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​A longstanding rumor associated James Dean with BDSM, particularly a claim that Dean enjoyed receiving cigarette burns and had the nickname “The Human Ashtray.” The story appeared in Kenneth Anger’s original edition of Hollywood Babylon (1959, English trans. 1965) and was repeated in Anger’s Hollywood Babylon II (1984), from which Darwin Porter and Danforth Price used it in their 2016 pseudo-biography, James Dean: Tomorrow Never Comes. Although the claim quickly entered into entertainment industry lore, the source of the claim had been obscured by a particularly complex literary heritage.
 
The English translation nickname “Human Ashtray” likely derived from a surrealist piece of art Dean made with that title, though Anger originally used a slightly different French phrase (“Ashtray of Flesh”) that was also the title of surrealist Achille Chavée’s 1936 poetry collection. Most writers who repeated the BDSM claim knew it from its inclusion in Venable Herndon’s 1974 Dean biography James Dean: A Short Life. However, Herndon had quoted one line from the suppressed 1965 English translation, which inaccurately summarized the 1959 French original, a rare text that no writer or researcher read. Later, Anger combined these later writers’ expansions into a composite for his 1984 sequel, creating a circular conversation. The original claim, however, can be traced back to Anger’s friend Ned Rorem, a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, who had recorded in his diary his lament that gay men preferred to dress like James Dean than in drag, along with evidence that gay men interested in BDSM had adopted Dean as an icon because they shared an affectation of pretended masculinity.
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​Ned Rorem, New York Diary (George Braziller, 1967), 14 (entry for spring 1956).

America, the new compulsion—male impersonation. In his mépris [= contempt] of women a young man refuses to caricature them; he becomes instead a male impersonator by affecting leather and dungarees (male symbols, it seems). He attends S. & M. meetings (i.e., sadomasochist or slave-master) where truly gory doings are rumored. Yet, when I question Bill Flanagan about the details, the Third Avenue bartender, overhearing, intrudes: “Don’t kid yourself—they just hit each other with a lot of wet Kleenex!” Perhaps it’s in mimicry of divine James Dean (already immortalized by our Frank O’Hara); still, it’s a cause and not an effect: James Dean would not have existed without them.

​Kenneth Anger, Hollywood Babylone (Pauvert, 1959), 10-11, 223.

Original French Text
Les légions des fans sont constituees par cette jeunesse des high schools—les fameaux teenagers—qui a fait preuve à l’occasion de la mort de James Dean d’une mentalité inquiétante, morbide jusqu’à la nécrophilie. Pas le moins surprenant était « l’affaire » du masque de Dean: après sa mort en 1955 on en vendit des milliers à travers la Etats-Unis—quarante $ pièce—moulés en Miracleflesh, plastique flexible qui se réchauffé au toucher, imitant la chair et que les jeunes filles fétichistes en deuil apportaient au lit: autant d’apprenties Salomé…
 
Il faut d’ailleurs signaler l’existence d’un autre culte de Dean, à l’ombre: Jimmy était aussi pleuré par la Pédale, qui a cru reconnaitre un des siens, et surtrout regretté par le Chapitre Sadomasochiste, qui affirmait que Jimmy n’obtenait sa jouissance qu’avec courroies, coups de cravache et savants brûlures de cigarette: d’où son sobriquet, Le Cendrier de Chair…
​
 
A part ces « homages » à Dean, des centaines de teenagers ont juré de se jeter du haut d’une falaise dans leurs bagnoles, pour l’anniversarie de sa mort, mettant les pays en émoi et la police sur les dents (l’heure venue, pourtant, ils se sont dégonflés). Les parents s’effraint de ces outrances de leurs rejetons; les mères oublient-elles donc leur propre hystérie à la mort de Valentino, cet autre dieu disparu en beauté du temps de leur jeunesse? C’est, après tout, dans la nature des choses.
 
