THEIR LAST SUPPERS III: Legends of Music and Movies and Their Final Meals

By Caldwell Andrew

Andrew Caldwell trained and worked firstly as a classically trained chef, then resort manager, in some fourteen countries around the World from Bermuda to Africa. Using his travels to avidly visit sixty other countries and their historical sites along the way, Andrew has walked Hadrian's wall,Machu Picchu, King Tut's tomb, pirate haunts in the C

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
• Release date: May 23, 2022
• ISBN: 9798885902175

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James Dean

SEPTEMBER 30, 1955 • CHOLAME, CALIFORNIA

Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today

James Dean

I

f ever anyone lived on after his demise, it was surely James Byron Dean. Although only in the public spotlight for a little more than two years, and with only one of his movies even seen before his death, Dean somehow managed to infiltrate himself into the planets psyche, and create legendary status for himself. Incredibly, over one million people joined his fan club after his sudden death. With an estate that still brings in over $5 million a year in memorabilia and membership fees, the hype generated by James Dean is much bigger than his achievements.

He grew up in a series of apartment houses as his father, a dentist, struggled to establish a viable practice before deciding to move the family to California when Dean was only five. When his mother died of cancer some four years later, the youngster was thrust into a curious relationship as his father delegated most of his upbringing to his aunt and uncle. Dean, although not an imposing physical specimen and relatively short, was an avid jock and excelled in basketball and other athletic pursuits while attending Santa Monica College. Although he initially studied pre-law, he was always a deep thinker, and he had identified his own talents at an early age as being more suited to drama, art, and music.

And so, when he joined UCLA in 1950, he majored in drama, frequently being lauded by his tutors for his participation in several productions. Their encouragement was all he needed to hear, and he swiftly abandoned any pretext of becoming an attorney and committed himself full- time to becoming an actor. Like so many fame hunters that flock to California looking to make an impact on the silver screen, Dean found himself swamped by the numbers of equally good- looking and even more talented youths. So after getting only a couple of bit parts in soon to be forgotten TV shows, and shooting a solitary Pepsi commercial, he decided to head to the only place that he thought could develop him properly as an actor and so in 1952, he relocated to New York. Officially listed at 5’5 tall by his agents, he was in fact even shorter, and his trademark sexy squint that would later cause his legions of female fans to swoon was actually only a result of having to shoot without his normal heavy rimmed glasses. Despite these drawbacks," Dean projected a raw intensity that was immediately recognized by another similar actor he met in New York, future movie legend Marlon Brando.

