by Simon Callow
Lastly, friends: or rather firstly, since it was Nick Hern who urged me to write a book about Orson Welles’s theatre, and Kathleen Tynan and Leo Lerman, both untimely deceased, both dreadfully missed, who persuaded me to go the whole hog and take on le tout Orson. So it’s all their fault. Edward Johnson, musicologist, cinephile and passionate fan, supplied me with all sorts of curious information, as well as tape transfers of The Mercury Shakespeare series of records. I would further like to thank two men, Richard Holmes and Robin Lane Fox, for their influence on my approach to biography; one I know (Holmes), the other I do not; both have been beacons in my attempt to make the past live in a credible fashion. My last thought is of two women; first my friend Ann Rogers, for many years Orson Welles’s secretary (and before that, Charles Laughton’s), whose subtle and shrewd support has kept me in touch with my purposes in writing this book, and secondly, the late Peggy Ramsay. This is the first book I have written without subjecting it to her sharp eye and full heart, and I miss both more than I can say.
Oh, and thank you, Christopher, for putting up with five years of Orson in the morning, Orson in the evening and Orson at suppertime. This book is for you.
S.C.
London
January, 1995
The author and publishers are grateful for permission to reprint the following: excerpts from Virgil Thomson by Virgil Thomson, copyright © 1966 by Virgil Thomson; excerpts from Orson Welles: A Biography by Barbara Leaming, copyright © 1985 by Barbara Leaming; both published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson: excerpts from Run-Through by John Houseman, copyright © 1972 by John Houseman, published by Simon & Schuster, reprinted by permission of the estate of John Houseman: excerpts from This is Orson Welles, edited by Jonathan Rosenbaum and Peter Bogdanovich, reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.: excerpt from an article by Orson Welles from the December 1982 issue of French Vogue, reprinted by permission of French Vogue.
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Bordwell, David, Janet Staiger & Kristin Thompson, The Classical Hollywood Cinema. Routledge, 1985.
Bowles, Paul, Without Stopping. Putnam, 1972.
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Cantril, Hadley, The Invasion from Mars: A Study in the Psychology of Panic. With the complete script of ‘The War of the Worlds’. Princeton University Press, 1940.
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Clurman, Harold, The Fervent Years. Harcourt Brace, 1975.
Cocteau, Jean, My Journey Round the World. Peter Owen, 1958.
Connelly, Marc, Voices Offstage. Henry Holt, 1968.
Copland, Aaron & Vivian Perlis, Copland 1900–1942. St Martin’s Press, 1984.
Corneau, Guy, Absent Fathers, Lost Sons. Shambhala, 1991.
Cotten, Joseph, Vanity Will Get You Somewhere. Mercury House, 1987.
Davies, Marion, The Times We Had: Life with William Randolph Hearst. Foreword by Orson Welles. Bobbs-Merrill, 1975.
Edwards, Hilton, The Mantle of Harlequin. Progress House, 1958.
Engel, Lehman, This Bright Day. Macmillan Publishing, 1974.
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Flanagan, Hallie, Arena. Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1940.
Fowler, Roy Alexander, Orson Welles: A First Biography. Pendulum Publications, 1946.
France, Richard, ed., Orson Welles on Shakespeare: The W.P.A. and Mercury Theatre Playscripts. Greenwood Press, 1990.
France, Richard, The Theatre of Orson Welles. Bucknell University Press, 1977.
Gassner, John, Producing the Play. Dryden Press, 1941.
Goldstein, Malcolm, The Political Stage. Oxford University Press, 1974.
Gordon, Eric A., Mark the Music: The Life and Work of Marc Blitzstein. St Martin’s Press, 1989.
Guiles, Fred Laurence, Marion Davies. McGraw-Hill, 1972.
Higham, Charles, Orson Welles: The Rise and Fall of an American Genius. St Martin’s Press, 1985.
Hill, Roger, One Man’s Time and Chance: A Memoir of Eighty Years 1895–1975. Privately printed, 1977.
