Why did Sal Mineo have Alan Ladd's picture in his locker in Rebel Without a Cause?

He was cute.

It was meant to subtly show that the character was gay.

You can't outright say it, but it was understood by all involved that Plato was gay.

Pretty sure that OP knows that. What is asking is "Why Alan Ladd?" Why not....someone else?

I believe Joan Crawford and Bette Davis already had a large gay following back then and were also surrounded by gay friends in private life (they were the only ones who could really stand them).

Ladd had been in "Shane" in 1953 and Shane was every lonely, isolated gayboy's first love

Because Plato had an absentee father, and he is in search of a father figure.

This movie does not hold up very well. It's clear it was written by middle-aged farts who didn't know much about 1950's youth.

Sal Mineo deserves a real biopic.

Let's ignore that James Franco abomination

Because Alan Ladd was one of the few Hollywood actors who was shorter than Sal Mineo.

I didn’t even know Franco made a Sal Mineo movie. But it makes perfect sense that he did one and it sucked.

Ladd was so small he would actually fit inside that locker.

[quote]Because Plato had an absentee father, and he is in search of a father figure.

No, it was very much about hinting at his gayness.

[quote]In his article "Dangerous Talents," published in "Vanity Fair" in March 2005, Sam Kashner writes that director Nicholas Ray, screenwriter Stewart Stern, costar James Dean and Sal Mineo himself all intended for Mineo's character Plato to be subtly but definitely understood as gay. Kashner says that although the Production Code was still very much in force and forbade any mention of homosexuality, Ray, Dean, Mineo and Stern all worked together to insert restrained references to Plato's homosexuality and attraction to Jim, including the pinup photo of Alan Ladd on Plato's locker door, Plato's adoring looks at Jim, his loaded talk with Jim in the old mansion and even the name "Plato," named after the classical Greek philosopher Plato, who scholars generally agree was homosexual. For that mansion scene, Dean suggested to Mineo that Plato should "look at me the way I look at Natalie."

Though OP's question of why Alan Ladd specifically, is an interesting one.

But "Rebel Without a Cause" was a Warner Bros. product.

And Alan Ladd was owned by Paramount.

This cross-advertising would not be permitted today.

"I feel like Alan Ladd at Easter Island."

By 1955, Ladd had left Paramount as was making movies for Warners (i.e. HELL ON FRISCO BAY, DRUM BEAT)

R15 OK, that makes sense

The father figure (and SHANE was the ultimate bad father figure) thing does play into it though.

Jim, Judy and Plato play house at the end, and they all have daddy issues. Jim's father won't teach him to be a man, Judy has an Electra complex as her father cannot abide her burgeoning sexuality and Plato's is absent altogether.

I wonder if they asked Ladd for his permission? Using his pic was no big deal really but getting associated with homosexuals was not really desirable back then, especially not for big macho stars (well, not so "big" in this case).

I remember how Warner Bros did one of those celeb caricatures cartoons in the 1940's and Clark Gable requested that a funny scene where he kisses Groucho Marx in drag be cut. He was afraid it might hurt his image.

I agree with Gable.

I wouldn't want to be associated with the Marxes; they were sleazy and 'on the make'. And they stole your cutlery.

Here's that cartoon (skip to the 7:44) mark. It ends so abruptly because that kiss scene was cut.

[quote]I wouldn't want to be associated with the Marxes; they were sleazy and 'on the make'. And they stole your cutlery.

Margaret Dumont! We thought you were dead.

^ That's clever. Someone has already identified—

Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, Adolphe Menjou, Norma Shearer, Cary Grant, Greta Garbo, Edward G. Robinson, Ann Sheridan, Henry Binder, Leon Schlesinger, Johnny Weissmuller, James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, George Raft, Harpo Marx, Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, Leopold Stokowski, James Stewart, Dorothy Lamour, Tyrone Power, Sonja Henie, Boris Karloff, Curly Howard, Larry Fine, Moe Howard, Oliver Hardy, Cesar Romero, Ginger Rogers, Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Lewis Stone, Sally Rand, Kay Kyser, William Powell, Spencer Tracy, Ronald Colman, Errol Flynn, Wallace Beery, C. Aubrey Smith, Peter Lorre, Henry Fonda, J. Edgar Hoover, Arthur Treacher, Buster Keaton, Mischa Auer, Ned Sparks, Jerry Colonna, and Groucho Marx.