Dean began moving in Brando's Circle and rubbing shoulders with other up and coming actors such as Robert De Niro, which gave him a real passion to perfect his trade as a method actor. Like his hero Brando, Dean didn’t want to pretend to be hit, he wanted to be really HIT! He wanted to feel the pain in order to get the maximum effect out of every scene. He quickly got parts on the theatre circuit and began to stand out for his intense presentations. Tutored by Brando, who had now become more than a mentor, Dean got a lead role on Broadway in See the Jaguar, and in 1954, he starred in The Immoralist, where he was spotted by the director who had launched Brando's career, Elia Kazan. Kazan recognized in Dean the same smoldering intensity he had seen in Brando years earlier. And after talking to Dean in person, Kazan amazingly offered Dean the lead role in his upcoming movie East of Eden that would eventually be shot in 1955. Interestingly, it later came out that the role had been between Dean and another upcoming young talent, Paul Newman. In his first semi-starring role Dean played the son of a disapproving father, an easy role for him as it mirrored his relationship with his own father, who had demanded that Dean look for a job with real substance instead of chasing futile dreams in Hollywood. His work in this movie brought him an award for most promising newcomer. In his next movie, Dean virtually played himself, again. This time, as another rebellious teenager, opposite Natalie Wood, in the epic Rebel Without A Cause. This movie connected Dean with the new mood sweeping America's youth, as the post- war years of the 50s had brought unprecedented prosperity and freedom to kids who didn’t know what to do with it, so they began to mirror the antics of their new silver screen heroes. When Dean began eating a relatively new type of Italian food everyone demanded it, and the pizza explosion took off (his favorite was pepperoni). His love for speed, leather jackets, and T- shirts eventually created phenomenal sales of motorbike and racing apparel. Although marketed by his studio as a female sex object, Dean allegedly had several gay affairs that were always suppressed by his handlers as gay Hollywood stars of the day were firmly nailed in their closets by the studios. And although he was photographed with a bevy of beauties such as Ursula Andress, he was never really linked with any steady female relationship. Dean's main love was actually racing cars and he had already entered in several races over the previous couple of years, often finishing highly placed. However, his competitive streak demanded victory so he began using his paychecks to buy even faster vehicles, and after owning a McGhee racer, Dean started investing in an exclusive range of high performance Porsche Spyders, of which only about 90 were ever made. His recklessness brought an immediate driving ban from the studios, who worried that they may lose their latest cash cow, forbade him to race during any filming. The rebellious Dean got around the race car rule by forming a motorbike gang called ‘The Night Watch’, who got their kicks cruising the streets of Hollywood at night in the latest leather gear. His first paycheck for East of Eden, some $7000, had gone toward buying a palomino horse and his first Spyder car, a 356 model, which he quickly upgraded to the new more powerful 550 type, This would be the car that would eventually kill him. Looking to enhance its speed even more he hired famous customizer George Barris, who would later design the Bat- mobile, to soup up his new toy that he curiously named Little Bastard. Although he had done only a couple of relatively minor parts and some TV work, and only East of Eden had actually been released, the Hollywood marketing machine was in top gear, and the streets of Paris, London, and Rome were swamped with pictures of a brooding Dean in a variety of poses, even though Dean had never actually even visited Europe! With this huge media exposure and hype, Dean had become the face of a new global generation. His last movie saw him playing a mature adult, for the only time, in George Steven's acclaimed movie about Texas, Giant. His co-stars were Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson, who took an immediate dislike to this brooding newcomer some say because Dean rejected Hudson's advances. As usual, immediately immersing himself into the character, he moved to Texas and began to live ‘Texan’ eating Tex- Mex food every day at The Old Borunda Café which has since become the Borunda Bar & Grill, in a small town called Marfa, which became the headquarters for the film crew. In Giant, Dean gave arguably the greatest performance of his fledgling career, often contradicting the director's instructions and working himself into a rage to bring real anger to his performance. Until it was displaced by Superman in the 70s, Giant was Warner Brother's highest ever grossing movie. Ironically, on September 14th, Dean filmed a TV commercial in which he said, Drive safely, the life you save may be mine. But with the last day of filming behind him, Dean was released from his contract and could only think of racing. After having dinner in his usual place, in the kitchen of Villa Capri, he immediately took off to race his beloved Spyder in a race at Salinas airport near Palm Springs. Originally intending to tow the car behind his pickup, he decided, at the last minute, that he needed to familiarize himself some more with the car and drove it himself with his mechanic, Rolf Wuetherich, riding shotgun. Meanwhile, his voice coach and a photographer, who was going to film him racing, played catch-up in another vehicle. The impatient Dean sped off and soon lost his comrades and headed west on US 446 (later State Road 46), but in the early afternoon, he was pulled over by the Highway Patrol, who let him off with a warning and the admonition to take it easy. Pulling in for fuel, and to allow the others to catch up, he ate apple pie and a glass of milk at ‘Tips Coffee Shop’ where he ran into fellow racer Lance Reventlow. Taking off again and coming to the junction of Highway 41 and 466 at Cholame, he was hit head- on by student Donald Turnupseed who was making a left turn onto highway 41 and didn’t see the low slung silver car in the bright afternoon sun. Statements from the ambulance drivers reveal that Dean was breathing heavily when they arrived at the scene, although he had a broken neck. He was, however, pronounced dead on arrival at the Paso Robles Hospital at 5:59pm. His death became a huge media event and created huge shock waves, with hundreds of thousands joining his fan club immediately, and he became the first movie star to be nominated posthumously for an Academy Award for best male actor. He was laid to rest in the Park Cemetery at Fairmount, Indiana, and aluminum and steel memorial was wrapped around an oleander tree at Jack's ranch café, the only building near the crash site, it's still visited by thousands every year. As the memories of other Hollywood legends dim and fade, with stars such as Humphrey Bogart, who had a career of 27 years, Clark Gable with 30, and Gary Cooper with 35, long forgotten by today's generation, somehow the flame that Dean lit and passed to Elvis still burns bright, though his career in fact lasted only 24 months.

