| In California, things were a little complicated. His father opposed his choice to study acting and pushed him to study law at Santa Monica University. Jimmy avoided a clash. His father had remarried and Jimmy felt among strangers. He entered the University and studied law. Besides regular classes, he played basketball with the college team, became a member of the jazz club and drama department. But he wanted to attend UCLA because they had the best theater classes. The best in the country. When the classes ended, he came back to Fairmount for the holidays. He stayed at the farm for a month, and he discussed the matter with his aunt and uncle, and when he went back to Santa Monica, he announced to his father that he was going to go to UCLA. And he did. It was September of 1950. His qualifications were so good that he was admitted even though he did not have the required background to enter the University. He joined the Sigma Nu Fraternity and got a room. He started to attend Theater Art and Drama classes. And for the first time, he met people like himself, with the vocation to act, that loved the theater and knew the classic plays, an intellectual elite that never existed in Fairmount. On October 12 the class began rehearsals for Macbeth. Jimmy, playing Malcom, said: “Acting, at last is like a dream; please don’t let anybody wake me up,” he wrote to his uncle. The play opened on November 27th and ran through December 12. According to people who saw the play, Jimmy’s “Malcom” was right, but delivered with an unmistakable Indiana twang... Before Christmas 1950, Jimmy got his first professional job. Through an announcement on a student bulletin board, they offered $10 for an evening’s work in a TV commercial. Almost 100 went to the office on Hollywood Boulevard but only 12 were selected. It was a Pepsi-Cola commercial that had been preserved. A group of teenagers reveled around the piano which a very young Jimmy hits with enthusiasm. It was filmed on December 13, 1950. Inexplicably, the Pepsi Company has never re-released it since. The problems started at the fraternity and Jimmy was eager to get a place. A fellow from the theater classes whom Jimmy admired for his vast classical culture, had a similar problem and wanted to rent something together. His name is Bill Bast, and he recounts that on the evening when they got a suitable apartment, Jimmy announced: “ The only really important thing is immortality.” In order to pay for classes and rent, he got odd jobs. The most regular one was as a parking attendant. They had money problems and with their diet, too. Their diet was sparse, a bowl of oatmeal in the morning and another at night. Jimmy had the idea of inviting girls over to cook for them, and they would do a performance in return. This way, Hamlet, Othello, and other Shakespearian heroes became their “stomach support.” 1951 - In March, Jimmy performed in his first TV drama show. : “Hill Number One,” directed by Jerry Fairbanks and sponsored by Family Theater. It was a special Easter show where Jimmy played an unforgettable John the Apostle, who today is still fresh and original. What impresses us most is Jimmy’s intuition to act in front of the camera, and the strength he gave to his John. The television director Howard Hanks said: “You only have to put an actor on camera for a few seconds. If it does, it picks up everything he does. Stars are not necessarily great actors; they are great personalities and you can recognize that instantly.” Jimmy went to the taping with a cold. We can tell by his voice. Also, he is nervous, and says his lines before he should, and this gives added fervor to one of the most important conversations between the apostles. With Hill Number One, his first fan club was founded! The girls of the Immaculate Conception High (around 14 to 18 years of age) called Isabelle Draesmer, Jimmy’s agent, to invite him to a party in his honor. He was accompanied by Bill; there was cake, autographs... but no pictures! Sorry. At that time Jimmy was expressing his creativeness in painting, sculpting and in wooden mobiles, astonishing Bill. Through his agent, Jimmy got three small acting jobs: “Fixed Bayonets,” “Sailors Beware” (just 4 or 5 minutes of appearance, memorable), and “Has Anybody Seen My Gal?”, with just a sentence for Jimmy, full of grace and, of course, the usual “Dean Charm”. In 1951, the most important dramatic TV shows were performing in New York. So the most prestigious acting classes were there: The American Academy of Dramatic Art, The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater, American Theater Wing’s Seminars, and, of course, the Actors Studio. Jimmy wanted to go to New York because of that, so he consulted his uncle and aunt by mail and when he received approval, he left Los Angeles. It was the beginning October. He passed through Fairmount some days to visit. He got to Manhattan in the middle of October with just a bag and his bongo on his shoulders. Jimmy’s bongo drums are now on display at the Fairmount Historical Museum. “New York overwhelmed me,” he confessed. During the first weeks he said he was so confused that he used to walk just two blocks, from his hotel (Iroquois Hotel, Room 82) to Times Square. He said he watched three movies a day to escape from his loneliness and depression, spending $150 of the $200 he brought with him. So it was quite urgent and necessary to get a job. He started to frequent Jerry’s Bar and there he got some friends; one was the dance student Elizabeth “Dizzy” Sheridan, and Jimmy began to spend long hours with her. A Dumont Barber Shop hairdresser remembers Jimmy in that time as a pretty boy, always looking for a job. He wanted to take classes at the Actors Studio. He became an insomniac. Dumont Barber Shop is still at the lobby of the Iroquois Hotel. |
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