Born On This Day- February 8th... James Byron Dean

"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today."

I had the above photo, as a poster, in my dorm room. Original, huh? Because, no other young male actor in the late 1960s & early 1970s was looking to James Dean for inspiration.

57 years after to the meteoric career of James Dean, one thing now seems clear to me... this young man was truly gay! Just watch the outtakes below from Rebel Without A Cause. His affairs with men, mostly older father figures, are documented now, a hlaf century later. He had been groomed to be the vulnerable young male innocent, tormented, longing for freedom, & the true love of the right girl. The studio made sure that he acted it out in real life by setting him with starlets to be seen with in public. 56 years ago this September, in his new Porsche 550 Spyder, at the age of 24, on US 101 near Salinas, there was no reality left to mess up the myth.

For most of his short life there's every reason to believe that Dean didn’t undersand what his problem was either. Until he was the 18 year old his name was Jimmy Dean, & he was a short, nerdy, basketball playing hick, with coke-bottle glasees & a big cowlick.

"Being a good actor isn't easy. Being a man is even harder. I want to be both before I'm done."

It is because James Dean only made 3 films & lived a very short life, that has made him a symbol for so many different & contrasting things. Had Dean lived to enjoy the stardom that was given to him after his death, he eventually would have ceased to be such an enigma. Dean today is such a romantic & misunderstood figure. James Dean would have been 80 today. His death was tragic, but ironic. I am sort of grateful that he didn’t live long enough to play Betty White's love interest on Hot In Cleveland.

Born On This Day- January 10th... Sal Mineo

He was born Salvatore Mineo, Jr. in the Bronx, New York on January 10, 1939.

I have a very odd connection to Sal Mineo. In 1976, I was actually an acquaintance of the man charged with his murder. This was nothing sordid. This man was pursuing one of my best friends. WCK3 & I were concerned for our friend because this mystery man seemed especially troubling. Sal Mineos’s death was major news in LA that February. WCK3 & I really had the chills when this creepy man, who had been aggressively working on our good friend, was charged with the movie star’s demise.

Sal Mineo was nominated for an Academy Award 2 times, & he enjoyed success as a stage director & recording artist, but he is mostly remembered for his performance in Rebel Without A Cause & for the brutal murder that ended his life just as he was on the verge of reinventing himself & his career.



You can feel the sexual heat of the actors in this screen test.


He made his first film appearance in 1955, & appeared in many screen productions, usually playing ethnic& troubled youths. Mineo's career was dominated by that single role that eventually achieved mythic status: Plato in Nicholas Ray's Rebel without a Cause (1955). Mineo's homosexuality was a fairly open secret even at the height of his Hollywood success. He had affairs with Peter Lawford, James Dean, & with Nicholas Ray during the filming of Rebel Without A Cause.

With maturity, he sought to explore his homosexuality in his life & his art. Although he appeared in several television productions & films (his last film was Planet Of The Apes), he found the theater more supportive of his aspirations & sensibilities.



From one of my favorite shows of the era- Shindig! in 1967


In 1969, he directed the Broadway & West Coast productions of Fortune & Men's Eyes, John Herbert's exploration of power roles & homosexuality at a prison. Mineo's production was controversial for its nudity & simulated sex.

In 1976, he was cast as a bisexual burgler in a Los Angeles production of James Kirkwood's P. S. Your Cat Is Dead. As he returned to his West Hollywood apartment from a rehearsal on February 12, 1976, he was stabbed to death. The murder remains cloaked in mystery. A suspect who initially confessed later recanted, but was nevertheless convicted. Over the years, & Mineo's friends & relatives have claimed that the authorities, eager to solve a high profile murder case, charged the wrong man. He was just 37 years old when he was murdered.

Tonka Toy

He may have the most darling pigtails, but Sal will cut a bitch.

Sneakin' Up on You

Sterling Hayden and Scott Brady in Johnny Guitar (1954, Republic)

Randolph Scott and Cary Grant at their home, 1933

Sal Mineo and Don Johnson in the stage production of Fortune and Men's Eyes (1969)

Robert Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter, 1956

Who Killed Teddy Bear?

For all his good work in films, when I think of Sal Mineo... I think of this film. Back in the crazy 1990s, the Husband & I caught a rare showing of Who Killed Teddy Bear? at a revival house in the U District if Seattle. This grim little story is crammed with homoerotic references throughout, although the tale is a typical boy-stalks-girl thing. The censors didn’t object & since the outcome satisfied all the code requirements, the filmakers let everything else go. Mineo's wardrobe consists of snug underwear, skimpy swim briefs or form fitting tee shirts & skin tight jeans.



