Orson Welles, Vol I
Page 79
Hirschfeld on the contrasts in the 1937 Broadway theatre – the medieval with Welles as Faustus and Paula Lawrence as Helen of Troy in Doctor Faustus, the modern with Norman Lloyd in Power
Welles casts a cold eye on his modern dress production of Julius Caesar in a New York Times cartoon by Hirschfeld
A galaxy of stars in Welles productions
Welles arrives on the West Coast, 1939
Above: Dinner with journalist Fred Smith in Hollywood. The inscription reads: ‘We look as though we’d already made that million.’
Below: Maurice Abraham (Dadda) Bernstein, Welles’s guardian, who moved to California to be his personal physician
Welles working on his never-produced screenplay for Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness in 1939
The transformation of Orson Welles into Kane
Above: Make-up man Maurice Seiderman with his cast of Welles’s head. Centre: Halfway done. Below: The finished product
Orson Welles, made-up as the young Kane, frames a shot during the filming of Citizen Kane
THE STAGE PRODUCTIONS
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare, adapted by O.W.
14 April 1936
Lafayette Theatre, New York
Horse Eats Hat
by Eugene Labiche and Marc-Michel (An Italian Straw Hat), adapted by Edwin Denby and O.W.
26 September 1936
Maxine Elliott Theatre, New York
Doctor Faustus
by Christopher Marlowe, adapted by O.W.
8 January 1937
Maxine Elliott Theatre, New York
The Second Hurricane
by Aaron Copland (musical score) and Edwin Denby (libretto).
21 April 1937
Henry Street Playhouse, New York
The Cradle Will Rock
by Marc Blitzstein.
16 June 1937
Venice Theatre, New York
Caesar
by William Shakespeare (Julius Caesar), adapted by O.W.
11 November 1937
Mercury Theatre, New York
The Shoemaker’s Holiday
by Thomas Dekker, adapted by O.W.
1 January 1938
Mercury Theatre, New York
Heartbreak House
by George Bernard Shaw.
29 April 1938
Mercury Theatre, New York
Too Much Johnson
by William Gillette, adapted by O.W.
16 August 1938 Stony Creek
Summer Theatre, Connecticut
Danton’s Death
by Georg Büchner, translated by Geoffrey Dunlop, adapted by O.W.
5 November 1938
Mercury Theatre, New York
Five Kings
by William Shakespeare (Richard II, Henry IV, Parts I and II, Henry V and The Merry Wives of Windsor), adapted by O.W.
27 February 1939
Colonial Theatre, Boston
The Green Goddess
by William Archer, adapted by O.W.
June 1939 Palace Theatre, Chicago
Native Son
by Richard Wright, adapted by the author and Paul Green.
24 March 1941
St James’s Theatre, New York
THE RADIO BROADCASTS
THE FILMS
Hearts of Age
Produced by William Vance, co-directed by O.W.
1934 Woodstock
Summer Theatre Festival
Too Much Johnson
Sequences for insertion in stage play, never used.
Produced by O.W. and John Houseman
1938 Stony Creek
Summer Theatre, Connecticut
The Green Goddess
Introduction to stage play.
Produced by O.W.
1939 Orpheum Circuit
Citizen Kane
Written by O.W. and Herman J. Mankiewicz
Produced by O.W.
1941 RKO
(Radio Keith Orpheum)
REFERENCES
CHAPTER ONE
Kenosha
1. ‘Welles’s father was in trade.’ Leaflet about Badger Brass Company.
2. ‘The big city.’ Chicago at the turn of the century: Chicago’s Left Bank by Alston J. Smith; Insight Guide; various Chicago books.
3. Information on Welles’s family background largely culled from Orson Welles: The Rise and Fall of an American Genius by Charles Higham, whose work in this area is unrivalled.
4. ‘Orson Welles’, Christmas edition of French Vogue, December 1982.
5. ‘They were both charmers.’ Orson Welles by Barbara Leaming.
6. ‘… a microcosm of industrial America.’ Charles Higham, op. cit.
7. ‘… she was a very handsome woman.’ From My Life by Mary D. Bradford.
8. ‘… among the best-known pianists in Kenosha.’ From Music in Kenosha by Mrs Brown, an unpublished study.
9. ‘Over and over again …’ Russell Maloney, ‘This Ageless Soul’: The New Yorker 8 October 1938.
