Rare photos of the fatal car crash that cut short the life of Hollywood star James Dean in 1955 will finally see the light of day in an auction next month. James Dean car crash
An archive of 30 original glossy photos, many of which were never published, will go up for auction on Aug. 8, according to the auction site RR Auction.
The bidding will be exclusively online and will end on Aug. 15.
The collection includes 12 images with overhead views of the junction where the crash took place and 18 ground-level photos that show close-up details of Dean’s wrangled vehicle marked with his racing number, 130.
Four of the ground-level photos were taken the day of the accident.
On Sept. 30, 1955, Dean was killed at the age of 24 while driving his 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder, coined the “Little Bastard,” to a racing event in Salinas, California. He was driving westbound on U.S. Route 466 with his mechanic, Rolf Wütherich, when he was hit by a 1950 Ford Custom, RR Auction said in a press release.
Wütherich survived the crash with minor injuries.
The images for auction were saved by Robert A. Coyle, whose father had taken them after being hired to defend the Ford Custom driver in court. However, the case never made it to trial after Wütherich traveled home to West Germany and did not return, according to RR Auction Executive Vice President Bobby Livingston.
“When the case was dropped, he was still in possession of the photographs and being a history buff, made sure they were not destroyed,” Coyle said in a signed letter of provenance about his father. The letter will be included in the archived photos at the time of the auction.
The collection is estimated to go for more than $20,000.
“It’s an incredibly important historic archive related to this event that changed so many things in Hollywood and car racing,” Livingston said.
