Orson Welles

The rivalry between Orson Welles and his “Mercury Theatre on the Air” and “The Charlie McCarthy Show” was friendly enough that Welles appeared as a guest on the latter several times: 04-02-1944: in “The Easter Rabbit” 05-28-1944: in “The Raven” 10-29-1944: as “The Musuem Guide” 11-05-1944: in “Buck Bergen and Flash Welles” 04-02-44 in “The Easter Rabbit” Welles was the only guest. The opening sketch was “Letter From Sanborn.” “The Easter Rabbit” was a corny sketch with a bit of improv. First, after some good-natured ribbing between Welles and McCarthy, Welles reads a gag from the script: “frankly, I’ve seen better owls in drug stores,” which drew a big groan from the audience and gave him a chance to ad-lib that the material they’d hear on his Wednesday night show would be better. 05-028-44 in “The Raven” Other sketches: “Weatherby and Graduation,” “Making a Date.” Last show of the season 10-29-44 as “The Musuem Guide” Other sketches: “Ghost Story,...

“The Fred Allen Show” ran under its various names from 12-25-32 to 6-26-49. Fred Allen was a sharp wit, but was also influenced by Will Rogers and accordingly brought topical political humor into his repertoire. Another big part of his show was the Allen’s Alley segments, starring Alan Reed, and John Brown. Over the years, he had more big guests to name, but some included Edward G. Robinson, Jack Benny, Bing Crosby, Ozzie & Harriet Nelson, and Carmen Miranda. Orson Welles guested on: 11-8-39 10-18-42 3-3-46 The 10-18-42 show was aimed at the troops in WWII, and Welles starred in a production of “Les Miserables.” At the top of the show, Allen billed him as “a boy prodigy who lived up to it.” The program kicked off with Irving Berlin’s “This is the Army, Mr. Jones.” The 3-3-46 episode centered around another rendering of “Les Mis,” included an Allen’s Alley sketch, and began with a segment of Allen’s monologue in which he skewered Jack Benny, mostly by insulting his intellig...

“GI Journal” was popular comedy program produced by the AFRS, Armed Forces Radio Service. The AFRS, as the name would imply, produced much-needed entertainment for servicemen and women. “GI Journal” featured, a “guest editor” or guest host each week. It was a variety show, with guest editors such as Frank Sinatra, Groucho Marx, Bob Hope, and our protagonist, Welles. His turn came on 12-15-44, and in his episode he exchanged bawdy jokes with the fetching Faye Mackenzie, who managed to be beautiful even on the radio. On 6-15-45, he made his second and last appearance, with others on the show including Fred Waring and Kate Smith. He collaborated with Smith in a sketch in which he played a French perfume salesman.

“The Jack Benny Show” ran from 1933 (except for a pilot in May of ‘32) until May of ‘55. One of his gimmicks was his exasperated “ Welllllllllll. ” But the Welles that concerns us here is Orson, who guested on radio program, The Jack Benny Show: 3-17-40 3-14-43 3-21-43 3-28-43 4-11-43 In some cases, Welles interacted with Benny, while in others, he guest-hosted. He would play himself in sketches, or at least a version of himself, perhaps more a caricature than a persona. He portrayed a prima dona and tyrant. In one sketch, he walked into a cafe and met an assistant to approve the script of that night’s  The Jack Benny Show , but had to first order a guinea hen under glass and a bottle of expensive wine. When the soda jerk protested, Welles bellowed “get back under that counter.” Late in his life, Welles waxed very analytical about his appearances on Benny: “I used to play Orson Welles all the time on  Jack Benny ...that’s the Orson Welles everyone thinks I ...

