"REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE" CURSE |THE CURIOUS CAST OF CHARACTERS AND TRAGIC DEATHS BEHIND THE 1955 FILM

James Dean as Jim Stark in "Rebel Without a Cause"

The 1950s were a very cool time, I only wish I could have experienced them for myself. It is a time in American pop culture that is highly idealized for it’s music, fashion, style and culture. Everyone looked incredible, and seemed so squeaky clean– but you just knew there had to be much more going on behind the scenes. Rebel Without a Cause is one of the most iconic films from that era, and the stories behind the making of the James Dean classic are as incredible as the movie itself. And truth be told, Dean was not the only rebel on the set. Nicholas Ray, Dennis Hopper, Nick Adams and Natalie Wood definitely held there own. There is a great article from the Vanity Fair archives that is definitely required reading if you’re a fan of the film. They get into some of the details about the Rebel wardrobe and off-screen shenanigans that I have excerpted and added to–

Natalie Wood, James Dean, and Nick Ray

Striving for authenticity in every detail, Ray turned his attention to the high-school gang members who surround and threaten Jim Stark. One of the actors he interviewed was Frank Mazzola, the leader of a real gang called the Athenians. Mazzola had been weeded out by the casting director but muscled his way in to see Ray anyway. “They thought that because I was in a gang, I might create problems on the set. I came out of the Depression, really,” Mazzola explains in a West Hollywood restaurant, his hair, still jet black, tied back in a ponytail. “We didn’t have any pop culture. The guys that we loved flew, like my uncle, a pilot in the Second World War. Everybody I knew wanted to grow up and fly P-38s.… And so these clubs started forming—ours was called the Athenians. We defended our turf. You’d probably get in two or three fights a night just defending Hollywood. It was like a sport.”

James Dean and Natalie Wood on the set of "Rebel Without a Cause"

Ray not only cast Mazzola, he gave him an office on the Warner lot, from which he could serve as technical adviser on gang behavior. Ray instructed him to hang out with Dean and take him to meetings of the Athenians. “I want you to get us the cars, tell us what kind of clothes we should be wearing,” Ray told him. Mazzola had the wardrobe department buy the gang’s clothes at Matson’s, on Hollywood Boulevard, where the Athenians bought their club jackets. The wardrobe department then soiled and laundered more than 400 pairs of Levi 501s for the cast. –I would love to get my hands on those old selvedge jeans.

The iconic Baracuta jacket is often credited as the famous red jacket in Rebel Without a Cause -- but some say it was a McGregor or fabricated by the film’s costume designer Moss Mabry, as he himself claims. There are accounts from staffers that it was bought at Matson’s men’s store for use in the 1955 film, but costume designer Moss Mabry has insisted all along that he made three of the jackets from a bolt of red nylon, and painstakingly worked on the size of the collar and the placement of the pockets. “Even though the jacket looked simple,” Mabry said, “it wasn’t.” Mabry even designed a special bra for Natalie Wood for the film Rebel, which became known as the “Natalie Wood bra,” though he declined to reveal the secret of its design.

Dennis Hopper and Nick Ray many years after "Rebel Without a Cause"

Natalie Wood, who was only 16 at the time, soon became involved with director Nicholas Ray. Wood’s affair with Ray awakened her sexuality—and emboldened her to initiate another love affair, this one with Dennis Hopper, who had been cast as Goon. “I was astonished,” Hopper later said. “I came from a very conventional, middle-class family in San Diego … and this was the 1950s, when girls who’d turned sixteen only a few months earlier just didn’t do things like that.” The sexually charged situation created ill will between Ray and Hopper. Maria Gurdin, having found out about both affairs, complained to Warner Bros. that Hopper was involved with her daughter; ever ambitious for Natalie, she didn’t mention that Ray was as well. “I was furious with [Nick Ray],” Hopper said about the incident. “The studio came down on me, and he came out of it as pure as snow.” The two ran into each other years later at a Grateful Dead concert and buried the hatchet. Hopper went as far as to help the grizzled Ray get back on his feet, and even helped him land a job teaching film students at Binghamton University. Nicholas Ray is a fascinating character and some of the details of his life are pretty heavy stuff– read the Vanity Fair article and find out more.

James Dean and Sal Mineo

Sal Mineo—so affecting as the essentially fatherless outcast Plato—later commented that he had portrayed the first gay teenager on film. There are little clues: the photograph of Alan Ladd taped to his locker door, his longing looks at Jim Stark, his disguised declaration of love in the abandoned mansion. Ray was aware of Dean’s bisexuality and encouraged the actor to use it in certain scenes. Dean instructed Mineo, “Look at me the way I look at Natalie,” for their intimate scene in the Getty mansion. It had to be subtle. A Production Code officer had written in a memo to Jack L. Warner on March 22, “It is of course vital that there be no inference of a questionable or homosexual relationship between Plato and Jim.” In real life Mineo was gay, and it is even rumored that he and Ray (who was bisexual) also had a tryst while filming Rebel.

