TEXAS’ OWN “GONE WITH THE WIND” | GEORGE STEVENS’ 1956 EPIC– “GIANT”

Icons James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson sharing the silver screen– ‘nuff said? Not quite. While I love the glamour, legend, and lore behind the making of “Giant” (and trust me, we’ll get to that), it rings the social bell– truly ahead of its time, during the largely superficial values of the 1950s.

George Stevens’ 1956 masterpiece “Giant” has been described as– Texas’ own “Gone with the Wind.” Star-studded, sweeping and epic– that bravely chronicles the evolution of the Mexican people from a subservient status to a people worthy of equal rights, respect and dignity through their hard-fought, slow-earned absorption and acceptance in America.  It’s a story about social change and ethnic growing pains that was told on the big screen– before the issue was thrust front-and-center in American living rooms during the civil rights movement.

America has a history of making the path to assimilation and acceptance (in this fine country of ours that I love) a downright bloody one.  Hatred comes from fear–and fear is born of ignorance.  I’ve been down that road myself– most of us have at some point.  Like it or not.  Maybe the melting pot analogy is fitting here– throw it all in, boil out the bones, cook under high heat until palatable, and serve up warm.

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“In the beginning of “Giant,” the rancher Bick Benedict is always correcting his Eastern-bred wife for treatingthe Mexican servants as deserving of respect. By the film’s end, however, Benedict, played by a young Rock Hudson, comes to blows with a cafe owner attempting to remove a Spanish-speaking patron from his restaurant. Above all its themes, “Giant” is about social change. Hollywood for the first time addressed anti-Hispanic racism.‘Giant’ broke ground in the way it celebrated the fusion of Anglo and Hispanic culture in Texas– and anticipated the social gains that Mexican-Americans would make over the next generation. The movie is as much about race as it is about Texas.”

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—Benjamin Johnson (Author and Historian)

The Reata Ranch House (seen above in the background) in “Giant” is based on a actual Texas mansion– the Victorian era “Waggoner Mansion” that still stands today in Decatur, northwest of Fort Worth, Texas. George Stevens rejected the hacienda architecture of the traditional Texas ranch house (which is how the Benedict place is described in the Ferber novel). Stevens worried that a Spanish-looking house would be alien to non-Texan viewers. via The huge façade (of the Reata Ranch house) was built in Hollywood and shipped to Marfa on flatcars. It was erected in a corner of the Worth Evans ranch, one of the more imposing holdings of the region. And it was a strange sight, its towers visible for many miles, in the middle of the plains. As it was about a half enclosure rather well constructed, Stevens left it to serve the hospitable Mr. Evans as a hay barn. via

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1955– Elizabeth Taylor & James Dean in George Stevens’ “Giant.” –Image © Sunset Boulevard/Corbis

“We were working on’Giant’, and we’re out in the middle of Texas. It was a scene that takes place just before Dean discovers oil on his land, where Elizabeth Taylor comes by and he makes tea for her. It’s the first time Dean has ever acted with her. But even though we’re out in the desert in Marfa, there are a thousand people watching us film behind a rope. It’s a scene where Dean has a rifle on his back. He brings her in and makes her tea, and then, suddenly, he stops. And he walks a couple hundred feet away to where these people are watching us, and in front of all of them, he pisses– facing them, with his back to the set. Then he comes back in and does the scene. So, later, we’re driving back to Marfa, and I said, ‘Jimmy, I’ve seen you do a lot of strange things, man, but you really did it today. What was that all about?’ He said, ‘It was Elizabeth Taylor. I can’t get over my farm-boy upbringing. I was so nervous that I couldn’t speak. I had to pee, and I was trying to use that, but it wasn’t working. So I thought that if I could go pee in front of all those people, I would be able to work with her.'”  –costar Dennis Hopper via

