James Dean
Page 96
DARWIN PORTER
As an intense and precocious nine-year-old, Darwin Porter began meeting movie stars, TV personalities, politicians, and singers through his vivacious and attractive mother, Hazel, an eccentric but charismatic Southern girl who had lost her husband in World War II. Migrating from the Depression-ravaged valleys of western North Carolina to Miami Beach during its most ebullient heyday, Hazel became a stylist, wardrobe mistress, and personal assistant to the vaudeville comedienne Sophie Tucker, the bawdy and irrepressible “Last of the Red Hot Mamas.”
Virtually every show-biz celebrity who visited Miami Beach paid a call on “Miss Sophie,” and Darwin as a pre-teen loosely and indulgently supervised by his mother, was regularly dazzled by the likes of Judy Garland, Dinah Shore, Veronica Lake, Linda Darnell, Martha Raye, and Ronald Reagan, who arrived to pay his respects to Miss Sophie with a young blonde starlet on the rise—Marilyn Monroe.
After graduation from the University of Miami, Darwin was commissioned with the opening of a bureau of The Miami Herald in Key West (Florida), where he took frequent morning walks with retired U.S. president Harry S Truman during his vacations in what had functioned as his “Winter White House.” He also got to know, sometimes very well, various celebrities “slumming” their way through off-the-record holidays in the orbit of then-resident Tennessee Williams. Celebrities hanging out in the jaded and very permissive arts environment of Key West during those days included Tallulah Bankhead, Cary Grant, Tony Curtis, the stepfather of Richard Burton, a gaggle of show-biz and publishing moguls, and the once-notorious stripper, Bettie Page.
For about a decade in New York, Darwin worked in television journalism and advertising with his long-time partner, the journalist, art director, and distinguished arts-industry socialite Stanley Mills Haggart. Haggart was a close friend of James Dean, who often used his apartment in Manhattan or his guest cottage and swimming pool in Laurel Canyon in Hollywood.
Stanley (as an art director) and Darwin (as a writer and assistant), worked as freelance agents within the then-emerging medium of television. Jointly, they helped produce TV commercials that included testimonials from Joan Crawford (then feverishly promoting Pepsi-Cola); Ronald Reagan (General Electric); and Debbie Reynolds (Singer sewing machines). Other personalities appearing within their televised pitches included Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, and Arlene Dahl, each of them hawking a commercial product.
Many of the Haggart/Porter commissions derived from TV producer Rogers Brackett, who “discovered” James Dean, fell desperately in love with him, mentored him, paid his bills, and introduced him to casting directors throughout the entertainment industry. Testimonies from Brackett appear frequently within the context of this book.
Stanley and Darwin were also close friends with Brooks Clift, the relatively stable older brother of Montgomery Clift. A well-positioned executive at Grey Advertising, an entity responsible for the production of TV commercials during the medium’s early heyday, Brooks also contributed many stories and points of view about James Dean that made their way into this book.
Additional anecdotes derived from Haggart and Porter’s friendship with the composer, Alec Wilder, who had housed James Dean during his early days in Manhattan, who introduced him to some of the insiders within the then-emerging medium of television.
During his youth, Stanley had flourished as an insider in early Hollywood as a “leg man” and source of information for Hedda Hopper, the fabled gossip columnist. On his nightly “investigative” rounds, Stanley was most often accompanied by Hedda’s son, William Hopper, a close friend of Ronald Reagan’s. Hopper, later cast as Natalie Wood’s dysfunctional father in Rebel Without a Cause, continued his long-standing tradition of gossipy conversations with Stanley, who transmitted many of his tales onward to Darwin.
When Stanley wasn’t dishing newsy revelations to Hedda, he had worked as a Powers model, and been cast as a romantic lead opposite Silent-era film star Mae Murray. He had also been intimate, live-in companion of superstar Randolph Scott before Scott became emotionally involved with Cary Grant; and a man-about-town who archived gossip from everybody who mattered back when the movie colony was small, accessible, and confident that details about their tribal rites would absolutely never be reported in the press. Over the years, Stanley’s vast cornucopia of inside Hollywood information was passed on to Darwin, who amplified it with copious interviews and research of his own.