Dennis Hopper and James Dean in "Rebel Without a Cause"

The real life drama behind "Rebel Without a Cause" is still a riddle wrapped in mystery. James Dean's fatal car crash one month before the film's release resulted in the beginning of the "Rebel death curse" theories, which were further fueled when Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo and Nick Adams also suffered eerie, premature deaths. There's still plenty of talk and speculation about who actually slept with whom -- and the controversy that clouds the issue of who was the true voice behind "Rebel Without a Cause" — Nicholas Ray or James Dean?

ANITA PALLENBERG | THE ROLLING STONES BOHEMIAN STYLE MUSE AND SENSUAL SOULMATE

Anita Pallenberg entered The Rolling Stones’ lives when in 1965 a friend took her to Munich for one of their concerts, and they worked their way backstage. Anita offered The Stones some hash, but they said they couldn’t smoke before a concert– though Brian Jones was ‘kind enough’ to invite her to his hotel room afterwards. They stayed together for two years but he was increasingly abusive, drunk and paranoid. On holiday in Morocco in 1967, Keith saw Brian beating Anita up and grabbed her, threw her in his car and took her back to England. She from then on lived with Keith Richards.

Life with the Stones was fun at the beginning, Pallenberg says, because they were always playing music– but soured once they became a huge money-making machine. She says she didn’t even see them that much, “because at that time no girls were allowed in the studio when they were recording. You weren’t allowed even to ring. I did other things, I didn’t sit at home.”

What she did do– a few films, lots of drugs and tons of screwing around…

Sexy, insatiable Anita Pallenberg with son Marlon Richards.

Author A. E. Hotchner has this to say about Pallenberg’s influence on the development and presentation of The Rolling Stones from the late 1960s and through the 1970s– She played an unusual role in the male-dominated world of rock music in the late 1960s, acting as much more than just a groupie or partner of a band member. Mick Jagger apparently respected her opinion enough that tracks on Beggars Banquet were remixed when Pallenberg criticised them. In the 2002 compilation release of Forty Licks, Pallenberg is credited as singing background vocals on Sympathy for the Devil.

Throughout the decade that she was Richards’ companion in vice, her interest in the occult was a featured style component that marked The Stones concerts and public presentation. Tony Sanchez’s account of his time as Richards’ bodyguard and drug dealer mentions Pallenberg’s strange spiritual practices– ”She was obsessed with black magic and began to carry a string of garlic with her everywhere — even to bed—to ward off vampires. She also had a strange mysterious old shaker for holy water which she used for some of her rituals. Her ceremonies became increasingly secret, and she warned me never to interrupt her when she was working on a spell.”

Anita Pallenberg more than shared Richards’ drug addiction and was charged in the 1977 Toronto heroin arrest that almost destroyed The Rolling Stones. A warrant for her arrest was the reason that police came to search Richards and Pallenberg’s hotel rooms; she pled guilty to marijuana possession and was fined, several weeks after Richards’ headline-grabbing arrest. Richards and Pallenberg separated on the advice of Richards’ lawyers, who believed that if they stayed together, they would end up in more serious trouble. Richards stated that he still loved Anita and saw her as much as he ever did, despite his relationship with his future wife Patti Hansen. In a 1985 Rolling Stone interview, Mick Jagger claimed that Pallenberg “nearly killed me“, when he was asked whether The Rolling Stones had any responsibility for the personal drug addictions of people close to the band.

There were persisting rumors that Anita Pallenburg also had a brief affair with Keith Richards’ band-mate Mick Jagger while the two worked together during the filming of Performance, although Pallenberg denies this. Personally, I wouldn’t put it past either of them, if you know what I mean. They both were easy pickin’ back then .

Brian Jones and Anita Pallenberg BK-- Before Keith.

Wild and insatiable Anita Pallenberg proved to be a handful, even for Keith Richards.

Anita Pallenberg's personal style was said to rub off on The Stones and influenced the bands look. I kind of look at her as an early, "dirty" version of Tory Burch.

Often cited as The Rolling Stones' style muse-- Anita Pallenberg is seen here showing the boys how 1970s Bohemian chic is done.

THE TSY FASHION FLASHBACK | AMERICAN MENSWEAR DESIGNER ICONS

The Coty (American Fashion Critics’) Awards first officially acknowledged excellence in menswear design back in 1970, with the honor going to none other than Ralph Lauren. It signaled a new designer age in American menswear. True men’s fashion icons emerged and soon became household names – Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Alexander Julian — all went on to become institutions that inspire, influence, and in the case of Ralph, still strongly lead to this day. It’s a time in menswear that I’m unapologetically nostalgic over, having largely missed it– but I’ve been fortunate enough to work with a few legends of that golden age, and never miss an opportunity to mine them for all the nuggets I can get.

