Orson Welles, Vol I
Page 81
31. ‘The floor became a moving forest …’ From John Houseman, op. cit.
32. ‘At the conclusion of the performance …’ New York Times 15 April 1936.
33. ‘They have always worried the life out of …’ ibid.
34. ‘This is not the speech of negroes …’ Sunday News 26 April 1936.
35. ‘Extremely vivid, though a bit bizarre …’ New York Sun 15 April 1936.
36. ‘The production is only as interesting …’ New York Herald Tribune 16 April 1936.
37. ‘In Macbeth, the negro has been given …’ Amsterdam News 18 April 1936.
38. ‘Hallie Flanagan and Phillip Barber …’ New York Age 20 April 1936.
39. ‘It turns out to be a colorful and rousing …’ New York Times 18 April 1936.
40. ‘A FURTHER CONSIDERATION …’ New York Post 18 April 1936.
41. ‘No event in the art galleries …’ Edward Alden Jewell, New York Times 24 April 1936.
42. ‘… a tragedy of black ambition …’ From Hallie Flanagan, op. cit.
43. ‘Cocteau did not understand …’ From Virgil Thomson, op. cit.
44. ‘When Macbeth and Lady Macbeth …’ From My Life, My Stage by Ernst Stern.
45. ‘The Harlem Macbeth …’ From Sights and Spectacles by Mary McCarthy.
46. ‘I like Macbeth and I like negroes …’ From My Journey Round the World by Jean Cocteau.
47. ‘It is significant that our white culture …’ From Mary McCarthy, op. cit.
48. ‘Welles has all the gall …’ Phillip Barber in an interview with the Federal Theatre Research Project.
49. ‘It was here that my first male relationship was formed …’ From John Houseman, op. cit.
50. ‘I was really the King of Harlem! …’ From Barbara Leaming, op. cit.
51. ‘You have to take into account …’ Quoted in The Theatre of Orson Welles by Richard France.
CHAPTER TEN:
Horse Eats Hat/Doctor Faustus
1. ‘I must leave the project …’ and ff. From Run-Through by John Houseman.
2. ‘… the Federal theatre …’ From Arena by Hallie Flanagan.
3. ‘For eight years I have cherished …’ Quoted in Lost Theatres of Broadway by Nicholas van Hoogstraten.
4. ‘Ageing character actors …’ From John Houseman, op. cit.
5. ‘Working with him in his youth …’ From Virgil Thomson by Virgil Thomson.
6. ‘He fed them every line …’ Quoted in Free, Adult and Uncensored by O’Connor and Brown.
7. ‘Everyone had their own aria …’ Paula Laurence, interviewed at NYU.
8. ‘Hiram said he wouldn’t do it …’ From O’Connor and Brown, op. cit.
9. ‘… most talented …’ Quoted in Copland 1900–1942 by Aaron Copland and Vivian Perlis.
10. ‘Within ten minutes of our meeting …’ From Without Stopping by Paul Bowles.
11. ‘… in that way …’ From Virgil Thomson, op. cit.
12. ‘If Macbeth had in Orson’s hands …’ ibid.
13. ‘The last scene …’ From Voices Offstage by Marc Connelly.
14. ‘… imaginative, vigorous …’ Quoted in Conversations with Losey by Michel Ciment.
15. ‘… dozens of young men and women …’ New York American 28 September 1936.
16. ‘It looked as though somebody from …’ John Mason Brown, New York Post 28 September 1936.
17. ‘… this sort of calculated nonsense …’ Brooklyn Eagle 28 September 1936.
18. ‘… that dismal embarrassment …’ Richard Watts, New York Herald Tribune 28 September 1936.
19. ‘It is as though Gertrude Stein …’ and ff. New York Times 28 September 1936.
20. ‘I’m afraid you’ll never make it as an actor …’ Quoted in Vanity Will Get You Somewhere by Joseph Cotten.
21. ‘A prototypical American businessman …’ Quoted in The Theatre of Orson Welles by Richard France.
22. ‘His versatility and enthusiasm …’ Richard Watts, New York Herald Tribune 28 September 1936.
23. ‘It is a government-subsidised …’ John Chapman: HORSE EATS HAT IS MAD, BUT NOT MAD ENOUGH: New York Daily News 28 September 1936.
24. ‘Mr Welles, the triple threat of the evening …’ Lewis Nichols, New York Times 28 September 1936.
25. ‘Mr Welles (wonder-product) …’ B.I. n.d.
