Orson Welles, Vol I
Page 80
49. ‘My greatest success was at the Abbey …’ In an interview with Leslie Megahey for the BBC.
50. ‘At the Gate, I got less and less good parts …’ ibid.
51. ‘… several pounds of nose putty …’ From Micheál Mac Liammóir, op. cit.
52. ‘His performance is good enough …’ Irish Times 28 December 1931.
53. ‘Mr Orson Welles did much to satisfy …’ Irish Times 13 January 1932.
54. ‘… hints at Cézanne …’ Irish Independent January 1932.
55. ‘… can the Ghost have been more movingly …’ Irish Press 3 February 1932.
56. ‘Orson Welles made the speech …’ From Joseph Holloway’s Irish Theatre.
57. ‘Of course it was said …’ From Micheál Mac Liammóir, op. cit.
58. ‘In Dublin, when he started in the theatre …’ From The Cradle Will Rock, a screenplay by Orson Welles.
59. ‘… in reaction against the conditions it found at its birth …’ From The Mantle of Harlequin by Hilton Edwards.
60. ‘It was Berlin with its Russian influences …’ From Micheál Mac Liammóir, op. cit.
61. ‘Anew McMaster is an unashamed exponent …’ Quoted in The Story of the Abbey Theatre by Sean McCann.
62. ‘Anew McMaster convinces us that he knows more …’ ibid.
63. ‘… who drifted into Dublin a few months ago …’ From the unpublished diaries of Joseph Holloway, National Library, Dublin.
64. ‘… when Kernoff tried to see the stage behind …’ From Joseph Holloway’s Irish Theatre.
65. ‘… who could be thirty though he was only sixteen …’ Geraldine Fitzgerald in an interview with S.C.
CHAPTER FIVE:
Hiatus/Everybody’s Shakespeare
1. ‘… enthusiasm and perseverance …’ From Citizen Welles by Frank Brady.
2. ‘I recall the way in which he received me …’ From The Fabulous Orson Welles by Peter Noble.
3. ‘After being a celebrity at sixteen in Dublin …’ Johnston and Smith in Saturday Evening Post January 1940.
4. ‘… to get him out of my hair …’ From Time and Chance by Roger Hill.
5. ‘Stick with this boy! …’ Quoted by Roger Hill, op. cit.
6. ‘complete with its chauffeur-cook …’ ibid.
7. ‘It’s a swell show …’ Quoted in a letter to Roger Hill.
8. ‘I do hope you won’t continue …’ Quoted in Orson Welles by Barbara Leaming.
9. ‘An idiot, with a loose, wet mouth …’ Stage direction from the unpublished play Marching Song by Orson Welles and Roger Hill.
10. ‘… haven’t had fish like that in four years …’ From the unpublished play Bright Lucifer by Orson Welles.
11. ‘Bright Lucifer is a likely sounding piece …’ Russell Maloney, ‘This Ageless Soul’: The New Yorker 8 October 1938.
12. ‘… a great deal of Welles’s work can be explained …’ From The Magic World of Orson Welles by James Naremore.
13. ‘I needed a new project …’ From Roger Hill, op. cit.
14. ‘Write a Shakespeare book …’ ibid.
15. ‘If I said that Tangiers struck me as a dream city …’ Paul Bowles quoted in An Invisible Spectator by Christopher Sawyer-Laucanno.
16. ‘A noble-looking old man …’ From Cities of Spain by Edward Hutton.
17. ‘It was the year 1346 of the Mahometan calendar …’ From In the Lap of Atlas by Richard Hughes.
18. ‘Much as Europeans visualise the Baghdad …’ From The Lords of Atlas by Gavin Maxwell.
19. ‘In the 1920s T’hami became …’ ibid.
20. ‘Vast banquets …’ ibid.
21. ‘The curious droop of his mouth …’ Quoted by Richard Hughes, op. cit.
22. ‘There are some tiny cottages with clean patios …’ From Letters from Spain by Karel Capek.
23. ‘They are employed …’ From Edward Hutton, op. cit.
24. ‘… expressly based on what Orson imagined …’ From Barbara Leaming, op. cit.
25. ‘… wearing white pants and waving a red cape …’ From Hemingway by Carlos Baker.
26. ‘Still, even with all that untold Yankee wealth …’ From This is Orson Welles by Peter Bogdanovich.
27. ‘All that hot summer …’ From Roger Hill, op. cit.
28. ‘A mixture of poet, prophet …’ Quoted in The Enthusiast by Gilbert A. Harrison.
29. ‘By some curious jump of association …’ Quoted by Peter Noble, op. cit.