American fashion icon Ralph Lauren working in his office --1971.

Back in the early 70s, Jeffrey Banks (now a legendary fashion designer in his own right) was hand-plucked from Britches of Georgetown by Ralph Lauren personally, and came to work for him as a part-time design assistant. Part-time because Jeffrey was still in high school. Jeffrey shared a story with me of when he had to get a shipment of hot-selling shirts over to Bloomies quick– Ralph’s orders. Time was tight, and Jeffrey was getting the runaround from receiving department at the store– so he decides to cast store policy aside and brazenly walked through the front doors of Bloomingdale’s 59th Street, both arms bursting with shirts for the Polo shop, much to the chagrin (read: screams) of the operations staff at the store. Here are your shirts, have a great weekend. Love it.

Sometimes rules are for schmucks and you simply have to take matters into your own hands. Ralph certainly didn’t get where his is today by politely following the rules, he led. See, when you work for Ralph, you quickly realize that you’re a part of something much bigger than yourself, and there’s this incredible power of the brand behind you moving mountains out of your way. It’s a pretty awesome thing really.

Ralph Lauren checking out the Polo boutique at Bloomingdale's --1971.

Ralph launched Polo Ralph Lauren back in 1967 (some say it was actually ‘68) with $50,000 loaned to him by Norman Hilton (another menswear icon, and father of Nick Hilton) he set out to put his mark on neckwear. During his time working for the tie manufacturer A.Rivetz & Co., Ralph became obsessed with bringing back the beautiful wide neckties oft worn by his boyhood matinee idols– and this was the late 60s, when the skinny tie was the established code. On top of it all, Ralph’s was seeking to fetch retail prices well above where the rest of the neckwear market was. He first met with Bloomingdale’s, who flatly refused to buy the line without considerable compromises on Ralph’s part– like changing the label and narrowing the ties considerably. Ralph wasn’t interested in selling out, so he simply walked away. According to an old gent I met many years ago named Jerry Sudak who grew up with Ralph in the Bronx and was a longtime exec at Saks 5th Avenue, he was able to get Ralph in the door at Saks to present the neckwear line and they bought into the vision. It was a big success, Bloomingdale’s also crawled back to Ralph to buy the line, and Ralph was well on his way to stardom.

Designer Calvin Klein-- looking very clean, uncluttered and contemporary.

Also hailing from the Bronx was Calvin Klein, seen above before the much-talked-about plastic surgeries that gave him his finely chiseled features. Calvin of course started a huge designer jean craze in the 1970s with the famous Brooke Shields “Nothing comes between me and my Calvins” ad campaign. Calvin’s clean, modern aesthetic was a welcome juxtaposition to Ralph’s traditional taste, and I’d go as far to say that Calvin Klein was the first metrosexual brand. It was for the guy who wanted to harness the power of sexuality and separate himself from the preppy crowd through powerful scents, boxer briefs and designer jeans. Paving the way for them both was none other than the legendary Bill Blass.

Bill Blass is the man to whom both Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein owe a huge debt. I always think of Blass as the first male fashion designer to truly leverage his talent, presence and ‘cult of personality’ to propel a brand forward through marketing and the press. He really created the mold and showed them how it was done. Bill Blass was a true trail-blazer that just about every public male designer has borrowed a page or two from, whether they realize it or not.

Born William Ralph Blass in Fort Wayne, Indiana to a part-time dressmaker and a traveling hardware salesman. Blass’s father committed suicide when Blass was five. At 15, Blass began selling sketches of evening gowns for $25 each to a New York manufacturer. At 17 he left home to attend fashion school in New York. Blass excelled and at 18 became the first man to win Mademoiselle’s Design for Living award. He found work as a sketch artist with the sportswear house of David Crystal.

In 1942 Blass enlisted in the Army and was assigned to the 603rd Camouflage Battalion a classified division, its mission was to fool the Germans through the use of recordings, dummy tanks and other false materiel, into believing the Allies were positioned other than where they actually were. Blass left the Army in 1945 and went back to New York, where he went to work for Anne Klein. Klein fired Blass less than a year later, calling him talentless. Next Blass started as an assistant designer at Anna Miller and Company, and later at the fashion house Maurice Rentner. In 1970, Blass established Bill Blass Limited. He was most noted for high-quality, high-priced clothing featuring a look of sporty sophistication and casual glamour.

His classic style, which was less severe than that of many contemporaries, attracted a wide audience. He won numerous fashion awards; his designs included sportswear, rainwear, accessories, and evening wear. Beginning in the late 1960s, he also designed menswear. In December 1998, Blass suffered a minor stroke. His company had grown to a $700-million-a-year concern. But after he presented his final collection to in September of 1999, the designer sold Bill Blass Limited for $50 million and retired. In 2000, he was diagnosed with oral cancer, which later spread to his throat. It proved terminal, but his legendary class and style will forever endure.