Dizzy & Jimmy: My Life with James Dean: A Love Story [Hardcover]

Liz Sheridan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 19, 2000

MKT_DESCRIP:'A respected actress discusses for the first time her affair with and engagement to the late great James Dean, chronicling her meeting with the still little-known actor in New York and detailing their split when he became a Hollywood star. 30,000 first printing.'. LC_DESCRIP:''. BIBLIOG:''. EDN_NOTE:''. LEXILE_CDE:''.DDC_SRC:'LC'. LCC_SRC:'LC'.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sheridan, best known as Jerry Seinfeld's TV mother, reveals her love affair with James Dean in a brief book replete with moony dialogue, prescient remarks about Dean's driving habits and a 1950s New York setting. The effervescent Sheridan, known as Dizzy, was a dancer living in a theater district residence hall for aspiring actresses when she met the 21-year-old Dean, an Indiana farm boy who had come to New York via Hollywood. Their instant attraction was soon consummated. Sheridan portrays Dean as a sometimes corny romantic, who immediately began talking about being "together forever" and who needed "always to touch and be touched." While Dizzy managed to work, dancing in nightclubs all over New York or in summer stock musicals, Jimmy was either more unlucky or more choosy, and brooded over his disappointments. Though she touches on Dean's moody episodes and regular, unexplained disappearances, as well as his disclosure of a homosexual liaison with a California producer helpful to his career, Sheridan doesn't claim that her memoir is a complete account of Dean's New York years. (For example, there's no mention of his acceptance into the Actors Studio in November 1951.) When Dean was cast in a bound-for-Broadway production, he moved easily away from Sheridan. Dean got enthusiastic notices in See the Jaguar, although the play closed in a few days, and the affair never rekindled. Sheridan's feelings for Dean, her pain upon their separation and on his untimely death a few years later, are sweetly rendered and seem genuine, although the details are filtered though a romanticized lens. B&w photos not seen by PW. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Two love stories. One funny and sweet. One curious but poignant. Both authors linked by a coincidence: they were both characters on the TV sitcom Seinfeld. Before Stiller played George Costanza's father on Seinfeld, he was one half of the comedy team Stiller and Meara, a successful collaboration, in part because Anne Meara was his wife. This is not only the story of Stiller's rise from poverty to become a successful actor and comedian but also the story of a "showbiz" marriage, the unlikely pairing of a Jewish boy and an Irish girl who struggled to stay together for over 30 years. It's a very straightforward memoir with lots of insider, "showbizzy" anecdotes.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: HarperEntertainment; 1st edition (September 19, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060393831
• ISBN-13: 978-0060393830
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #285,581 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Intensely Beautiful Love Story . . . A Classic Romance, November 3, 2000

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 110,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dizzy & Jimmy: My Life with James Dean: A Love Story (Hardcover)

This book clearly deserves many more than five stars! It is one of the best books I have read in many years.

Romantic novels and love stories are not my first choice for fiction, usually because the authors cannot carry off the stories in effective ways. To enjoy these novels and plays, you usually have to overlay your own sense of romance . . . because the authors don't provide enough of their own.

Imagine my pleasure when I found this "true" romance that exceeds all but a handful of fictional ones. What a great treat!

"A long time ago . . . I fell in love with Jimmy Dean and he fell in love with me." You can see the fairy tale quality of the book in this simple sentence. What woman who felt a closeness to James Dean can help but be attracted by this opening? Liz Sheridan has the great gift of being a romantic person, and of being able to write about that perspective in a way that brings the reader into the relationship.

As a man who admired James Dean's acting, I was curious to learn more about his life as an aspiring actor and was greatly rewarded. Dean was even more interesting in real life than he was on the stage and screen.

Together, Liz (Dizzy) Sheridan and James (Jimmy) Dean were unbelievably alive and in love . . . in a way that almost anyone can admire and perhaps even envy a bit. "It was 1951, and he hadn't yet become James Dean, public property . . . the Rebel, the Icon." They would sing corny songs together, split a beer and talk until the bar closed, and dance down the streets like Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain. Two talented theatrical people were always on-stage with each other, finishing each other's lines and hugging with laughter.