30. ‘The reviews were so astounding …’ Quoted in Smart Aleck by Teichmann.
31. ‘You have given me a whole ring of keys to this city …’ Quoted by Gilbert A. Harrison, op. cit.
32. ‘I remember shortly after Orson …’ Quoted by Teichmann, op. cit.
CHAPTER SIX:
Wonder Boy of Acting/Romeo and Juliet
1. ‘It is an old story that the balcony and the gallery …’ Quoted in Me and Kit by Guthrie McClintic.
2. ‘It was obvious to me …’ Quoted in The Fabulous Orson Welles by Peter Noble.
3. ‘We were all struck by …’ ibid.
4. ‘He began by having his cast sit round a table …’ From The American Theatre by Mary Henderson.
5. ‘Talkative, nervous, very witty …’ From The Player by Lilian Ross and Helen Ross.
6. ‘Orson at that time always played to the top row …’ Quoted in The Theatre of Orson Welles by Richard France.
7. ‘She has agreed to the selection …’ New York Times October 1933.
8. ‘In the 1930’s Broadway …’ Quoted in The Magic of Light by Jean Rosenthal.
9. ‘All the rest was just dead wire …’ From The American Theatre by Ethan Mordden.
10. ‘[Miss Cornell] was so beautiful …’ From In and Out of Character by Basil Rathbone.
11. ‘His Marchbanks to my way of thinking …’ Quoted by Peter Noble, op. cit.
12. ‘He could play Jew Süss …’ From Time and Chance by Roger Hill.
13. ‘He was flamboyant, exciting, hammy …’ Quoted by Richard France, op. cit.
14. ‘He appealed to the general run …’ ibid.
15. ‘That he got by was by no means enough.’ From Guthrie McClintic, op. cit.
16. ‘By the crescendo of her playing …’ New York Times 10 February 1931.
17. ‘He was just adequate …’ Quoted by Richard France, op. cit.
18. ‘I personally believe …’ ibid.
19. ‘… his performance begins to confirm the suspicion …’ New York American 26 February 1935.
20. ‘… his entrance was so strange …’ Tom Triffely in an interview with S.C.
21. ‘… it is admirable Shakespeare …’ Chicago Tribune December 1933.
22. ‘… which seemed to meet with McClintic’s …’ From Basil Rathbone, op. cit.
23. ‘Orson Welles, who has scored a hit …’ Chicago Tribune December 1933.
24. ‘… well-disciplined, strictly ordered family …’ Gertrude Macy quoted by Richard France, op. cit.
25. ‘He was at all times …’ Quoted by Peter Noble, op. cit.
26. ‘About twice a year I wake up and find myself …’ Quoted by Richard France, op. cit.
27. ‘I found myself wondering …’ Quoted by Peter Noble, op. cit.
28. ‘He was gauche and tiresome …’ Quoted by Richard France, op. cit.
29. ‘… on “Big Time” so to speak …’ From Guthrie McClintic, op. cit.
CHAPTER SEVEN:
Woodstock/Romeo and Juliet Again
1. ‘Hail to thee, blithe spirit! …’ From All For Hecuba by Micheál Mac Liammóir.
2. ‘My God, Roger, do you realise what you’re up against …’ From Roger Hill, op. cit.
3. ‘The party had cost a fortune …’ ibid.
4. ‘Orson Welles says that the festival …’ Chicago Herald and Examiner 28 June 1934.
5. ‘Anyone who had 500 big depression-time dollars …’ ibid.
6. ‘The work o
f Mac Liammóir and Edwards …’ Chicago Tribune 1 July 1934.
7. ‘Orson began to swell again …’ From Micheál Mac Liammóir, op. cit.
8. ‘Michael Mac Liammóir talked the least …’ Chicago Tribune 1 July 1934.
9. ‘A great grandson of Gideon Welles …’ Margot Jr, Chicago Daily News 13 July 1934.
10. ‘Young Mr Welles …’ Chicago Herald and Examiner July 1934.
11. ‘It was a real vendetta …’ Quoted in Orson Welles by Barbara Leaming.
12. ‘They were really, I think, rather mean to Orson …’ ibid.
13. ‘To us it looked like …’ From Micheál Mac Liammóir, op. cit.
14. ‘It represents, chiefly …’ Chicago Tribune July 1934.
15. ‘It is a gala occasion …’ Chicago Tribune 13 July 1934.
16. ‘… the natives sat …’ Chicago Daily News 13 July 1934.
17. ‘A man of impeccable social standing …’ From Roger Hill, op. cit.