10. ‘It is the spirit of Loyalty …’ Quoted in The Todd School, an unpublished thesis by John Hoke.
11. ‘… the desire to take medicine.’ Quoted in The Fabulous Orson Welles by Peter Noble.
CHAPTER TWO
Chicago
1. ‘Out in Chicago …’ H. L. Mencken quoted in Chicago’s Left Bank by Alston J. Smith.
2. ‘Chicago the jazz-baby …’ Smith, op. cit.
3. ‘… a paradise he’d lost.’ Quoted in Orson Welles by Barbara Leaming.
4. ‘A crazy thing happened …’ Quoted in Insight Guide to Chicago.
5. ‘… with the blood and sweat …’ Quoted in Smith, op. cit.
6. ‘… the creaking of leather …’ Orson Welles in Vogue, December 1982.
7. ‘I’d see my father …’ ibid.
8. ‘I was surprised …’ ibid.
9. ‘She was not the musical version …’ ibid.
10. ‘“Well,” says Beatrice …’ibid.
11. ‘There never was anything …’ Quoted in Smith, op. cit.
12. Grand Detour background: from John Deere & the Billion Dollar Plow Gamble by David Shiaras.
13. ‘Mark Twain …’ Orson Welle in Vogue, December 1982.
14. ‘Do you want to see the stars?’ Quoted in Shiaras, op. cit.
15. ‘… a prison … a pestilential handicap’. Orson Welles quoted in Hortense Hill Memorial Service, a pamphlet.
16. ‘There was a country store …’ Quoted in This is Orson Welles by Peter Bogdanovich.
17. ‘I was marinated …’ Orson Welles in Vogue, December 1982.
18. ‘I knew very well …’ ibid.
19. ‘How much like her …’ ibid.
20. ‘Mothers of heroes …’ From Absent Fathers, Lost Sons by Guy Corneau.
21. ‘… a perceptive American director …’ Playboy, March 1967.
22. ‘It wasn’t that I didn’t love my mother …’ Quoted in Orson Welles by Barbara Leaming.
23. ‘… er, no, didn’t touch Lear till later …’ Quoted by Kenneth Tynan, Playboy, March 1967.
24. ‘From my earliest years, I was the Lily Langtry …’ Quoted by Barbara Leaming, op. cit.
25. ‘The school did to him …’ Quoted in The Fabulous Orson Welles by Peter Noble.
CHAPTER THREE:
Todd
1. ‘… responsibility is the great educator …’ Quoted in The Todd School, an unpublished thesis by John Hoke.
2. ‘When, by accident of birth …’ From One Man’s Time and Chance by Roger Hill.
3. ‘Boyhood is not a preparation for life.’ Roger Hill, op. cit.
4. ‘I wonder what new hobby …’ ibid.
5. ‘The adolescent’s adolescent.’ Hascy Tarbox in an interview with S.C.
6. ‘Other students stuck their heads …’ From a letter from John C. Dexter to S.C.
7. ‘But Orson …’ Quoted in The Fabulous Orson Welles by Peter Noble.
8. ‘… a sem
i-orphan with a surplus …’ Orson Welles. Quoted in Hortense Hill Memorial Service, a pamphlet.
9. ‘I’m the boy you could have had.’ Quoted in Orson Welles by Barbara Leaming.
10. ‘We all recognised almost immediately …’ From a letter from John C. Dexter to S.C.
11. ‘He was not one of us …’ Hascy Tarbox in an interview with S.C.
12. ‘When I first saw him …’ Quoted by Peter Noble, op. cit.
13. ‘He had a kind of youth that I never had …’ Quoted by Barbara Leaming, op. cit.
14. ‘Of everyone I’ve known …’ Orson Welles. Quoted in Hortense Hill Memorial Service, a pamphlet.
15. ‘It’s that Christian marriage …’ Quoted by Barbara Leaming, op. cit.
16. ‘What’s the formula?’ Roger Hill, op. cit.
17. ‘Orson could talk a good talk …’ Joanne Tarbox in an interview with S.C.
18. ‘He didn’t look or feel like a twelve-year-old.’ Hascy Tarbox in an interview with S.C.
19. ‘I knew he was going to be a great man …’ Quoted in Crain’s Chicago Business, 21 October 1985.
20. ‘It was either the best thing …’ Hascy Tarbox in an interview with S.C.
21. ‘I attacked the textbooks …’ Quoted by Barbara Leaming, op. cit.