26. ‘Mr Welles, an unusually gifted young man …’ John Mason Brown, New York Post 28 September 1936.
27. ‘Welles, as an actor, for all his fine bass voice …’ From Virgil Thomson, op. cit.
28. ‘What I do have in common with Jack …’ From This is Orson Welles by Peter Bogdanovich.
29. ‘… the moment rehearsals were over …’ Charles Bowden in an interview with NYU.
30. ‘… a flashing screen of headlines …’ From The Encyclopaedia of the New York Stage 1930–1940 by Sam Leiter.
31. ‘Ten Million Ghosts is not the sort of play …’ New York Times 25 October 1936.
32. ‘Nor can I say …’ New York Herald Tribune 25 October 1936.
33. ‘That is one of the biggest pieces of schweinerei …’ From Peter Bogdanovich, op. cit.
34. ‘… since the mention of any …’ and ff. From John Houseman, op. cit.
35. ‘… the performance was run continuously …’ From Putting on the Play ed. John Gassner.
36. ‘He had miles …’ Quoted by O’Connor and Brown, op. cit.
37. ‘The stage manager of that show …’ ibid.
38. ‘… can often float you into the scenes’ Elysium …’ New Republic 10 January 1937.
39. ‘Going into the Maxine Elliott …’ From Hallie Flanagan, op. cit.
40. ‘Go across the street …’ Quoted by O’Connor and Brown, op. cit.
41. ‘She liked a drink …’ Paula Laurence in an interview with NYU.
42. ‘Orson designed everything …’ ibid.
43. ‘Here was one of the goddam biggest …’ Quoted by O’Connor and Brown, op. cit.
44. ‘The apron causes …’ Quoted by Richard France, op. cit.
45. ‘… because we couldn’t see any more …’ and ff. From John Houseman, op. cit.
46. ‘… nothing but a curio …’ New York Daily News 9 January 1937.
47. ‘… including that of Mr Welles …’ Theatre Arts Monthly February 1937.
48. ‘The prologue is spoken …’ Wyatt, Catholic World February 1937.
49. ‘… boldly thrust an apron stage …’ and ff. New York Times 9 January 1937.
50. ‘… whose name …’ New Republic 10 January 1937.
51. ‘There were so many dark sides …’ Paula Laurence in an interview with NYU.
52. ‘Their presence on stage together …’ From John Houseman, op. cit.
53. ‘… pride and despair …’ From Roma Gill’s introduction to her edition of Doctor Faustus.
54. ‘The old Marlowe opus …’ Robert Benchley, New Yorker 12 January 1937.
55. ‘I suppose they wanted Lenin’s blood …’ Quoted in Hallie Flanagan by Joanne Flanagan Bentley.
56. ‘Doctor Faustus is the definitive …’ Paula Laurence in an interview with NYU.
57. ‘Doctor Faustus was truly successful …’ From Sights and Spectacles by Mary McCarthy.
58. ‘… the audience was fresh …’ Quoted by O’Connor and Brown, op. cit.
59. ‘Faustus played to just people, you know …’ Paula Laurence in an interview with NYU.
60. ‘We should have had a national theatre …’ Quoted by O’Connor and Brown, op. cit.
61. ‘Orson was very well aware …’ Norman Lloyd in an interview with S.C.
62. ‘I see myself in those old stills …’ From Orson Welles by Barbara Leaming.
63. ‘When I played The Cradle Will Rock …’ Quoted by O’Connor and Brown, op cit.
CHAPTER ELEVEN:
The Cradle Will Rock
1. ‘… that most resistant of all …’ Quoted in Mark the Music by
Eric A. Gordon.
2. ‘He was nervous …’ From This Bright day by Lehman Engel.
3. ‘… he was the first American composer …’ Quoted by Eric A. Gordon, op. cit.
4. ‘Orson was excited by this …’ and ff. From Run-Through by John Houseman.
5. ‘Marc Blitzstein sat down …’ From Arena by Hallie Flanagan.
6. ‘Hallie Flanagan … is crazy for it …’ Quoted by Eric A. Gordon, op. cit.
7. ‘… to Bert Brecht …’ From the published text of The Cradle Will Rock.
8. ‘Even during those early years …’ From Lehman Engel, op. cit.
9. ‘Orson was in a regular fever heat …’ Interview from Federal Theatre Research Project.
10. ‘… as actors, it diminished …’ ibid.
11. ‘Federal Theatre Workers were striking …’ From Hallie Flanagan, op. cit.
12. ‘Before this date, the WPA chiefs …’ Alva Johnston and Fred Smith, Saturday Evening Post 27 January 1940.