18. ‘I could only quail and shiver …’ Chicago Daily News 13 July 1934.
19. ‘… he played the villain last night …’ Chicago Herald and Examiner 13 July 1934.
20. ‘Wunderschon! …’ and ff. from Trilby by Paul Potter after George du Maurier.
21. ‘Even his fakes …’ From Micheál Mac Liammóir, op. cit.
22. ‘… due obviously to the youth’s …’ Lloyd Lewis: Chicago Daily News 22 July 1934.
23. ‘… the production was disappointingly vague …’ From Micheál Mac Liammóir, op. cit.
24. ‘… said to be one of the few …’ Chicago Tribune 22 July 1934.
25. ‘I fancied at times to have penetrated …’ ibid.
26. ‘A Hamlet of metropolitan stature …’ and ff. Chicago Tribune 27 July 1934.
27. ‘Orson Welles departed from the orthodox king …’ Chicago Herald and Examiner 27 July 1934.
28. ‘An unhorrific old ghost …’ Chicago Daily News 27 July 1934.
29. ‘Hilton Edwards, Orson Welles and Micheál Mac Liammóir …’ Lloyd Lewis, Chicago Daily News 11 August 1934.
30. ‘His Count Pahlen kept all the essentials of the part …’ From Micheál Mac Liammóir, op. cit.
31. ‘His variety and range are amazing …’ Chicago Tribune Magazine article.
32. ‘Oh, it was wild because …’ Quoted by Barbara Leaming, op. cit.
33. ‘… vigorous, non-homosexual types …’ ibid.
34. ‘Our Woodstock season ended for us all …’ From Micheál Mac Liammóir, op. cit.
35. ‘Plug at that book …’ Quoted by Roger Hill, op. cit.
36. ‘… to make the Elizabethan popular in the classroom …’ ibid.
37. ‘I found that actors were plainly frightened …’ From an article in Theatre Quarterly.
38. ‘Orson’s extreme and obvious youth …’ Quoted in The Fabulous Orson Welles by Peter Noble.
39. ‘I told him of my newly-conceived decor …’ From Me and Kit by Guthrie McClintic.
40. ‘… with their high colour and total lack of sophistication …’ From The Theatre of Joe Mielziner.
41. ‘… ending with a marvellous dark …’ From Guthrie McClintic, op. cit.
42. ‘… how fine the play was when left intact …’ ibid.
43. ‘… all during the rehearsals of Romeo …’ ibid.
44. ‘The actors must be made to forget …’ and ff. ibid.
45. ‘Orson seemed friendly and good-natured …’ From A Proper Job by Brian Aherne.
46. ‘Audience warm in its commendation …’ New York Times 4 December 1934.
47. ‘It was a performance at once …’ Grenville Vernon, Commonweal 21 December 1934.
48. ‘Guthrie McClintic has somehow managed to persuade all the members of the cast …’ Richard Lockridge, New York Sun 21 December 1934.
49. ‘Miss Cornell has kept faith with her audiences by giving …’ Brooks Atkinson, New York Times 21 December 1934.
50. ‘… the smooth, veinless look of a young girl’s …’ From Leading Lady by Tad Mosel.
51. ‘… instances of minor parts played with …’ New York Times 21 December 1934.
52. ‘… a performance to watch and applaud …’ John Anderson, New York American 21 December 1934.
53. ‘Before our beautiful green sage curtains …’ Guthrie McClintic, op. cit.
CHAPTER EIGHT:
Houseman/Panic
1. ‘… that glossy and successful evening …’ and ff. From Run-Through by John Houseman.
2. ‘Let’s not talk about Houseman …’ From This is Orson Welles by Peter Bogdanovich.
3. ‘… meeting Welles was the most important event of my life …’ Houseman in an interview with S.C.
4. ‘Orson Welles’s initial impact …’ and ff. From John Houseman, op. cit.
5. ‘At first he fell in love with me …’ Quoted in Orson Welles by Barbara Leaming.
6. ‘… slim and graceful of movement …’ From The New Theatre, ed. Herbert W. Kline.
7. ‘Hearing that voice …’ and ff. From John Houseman, op. cit.
8. ‘… the voice of the hopeless individual …’ From The Oxford Companion to American Literature by James D. Hart.
9. ‘… it had become necessary to me …’ From John Houseman, op. cit.
10. ‘… to his own part … he brought us …’ ibid.
11. ‘… for such a young actor as Welles to play …’ Gabriel, New York American 16 March 1935.
12. ‘The Revolution!’ From Panic by Archibald MacLeish.