After Stanley’s death in 1980, Darwin inherited a treasure trove of memoirs, notes, and interviews detailing Stanley’s early adventures in Hollywood, including in-depth recitations of scandals that even Hopper during her heyday was afraid to publish. Most legal and journalistic standards back then interpreted those oral histories as “unprintable.” Times, of course, changed.
Beginning in the early 1960s, Darwin joined forces with the then-fledgling Arthur Frommer organization, playing a key role in researching and writing more than 50 titles and defining the style and values that later emerged as the world’s leading travel accessories, The Frommer Guides, with particular emphasis on Europe, California, New England, and the Caribbean. Between the creation and updating of hundreds of editions of detailed travel guides to England, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, the Caribbean, and California, he continued to interview and discuss the triumphs, feuds, and frustrations of celebrities, many by then reclusive, whom he either sought out or encountered randomly as part of his extensive travels. Ava Gardner, Lana Turner, and Broderick Crawford were particularly insightful.
One day when Darwin was living in Tangier as part of an assignment associated with Frommer’s Morocco, he walked into an opium den to discover Marlene Dietrich sitting alone in a corner. Even Miss Dietrich had an opinion about James Dean.
Darwin has also ghost written books for celebrities (who shall go nameless!) as well as a series of novels. His first, Butterflies in Heat, became a cult classic and was adapted into a film, Tropic of Desire, starring Eartha Kitt, who had been James Dean’s confidante and “soul sister.” During its filming in Key West, Eartha transmitted many of the tales generated by her friendship with Dean on to Darwin.
Since then, Darwin has penned more than thirty uncensored, unvarnished, and unauthorized Hollywood biographies, many of them award-winners, on subjects who have included Bill and Hillary Clinton, Peter O’Toole, Marlon Brando; Merv Griffin; Katharine Hepburn; Howard Hughes; Humphrey Bogart; Michael Jackson; Paul Newman; Steve McQueen; Marilyn Monroe; Elizabeth Taylor; Frank Sinatra; John F. Kennedy; Vivien Leigh; Laurence Olivier; the notorious porn star Linda Lovelace; Anne Bancroft; Sophie Tucker; Veronica Lake; Lucille Lortel; Greta Keller; Tamara Geva; all three of the fabulous Gabor sisters; plus Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal, Truman Capote, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Jane Wyman, and Ronald and Nancy Reagan.
As a departure from his usual repertoire, Darwin also wrote the controversial J. Edgar Hoover & Clyde Tolson: Investigating the Sexual Secrets of America’s Most Famous Men and Women, a book about celebrity, voyeurism, political and sexual repression, and blackmail within the highest circles of the U.S. government.
He has also co-authored, in league with Danforth Prince, four Hollywood Babylon anthologies, plus four separate volumes of film critiques, reviews, and commentary.
His biographies, over the years, have won at least a dozen First Prize or runner-up awards at literary festivals in cities which include Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Hollywood, San Francisco, and Paris.
Darwin can be heard at regular intervals as a radio and television commentator, “dishing” celebrities, pop culture, politics, and scandal.
A resident of New York City, Darwin is currently at work on Donald Trump, The Man Who Would Be King. He is also a Hollywood columnist.
DANFORTH PRINCE
The co-author of this book, Danforth Prince is president and founder of Blood Moon Productions, a firm devoted to salvaging, compiling, and marketing the oral histories of America’s entertainment in
dustry.
Prince launched his career in journalism in the 1970s at the Paris Bureau of The New York Times. In the early ‘80s, he joined Darwin Porter in developing first editions of many of the titles within The Frommer Guides. Together, they reviewed and articulated the travel scenes of more than 50 nations, most of them within Europe and The Caribbean. Authoritative and comprehensive, they were perceived, before the collapse of the travel industry in the aftermath of the Great Recession of 2008, as best-selling “travel bibles” for millions of readers.