They had almost no money, and met by accident while Dean was waiting to get some food from a new friend in Dizzy's chaperoned boarding house. Dean borrowed her umbrella, probably to have an excuse to see her again the next day. Within hours, they were inseparable. The physical, emotional, and psychic bonds were powerful. "He was shy and broke and he mumbled. And I adored him." In fact, one of the charms of the book is that it portrays the transforming power of love. Dizzy's emotional and financial support meant a lot to Dean at a time when he was prey to those who wanted to exploit him, and he went to unsuccessful audition after unsuccessful audition.

Dizzy was a dancer, who often appeared in an Apache trio. She has a kinesthetic and open approach to everything, which made her a perfect fit for Dean. Whatever mood came over him, she was ready . . . whether this was becoming lovers, dropping everything to hitchhike to Indiana, or scraping up the money to move in together. "Someone needs to remember the Jimmy who was warm and fuzzy, sweet and polite, and capable of profound love."

Dizzy has to speak for them both, because Dean was dead in four years after a brief, but spectacular career that would leave him as one of the central performing legends of the 20th century. In doing so, she is writing a "duet for one."

But a duet for one was perhaps unavoidable because Dean was so shy. But, "his shyness was irresistible."

The book is full of romantic sequences, like practicing bullfighting with each other (Dean was the matador and Dizzy was the bull). Dean also liked to sketch, and loved to share his perspectives with Dizzy about the difficulties of capturing an egg perfectly because of the quick way that natural light shifted.

Dean had incredible charm, and you will be thrilled to read how he related to a blind street person and each person in Dizzy's family.

With time, the passion cooled and Dean became obsessed with his career. When he got a role in the play, The Jaguar, all he wanted to do was rehearse. "I just don't have any time for you. I'm working!"

Dizzy handled it about as well as anyone could whose love has grown away from her. The places they used to haunt suddenly didn't seem so beautiful anymore. The poignance of her time in the West Indies is remarkably bittersweet.

One of the last things Dean ever said to her was, "I'll always love you." "And I believed him."

Although her mourning was long and difficult, she eventually came out of it. "I knew Jimmy would be laughing in the stars, just as he always promised."

Get out your hankies, you'll need plenty of them.

After you have finished this wonderful story, think about how you could make your life more romantic.

Be spontaneous and be in love!

15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a wonderful book!!, December 8, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Dizzy & Jimmy: My Life with James Dean: A Love Story (Hardcover)

I have been a James Dean fan for several years. I was excited to hear about the writing of this book. I liked this book for many reasons. First, it showed James Dean in a new light. It didn't focus on the rebel quality that so many other books do. It gave me a better insight as to what James Dean, the person, was like, rather than the actor. Secondly, it was a beautiful love story. I found the book easy to get caught up in, and hard to put down. I am so thankful that Dizzy shared her story with everyone!! I would recommend this book to all of James Dean's fans, and for anyone who enjoys a good love story!!

30 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Jimmy Through Very Rose-Tinted Glasses, August 20, 2001

By 

Peter L. Winkler "Word King" (North Hollywood, California USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dizzy & Jimmy: My Life with James Dean: A Love Story (Hardcover)

Dizzy & Jimmy is Sheridan's memoir of her affair with James Dean, which lasted only about one year and ended just as Dean's career began to gain momentum. The book concentrates on the details of their relationship as seen through Sheridan's rose-tinted memories, whose accuracy are sometimes questionable, as in her recounting of the visit she and Dean made to Dean's gay mentor, Rogers Brackett.

Sheridan barely remembered the encounter when Dean biographer Val Holley interviewed her, but she describes Brackett's building and apartment in detail in her memoir and says he had beige-colored hair. The only problem is that photos of Brackett published in Holley's and Ron Martinetti's books show that he had very dark hair.

This book amounts to a protracted magazine article, padded out with endless scene-setting descriptions and sidebars on Sheridan's mother, sister and father. The section on her post-Dean life in the Bahamas reads like something from a Harlequin romance and is of little interest.

Unless you have to have every Dean-related book, I'd read what Sheridan told Val Holley and Donald Spoto and skip this book.