[…]
 
James Dean, Le Cendrier de Chair, à son tour, prend presque figure de has-been: parmi les légions de teenagers, son culte semble définitivement « enterré ». Si le buste de la star est toujours en place dans le « Hall des Immortels » de l’Université de Princeton, entre Platon et Socrate, les emblems, fétiches et masques en Miracleflesh son échus aux frères et soeurs cadets, étranges jouets pour remplacer les pistolets atomiques et les poupées. (La Pédale, pourtant, s’en souviendra encore, semble-t-il.) La farandole des fans qui défilèrent devant son tombeau, les jeunes filles « inconsolables » qui portèrent le deuil à la première de Géant ont fini par délasser l’ombre pour la proie, à la recherche de nouvelles idoles, pour nouveaux cultes.
My Translation
The legions of fans are made up of these high school youths—the famous teenagers—who, on the occasion of the death of James Dean, showed a disturbing mentality, morbid to the point of necrophilia. Not the least surprising was the “business” of the mask of Dean: after his death in 1955 thousands of them were sold across the United States—forty dollars each—molded in Miracleflesh, a flexible plastic that warms to the touch, imitating flesh, and which young fetishistic girls in mourning brought to bed: so many apprentices of Salomé…
 
The existence should also be noted of another cult of Dean, in the shadows: Jimmy was also mourned by the homosexual, who thought he recognized one of his own, and he was especially grieved by the sadomasochistic set, who affirmed that Jimmy obtained his enjoyment only with belts, blows of the riding crop and skillful cigarette burns: hence his nickname, the Ashtray of Flesh…
 
As part of these “tributes” to Dean, hundreds of teenagers swore to jump off a cliff in their cars, on the anniversary of his death, putting the country in turmoil and the police on the lookout (when the time came, however, they chickened out). Parents were frightened by these excesses of their offspring; did the mothers therefore forget their own hysteria at the death of Valentino, that other god who disappeared in beauty from the time of their youth? It is, after all, in the nature of things.
 
[…]
 
James Dean, the Ashtray of Flesh, in turn, almost takes on the appearance of a has-been: among the legions of teenagers, his cult seems definitively “buried.” If the bust of the star is still in place in the “Hall of the Immortals” of Princeton University, between Plato and Socrates, the emblems, fetishes and masks in Miracleflesh have fallen to the younger brothers and sisters, strange toys to replace atomic guns and dolls. (The homosexual, however, will still remember him, it seems.) The lively dance of fans who paraded in front of his tomb, the “inconsolable” young girls who wore mourning at the premiere of Giant ended up deserting the shadow to catch their prey,* in search of new idols, for new cults.
* Anger uses a play on words reversing an idiomatic French expression, “to let go of the prey for the shadow,” that carries a meaning something like “to give up what one has to go chasing rainbows.” His meaning is that they are giving up the ethereal for something earthbound—the living.

​Kenneth Anger, Hollywood Babylon (Associated Professional Services, 1965), 181, 270

[Many men] “dig” sex assorted with beatings, boots, belts and bondage, like James Dean--spiced with knowing cigarette burns (which gave Jimmy his underground nickname: The Human Ashtray) . . . 
 
[…]
 
James Dean, the flesh ash tray, almost becomes a has-been; among the legions of teenagers, his cult seems definitely “buried.” If the bust of the star is still in place in the “Hall of Immortals” at the University of Princeton, between Plato and Socrates, the emblems, fetishes and masks in miracle flesh have are handed down to younger brothers and sisters, odd toys to replace atomic pistols and dolls. (La Pedale, though, apparently still remembers). The procession of fans who filed past his tomb, the “inconsolable” young girls who wore mourning at the premiere of Giant, have deserted the shadow in order to pursue new idols, and new cults.

​Venable Herndon, James Dean: A Short Life (Signet, 1974), 48, 64.

Perhaps this drawing was partially responsible for Kenneth Anger’s assertion, in Hollywood Babylon, that Jimmy dug “sex assorted with beatings, boots, belts and bondage--spiced with knowing cigarette burns (which gave Jimmy his underground nickname: The Human Ashtray) . . . (ellipses in original)
 
[…]
 
Oral history at some of the leather-and-chain bars on the New York waterfront holds that Jimmy did some hustling himself during the early Hollywood days, that he was, in fact, an “instant hit with the fist-fuck set” because he would do things no one else dared to do.

​Kenneth Anger, Hollywood Babylon II (Plume, 1984), 135.