22. ‘If he even so much as dangled …’ From a letter from John C. Dexter to S.C.
23. ‘He was a good kid …’ Tony Roskie in an interview with S.C.
24. ‘Orson really looked up to other children …’ Quoted by Peter Noble, op. cit.
25. ‘… the second genius in Todd’s class of 1931 …’ Roger Hill, op. cit.
26. ‘I became a man of importance …’ From a letter from Paul Guggenheim to S.C.
27. ‘Orson was distressed …’ ibid.
28. ‘Welles does not want to explain himself …’ Interview in Réalités (Paris) no. 201, 1962.
29. ‘Our philosophic discussion …’ From a letter from Paul Guggenheim to S.C.
30. ‘I always had a feeling …’ ibid.
31. ‘He told me that his dream …’ ibid.
32. ‘I have had this recurring dream since I was 12 …’ Quoted in This is Orson Welles by Peter Bogdanovich.
33. ‘Todd is the most complete laboratory …’ Quoted by Roger Hill, op. cit.
34. ‘The theatre was totally Orson’s …’ Hascy Tarbox in an interview with S.C.
35. ‘Our activities are genuine …’ Roger Hill, op. cit.
36. ‘Soon a whole country was finding …’ ibid.
37. ‘The chubby 11-year old was just the size and shape …’ ibid.
38. ‘When he finished with me he kissed me …’ From a letter from John C. Dexter to S.C.
39. ‘Yes. They’re Boys …’ Roger Hill, op. cit.
40. ‘Mystic, Ibsenic, Maeterlinckian …’ New York American, 3 May 1921.
41. ‘It was Simon Legree …’ Hascy Tarbox in an interview with S.C.
42. ‘I can remember a number of times …’ From a letter from John C. Dexter to S.C.
43. ‘The Theatre blends in a common art the talents …’ Orson Welles in the Todd catalogue, 1931.
44. ‘The whole piece was rather loosely put together …’ Orson Welles in Red and White.
45. ‘I rollicked around my whole childhood …’ From the BBC TV interview with Huw Wheldon, 1960.
46. ‘What places do you remember most vividly …’ Playboy, March 1967.
47. ‘All the great ones …’ Quoted by Peter Bogdanovich, op. cit.
48. ‘How you’d love it here …’ Quoted in Orson Welles: The Rise and Fall of an American Genius by Charles Higham.
49. ‘America’s most exclusive hotel …’ French Vogue, 1982.
50. ‘… wonderful Chicago-built toys …’ Quoted in John Deere & The Billion Dollar Plow Gamble by David Shiaras.
51. ‘You’d wake up in the morning …’Quoted by Peter Bogdanovich, op. cit.
52. ‘… never got to know Orson well …’ Shiaras, op. cit.
53. ‘We’d just returned from China …’ French Vogue, 1982.
54. ‘He didn’t want to admit he was interested …’ Quoted by Barbara Leaming, op. cit.
55. ‘I felt that the ordinary audience …’ Roger Hill, op. cit.
56. ‘… even though you did not get the first prize …’ Letter from Maurice Bernstein in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.
57. ‘I discovered the magic of money …’ Quoted in an interview with David Lewin, London Daily Mail.
58. ‘He hoped to be mistaken for one of those …’ French Vogue, 1982.
59. ‘They guess at what normal behaviour is …’ From Adult Children of Alcoholics by Janet Woititz.
60. ‘I was, in my childhood, determined to cure myself …’ Orson Welles quoted in Hortense Hill Memorial Service, a pamphlet.
61. ‘I’ll try to write about that later …’ French Vogue, 1982.
62. ‘I didn’t think I was doing the right thing …’ Quoted by Barbara Leaming, op. cit.
63. ‘Orson once tried to scare Grandma …’ Quoted in Bate, ‘Debunking the Orson Welles myth’: Kenosha Evening News June 1941.
64. ‘I was in no position to interfere …’ French Vogue, 1982.
65. ‘The ballroom on the top floor of the old woman’s house …’ ibid.
66. ‘You see, the Italians believe …’ Quoted by Barbara Leaming, op. cit.
CHAPTER FOUR
Ireland/Jew Süss
1. ‘I was never any good …’ Hascy Tarbox in an interview with S.C.
2. ‘The irresponsibility of said Richard I. Welles …’ Quoted in Orson Welles: The Rise and Fall of an American Genius by Charles Higham.