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“Okay, so I’m in the theater in Santa Monica. My agent is there. The play hasn’t started yet when my agent gets up and leaves to take a call. I’m sitting there, and he comes back and he’s ashen. He says, ‘I have to tell you something, but promise me that you’ll stay here in the theater.’ I said, ‘Is it someone in my family?’ He said, ‘No, but are you going to stay here?’ ‘Yeah,’ I say. He says, ‘James Dean was just killed in a car accident.’ And at that moment, the lights went out on the stage, and the spotlight came up on this empty chair, and I flipped out. That was it. In fact, I think I hit my agent. I went crazy. It was a bad time. You know, I really believe in destiny, and that didn’t fit in… George Stevens wouldn’t let him race when we were making ‘Giant,’ which was obviously intelligent, but Dean only had two weeks to go, so Stevens said okay…” –Dennis Hopper via

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“One day there was a knock on the door, and it was James Dean.  He said, ‘You Bob Hinkle? I seen you over at the studio restaurant a couple of times.’ Well, I’d seen him, but I never had met him. He was kind of a loner, quiet.  He ate by himself.  He said, ‘I’d like to work with you in playing Jett Rink. I’d like you to help me create that character.’ He offered to pay me out of his own pocket but I said that’s not necessary.  I asked him when he wanted to start. He told me, ‘I’d like to start today.’ So we went to dinner that night at Barney’s Beanery over on La Cienega. I told Jimmy, ‘If you are going to be a Texan, the best way is to be a Texan all day long. Get up in the morning, put  on  your hat,  put on your boots. Dress like a Texan, eat the food Texans eat.’ Dean told me, ‘That’s what I want to do.'”  –Bob Hinkle, “Giant” dialogue coach via

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1955– Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson on the set of “Giant.”  –Image by © Sunset Boulevard/Corbis The two Hollywood stars became good friends while making “Giant”.  After Rock Hudson’s passing due to complications from the AIDS virus in 1985, Elizabeth Taylor became very active in raising awareness and funding for AIDS research. In 1993, Taylor was awarded the prestigious Jean Hercholt Humanitarian Award by the Academy of the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

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“George Stevens had problems with Jimmy only a couple of times and that’s been blown way out of proportion.  I was there when George shot that scene where Jimmy paces off the property that he inherited from Bick Benedict’s sister. We were shooting on a ranch, in Marfa, Texas, on location.  There were just four of us there that day including the cameraman.  It was like a second unit.”

“George told Dean what he wanted– ‘I just want you to walk right straight for that fence post,’ indicating that Jimmy should measure the land with his boot steps.  Dean said okay, and Stevens told the cameraman to roll it. Jimmy hardly got a few feet when Stevens yelled, ‘Cut.’   We all kind of stood there for a minute. Nobody said anything. Then, George took a page from the back of the script and started tearing it up into little pieces.  Without saying a word, Stevens threw a little piece of paper down and put a rock on it. Then he went  about ten feet and did the same thing. ‘What the hell is he doing?’ Jimmy asked me. I said, ‘I don’t have any idea.’ Stevens made this trail out to the fence post, then walked back, and said to Jimmy, ‘Do you think you could follow that line?’ Dean replied, ‘Yeah, I think I can.’  The camera started to roll. Jimmy walked over to the first rock, picked it up and tossed it away. Stevens yelled cut but Jimmy ignored him– he kept walking, picking up every one of those pieces of paper. Then he came back and dropped them right in the director’s lap.” (cont.)

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1955, Marfa, TX– James Dean staring up at windmill, on the set of “Giant.”  –Image © Frank Worth

“Bill, the cameraman, and I were dumbfounded. Dean stared at Stevens and said, ‘Look, if I need marks, I’ll put down my own marks. All you need to do is to tell me what you want me to do, like a director is supposed to. Then I’ll do it. Otherwise, I’m going to get my ass on a plane and go back to California.’ Stevens  reacted real calm. He said, ‘Well, okay, let’s just shoot it.'”