He's a shirtless body builder & porno book browser, too. In contrast, the object of is attentions is almost demure. Juliet Prowse, long past her glory days in Frank Sinatra & Elvis Presley musicals, gets a dance number with Mineo, but most of the time she's bundled up in nightgowns & bathrobes. She has a full length mirror in her bedroom reflecting onto the street & she doesn't hang up when she hears heavy breathing on her telephone. She is my kind of girl.



Who Killed Teddy Bear? teaches us all a lesson about straying to the seamy side of sexual obsession. When things heat up,the film offers lyrical visual interludes, suggesting the child like innocence that is destroyed by our, & by that I mean- my twisted sexual fantasies. Maybe these efforts are to distract the viewer from the cheap nightclub where Mineo & Prowse work, as well as the horrifying soundtrack. You can't beat this film for sordid moments: detective Jan Murray listens to recorded conversations of perverts while his real-life daughter Diane Moore tries to sleep in the next room, nightclub owner Elaine Stritch (Elaine Stritch!) protests too much when Prowse accuses her of a lesbian advance, & there’s the very weird relationship Mineo has with his sister. For a journey into sexual paranoia circa 1965, Who Killed Teddy Bear? has it all. Check it out!

Name Your Price

Sal is up for sale.

Who Killed Teddy Bear?

For all his good work in films, when I think of Sal Mineo I think of this film. Back in the crazy 1990s, the Husband & I caught a rare showing of Who Killed Teddy Bear? at a revival house in the U District if Seattle. This grim little story is crammed with homoerotic references throughout, although the story is typical boy-stalks-girl. The censors didn’t object & since the outcome satisfied all the code requirements, the filmakers let everything else go. Mineo's wardrobe consists of snug underwear, skimpy swim briefs or form-fitting tee shirts & skin-tight jeans.

He's a shirtless body builder & porno book browser, too. In contrast, the object of is attentions is almost demure. Juliet Prowse, long past her glory days in Frank Sinatra & Elvis Presley musicals, gets a dance number with Mineo, but most of the time she's bundled up in nightgowns & bathrobes. She has a full length mirror in her bedroom reflecting onto the street & she doesn't hang up when she hears heavy breathing on her telephone.

Who Killed Teddy Bear? strays from the seamy side of obsession with lyrical visual interludes, suggesting the child-like innocence that is destroyed by twisted sexual fantasies. Maybe these efforts are to distract rom the cheap nightclub where Mineo & Prowse work as well as the horrifying soundtrack. You can't beat this film for sordid moments: detective Jan Murray listens to recorded conversations of perverts while his real-life daughter Diane Moore tries to sleep in the next room, nightclub owner Elaine Stritch (!) protests too much when Prowse accuses her of a lesbian advance, & there’s the very weird relationship Mineo has with his sister. For a journey into sexual paranoia circa 1965, Who Killed Teddy Bear? has it all. Check it out!

Born On This Day- January 9th... Sal Mineo

He was born Salvatore Mineo, Jr. in the Bronx, New York on January 10, 1939.

I have a very odd connection to Sal Mineo. In 1976, I was actually an acquaintance of the man charged with his murder. This was nothing sordid. This man was pursuing one of my best friends. WCK3 & I were concerned for our friend because this mystery man seemed especially troubling. Sal Mineos’s death was major news in LA that February. WCK3 & I really had the chills when this creepy man, who had been aggressively working on our good friend, was charged with the movie star’s demise.


Sal Mineo was nominated for an Academy Award 2 times, & he enjoyed success as a stage director & recording artist, but he is mostly remembered for his performance in Rebel without a Cause & for the brutal murder that ended his life just as he was on the verge of reinventing himself & his career.

He made his first film appearance in 1955, & appeared in many screen productions, usually playing ethnic& troubled youths. Mineo's career was dominated by that single role that eventually achieved mythic status: Plato in Nicholas Ray's Rebel without a Cause (1955). Mineo's homosexuality was a fairly open secret even at the height of his Hollywood success. He was rumored to have had affairs with Peter Lawford, James Dean, & with Nicholas Ray during the filming of Rebel without a Cause.

With maturity, he sought to explore his homosexuality in his life & his art.  Although he appeared in several television productions & films (his last film was Planet Of The Apes), he found the theater more supportive of his aspirations & sensibilities.

In 1969, he directed the Broadway & West Coast productions of Fortune & Men's Eyes, John Herbert's exploration of power roles & homosexuality at a prison. Mineo's production was controversial for its nudity & simulated sex.


In 1976, Mineo was cast as a bisexual burgler in a Los Angeles production of James Kirkwood's P. S. Your Cat Is Dead. As he returned to his West Hollywood apartment from a rehearsal on February 12, 1976, he was stabbed to death. The murder remains cloaked in mystery. A suspect who initially confessed later recanted, but was nevertheless convicted. Over the years, & Mineo's friends & relatives have claimed that the authorities, eager to solve a high profile murder case, charged the wrong man. He was just 37 years old when he was murdered.