WOW. First of all I'm really glad you were able to find these documents and find new information and collaboration for your own research. I've been following your blog and your twitter feed, and the ups and downs of finding publishers, and I really hope this new reveal help you get your book published. It goes without saying, i'd buy it and read it in a heartbeat!
Secondly, it's amazing how much these documents change or give new perspectives on the prevailing narratives in most of the Dean biographies. I could be wrong/misremembering; but while I remember the 'whore' quote and Dean's confrontation with Brackett and Wilder, the direct or indirect implication in the Dean biographies was that he never repaid Brackett for any of the monies. His 'refusal' to pay was used as prima facie evidence of Dean being a user and taking advantage of people and disregarding them once he had success. And yet...his original agreement to pay a little more than half of money Brackett said he owed him(minus hotel bills/stays) seems reasonable to me. Then the court case which was never mentioned by Brackett or Wilder in any of their interviews which gives another angle to the fallout of their relationship and how Brackett and Dean responded. The actual evidence in these records is much more nuanced than how Brackett and thereby most of the Dean biographers have portrayed it.
I'm also really glad that you specifically were able to look at these documents, I've been, like I said, admiring and reading your works for a while now and I appreciate the amount of painstaking unraveling of threads and trying to find specific sources and support for stories which have long been taken for granted as part of the mythologies around James Dean. Your work is greatly appreciated and interesting, best of luck with it.
You remember correctly. Biographers have painted Dean in a negative light and suggested he used Brackett for money, while the documents show that Brackett was the aggressor, making wild demands and expecting a payoff. Omitting a lawsuit is a pretty big thing to leave out! Overall, much of the erratic behavior attributed to Dean seems to correlate with explainable behind-the-scenes anxieties over outside events documented in the records.
I have gotten a bit of interest in the book this week, so we'll see how it goes!
This might be a weird place to put this; but on your twitter feed you were wondering about Louis Fabrikant, you probably already seen this, but in Val Holley's biography there's about 2 pages in the book about a dinner Fabrkiant, Dean, and Christine White had. As to how James Dean and Louis Fabrikant met in the first place, that I don't know.
Omitting a lawsuit is a pretty big thing to leave out! Overall, much of the erratic behavior attributed to Dean seems to correlate with explainable behind-the-scenes anxieties over outside events documented in the records.
Absolutely! And even if biographers didn't know about the lawsuit because they didn't think to ask if Brackett followed through on Wilder's advice to sue, or if Brackett lied to them, they all tended to all take Brackett's accounts at face value, with the Val Holley book (I think) noting that 'Dizzy' Sheidan's negative feelings about Brackett were very much in the minority.
Thanks for pointing out the Val Holley reference. I didn't remember that, and it didn't show up in a keyword search on Archive.org (its search engine is flaky at the best of times). It bothers me a little, though, that he doesn't show up in the city directory or any newspapers. Did Holley or White confuse the textile merchant with the more famous diamond-cutting family?
According to Ed Sullivan (!), who profiled Brackett for his gossip column early on, Brackett was beloved in the New York and L.A. media communities because of his wit and charm, so I imagine those relationships colored how later writers thought of him.
Really fascinating and well explained - I'll be looking forward to your book!
WOW. First of all I'm really glad you were able to find these documents and find new information and collaboration for your own research. I've been following your blog and your twitter feed, and the ups and downs of finding publishers, and I really hope this new reveal help you get your book published. It goes without saying, i'd buy it and read it in a heartbeat!
Secondly, it's amazing how much these documents change or give new perspectives on the prevailing narratives in most of the Dean biographies. I could be wrong/misremembering; but while I remember the 'whore' quote and Dean's confrontation with Brackett and Wilder, the direct or indirect implication in the Dean biographies was that he never repaid Brackett for any of the monies. His 'refusal' to pay was used as prima facie evidence of Dean being a user and taking advantage of people and disregarding them once he had success. And yet...his original agreement to pay a little more than half of money Brackett said he owed him(minus hotel bills/stays) seems reasonable to me. Then the court case which was never mentioned by Brackett or Wilder in any of their interviews which gives another angle to the fallout of their relationship and how Brackett and Dean responded. The actual evidence in these records is much more nuanced than how Brackett and thereby most of the Dean biographers have portrayed it.
I'm also really glad that you specifically were able to look at these documents, I've been, like I said, admiring and reading your works for a while now and I appreciate the amount of painstaking unraveling of threads and trying to find specific sources and support for stories which have long been taken for granted as part of the mythologies around James Dean. Your work is greatly appreciated and interesting, best of luck with it.
You remember correctly. Biographers have painted Dean in a negative light and suggested he used Brackett for money, while the documents show that Brackett was the aggressor, making wild demands and expecting a payoff. Omitting a lawsuit is a pretty big thing to leave out! Overall, much of the erratic behavior attributed to Dean seems to correlate with explainable behind-the-scenes anxieties over outside events documented in the records.
I have gotten a bit of interest in the book this week, so we'll see how it goes!
Crossing my fingers for you!
This might be a weird place to put this; but on your twitter feed you were wondering about Louis Fabrikant, you probably already seen this, but in Val Holley's biography there's about 2 pages in the book about a dinner Fabrkiant, Dean, and Christine White had. As to how James Dean and Louis Fabrikant met in the first place, that I don't know.
Omitting a lawsuit is a pretty big thing to leave out! Overall, much of the erratic behavior attributed to Dean seems to correlate with explainable behind-the-scenes anxieties over outside events documented in the records.
Absolutely! And even if biographers didn't know about the lawsuit because they didn't think to ask if Brackett followed through on Wilder's advice to sue, or if Brackett lied to them, they all tended to all take Brackett's accounts at face value, with the Val Holley book (I think) noting that 'Dizzy' Sheidan's negative feelings about Brackett were very much in the minority.
Thanks for pointing out the Val Holley reference. I didn't remember that, and it didn't show up in a keyword search on Archive.org (its search engine is flaky at the best of times). It bothers me a little, though, that he doesn't show up in the city directory or any newspapers. Did Holley or White confuse the textile merchant with the more famous diamond-cutting family?
According to Ed Sullivan (!), who profiled Brackett for his gossip column early on, Brackett was beloved in the New York and L.A. media communities because of his wit and charm, so I imagine those relationships colored how later writers thought of him.