The Porthole Windows of James Dean and Marlon Brando
When James Dean rented a West 68th Street apartment in New York City, he was very excited that the fifth-floor room had round porthole windows. These reminded him of a round window he had seen in a picture of Marlon Brando that he had saved, and he took to telling people that his apartment had been Brando’s. I looked everywhere for that photo and never found it. Then, today, Pinterest sent it to me in the daily digest of photos I receive despite not having a Pinterest account that I am aware of and never using the site.
After researching the image as best I was able, the caption in one reprint says it was a 1951 colorized photo of Brando on the set of A Streetcar Named Desire that had been published in a movie magazine. As you can see from Dennis Stock’s Life magazine photo of Dean’s apartment, the window is not the same.
Meanwhile, the man who now lives in Dean’s former apartment told the West Side Rag this week that he believes Dean’s ghost haunts the rent-controlled room and moves furniture.
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