Dean had taken to hanging out at the Club, an East Hollywood leather bar. The predatory night prowler, who dug anonymous sex, had recently discovered the magic world of S and M. He had gotten into beating, boots, belts, and bondage scenes. Regulars at the Club tagged him with a singular moniker: the Human Ashtray. When stoned, he would bare his chest and beg for his masters to stub out their butts on it. After his fatal car crash, the coroner made note of the “constellation of keratoid scars” on Jimmy's torso.
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    • Television Reviews >
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    • Collection: Ancient Alien Fraud >
      • Chariots of the Gods at 50
      • Secret History of Ancient Astronauts
      • Of Atlantis and Aliens
      • Aliens and Ancient Texts
      • Profiles in Ancient Astronautics >
        • Erich von Däniken
        • Robert Temple
        • Giorgio Tsoukalos
        • David Childress
      • Blunders in the Sky
      • The Case of the False Quotes
      • Alternative Authors' Quote Fraud
      • David Childress & the Aliens
      • Faking Ancient Art in Uzbekistan
      • Intimations of Persecution
      • Zecharia Sitchin's World
      • Jesus' Alien Ancestors?
      • Extraterrestrial Evolution?
    • Collection: Skeptic Magazine >
      • America Before Review
      • Native American Discovery of Europe
      • Interview: Scott Sigler
      • Golden Fleeced
      • Oh the Horror
      • Discovery of America
      • Supernatural Television
      • Review of Civilization One
      • Who Lost the Middle Ages
      • Charioteer of the Gods
    • Collection: Ancient History >
      • Prehistoric Nuclear War
      • The China Syndrome
      • Atlantis, Mu, and the Maya
      • Easter Island Exposed
      • Who Built the Sphinx?
      • Who Built the Great Pyramid?
      • Archaeological Cover Up?
    • Collection: The Lovecraft Legacy >
      • Pauwels, Bergier, and Lovecraft
      • Lovecraft in Bergier
      • Lovecraft and Scientology
    • Collection: UFOs >
      • Alien Abduction at the Outer Limits
      • Aliens and Anal Probes
      • Ultra-Terrestrials and UFOs
      • Rebels, Queers, and Aliens
    • Scholomance: The Devil's School
    • Prehistory of Chupacabra
    • The Templars, the Holy Grail, & Henry Sinclair
    • Magicians of the Gods Review
    • The Curse of the Pharaohs
    • The Antediluvian Pyramid Myth
    • Whitewashing American Prehistory
    • James Dean's Cursed Porsche
  • The Library
    • Ancient Mysteries >
      • Ancient Texts >
        • Mesopotamian Texts >
          • Eridu Genesis
          • Atrahasis Epic
          • Epic of Gilgamesh
          • Kutha Creation Legend
          • Babylonian Creation Myth
          • Descent of Ishtar
          • Resurrection of Marduk
          • Berossus
          • Comparison of Antediluvian Histories
        • Egyptian Texts >
          • The Shipwrecked Sailor
          • Dream Stela of Thutmose IV
          • The Papyrus of Ani
          • Classical Accounts of the Pyramids
          • Inventory Stela
          • Manetho
          • Eratosthenes' King List
          • The Story of Setna
          • Leon of Pella
          • Diodorus on Egyptian History
          • On Isis and Osiris
          • Famine Stela
          • Old Egyptian Chronicle
          • The Book of Sothis
          • Horapollo
          • Al-Maqrizi's King List
        • Teshub and the Dragon
        • Hermetica >
          • The Three Hermeses
          • Kore Kosmou
          • Corpus Hermeticum
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          • Hermetic Fragments
          • Prologue to the Kyranides
          • The Secret of Creation
          • Ancient Alphabets Explained
          • Prologue to Ibn Umayl's Silvery Water
          • Book of the 24 Philosophers
          • Aurora of the Philosophers
        • Hesiod's Theogony
        • Periplus of Hanno
        • Zoroastrian Fatal Winter
        • Ctesias' Indica
        • Sanchuniathon
        • Sima Qian
        • Syncellus's Enoch Fragments
        • The Book of Enoch
        • Slavonic Enoch
        • Sacred History of Euhemerus
        • Sepher Yetzirah
        • Fragments of Artapanus
        • Tacitus' Germania
        • De Dea Syria
        • Aelian's Various Histories
        • Julius Africanus' Chronography
        • Fragments of Bruttius
        • Eusebius' Chronicle
        • Chinese Accounts of Rome
        • Ancient Chinese Automaton
        • The Orphic Argonautica
        • Fragments of Panodorus
        • Annianus on the Watchers
        • The Watchers and Antediluvian Wisdom
      • Medieval Texts >
        • Medieval Legends of Ancient Egypt >
          • Medieval Pyramid Lore