13. ‘The theatre was sealed …’ Interview from Federal Theatre Research Project.
14. ‘Like partners in a vaudeville team …’ From John Houseman, op. cit.
15. ‘… made a too-long speech …’ From Lehman Engel, op. cit.
16. ‘STEEL STRIKE OPERA …’ New York Times 17 June 1937.
17. ‘I cannot get out …’ Quoted in Backstage at ‘The Cradle Will Rock’ by Barry B. Witham.
18. ‘Important as the issue raised …’ Quoted by Eric A. Gordon, op. cit.
19. ‘… if you go ahead …’ Quoted in Witham, op. cit.
20. ‘There is good contemptuous laughter …’ Time 28 June 1937.
21. ‘The formerly audacious left-wingers …’ Saturday Evening Post 3 February 1940.
22. ‘Denby and I …’ From Aaron Copland and Vivian Perils, op. cit.
23. ‘The fact that the orchestra sat in every-day dress …’ New York Times 22 April 1937.
24. ‘… there is here the suggestion …’ World Telegram 22 April 1937.
25. ‘Gradually the real reasons began to come out …’ From Hallie Flanagan, op. cit.
26. ‘… we had little to say …’ From John Houseman, op. cit.
CHAPTER TWELVE:
Mercury
1. ‘AGAIN – A PEOPLE’S THEATRE …’ Daily Worker 18 September 1937.
2. ‘It is the duty of all …’ Grenville Vernon, Commonweal 27 August 1937.
3. ‘… has already given …’ New York Times 1 September 1937.
4. ‘… inveigled some wonderful night watchman …’ From Run-Through by John Houseman.
5. ‘Emphasis has been placed …’ Quoted in ‘Welles Peers Through his Beard and sees Chaos’, Wilella Waldorf, New York Times 1 July 1938.
6. ‘… everything in the theatre depends on a great personality …’ From Notes in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.
7. ‘… the role he’d been given …’ From This is Orson Welles by Peter Bogdanovich.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
Caesar
1. ‘As those familiar with the play …’ The Mercury September 1937.
2. ‘Here we have true fan psychology …’ An interview with Michael Mok, New York Times 24 November 1937.
3. ‘In drastically cutting the last twenty minutes of the play …’ and ff. The Mercury September 1937.
4. ‘Welles dictated very clearly …’ From The Magic of Light by Jean Rosenthal.
5. ‘At the Mercury nobody else had any identity for him at all …’ and ff. ibid.
6. ‘When he felt like rehearsing …’ and ff. From an interview with Federal Theatre Research Project.
7. ‘He seemed a prep school boy …’ Peg Lloyd in an interview with S.C.
8. ‘Every scene had to have a production idea …’ Norman Lloyd in an interview with S.C.
9. ‘Be a singer, be a singer!’ Quoted in an interview by Elliot Reid with S.C.
10. ‘I thought you could say …’ Norman Lloyd in an interview with S.C.
11. ‘… that they’re thinking about what they’re saying …’ From This is Orson Welles by Peter Bogdanovich.
12. ‘His own performances happened suddenly …’ From This Bright Day by Lehman Engel.
13. ‘The idea, the actor and a pool of light …’ From Jean Rosenthal, op. cit.
14. ‘Jeannie considered the most important lighting …’ ibid.
15. ‘Every elaborate effect had to be created by hand …’ From The Mercury Theatre by Andrea Nouryeh.
16. ‘One effect, spoken of as stunning and innovative …’ From Jean Rosenthal, op. cit.
17. ‘The way they came up the ramp …’ Norman Lloyd in an interview with S.C.
18. ‘In those days we never took him very seriously …’ ibid.
19. ‘… in anguish, fear and righteous indignation …’ An interview with Federal Theatre Research Project.
20. ‘He was the most insecure …’ Augusta Weissberger in an interview with S.C.
21. ‘Orson would argue with you as he ate …’ Norman Lloyd in an interview with S.C.
22. ‘Its great success …’ ibid.
23. ‘When he started acting out …’ ibid.
24. ‘Of all the many new plays and productions …’ and ff. New York Post 12 November 1937.
25. ‘… modern variations on the theme …’ and ff. New York Times 11 November 1937.
26. ‘… a wavering liberal …’ Eric Englander, Daily Worker 12 November 1937.
27. ‘It is as if a great poet had risen in our midst …’ New York Journal American 12 November 1937.
28. ‘It is when the play …’ New York Sun 12 November 1937.
