Orson Welles

The Three Wives Orson was known to carry a certain charm for ladies who encountered him. He responded by throwing as much verve into matters of the heart as he did into his work. Virginia Nicholson He did everything young, with marriage as no exception. On Dec. 23, 1934, the nineteen-year-old married Virginia Nicholson, whom he’d met at one of his Summer drama festivals at the Todd school. Described by Barbara Leaming as “a porcelain skinned beauty,” Virginia endeared herself to Orson with “the wonderfully outrageous stories she would tell him when they were alone.” Virginia gave birth, on Mar. 27, 1938, to a baby girl named Christopher. Orson’s marriage to Virginia was marked by his infidelities to her and his absences. It came to an end five years after it began, on Feb. 1, 1940. Welles was at the crest of the success of his Mercury Theatre empire, about to begin work on Citizen Kane. Rita Hayworth Enter Rita Hayworth. She was born Margarita Carmen Cansi

Because Welles had a large capacity for biting off more than he could chew, unfinished projects were regular occurrences. Of course, his film career began with two false starts before Citizen Kane , so he may have found unfinished projects to be a good-luck charm. One that grew to gargantuan proportions was The Other Side of the Wind. Kane conceived of the film in 1963 as a tool to bring him back to prominence as a filmmaker. The audacious storyline centered around a film director named Jake Hannaford who’d been in Europe for years and returns to Hollywood to make a cynical film full of sex and violence. The film would contain a big party scene at a mansion, attended by members of the media. Various stars who appeared in footage of the unreleased film were John Huston (playing Hannaford), Marlene Dietrich, Norman Foster, Edmond O’Brien and Dennis Hopper. Author Joseph McBride gives a pithy and humorous summary of problems the sprawling project had. He was given a role in