3. ‘He feared his ward …’ Alva Johnston and Fred Smith, Saturday Evening Post, 27 January 1940.
4. ‘… was gracious and candid …’ From a letter to Hortense Hill.
5. ‘“Terrible, wasn’t it?”’ Quoted in The Fabulous Orson Welles by Peter Noble.
6. ‘I said I was a star already …’ From This is Orson Welles by Peter Bogdanovich.
7. ‘We wanted a first-hand knowledge of the new methods of presentation …’ From tenth anniversary booklet of the Gate.
8. ‘… when the theatre once again makes its audience …’ ibid.
9. ‘The theatre has lost the individuality it once had …’ ibid.
10. ‘They gave me an education …’ From RTE radio documentary The Hilton and Micheál Show.
11. ‘… behaving – their behaviour was Irish …’ From Micheál Mac Liammóir’s address to the Abbey Society.
12. ‘The actor works with himself as surely as …’ From All For Hecuba by Micheál Mac Liammóir.
13. ‘There were moments …’From Micheál Mac Liammóir, op. cit.
14. ‘It runs the gauntlet …’ From a letter to Roger Hill.
15. ‘He had indeed that unwavering energy …’ From Micheál Mac Liammóir, op. cit.
16. ‘In all the striving years since my debut …’ From RTE’s The Hilton and Micheál Show.
17. ‘… in the bliss of ignorance …’ ibid.
18. ‘… a full-blooded, soldierly figure …’ Stage direction to Jew Süss by Ashley Dukes from the novel by Lion Feuchtwanger.
19. ‘When Orson came padding onto the stage …’ From Micheál Mac Liammóir, op. cit.
20. ‘His extraordinarily mature acting …’ Quoted by Peter Noble, op. cit.
21. ‘Dubliners, besides being very keen critics …’ From The Hilton and Micheál Show.
22. ‘the friendship of two men with no sexual overtones …’ From Orson Welles by Barbara Leaming.
23. ‘… or even in playing a part that called for a romantic side …’ Quoted by Peter Noble, op. cit.
24. ‘Micheál would have seen through it …’ Orson Welles in an interview with Leslie Megahey for the BBC.
25. ‘I am like Hilton; I believe anything anyone tells me …’ ibid.
26. ‘… a touch of humanity …�
�� Irish Independent 14 October 1931.
27. ‘… looked the uncouth, hard-drinking …’ From Joseph Holloway’s Irish Theatre Vol. One, 1926–1931.
28. ‘It will be necessary to see …’ Irish Times 14 October 1931.
29. ‘… the Duke is played by a young American …’ New York Times November 1931.
30. ‘People began to talk about Orson …’ From Micheál Mac Liammóir, op. cit.
31. ‘… his favourite words were virile …’ From Peter Noble, op. cit.
32. ‘… the new American boy Orson Welles playing what he calls …’ From the unpublished diaries of Denis Johnston, Trinity College Dublin library.
33. ‘The extraordinary thing about Orson …’ Quoted by Peter Noble, op. cit.
34. ‘… a time of balls and parties …’ From the unpublished diaries of Denis Johnston, Trinity College Dublin library.
35. ‘… people had tea parties …’ From Dublin by V. S. Pritchett.
36. ‘British or Irish Free State …’ From the unpublished diaries of Joseph Holloway, National Library, Dublin.
37. ‘It is astonishing …’ From V. S. Pritchett, op. cit.
38. ‘When the demon of showmanship …’ From Micheál Mac Liammóir, op. cit.
39. ‘With theatre people he was at his best …’ From Micheál Mac Liammóir, op. cit.
40. ‘The whole show gave one the idea …’ From the unpublished diaries of Joseph Holloway.
41. ‘The settings, designed and decorated …’ Irish Independent 28 December 1931.
42. ‘… while on the subject of the Gate …’ Daily Express 11 November 1931.
43. ‘… he must not be given …’ Irish Independent 4 November 1931.
44. ‘I didn’t like Orson Welles …’ From the unpublished diaries of Joseph Holloway.
45. ‘… qualities of subtlety sufficient …’ New York Times 22 November 1931.
46. ‘… at the première, the young American actor …’ New York Times 8 December 1931.
47. ‘He had put most of the contents of his make-up box …’ Quoted by Peter Noble, op. cit.
48. ‘… with a pantomime head …’ From the unpublished diaries of Joseph Holloway.