“The camera began rolling again. But this time Jimmy Dean was pissed off. He reared back, and began strutting over to this windmill instead of heading toward the fence.  I realized Dean was improvising, but the director wasn’t angry. He told the cameraman, ‘Stay on him, Bill. Stay with him.’  George Stevens was excited by Dean’s reaction, even though none of this was in the script. Dean climbed up on the windmill, crossed his legs, and sat up there. All the time, Stevens kept telling the cameraman, ‘Hold on to him. Keep on him.  You got him, haven’t you?  That’s perfect, perfect. Oh, man.’ I think George set up the whole scene.  He got the reaction from James Dean that he wanted. It was part of this reverse psychology that made him so good as a director.”  –Bob Hinkle, “Giant” dialogue coach via

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1955, Marfa Texas– James Dean as Jett Rink in a scene from the George Stevens’ epic film “Giant.” James Dean had the self-absorption of the young and ambitious actor. He must have been a trial to Stevens, who avoided him in town and actually announced wrong starting times for running of “rush” footage. Not that Stevens didn’t adore him. He rarely gave him a word of direction. Dean’s “takes” were almost always right. To others if not to Dean, Stevens was eloquently appreciative of his actor. via

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1955, Marfa , TX– A “Giant” undertaking– Actors, technicians, and equipment assembled for a scene in front of the Reata ranch house set.  Warner Bros. photographer Floyd McCarty took this picture on the set, shown courtesy of Frances Bearden (wife of the late Dallas artist and SMU art professor, Ed Bearden).  via

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1955, Marfa , TX–In this photo, Texas journalists, including the late Dallas Morning News art critic John Rosenfield (far right), conduct a press conference with George Stevens (far left) on the set. Warner Bros. photographer Floyd McCarty took this picture on the set, shown courtesy of Frances Bearden (wife of the late Dallas artist and SMU art professor, Ed Bearden).  via

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1955, Marfa , TX– James Dean with actors, crew, and onlookers between scenes. Director George Stevens opened up the set to thousands of bystanders who came from all over West Texas– a deliberate strategy to create early buzz about the film. Warner Bros. photographer Floyd McCarty took this picture on the set, shown courtesy of Frances Bearden (wife of the late Dallas artist and SMU art professor, Ed Bearden).  via

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James Dean as Jett Rink: three studies. Before shooting “Giant,” director George Stevens asked the late Dallas artist and SMU art professor Ed Bearden to draw the film’s storyboards. Stevens wanted a Texas native to conceive the characters visually in order to capture their authenticity. Bearden’s pen portraits were enlarged and displayed on the set as a guide to makeup and costume crews. The artist also went to Marfa during shooting to sketch on the “Giant” set. via

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1955– James Dean as Jett Rink in the epic film “Giant” working on the oil well at his Little Reata. “‘Giant’ was finished at the Warner studio on September 30, 1955. There was a celebration on the set and then James Dean, who played the all-vital role of Jett Rink, an analogue of any lavish oil millionaire you know, jumped into his European racer and sped away to a stock car race. His predilection for fast driving had caused Stevens at Marfa to issue his only edict, no cars on location and positively none, owned or borrowed, to be driven by Dean. It is tragic that Stevens’ authority had ended. Dean, at twenty-four, was killed in a crash that night.” via

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1955, Marfa, Texas– James Dean as Jett Rink on the set of  the George Stevens’ epic film, “Giant.” After James Dean was tragically killed in that car crash on Sept. 30th, 1955 (before production on “Giant” was finished), actor Nick Adams, who had a bit part in “Rebel Without a Cause”, was tapped to finish Dean’s voiceovers.

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1955, Marfa, Texas– James Dean as Jett Rink on the set of  the George Stevens’ epic film, “Giant.”

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1955, Marfa, Texas– James Dean as Jett Rink on the set of  the George Stevens’ epic film, “Giant.”

