted monetary help from Brackett, who — with “great reluctance” — forked over $1,000 to the actor, together with $450 for lodge payments and greater than $700 spent on items and loans.
Throughout this era, Dean noticed Brackett as “increasingly desperate” and “manipulative,” Colavito writes. The ad-man allegedly launched Dean to influential pals who made it clear they needed to have intercourse with the good-looking up-and-comer.
Brackett reportedly continued to assist Dean’s profession, working his rolodex to safe Dean a component within the 1952 Broadway play, “See the Jaguar.”
After drifting aside, Brackett got here again into Dean’s life simply because the actor’s profession was on the up-swing, and his was bottoming out.
In March 1955, simply weeks earlier than the premiere of Dean’s first film, “East of Eden,” Brackett, now unemployed and seeking to increase money for an opera he was attempting to producer with composer Alec Wilder, supposedly demanded Dean give him $1,200 in reimbursement for the monetary help he supplied the star throughout his early days in New York.
“Brackett imposed on Dean for a drink and, striking a more conciliatory tone, asked him for money – a loan, he called it,” Colavito writes.
“The brazenness of the request shocked Dean, who had come to believe his time ‘dancing’ for Brackett’s friends had been abusive.”
Colavito claims Dean instructed Brackett, “Sorry, pops.”
However after a verbal lashing from Wilder, replete with the implications of the injury Brackett may do to his fledgling profession, Dean reluctantly agreed to pen an apology to his former paramour.
Sadly for Dean, the letter didn’t finish the matter, and Brackett despatched the long run Oscar-nominee a authorized demand for the funds and filed a go well with in New York Municipal courtroom for $1,100.
“Implicit in the correspondence and conversations between Brackett’s team and Dean’s is the threat that the suit might become public, which both Brackett and Dean knew would destroy Dean’s career,” Colavito instructed DailyMail.
Desirous to “avoid a scandal when he could least afford one,” Dean settled with Brackett and agreed to pay $800 in weekly installments of $100, in accordance with courtroom paperwork obtained by Colavito and revealed in his e-book.
Dean’s agent additionally acquired “East of Eden” distributor Warner Bros. to pay Brackett a big “finder’s fee” to ensure his “continued silence,” per the writer.
Based on the courtroom paperwork, Brackett’s go well with makes no point out of his and Dean’s affair, however solely the bills he mentioned he was owed.
“This story has never been told before, and all parties involved worked hard to make sure no one ever found out,” Colavito instructed DailyMail.
“And for seventy years, no one did. The only reason we know about it today is that Dean’s agent secretly kept copies of his papers hidden away for decades.”
Dean died in a tragic automobile crash solely six months after the “East of Eden” premiere.