          • John Malalas on Ancient Egypt
          • Fragments of Abenephius
          • Akhbar al-zaman
          • Ibrahim ibn Wasif Shah
          • Murtada ibn al-‘Afif
          • Al-Maqrizi on the Pyramids
          • Al-Suyuti on the Pyramids
        • The Hunt for Noah's Ark
        • Byzantine World Chronicle
        • Isidore of Seville
        • Book of Liang: Fusang
        • Chronicle to 724
        • Agobard on Magonia
        • Pseudo-Diocles Fragmentum
        • Book of Thousands
        • Voyage of Saint Brendan
        • Power of Art and of Nature
        • Travels of Sir John Mandeville
        • Yazidi Revelation and Black Book
        • Al-Biruni on the Great Flood
        • Voyage of the Zeno Brothers
        • The Kensington Runestone (Hoax)
        • Islamic Discovery of America
        • Popol Vuh
        • The Aztec Creation Myth
      • Lost Civilizations >
        • Atlantis >
          • Plato's Atlantis Dialogues >
            • Timaeus
            • Critias
          • Fragments on Atlantis
          • Panchaea: The Other Atlantis
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          • Atlantis as Biblical History
          • Sardinia and Atlantis
          • Atlantis and Nimrod
          • Santorini and Atlantis
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          • Atlantis and the Sea Peoples
          • W. Scott-Elliot >
            • The Story of Atlantis
            • The Lost Lemuria
          • The Lost Atlantis
          • Atlantis in Africa
          • How I Found Atlantis (Hoax)
          • Termier on Atlantis
          • The Critias and Minoan Crete
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          • Further Responses to Termier
          • Flinders Petrie on Atlantis
          • Amazing New Light (Hoax)
        • Lost Cities >
          • Miscellaneous Lost Cities
          • The Seven Cities
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          • Manuscript 512
          • The Idolatrous City of Iximaya (Hoax)
          • The 1885 Moberly Lost City Hoax
          • The Elephants of Paredon (Hoax)
        • OOPARTs
        • Oronteus Finaeus Antarctica Map
        • Caucasians in Panama
        • Jefferson's Excavation
        • Fictitious Discoveries in America
        • Against Diffusionism
        • Tunnels Under Peru
        • The Parahyba Inscription (Hoax)
        • Mound Builders
        • Gunung Padang
        • Tales of Enchanted Islands
        • The 1907 Ancient World Map Hoax
        • The 1909 Grand Canyon Hoax
        • The Interglacial Period
        • Solving Oak Island
      • Religious Conspiracies >
        • Pantera, Father of Jesus?
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        • Rosslyn Chapel and the 'Prentice's Pillar
        • The Many Wives of Jesus
        • Templar Infiltration of Labor
        • Louis Martin & the Holy Bloodline
        • The Life of St. Issa (Hoax)
        • On the Person of Jesus Christ
      • Giants in the Earth >
        • Fossil Origins of Myths >
          • Fossil Teeth and Bones of Elephants
          • Fossil Elephants
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          • Giants' Bones Dug Out of the Earth
          • Fossils and the Supernatural
          • Fossils, Myth, and Pseudo-History
          • Man During the Stone Age
          • Fossil Bones and Giants
          • Mastodon, Mammoth, and Man
          • American Elephant Myths
          • The Mammoth and the Flood
          • Fossils and Myth
          • Fossil Origin of the Cyclops
          • History of Paleontology
        • Fragments on Giants
        • Manichaean Book of Giants
        • Geoffrey on British Giants
        • Alfonso X's Hermetic History of Giants
        • Boccaccio and the Fossil 'Giant'
        • Book of Howth
        • Purchas His Pilgrimage
        • Edmond Temple's 1827 Giant Investigation
        • The Giants of Sardinia
        • Giants and the Sons of God
        • The Magnetism of Evil
        • Tertiary Giants
        • Smithsonian Giant Reports
        • Early American Giants
        • The Giant of Coahuila
        • Jewish Encyclopedia on Giants
        • Index of Giants
        • Newspaper Accounts of Giants
        • Lanier's A Book of Giants
      • Science and History >
        • Halley on Noah's Comet
        • The Newport Tower
        • Iron: The Stone from Heaven
        • Ararat and the Ark
        • Pyramid Facts and Fancies
        • Argonauts before Homer
        • The Deluge
        • Crown Prince Rudolf on the Pyramids
        • Old Mythology in New Apparel
        • Blavatsky on Dinosaurs
        • Teddy Roosevelt on Bigfoot
        • Devil Worship in France
        • Maspero's Review of Akhbar al-zaman
        • Arabic Names of Egyptian Kings