Having its turn on ABC, CBS, and NBC, this legendary radio program lived on the air from 1934-1955. Its initial format was adaptations of Broadway plays, and later it began adapting films. Lux Radio Theater’s first host was John Anthony, who played the character of the show’s fictional producer, Douglas Garrick. This convention was dropped and a bona fide star, Cecil B. DeMille took the helm. Welles entered the pantheon of elite stars of the era (Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, and Ingrid Bergman to name a few) by appearing on the show for the first time on May 6, 1944, playing the lead role of Mr. Rochester in a production of Jane Eyre. The episode was broken into two parts, with the second playing the next week. On Sept. 1 of the same year, Welles appeared in the episode “The Break of Cards” with Rita Hayworth, his new bride. During this time, Welles was occupied with his participation in the campaign to re-elect FDR and in writing political essays for various publications. ...

Silver Theater ran nine seasons, from 1932-1941. It was sponsored by the International Silver Company, which had sponsored previous radio programs. Conrad Nagel was the show’s director and announcer, and in his absence on Nov. 13, 1938, Welles pinch hit as the show’s m.c. and as a character in the play “Stars in their Courses,” whose star was Helen Hayes ]. On Mar. 30 of ‘41, he made his Silver Theater encore on the episode “One Step Ahead.” His first appearance saw Welles on his ascent as a stage actor and as the man behind “Mercury Theatre on the Air.” By the spring of ‘41, he was famous and infamous for the “The War of the Worlds” spectacle and had made a name for himself as a director and actor. And he had just finished shooting a film that would come out in the fall: Citizen Kane.

One of the hallmarks of old-time radio culture was its value of and celebration of the work of various contemporary and classic playwrights. Some plays were passed around like folk songs, rendered by various teams of actors in their directors in their own style. A prime example of this is the revered radio drama “Suspense,” which showcased the works of well-known authors of suspense and thriller plays. The show aired from ‘42-’62 and produced 945 episodes. It featured the cream of America’s crop of directors and actors, who brought to life the work of several great writers. One such writer was Lucille Fletcher, whose “Sorry, Wrong Number” was first aired in May of 1943, and re-staged (rather than a tape of the show simply being re-run) seven times. Fletcher also authored “The Hitchhiker,” the work in which Orson Welles starred on his first “Suspense” appearance. What’s insteresting is that Welles had performed “The Hitchhiker,” on his own show “Mercury Theatre on the Air....

What can be said about Citizen Kane , topper of Best Of lists for half a century, staple in college film courses, and buster of conventions and assumptions about film-making? No less an intellect than Welles, the boy wonder with a career on the stage before his 18th birthday and omnivore of all things artistic and intellectual, could’ve produced such a towering monument. The story centers around a gaggle of reporters chasing the meaning of the last word, “Rosebud,” of Charles Foster Kane, an iconic and enigmatic newspaper publisher. Their journey takes the viewer through a tour of Kane’s life and rise to fame and power. We see that when Kane his father and then his mother die, and the boy is sent to live with the tycoon Walter Thatcher, whose memoirs become one of the clues used by Jerry Thompson, one of the reporters investigating the origin of “Rosebud.” Kane’s relations with Thatcher were thorny, but that can probably be said of his relations with many of the people in...

Welles entered his tumultuous but illustrious teenage years before talking pictures were made. He cut his teeth in live theatre and then got into broadcasting via radio. For him, film was a frontier. It’s only fair to note, though, that his original motivation for exploring this virgin territory was to raise money for Broadway productions of such upcoming plays as Five Kings and Playboys of the Western World. He flew to Hollywood, rented a house between the residences of Shirley Temple and Greta Garbo, and signed a luxurious two-movie contract with RKO. His plan was to shoot, for his first film, an adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s controversial classic Heart of Darkness . But work on this project ran aground, producing nothing. Welles also forayed briefly into an attempt at producing an adaptation of Nicholas Blake’s The Smiler With a Knife. This, too would be aborted, and according to the tired adage, the third time would be the charm, yielding the classic Citizen Kane . Bef...

