Pappy
Living the Dream
A date with an icon with one month to live
August 29th 1955, James Dean and Swiss born actress Ursula Andress attend the Thalian Ball at Ciro's nightclub, Los Angeles, California.
One month after these pictures were taken, James Dean was dead at the age of 24.
Ursula was then a nineteen-year-old starlet who had only recently arrived in this country and was under contract to Paramount. Until she learned to speak English better, Paramount was keeping her under wraps, hoping to eventually groom her as another Marlene Dietrich.
On their first date, Dean had come by for Ursula an hour late. "He come in room like wild animal and smell of everything I don't like," she complained in her German accent. "He stalked all through my house ... then sat down on the sofa and sat staring at me saying nothing." When they started talking, they immediately got in an argument over music.
They joined friends for dinner and afterward went to a club on Sunset Strip to hear jazz. The band allowed Dean to sit in with them, and he spent most of the evening playing the drums.
"I don't like to be alone, so I went home," Ursula said. About an hour later Dean drove up on his motorcycle, and after apologizing, convinced her to go for hot chocolate. They came back to her house, and sitting on the curb, talked until 5:00 A.M.
Throughout that summer, their romance was on again, off again. "I tried to love him, but it didn't work," Ursula later commented.
He had made three memorable films, "East of Eden," "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Giant." Only one, "East of Eden", had been released while he was alive.
This is my colourised version of a black, and white press shot taken at Ciro's nightclub, but I have posted a comparison image showing the original photograph at the top of the comments.
August 29th 1955, James Dean and Swiss born actress Ursula Andress attend the Thalian Ball at Ciro's nightclub, Los Angeles, California.
One month after these pictures were taken, James Dean was dead at the age of 24.
Ursula was then a nineteen-year-old starlet who had only recently arrived in this country and was under contract to Paramount. Until she learned to speak English better, Paramount was keeping her under wraps, hoping to eventually groom her as another Marlene Dietrich.
On their first date, Dean had come by for Ursula an hour late. "He come in room like wild animal and smell of everything I don't like," she complained in her German accent. "He stalked all through my house ... then sat down on the sofa and sat staring at me saying nothing." When they started talking, they immediately got in an argument over music.
They joined friends for dinner and afterward went to a club on Sunset Strip to hear jazz. The band allowed Dean to sit in with them, and he spent most of the evening playing the drums.
"I don't like to be alone, so I went home," Ursula said. About an hour later Dean drove up on his motorcycle, and after apologizing, convinced her to go for hot chocolate. They came back to her house, and sitting on the curb, talked until 5:00 A.M.
Throughout that summer, their romance was on again, off again. "I tried to love him, but it didn't work," Ursula later commented.
He had made three memorable films, "East of Eden," "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Giant." Only one, "East of Eden", had been released while he was alive.
This is my colourised version of a black, and white press shot taken at Ciro's nightclub, but I have posted a comparison image showing the original photograph at the top of the comments.