        • The Holy Grail as Lucifer's Crown Jewel
        • The Mutinous Sea
        • The Rock Wall of Rockwall
        • Fabulous Zoology
        • The Origins of Talos
        • Mexican Mythology
        • Chinese Pyramids
        • Maqrizi's Names of the Pharaohs
      • Extreme History >
        • Roman Empire Hoax
        • America Known to the Ancients
        • American Antiquities
        • American Cataclysms
        • England, the Remnant of Judah
        • Historical Chronology of the Mexicans
        • Maspero on the Predynastic Sphinx
        • Vestiges of the Mayas
        • Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel
        • Origins of the Egyptian People
        • The Secret Doctrine >
          • Volume 1: Cosmogenesis
          • Volume 2: Anthropogenesis
        • Phoenicians in America
        • The Electric Ark
        • Traces of European Influence
        • Prince Henry Sinclair
        • Pyramid Prophecies
        • Templars of Ancient Mexico
        • Chronology and the "Riddle of the Sphinx"
        • The Faith of Ancient Egypt
        • Remarkable Discoveries Within the Sphinx (Hoax)
        • Spirit of the Hour in Archaeology
        • Book of the Damned
        • Great Pyramid As Noah's Ark
        • The Shaver Mystery >
          • Lovecraft and the Deros
          • Richard Shaver's Proofs
    • Alien Encounters >
      • US Government Ancient Astronaut Files >
        • Fortean Society and Columbus
        • Inquiry into Shaver and Palmer
        • The Skyfort Document
        • Whirling Wheels
        • Denver Ancient Astronaut Lecture
        • Soviet Search for Lemuria
        • Visitors from Outer Space
        • Unidentified Flying Objects (Abstract)
        • "Flying Saucers"? They're a Myth
        • UFO Hypothesis Survival Questions
        • Air Force Academy UFO Textbook
        • The Condon Report on Ancient Astronauts
        • Atlantis Discovery Telegrams
        • Ancient Astronaut Society Telegram
        • Noah's Ark Cables
        • The Von Daniken Letter
        • CIA Psychic Probe of Ancient Mars
        • CIA Search for the Ark of the Covenant
        • Scott Wolter Lawsuit
        • UFOs in Ancient China
        • CIA Report on Noah's Ark
        • CIA Noah's Ark Memos
        • Congressional Ancient Aliens Testimony
        • Ancient Astronaut and Nibiru Email
        • Congressional Ancient Mars Hearing
        • House UFO Hearing
      • Ancient Extraterrestrials >
        • Premodern UFO Sightings
        • The Moon Hoax
        • Inhabitants of Other Planets
        • The Fall of the Sky
        • Blavatsky on Ancient Astronauts
        • The Stanzas of Dzyan (Hoax)
        • Aerolites and Religion
        • What Is Theosophy?
        • Plane of Ether
        • The Adepts from Venus
      • A Message from Mars
      • Saucer Mystery Solved?
      • Orville Wright on UFOs
      • Interdimensional Flying Saucers
      • Poltergeist UFOs
      • Flying Saucers Are Real
      • Report on UFOs
    • The Supernatural >
      • The Devils of Loudun
      • Sublime and Beautiful
      • Voltaire on Vampires
      • Demonology and Witchcraft
      • Thaumaturgia
      • Bulgarian Vampires
      • Religion and Evolution
      • Transylvanian Superstitions
      • Defining a Zombie
      • Dread of the Supernatural
      • Vampires
      • Werewolves and Vampires and Ghouls
      • Science and Fairy Stories
      • The Cursed Car
    • Classic Fiction >
      • Lucian's True History
      • Some Words with a Mummy
      • The Coming Race
      • King Solomon's Mines
      • An Inhabitant of Carcosa
      • The Xipéhuz
      • Lot No. 249
      • The Novel of the Black Seal
      • The Island of Doctor Moreau
      • Pharaoh's Curse
      • Edison's Conquest of Mars
      • The Lost Continent
      • Count Magnus
      • The Mysterious Stranger
      • The Wendigo
      • Sredni Vashtar
      • The Lost World
      • The Red One
      • H. P. Lovecraft >
        • Dagon
        • The Call of Cthulhu
        • History of the Necronomicon
        • At the Mountains of Madness
        • Lovecraft's Library in 1932
      • The Skeptical Poltergeist
      • The Corpse on the Grating
      • The Second Satellite
      • Queen of the Black Coast
      • A Martian Odyssey
    • Classic Genre Movies
    • Miscellaneous Documents >
      • The Balloon-Hoax
      • A Problem in Greek Ethics
      • The Migration of Symbols
      • The Gospel of Intensity
      • De Profundis
      • The Life and Death of Crown Prince Rudolf
      • The Bathtub Hoax
      • Crown Prince Rudolf's Letters
      • Position of Viking Women
      • Employment of Homosexuals
    • Free Classic Pseudohistory eBooks
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