Citizen Kane not only went on to status a classic, essentially the pinnacle of American filmmaking, but it was also very well received upon its release. Here’s a sampling of the remarks of various newspaper and magazine film reviews: Orson Welles removes his Citizen Kane make up 1940 John O’Hara, Newsweek: “your faithful bystander reports that he has just seen a picture which he thinks must be the best picture he ever saw.” Bosley Crowther, The New York Times: “Far and away the most surprising and cinematically exciting motion picture to be seen here in many a moon.”: Howard Barnes, The New York Herald Tribune: “The motion picture stretched its muscles at the Palace Theater last night, to remind one that it is a sleeping giant of the arts.” Life: “Few movies have ever come from Hollywood with such powerful narrative, such original technique, such exciting photography.” Cecilia Ager, PM: “Seeing it, it’s as if you never really saw a movie before.” William Boehnel, The ...

May 2011 is the 70th anniversary of ther release of Citizen Kane, widely considered the greatest motion picture ever made. Orson Welles’ artistic genius cannot be denied, and it should be considered this genius is both a product and ahead of its time. The film originally raised controversy for its less than favorable portrayal of media mogul William Randolph Hearst. However the greatness of the film has outlasted Hearst’s own influence. The character of Charles Foster Kane as a mirror of Hearst is well known. What is less apparent are the parallels between Kane and Welles’ life. Kane was born into poverty in his parent’s boarding house in Colorado. When a piece of worthless land belonging to his mother yields “the world’s third largest gold mine,” she has young Kane sent to the East for his education as a ward of Mr. Bernstein, a banker. When Kane gains full control of his inheritance at the relatively young age of 25 he dedicates his fortune to building a newspaper empire based on ...

Journey Into Fear was one of the many projects Orson Welles worked on from 1939-’43, though he did not direct the film. He co-wrote the screenplay, produced the movie, and played a small role in it. An action film, Journey Into Fear is densely packed with the dangerous mishaps of its protagonist, Howard Graham, an American armaments engineer collaborating with the Turkish navy. In an Istanbul nightclub, Graham is smitten with a dancer. Meanwhile, a bullet with his name on it accidentally finds its home in the club’s magician. This causes the entrance of Colonel Haki, the chief of the Turkish secret police. Haki arranges Graham’s passage on a steamer to Bakumi, and from there, plot twists abound. Norman Foster, director The circumstances under which Norman Foster was tapped by Welles to direct Journey Into Fear were unusual and a forbidding, and may help explain why the project was not more successful. Foster was an actor with several credits and a longing to direct. Welles g...

The intended follow-up to The Magnificent Ambersons, It’s All True, never saw the light of day. The film received only a portion of Welles’ energies during its production, was plagued by mishaps, and was the subject of much sparring between Welles and RKO. The idea for It’s All True was for Welles to film a series of an ingenious and thoroughly eclectic melange of documentary material and fictional narratives meant to tie together all of the Americas. Included would be a look at the development of jazz, in which, chiefly (as best we can tell) Duke Ellington was to tell the story of Louis Armstrong; the story of the courtship of Italian writer John Fante’s parents in San Francisco; “My Friend Bonito,” in which the possessive pronoun signified a young boy, with Bonito being a bull. Welles conceived of these stories during the infancy of his work on The Magnificent Ambersons. He knew Ambersons was the more viable project, so he went ahead with it, placing It’s All True in the posit...

This 1946 International Pictures film was directed by Welles and written by Anthony Veiller and Victor Trivas. It concerns a Nazi war criminal who slips the bonds of Europe at war’s end eventually makes it Connecticut. He tries to settle into a new life, but is, of course, occupied with fighting the war crimes commissioner chasing him. Welles burst into the public eye as a wunderkind, and saw great popularity in theatre in the late 30’s. He appeared on the radio, with his infamous “The War of the Worlds” experience being just one of his many escapades. And he of course new great success with Citizen Kane. However, from the start, he had an uneasy relationship with Hollywood. His politics, which included rumors of communist activities, and his antagonism toward film benefactor William Randolph Hearst, caused him such unpopularity that he was booed at the Oscar ceremony at which Kane was nominated for many awards. Within the studios themselves, he started as an outsider and...