13. ‘… the work of our protean poet …’ Brooks Atkinson, New York Times 16 March 1935.
14. ‘A pretentious bore …’ John Anderson, New York Evening Journal 16 March 1935.
15. ‘The words of the play …’ Theatre Arts Monthly April 1935.
16. ‘… swept by one of those groundswells …’ and ff. From John Houseman, op. cit.
17. ‘I saw this very strange guy dressed …’ and ff. Dwight Weist in an interview with NYU.
18. ‘… a select group of anonymous radio artists …’ Alva Johnston and Fred Smith, Saturday Evening Post 27 January 1940.
19. ‘… a curious one-room residence …’ and ff. From John Houseman, op. cit.
20. ‘He would, by voice and presence …’ Peg Lloyd in an interview with S.C.
21. ‘… of whose talent he was so fanatically convinced …’ From John Houseman, op. cit.
22. ‘We parted friends …’ and ff. ibid.
23. ‘He admires radio as a medium …’ From an interview with John Hutchens, New York Times 26 November 1937.
24. ‘We saw Reinhardt’s productions …’ From The Fervent Years by Harold Clurman.
25. ‘… there was excitement because …’ From The American Theatre by Ethan Mordden.
26. ‘… attached to anything critical of war …’ From Introduction by John Gassner to Drama Was a Weapon.
27. ‘… the overriding dramatic topic of the decade …’ From The Political stage by Malcolm Goldstein.
28. ‘We expected to bring the actor …’ From Harold Clurman, op. cit.
29. ‘I say that Group productions lack music …’ From Slings and Arrows by Robert Lewis.
30. ‘… the painstaking love of detail …’ From Upstage: Types of American Direction by John Mason Brown.
CHAPTER NINE:
FTP/Macbeth
1. ‘… the arts projects were being set up …’ and ff. From Arena by Hallie Flanagan.
2. ‘… the theatre must become conscious …’ and ff. ibid.
3. ‘Mother Goose is no longer a rhymed escapist …’ Brooks Atkinson, New York Times 21 May 1937.
4. ‘Imagine an organisation producing in a season …’ Quoted in Free, Adult and Uncensored by O’Connor and Brown.
5. ‘… a white man was needed …’ From Run-Through by John Houseman.
6. ‘like a colonial governor …’ Quoted by John Houseman, op. cit.
7. ‘… bitter, but brilliantly cl
ear …’ ibid.
8. ‘… a dozen and one vivid …’ American Mercury 21 February 1929.
9. ‘My set has discovered something …’ Quoted in When Harlem was in Vogue by David Levening Lewis.
10. ‘Mr Welles has the idea that an Elizabethan play …’ Reproduced in Sights and Spectacles by Mary McCarthy.
11. ‘I rehearsed them on a count of one …’ From an interview at the Federal Theatre Research Project.
12. ‘… a round-faced prodigy …’ Brooks Atkinson, Broadway 1970.
13. ‘Orson, don’t do that …’ and ‘So get back to work!’ Quoted by O’Connor and Brown, op. cit.
14. ‘I don’t know what this guy’s up to …’ From an interview at the Federal Theatre Research Project.
15. ‘I always seduce actors …’ Quoted in Orson Welles by Barbara Leaming.
16. ‘Jack’s turn before …’ Notes on the production preserved at the Federal Theatre Research Project.
17. ‘For several days running …’ Alva Johnston and Fred Smith, Saturday Evening Post 27 January 1940.
18. ‘Our most original and imaginative mind …’ From Hallie Flanagan, op. cit.
19. ‘What would the negro interpretation …’ and ff. Federal Theatre Research Project.
20. ‘Steps in Lighting …’ and ff. From Putting on the Play ed. John Gassner.
21. ‘Orson Welles? It was just like …’ and ff. Abe Feder in an interview with S.C.
22. ‘My other close director friend …’ and ff. From Virgil Thomson by Virgil Thomson.
23. ‘Macbeth was staged by a romantic tragedy …’ and ff. Interview with NYU for their Welles project.
24. ‘Orson Welles knew nothing about musical ideas …’ ibid.
25. ‘… instead of telling you in musical terms …’ ibid.
26. ‘When you do that play …’ From This is Orson Welles by Peter Bogdanovich.
27. ‘Why had they mustered the audacity …’ and ff. New York Times 5 April 1936.
28. ‘Flash of ten thousand people …’ From Hallie Flanagan, op. cit.
29. ‘Negroes have taken Shakespeare to themselves …’ Quoted by Hallie Flanagan, op. cit.
30. ‘African drums beat …’ From Hallie Flanagan, op. cit.