Hill, Roger & Orson Welles, Marching Song. Unpublished play. Everybody’s Shakespeare: Three Plays (The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar and Twelfth Night). Edited for Reading and Arranged for Staging. Todd Press, 1934. Reprinted as Mercury Shakespeare. Harper, 1939.
Himelstein, Morgan Y., Drama was a Weapon: The Left-Wing Theatre in New York 1929–1941. Rutgers University Press, 1973.
Hoke, John, Todd School. Unpublished thesis, 1934.
Holloway, Joseph ed. Robert Hogan & Michael O’Neill, Joseph Holloway’s Irish Theatre. Proscenium Press, 1968.
Hoogstraten, Nicholas van, Lost Theatres of Broadway. Princeton Architectural Press, 1991.
Houseman, John, Run-Through. Simon & Schuster, 1972.
Hughes, Richard, In the Lap of Atlas. Chatto & Windus, 1979.
Hutton, Edward, Cities of Spain. Methuen, 1927.
Jewell, Richard B. & Vernon Harbin, The RKO Story. Arlington House, 1982.
Kael, Pauline, ‘Raising Kane’, the introduction to The Citizen Kane Book. Little Brown, 1971.
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Kazin, Alfred, Starting Out in the Thirties. Little Brown, 1965.
Koch, Howard, The Panic Broadcast. Avon Books, 1971.
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Leaming, Barbara, Orson Welles: A Biography. Viking, 1985.
Leiter, Sam, The Encyclopaedia of the New York Stage 1930–1940. Greenwood Press, 1989.
Lewis, Robert, Slings and Arrows: Theater in my Life. Stein & Day, 1984.
McCann, Sean. The Story of the Abbey Theatre. New English Library, 1967.
McCarthy, Mary, Sights and Spectacles. Farrar Straus, 1956.
McClintic, Guthrie, Me and Kit. Atlantic, Little Brown, 1955.
Mac Liammóir, Micheál, All for Hecuba. Methuen, 1946.
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Mordden, Ethan, The American Theatre. Oxford University Press, 1981.
Mosel, Tad, Leading Lady. Atlantic, Little Brown, 1978.
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Noble, Peter, The Fabulous Orson Welles. Hutchinson, 1956.
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O’Flaherty, Liam, A Tourist’s Guide to Ireland. Mandrake, 1930.
Pritchett, V.S., Dublin: A Portrait. Bodley Head, 1967.
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Smith, Alston J., Chicago’s Left Bank. Henry Regnery, 1953.
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Welles, Orson, ed., Vogue. December, 1982.
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PICTURE CREDITS
The page references below correspond to the printed edition from which this ebook was created.
Inset 1: p. 2 above left courtesy Chris Brooks; p. 2 below right, p. 3 above left, p. 3 below Kenosha County Historical Society; p. 5 below left Hascy Tarbox; p. 6 all Highland Park Public Library; p. 7 both Gate Theatre Archive, Special Collections Department, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois; p. 8 below Chadwyck-Healey Ltd and the Consortium for Drama and Media in Higher Education.
Inset 2: p. 1, p. 2 right, p. 3 both, pp. 4–5 all, p. 6 below, p. 7 Federal Theater Archive, George Mason University, Washington D.C.
Inset 3: p. 1, pp. 2–3 all © Al Hirschfeld. Drawings reproduced by special arrangement with Hirschfeld’s exclusive representative, The Margo Feiden Galleries Ltd, New York; p. 4 Culver Pictures; p. 6 Welles Mss. Hohenberger Collection; p. 7 all Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Margaret Herrick Library; p. 8 Personality Photo, Inc.
All other photographs courtesy of the estate of Orson Welles.
Index
The page references in this index correspond to the printed edition from which this ebook was created. To find a specific word or phrase from the index, please use the search feature of your ebook reader.