This 1947 action thriller was directed by Welles, starring him and Rita Hayworth , with whom he was at the time of shooting, going through a divorce . The story is one of people being thrown oddly together and navigating bizarre twists. Michael O’Hara (Welles) saves the life of the gorgeous Elsa Bannister (Hayworth) and her husband, Arthur (Everett Sloane) endeavors to reward him with a job on his yacht. Enter George Grisby, Michael’s partner, who wants to stage his own murder to commit life insurance fraud, and offers Michael five grand to confess. What ensues is a many-layered tale of deceit and manipulation, the plot thickening repeatedly. Lady was adapted from William Castle’s novel If I Die Before I Wake, with many changes from Welles. It was financed by Harry Cohn, co-founder, president, and production manager of Columbia Pictures. Welles biographer Barbara Leaming charges that Cohn was notoriously lecherous, using a letter opener to arrange a peek under the skirts o...

Having already staged Shakespeare’s MacBeth more than once on the stage, in 1948, Welles endeavored to bring it to the silver screen. The result is a Republic Pictures release directed by Welles with him also starring as MacBeth, with Jeanette Nolan as Lady Macbeth, and with Dan O’Herlihy and Roddy McDowall. John L. Russell handled the cinematography. As was the case with the Mercury Theatre production, Welles took great liberties, greatly re-working the play. He retained some of the voodoo aesthetic of the play, along with garish costumes. Charles Higham reports that the actors were annoyed with Welles’ grueling working days and some of his usual directorial antics. This results, in Higham’s opinion, in performances that “seldom rise above the amateur.” On the other hand, says Higham, “the movie creates a world of its own, another expression of Welles’s extraordinary talent--a world of rain, fog and stones...we explore a labyrinth that effectively mirrors MacBeth’s ow...

Like most Welles-directed movies, The Trial is about a search for information, the solving of a mystery. In this case, Josef K. is on trial without knowing why. In the existential quest that follows, he tries to investigate the system in which he is a prisoner. It is based on the novel by Franz Kafka, author of the stories “The Metamorphosis” and “A Hunger Artist.” Josef K. is played by Anthony Perkins; Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, and Elsa Martinelli also starring. Welles standby Akim Tamiroff plays a small role. Anthony Perkins is of course best known for the role of Norman Bates in Psycho, which came out two years before The Trial. Jeanne Moreau was a famed stage actress who had starred in Louis Malle’s 1958 “Elevator to the Gallows.” Romy Schneider was a fetching Austrian actress who made her film debut at 15 and who made a name for herself in the trilogy Sissi. Elsa Martinelli had played leading or supporting roles in several European films, and after The Trial, woul...

Comprised of two parts of Henry IV, Chimes At Midnight chiefly concerns the character Falstaff (Welles) and his mentee, Prince Hal. Falstaff’s leanings toward self-destruction help create a feel that England is doomed. Welles directed this 1965 film. It starred, in addition to Welles, Jeanne Moreau, Margaret Rutherford, and as Henry IV, John Gielgud. Moreau had worked with and for Welles in 1962’s The Trial. She was also well-known as a part of the French New Wave, having starred in Truffaut’s opus Jules et Jim. Gielgud was a Shakespeare specialist; while mainly a star of the stage, he’d also performed in film versions of Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet. As Henry IV, he delivers the “uneasy lies the head that wears the crown” speech. Welles biographer Charles Higham writes: Most remarkable is a battle scene that rivals Eisenstein in its evocation of a medieval world. Welles shows the panoply of battle and its essential weirdness... knights in armor bei...

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...

Welles was striking to all who encountered him, both in terms of of his spirit and his appearance. He filled up the room with his confident, sometimes domineering personality, and possessed good looks to match. Photos from his teenage years show him gazing impishly into the camera with piercing brown eyes. His face is diamond-shaped, curving in sharply at the jaw to a point at the chin. His walnut hair was swept up and slicked back into a look of sophistication. He looked older than he was throughout his formative years, with a voice that sounded quite a bit older. During adulthood, he sported various beards and struggled with his weight. By the mid 70’s, he’d become an imposing figure with a rotund midsection and a gray-brown expanse of hair on his face.