Prince, in collaboration with Porter, is also the co-author of several awardwinning celebrity biographies, each configured as a title within Blood Moon’s Babylon series. These have included Hollywood Babylon—It’s Back!; Hollywood Babylon Strikes Again; The Kennedys: All the Gossip Unfit to Print; Frank Sinatra, The Boudoir Singer, Elizabeth Taylor: There is Nothing Like a Dame; Pink Triangle: The Feuds and Private Lives of Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal, Truman Capote, and Members of their Entourages; and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: A Life Beyond Her Wildest Dreams. More recent efforts include Peter O’Toole—Hellraiser, Sexual Outlaw, Irish Rebel; and Bill & Hillary—So This Is That Thing Called Love.
Prince is also the co-author, of four books on film criticism, three of which won honors at regional bookfests in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Prince, a graduate of Hamilton College and a native of Easton and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, is the president and founder of the Georgia Literary Association (1996), and of the Porter and Prince Corporation (1983) which has produced dozens of titles for Simon & Schuster, Prentice Hall, and John Wiley & Sons. In 2011, he was named “Publisher of the Year” by a consortium of literary critics and marketers spearheaded by the J.M. Northern Media Group.
Publishing in collaboration with the National Book Network (www.NBNBooks.com), he has electronically documented some of the controversies associated with his stewardship of Blood Moon in at least 50 documentaries, book trailers, public speeches, and TV or radio interviews. Most of these are available on YouTube.com and Facebook (keywords: “Danforth Prince” or “Blood Moon Productions”); on Twitter (#BloodyandLunar); or by clicking on BloodMoonProductions.com.
WHAT IS BLOOD MOON PRODUCTIONS?
“Blood Moon, in case you don't know, is a small publishing house on Staten Island that cranks out Hollywood gossip books, about two or three a year, usually of five-, six-, or 700- page length, chocked with stories and pictures about people who used to consume the imaginations of the American public, back when we actually had a public imagination. That is, when people were really interested in each other, rather than in Apple ‘devices.’ In other words, back when we had vices, not devices.”
— The Huffington Post
Want to see us, up close and personal?
Consider staying with us during your next trip to New York City.
Magnolia House
A reasonably priced “AirBNB.com” Bed and Breakfast Inn specializing in literary nostaligia, pop culture, and the book trades. Elegant, historic, & comfortable, it’s a historically important building in the landmark neighborhood of Saint George, Staten Island, a ten-minute walk from the departure point of the ferryboat to Manhattan.
As stated by its resident manager, Danforth Prince, “Magnolia House results from my 30-year role as co-author of many titles, and many editions, of The Frommer Guides, each of which included evaluations of the bed and breakfast inns of Europe. Whereas I’m still writing travel articles and celebrity exposés from the upper floors of this building, its ‘showcase rooms’ now operate as a client-indulgent B&B loaded with mementos from the early days of the Frommer Guides, ‘the Golden Age of Travel,’ and souvenirs from Blood Moon’s associations with Broadway, Hollywood, and the Entertainment Industry.”
“Edgy media associations have always been part of the Magnolia House experience,” Prince continued. “Previous guests have included Tennessee Williams (“Magnolia House reminds me of Blanche DuBois’ lost plantation, Bellereve!”); golden age film personality Joan Blondell (a close friend of celebrity biographer and co-owner, Darwin Porter); Lucille Lortel (the philanthropic but very temperamental Queen of Off-Broadway); the very outspoken Jolie Gabor (mother of the three “Bombshells from Budapest” otherwise known as Zsa Zsa, Eva, and Magda); and a host of other stars, starlettes, and demi-mondains of all descriptions and persuasions.”
For photographs, testimonials from previous guests, and information about availabilities and reservations, click on www.MagnoliaHouseSaintGeorge.com. Otherwise, contact DanforthPrince@gmail.com.
LOVE TRIANGLE
RONALD REAGAN, JANE WYMAN, & NANCY DAVIS
Unique in the history of publishing, this scandalous triple biography focuses on the Hollywood indiscretions of former U.S. president Ronald Reagan and his two wives. A proud and Presidential addition to Blood Moon’s Babylon series, it digs deep into what these three young and attractive movie stars were doing decades before two of them took over the Free World.