Shane was big at that time. It wasn't unusual for boys or young men to have a John Wayne photo or someone they revered. But I'm sure the director also used this to hint at the character's homosexuality

I wasn't a fan of Mineo with his short body, round head and rubbery lips.

I wasn't a fan of Ladd either but I guess he was more "conventionally handsome' to the Mineo character.

R23 I agree. That is why it probably went over most people's heads.

Tab Hunter for me. And I wasn't even born yet in the '50s. The Perfect Man. (There were lots of them back then actually, much more mystery).

I never understood the adoration of Tab Hunter - terribly wooden actor and not even that hot. He's one of those people who have very "unintelligent-looking" faces (Aldo Ray would be another example of a face like that).

R27 And which actors have intelligent looking faces in your opinion (whatever that even means)?

You wouldn't want a roll in the hay with this? And his acting got better and better with time. Plus he was a nice guy and not a mess, a good role model.

Maybe no one told Ladd that Plato was supposed to be gay.

An I tell you, back then it was normal to have your favorite stars picture...both men and women. I have always thought it was odd that women still. Idolize female stars when they aren't even gay.

[R28] I would roll in the grass for sexy, dumb (Christianly) Tab but I think the late Paul Scofield, Leo Genn and James Donald have intelligent looking faces.

R28 it's usually about the facial expression to me.

R28 Dunno, maybe someone like Maximilian Schell? Now there's a man who oozed both sexiness and intelligence.

I know that education doesn't always equal intelligence, but I went to Tab and Maximilian's wiki pages just for fun and apparently Tab didn't even finish high scholl while Herr Schell went to college. I guess there's some truth to my theory after all.

I think its something about the eyes - Tab's just look so lost and slightly goofy while Maximilian's gaze was always very determined and hawk-like. And since this thread is about Alan Ladd I must admit he also falls into my "unintelligent" category.

Oh yeah, and Tab's mouth (which seem to be opened in 90% of his photos) also do him no favours.

Yes. Yes. Max was to die for!

He was so hot you didn't realise how comapatively short he was

Even Mrs. Al Steele fell for Max's charms:

Maybe Ladd's photo in Plato's locker was some sort of in-joke or shade against Ladd.

R21 There's a reason some of us don't ride the subway, and I'm looking at one right now.....That supposed to mean me? You can die with your secret, honey. Miserable piss-elegant fairy.

Evidently Ladd was hot back then. I remember when he guest starred on the Burns and Allen radio show and the audience went totally wild when he was on. I never heard anything like that from any other guest star on the show. It was like the "bad" Happy Days episodes when Fonzie would appear and the audience would go ape shit.

[quote]Ladd was so small he would actually fit inside that locker.

Wow, I just googled his height and he was only 5’ 6”

horizontally, who cares?

I heard somewhere that Alan Ladd was not the first choice for the photo in the locker. Was it mentioned in the Tab Hunter documentary that it was supposed to be Tab? but the studio didn't want him to be seen like that. They went with Ladd who didn't object to the context, though clearly he would not have been Plato's object of desire.

In the Tab doc, they talk about how he was considered for "Rebel Without a Cause" instead of James Dean. I don't recall any mention of Plato's locker though.

It was me actually Cheryl Ladd, but I declined and let my father do it.

R44 - ok if it wasn't Tab I'm thinking maybe Burt Lancaster? I just can't remember where I heard the story.

^ Maybe it is in the documentary The Celluloid Closet which interviews Stewart Stern?

Putting a heartthrob like Tab Hunter up there would have made Plato's sexuality a little too obvious. Using Alan Ladd makes it questionable at best.

Yeah, a weaker kid in the 50s would've had the shit beat out of him with Tab Hunter up in his locker. Ladd was more discreet.

On the topic of gay icons in the 50s (besides the aforementioned Judy, Bette and Joan), definitely add Tallulah Bankhead to the list. She starred as Blanche DuBois In a very short lived stage revival of A Streetcar Named Desire ca. 1956 which flopped badly. one reporter covering the play said that the crowds were full of gay men whooping and hollering at Tallulah.

I would also add Liberace, Carmen Miranda, Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Eartha Kitt, Ethel Merman and Carol Channing to that list of 50s gay icons