MENUS

James Dean lived the role of the starving actor, existing in the early years with bizarre sandwich combinations in which he combined ingredients such as lettuce, jelly, bacon, potato chips, and any other things he found in his fridge. He developed a taste for pizza and actually became the ‘face’ of the product and helped embed it into the American culture. He was notoriously shy off screen and would often go and eat in the kitchen of his favorite restaurants in order to avoid the lime light and other celebrities.

Spaghetti and Italian Meatballs

10 ounces ground veal

10 ounces ground pork

10 ounces ground beef

1/2 cup finely chopped fresh parsley

1 tsp garlic powder

1 cup Italian bread crumbs

1/4 cup milk

2 cans tomato sauce

2 cans tomato puree

1 can of crushed tomatoes, or 2 chopped fresh tomatoes

1 tsp fresh olive oil

4 oz grated parmesan cheese

2 tsp chopped oregano

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

2 eggs

Combine the pork, veal and beef, eggs, parsley, bread crumbs, milk, and garlic powder in a large bowl. Form into golf ball size meatballs. Fry gently in skillet with approximately 1/4" olive oil, place fresh cloves of garlic in the oil for flavor. Remove meatballs from oil, and let them rest. Mix tomato sauces in a large pot and cook gently for about 6 hours. Add a few spoonfuls of garlic infused oil from the meat pan for added taste. When ready to serve, place meatballs into the sauce and heat gently for ten to fifteen minutes, Serve sprinkled with onion, garlic powders, oregano, and Parmesan cheese.

(James Dean preferred handfuls of freshly grated mozzarella on his meatballs!)

RECOMMENDED SERVED WITH ANY OF THE FOLLOWING:

Chianti

Tuscan Reds

Barolo

Brunello

Nebiollo

Barbera d’Asti

Fresh Green Salad with Italian Vinaigrette

You can use any fresh green lettuces or combination of green salads for this dish. The beauty is the simple dressing.

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

1/4 tsp freshly chopped garlic

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp freshly chopped parsley

Sea salt and ground white or black pepper to taste

Whisk all the ingredients together for about ten seconds, then let stand in the fridge for about thirty minutes, allowing all the ingredients to meld together. Briefly mix together again before serving on the salad.

Tupac Amaru Shakur

SEPTEMBER 13, 1996 • LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

I love Shakespeare, he wrote some of the rawest stories man, I mean look at Romeo and Juliet, that's some serious ghetto shit

Tupac Shakur

T

upac Amaru Shakur was born in Harlem, New York to parents Afeni Shakur and Billy Garland. His original birth name was Lesane Parish Crooks. He actually never met his biological father Garland till he was an adult, and his mother carried him through her whole pregnancy while incarcerated in jail, where she was being held on bombing charges.

He was obviously fighting adversity from day one, particularly with the family he was born into. But nonetheless even with his undoubted talent held back by the drugs, crime and violence which constantly surrounded him in the ghettos of Brooklyn and the Bronx. He rose above the chaos, if only for a short time, and used his background as the root for dynamic music that would influence all of his short twenty five years of