One of James Dean’s most famous quotes was his flirtatious, non-committal response to the question of whether he was gay.
‘No,’ he shot back, ‘I’m not homosexual. But I am also not going through life with one hand tied behind my back.’
With that, Dean tacitly acknowledged that he enjoyed liaisons with both men and women – his animal magnetism did not discriminate – and he seemed more than happy to explore all his sexual options.
But a new book has made the bombshell suggestion that his proclivities may also have included indulging in an adventurous threesome with two powerfully attractive women more than twice his age.
Edna Ferber was 70 years old when the epic film of her novel, Giant, was being made in Marfa, Texas – starring Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and a then-little-known, 24-year-old actor called James Dean.
It was to be his final film – he died in a tragic car crash late in production and another actor had to overdub some of his lines.
In Giant Love – a memoir of Ferber written by her great niece Julie Gilbert – it is clear the writer was enamored by the broodingly beautiful Dean, as was his co-star Mercedes McCambridge, who was around 40 at the time.
‘Ferber had never been average in any way but this one,’ writes Gilbert., ‘she was drawn toward the Dean magnet just like everyone else.
She describes McCambridge as having similar looks – and outlook – to Ferber, with her strong features, forthright manner, and impressive accomplishments. She was also a confidante of the young James Dean.
James Dean on the film set of Giant in 1955 – he died the same year
Dean with his Giant co-star Elizabeth Taylor
‘He took McCambridge into his confidence during their time in Marfa… and they openly adored each other.’
Ferber never married, never had any children, and is not known to have been involved in a romantic or physical relationship with anyone – leaving many with questions about her sexuality.
‘For much of my life people have been inquiring about my great aunt’s proclivities,’ writes Gilbert.
And, as she researched the memoir, she says she gained a clearer picture, thanks in part to a passing comment from none other than Katharine Hepburn.
‘Hepburn was a good friend of Ferber’s,’ she writes. They shared a deep understanding and ‘recognized a trait in each other.
‘Hepburn had a term for it: “We were both unicorn women,” she once told me.’
At the time, Gilbert interpreted the comment as one that meant both women were rare, in that they had remained single and dominant ‘in a world of romantically paired people, where women were more often than not still subsidiary or recessive.
‘Ferber and Hepburn strode proudly one-horned through their entire lives,’ writes Gilbert. ‘Both were intolerant of injustice, laziness, stupidity, and arrogance, speaking their minds with passionate eloquence. They lived their lives – public and private – as they saw fit.’
James Dean’s screen test for the role of ranch hand turned oil baron Jett Rink in Giant
The film starred two of the biggest actors of the day, Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson
Edna Ferber with James Dean, dressed as an older, balding Jett Rink
McCambridge had similar looks – and outlook – to Ferber; she was also a confidante of the young Dean
She reexamined Hepburn’s comment later, in the light of correspondence she uncovered – and through the lens of an era more accepting of non-traditional sexuality.
‘When Katharine Hepburn called herself and Ferber “unicorn women,” I assumed the term meant that they were unique. It sounded original and right on target. They both had singular heads on their shoulders,’ she writes.
‘Now, in the time of variety-pack sexuality, I am finally grasping what a “unicorn woman” is all about. It is a woman who grazes with couples.
‘I think back. While doing my research for the biography of Ferber, I came across a multitude of correspondence with well-known couples: Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne (however devoted they were to each other, both allegedly preferred their own gender); Moss (with longtime homosexual leanings) and Kitty Carlisle Hart; Katharine Cornell (allegedly bisexual) and Guthrie McClintic; the Louis Bromfields and the William Allen Whites – Ferber had deep friendships with both men.’
And while there was no outright sexual content in those letters – ‘this crowd was as sophisticated as one can get… and knew that whatever is put in print stays in print’ – Gilbert sensed the vaguest suggestion of romance in one from the publisher Blanche Knopf, congratulating Ferber on the success of her novel.
‘The correspondent reflects a certain wistfulness… It is also documented that the wife was open to triangular relationships, so perhaps, just perhaps, she was referring to a bygone invitation in her note.
‘Dear E.F.,
Reading the Book-of-the-Month-Club News about you, and remembering our very early acquaintance, and friendship I hope, I am starting Giant. I am so impressed that I want to write to you and tell you congratulations on all of your accomplishments. I wish… I wish … but it never happened. But I think your path has been one strewn with glory and hard work and all I want to do is offer my small congratulations along with the world’s.
Giant was Dean’s final film – he died in a tragic car crash late in production and another actor had to overdub some of his lines
By age 30, Ferber was already a successful midwestern writer (photo circa 1916)
Katharine Hepburn (left) referred to herself and Ferber (right) as ‘unicorn women’
Ferber had never been average in any way but this one: she was drawn toward the Dean magnet just like everyone else
‘When we have a chance again one day, we must meet and talk over all the nice old days and perhaps those coming along.
‘All good wishes for this Texas book, and for you.’
Then there was the allusion to a ‘romantic episode’ with the film’s director George Stevens at, of all places, a farmers market in LA.
A letter from producer Henry Ginsberg to lawyer Harriet Pilpel, written as contracts were being finalized, read: ‘My plans at the moment are to come to New York the last week of the month. George Stevens will follow soon after for a conference with Miss Ferber. You have probably had Edna’s report about her visit to Los Angeles and what might be construed as a romantic episode between herself and George Stevens at the Farmers Market.’
As Gilbert writes: ‘Nothing more about that has ever been alluded to, but once read, it’s hard to forget. One might envision a more highly charged collaboration between the two – or was it one that Ferber only yearned for?’
Analyzing Hepburn’s comment through fresh eyes, she says: ‘The curtain parts on Ferber, Dean, and McCambridge in Los Angeles during those final weeks filming Giant. They spent a good deal of time together on the set and off.
Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean in the Oscar-winning Giant
A romantic interlude with director George Stevens was also alluded to
‘Ferber and Dean became close, but McCambridge was never far. Perhaps there was a liaison. McCambridge was married, but did say “I love you” in a letter to Ferber; and Dean was so young and arbitrary, it seemed he would try anything.’
From time to time, Ferber would say to her sister Fannie – Gilbert’s mother: ‘Someday I’ll tell you everything.’
She never did reveal all. But, Gilbert wonders: ‘Maybe this was part of the “everything”.’
In the end, however, the only love affair Gilbert knew Ferber had for sure was her one with fame.
‘In her words: “Life can’t ever really defeat a writer who is in love with writing, for life itself is a writer’s lover until death – fascinating, cruel, lavish, warm, cold, treacherous, constant.”’
Giant Love: Edna Ferber, Her Best-selling Novel of Texas, and the Making of a Classic American Film by Julie Gilbert is published by Pantheon