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1955– Rock Hudson and James Dean rehearsing a scene from “Giant” after Jett Rink strikes oil on Little Reata.  “Rock and Jimmy were a bit jealous of each other. Jimmy was jealous of Rock because Rock had all the good dialogue, and Rock was jealous of Jimmy because East of Eden had just been released and Dean was getting all the attention from the media. They never had words, but you could feel the jealousy. It would come out when Rock would say, “How is Jimmy to work with?” or Dean would say, “How do you like working with old Rock. You know, has he ever come on to you?” We all knew about Rock, but on the set he was as straight as could be.  There never was any inkling. He was a very nice guy, very easy going, always prepared.”  –Bob Hinkle, “Giant” dialogue coach via

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George Stevens with Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson on the set of the 1956 masterpiece, “Giant”.  –Image by © Sunset Boulevard/Corbis.  It’s hard to imagine Audrey Hepburn and John Wayne playing opposite in the leading roles, but they were early casting frontrunners.  Hudson’s performance in Giant scored him his only Oscar nomination (both he and James Dean lost Best Actor to “The King and I” star Yul Brynner) during his acting career that spanned over 30 years.

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Director George Stevens and James Dean reviewing set models for “Giant” prior to the start of filming. “Production began in June, 1955, at Charlottesville, Virginia, where scenes were quickly made for the early, genteel, F.F.V. life of Leslie before she married a most Texanish Texan and moved to Reata. This is a mythical town on the cattle plains, near enough to the border to be inhabited largely by Mexicans. Otherwise Reata was in the environs of Marfa, which location Stevens settled on after scouting likely spots in several southwestern states.” via

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1955–  Dennis Hopper and Rock Hudson on the set of “Giant”  –Image by © Sunset Boulevard/Corbis. Dennis Hopper (then 19), in his first major film role, played Hudson’s son, Jordan, whose contentious marriage to a Mexican woman made “Giant” one of the first mainstream Hollywood movies to address issues of racial prejudice. via

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1955–  Dennis Hopper (just 19 yrs old at the time) and Rock Hudson on the set of  the film “Giant.”

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1955, Marfa, TX– Mercedes McCambridge and James Dean on the set of “Giant”.  Her hat was a gift from Gary Cooper– Jimmy so loved the hat, that he often joked that he was going to steal it off her.

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1955– James Dean & Mercedes McCambridge in a scene from “Giant” –Image by © Bettmann/Corbis. Mercedes McCambridge earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination her role as Luz.

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1955, Marfa, Texas– (Lt.) James Dean hamming it up with “Giant” dialogue coach Robert Hinkle. via (Rt.) “Giant” author Edna Ferber, then 70, spins lassos on set with James Dean, with whom she became friends (he was reportedly working on a sculpture of Ferber at the time of his death). In a rare show of authorial force, she became a one-third production partner and received a cut of the movie’s profits. She was later said to have been underwhelmed by Stevens’ big-screen adaptation. –Image © Warner Bros./Courtesy TCM via

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“Giant was, to start with, Edna Ferber’s lampoon of Texas published in 1952. Nobody has claimed that Miss Ferber is a major literary figure. Her language is an odd, awkward blend of ‘slicks’ and ‘pulp.’ Her strokes are so broad as to look like caricatures to her many detractors. Miss Ferber, however, can afford to let the critical esteem go. In fact she can afford almost anything. She has grown rich from a succession of best sellers, one of which was Giant.”

“In Giant she spans thirty years in the story of Cattle Baron Bick Benedict, his gentle wife from Virginia, Leslie, and the rise of the flamboyant oil millionaire, Jett Rink. The caste problem of Mexican peons and the emergence of showy parvenus and their abrasive, bovine, mink-drenched wives are the other elements.”

“Actually Miss Ferber so juggled her people and locales as to create little more than a fanciful novel. But Texans, reading it in 1952, insisted it was a roman à clef involving the Klebergs of the King Ranch, Glenn McCarthy of Houston’s Shamrock Hotel with its incredibly bacchanalian opening, and other recognizable figures. The press reviewers spouted indignantly and the conversation on country estates fairly sizzled.”