***
As reviewed by Diane Donovan, Senior Reviewer at the California Bookwatch section of the Midwest Book Review: “Love Triangle: Ronald Reagan, Jane Wyman & Nancy Davis may find its way onto many a Republican Reagan fan's reading shelf; but those who expect another Reagan celebration will be surprised: this is lurid Hollywood exposé writing at its best, and outlines the truths surrounding one of the most provocative industry scandals in the world.
“There are already so many biographies of the Reagans on the market that one might expect similar mile-markers from this: be prepared for shock and awe; because Love Triangle doesn't take your ordinary approach to biography and describes a love triangle that eventually bumped a major Hollywood movie star from the possibility of being First Lady and replaced her with a lesser-known Grade B actress (Nancy Davis).
“From politics and betrayal to romance, infidelity, and sordid affairs, Love Triangle is a steamy, eye-opening story that blows the lid off of the Reagan illusion to raise eyebrows on both sides of the big screen.
“Black and white photos liberally pepper an account of the careers of all three and the lasting shock of their stormy relationships in a delightful pursuit especially recommended for any who relish Hollywood gossip.”
***
In 2015, LOVE TRIANGLE, Blood Moon Productions’ overview of the early dramas associated with Ronald Reagan’s scandal-soaked career in Hollywood, was designated by the Awards Committee of the HOLLYWOOD BOOK FESTIVAL as Runner-Up to Best Biography of the Year.
LOVE TRIANGLE: Ronald Reagan, Jane Wyman, & Nancy Davis
Darwin Porter & Danforth Prince
Hot, scandalous, and loaded with information the Reagans never wanted you to know.
Softcover, 6” x 9”, with hundreds of photos. ISBN 978-1-936003-41-9
CONFUSED ABOUT HOW TO INTERPRET THEIR RAUCOUS PAST? THIS UNCENSORED TALE ABOUT A LOVE AFFAIR THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF POLITICS AND THE PLANET IS REQUIRED READING FOR ANYONE INVOLVED IN THE POLITICAL SLUGFESTS AND INCENDIARY WARS OF THE CLINTONS.
Bill & Hillary
So This Is That Thing Called Love
As defined by Diane Donovan, Senior Reviewer at the Midwest Book Review and California Bookwatch:
“This is both a biographical coverage of the Clintons and a political exposé; a detailed, weighty exploration that traces the couple's social and political evolution, from how each entered the political arena to their White House years under Bill Clinton's presidency.
“Containing gossip, scandal, and biographical sketches, it delves deeply into the news and politics of its times, presenting enough historical background to fully explore the underlying controversies affecting the Clinton family and their choices.
“Sidebars of information and black and white photos liberally peppered throughout the account offer visual reinforcement to the exploration, lending it the feel and tone of both a gossip column and political piece - something that probes not just Clinton interactions but the D.C. political milieu as a whole.
“The result may appear weighty, sporting over five hundred pages, but is an absorbing, top recommendation for readers of both biographical and political pieces who will thoroughly enjoy this spirited, lively, and thought-provoking analysis, which arrives in perfect time for Hillary's presidential run.”
***
Shortly after its release in December of 2015, this book received a literary award (Runner-up to Best Biography of the Year) from the New England Book Festival. As stated by a spokesperson for the Awards, “The New England Book Festival is an annual competition honoring excellence in books, with particular focus on projects that deserve closer attention from the academic community. Congratulations to Blood Moon and its authors, especially Darwin Porter, for his highly entertaining analysis of Clinton’s double-barreled presidential regime, and the sometimes hysterical over-reaction of their enemies.”
Available Everywhere Now
BILL & HILLARY—SO THIS IS THAT THING CALLED LOVE
Softcover, with photos. ISBN 978-1-936003-47-1
And Now, Some Literary and Show-Biz Razzmatazz
PINK TRIANGLE: The Feuds and Private Lives of Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal, Truman Capote, and Famous Members of their Entourages