29. ‘With most of Antony excised …’ Theatre Arts Monthly January 1938.
30. ‘… on the whole pretty much disappointed …’ New Republic 1 December 1937.
31. ‘The production of Caesar …’ From Sights and Spectacles by Mary McCarthy.
32. ‘… playing Julius Caesar in modern dress …’ Newsweek 22 November 1937.
33. ‘… the hysterical critical endorsement …’ Scribner’s Magazine February 1938.
34. ‘Julius Caesar opened with tremendous éclat …’ From Jean Rosenthal, op. cit.
35. ‘After a succession of muffled death-rattles …’ From ‘Marvelous Boy: Shadow to Shakespeare, Shoemaker to Shaw,’ Time Magazine 9 May 1938.
36. ‘If they are still complaining around the Lamb’s club …’ New York Times 26 November 1937.
37. ‘Mr Welles looks the way musicians used to look …’ Michael Mok, New York Post 24 November 1937.
38. ‘Welles was so masterful …’ Quoted in Citizen Welles by Frank Brady.
39. ‘I believe in the factual theatre …’ New York Post, 24 November 1937.
40. ‘Strange things are happening …’ New Yorker 18 December 1937.
41. ‘He also admires films …’ New York Times 28 September 1937.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
Shoemaker’s Holiday/Heartbreak House
1. ‘George Zorn (the box office manager) grew resigned …’ From Run-Through by John Houseman.
2. ‘It is the best thing militant labor …’ New York Times 6 December 1937.
3. ‘A savagely humorous social cartoon …’ New York Herald Tribune, 6 December 1937.
4. ‘I only wish that the present production …’ Alistair Cooke on NBC Red Network.
5. ‘His acrid personality is, in fact …’ From Sights and Spectacles by Mary McCarthy.
6. ‘It’s lucky I’m playing tragedy tonight …’ Quoted in Virgil Thomson by Virgil Thomson.
7. ‘Why do you have everybody dress up like chauffeurs?’ Quoted in This is Orson Welles by Peter Bogdanovich.
8. ‘I say this in all seriousness …’ Reported in New York World Telegram 5 February 1938.
9. ‘We were all very serious actors …’ Vincent Price in an interview with S.C.
10. ‘How do you like that for a title?’ and ff. From Helen Ormsbee, ‘The Welles Th
eater Philosophy: Everything Old Once Was New.’ New York Herald Tribune 2 February 1938.
11. ‘The play is laden with sentiments …’ New Masses 18 January 1938.
12. ‘All the groupings and firkings …’ Quoted in The Theatre of Orson Welles by Richard France.
13. ‘He rehearsed with military discipline …’ From This Bright Day by Lehman Engel.
14. ‘One day accidentally Hiram ran into the curtain …’ Arthur Anderson in an interview with S.C.
15. ‘… he moulded you …’ From Lehman Engel, op. cit.
16. ‘Welles the choreographer …’ Quoted by Richard France, op. cit.
17. ‘We thought she would die as she watched him …’ Norman Lloyd in an interview with S.C.
18. ‘He was the best director I ever had …’ Vincent Price in an interview with S.C.
19. ‘The way our script was arranged …’ Quoted by Richard France, op. cit.
20. ‘Our settings are simple – what I call factual …’ Quoted by Helen Ormsbee, op. cit.
21. ‘he had the most revolting triangle of shoe leather …’ Quoted in The Mercury Theatre, unpublished thesis by Andrea Nouryeh.
22. ‘An entire score …’ and ff. From Lehman Engel, op. cit.
23. ‘Getting wind of the event through the Broadway telegraph …’ Herbert Drake, New York Herald Tribune 2 January 1938.
24. ‘The audience felt intimately connected with the actors …’ New York World Telegram 11 January 1938.
25. ‘To Julius Caesar, a terrifying tragedy …’ New York Times 3 January 1938.
26. ‘… a masterpiece of low comedy acting …’ John Anderson, New York Journal-American 1 January 1938.
27. ‘… a series of glittering fragments …’ John Gassner, One-Act Play Magazine January 1938.
28. ‘Bully boy Dekker is quite familiar to me …’ ‘Shuffling Through the Winners: in which a Visiting Critic tells what he likes and what he does not like, about the Times Square Shows’ New York Times 23 January 1938.
29. ‘… still the great comfort …’ Richard Watts, ‘Elizabethan Romp’ New York Herald Tribune 3 January 1938.
30. ‘… some of his current actors have come to him …’ Brooks Atkinson, New York Times 3 January 1938.