“The sale of the book was enormous. The gaudy set, who either were subjects or hoped they were, could not help buying it. The blue-jean Texan also bought it and secretly cheered.”

–John Rosenfield, “Resident Arts” column, Autumn 1956 issue, Southwest Review.

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1955– Bob Hinkle (dialogue coach on the set of “Giant”) taught an eager James Dean some amazing Western rope tricks.  “He could do anything he set his mind to. He learned to ride and rope until he could twirl a lariat as well as Will Rogers.”  –Hedda Hopper

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1955– James Dean hanging out with a couple Texas kids on the set of George Stevens epic “Giant.”

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1955, Marfa, Texas– James Dean as Jett Rink on the set of  the George Stevens’ epic film, “Giant.”

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1955, Marfa, TX– Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean in a scene from George Stevens’ film, “Giant.” George Stevens had such luck with Elizabeth Taylor in 1951’s “A Place in The Sun” that he cast her once more in the epic, “Giant” years later. It was Taylor’s first epic film and she was playing opposite Rock Hudson and James Dean. She formed separate, intense relationships with both of the famous actors– who were quite different in regard to talent and personality. James Dean was deep and she was the first woman that he could open up to. Sometimes he revealed too much. His death after filming devastated her. With Rock Hudson, their relationship was filled with jokes, pranks and laughter. As with Montgomery Clift, Rock Hudson was gay and this seemed to strengthen their friendship. via

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1955, Marfa, TX– James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor on horseback during the filming of the epic “Giant.”  –Image © Allan Grant/TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images. “He was very afraid of being hurt.  He was afraid of opening up, in case it was turned around and used against him.”  –Elizabeth Taylor

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1955, Marfa, TX– Elizabeth Taylor flips for James Dean, on the set of “Giant.”  –Image © Frank Worth

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1955, Marfa, TX– James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor on horseback during the filming of the epic “Giant.”  –Image © Allan Grant/TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images. “At Marfa we first thought Dean rude, ill-mannered, and uncommunicative. Later we found him an easy interview subject — if one asked the questions and sustained the conversation. Sometimes he roughed things up, boy fashion, with the two “technical” men assigned to keep his accent Texan. Usually, though, he was alone. He mounted a horse and rode endlessly on the fringe of the location compound. Once he galloped up to a vintage automobile in the yard and tossed his hat into it. He recovered his hat and repeated the stunt. He did it again and again. It was obvious that he was rehearsing the visual movement of his next take.” via

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1955– A young and nubile Elizabeth Taylor on the set of “Giant”– shortly after having her 2nd child.

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1955, Marfa, Texas– On the set of “Giant”, James Dean leans against his dressing-room trailer. Wary of being typecast, he took a supporting role as a bitter, oil-rich Texan in the movie, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson. –Image © Hulton Archives/Getty Images

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1955– Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean (that same pose Jimmy is in with arms slung over his rifle would be seen in “Badlands” as Martin Sheen did his best James Dean impersonation throughout the entire film) in a scene from George Stevens’ “Giant.”  –Image © Floyd McCarty

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1955– James Dean in a Warner Bros. studio wardrobe test for the George Stevens’ film “Giant.”

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This iconic image (above) of James Dean as Jett Rink coolly stretched out in front of the Reata Ranch house in George Stevens’ 1956 masterpiece “Giant” was the inspiration behind Levi Strauss’ legendary 1981 “Travis” ad campaign and television commercial that launched the 501 jean for women. –Image © Floyd McCarty via

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Button fly.  Shrink-to-fit. Cut for women. Levi’s Womenswear. 1981– Levi’s “Giant” inspired ad campaign launching the iconic 501 jean for women.  The irony?  James dean wore Lee Riders throughout the film.  Did anyone know, or even care?  Nah. via