Abbey Theatre, Dublin, 83, 93, 95, 101, 105, 146
Abbott, George, 210, 214
Abraham and Isaac, 344
Abraham Lincoln (radio play), 387
Abraham’s Bosom, 221
acting/role of actor, 86–7, 93–4, 148–9, 260–1, 272–3, 276–7, 284, 315–18, 319–20, 328–30, 338, 339, 340, 346, 358, 364, 365–6, 392–3, 396, 408, 411, 439, 512–14, 568, 569–70
Actors’ Dinner Club, 211–12
Actors’ Fund of America, 152
Actors’ Repertory Company, 287
Adair, John, 428
Adams, John, 278
Addams, Jane, 9, 18
Addy, Wesley, 439
Ade, George, 10–11; Fables in Slang, 11
Adelphi Theatre, New York, 244–5
Adventures of Robin Hood, The (film), 448
Agate, James, 564
Age of Innocence, The, 143
Aherne, Brian, 185, 188, 189, 193, 200
Air Raid (MacLeish: radio play), 400
Alexander, Rita, 496
Alfano, Franco, 23
Algren, Nelson, 19
Alice in Wonderland, 102
Alien Corn, 143
All Alone, The, 106
Alland, William, 208, 327, 346, 357, 364, 387, 397, 408, 428, 459, 477, 506, 513–14, 523, 545, 546
Allen, Evelyn, 313
Ambler, Eric, Journey into Fear, 528, 577
American see Citizen Kane
American Laboratory Theatre, 251
American League of Decency, 485–6
American Legion, 557
American Mercury, 308
American Repertory Company, 290
American Theatre Council, 294
Ames, Winthrop, 210
Anatol (Schnitzler: radio), 387, 389, 418
Anderson, Arthur, 312, 347, 351, 388–9
Anderson, John, 338, 341
Anderson, Judith, 143, 425
Anderson, Margaret, 17
Anderson, Maxwell, 332, 424, 427
Anderson, Sherwood, 16, 17, 418, 555
Anderson, Tommy, 223
Androcles and the Lion (Shaw), 53
Anisfeldt, Boris, 18, 19, 72
Ankrum, Maurice, 427
Anna Christie (O’Neill), 19
Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare), 342
Appia, Adolphe, 46, 92
Apple Cart, The (Shaw), 107
apron stage, 272, 275, 281
Aran, Isles of, 78–80, 104, 108, 131
Archdupe, The, 104–5
Archer, William, The Green Goddess, 445–8
Arena, 320
Arliss, George, 445
Arms and the Man (Shaw), 88
Around the World, 386
Arsenic and Old Lace, 553
‘Art for Art’s Sake’ (Blitzstein song), 292
ARTEF (Yiddish group), 417
Artaud, Antonin, 316; ‘Theatre of Cruelty’, 260
Arthur, Helen, 249
As You Like It (Shakespeare), 112
Ash, Walter, 353, 365
‘Ask Us Again’ (Blitzstein song), 292
Atalante, L’, 460
Atkins, Robert, 92
Atkinson, Brooks, 143, 148, 188, 189, 202, 218, 223–4, 237–8, 239–40, 264, 275, 276, 278, 282, 310, 338, 345, 355, 356, 361, 365, 409, 410, 411, 412, 413, 414, 551, 552–3, 564
Auden, W.H., 442, 543; ‘The Prince’s Dog’ (essay), 442–3
Bach, Johann Sebastian, 291
Badger Brass, 4, 5, 7, 8, 15
Baer, Richard, 428, 459–60, 464, 477, 515, 520, 529, 560
Baird, Bill, 253–4, 255, 256, 269
Baker, Carlos, 136
Bakst, Leon, 109
Balanchine, George, 378
Ball, Lucille, 480–1
Bankhead, Tallulah, 342, 427
Bannerman, LeRoy, 400
Barber, Phillip, 239, 243, 265
Barker, Harley Granville, 148, 173
Barnes, Baron, 73
Barnouw, Eric, 371, 373, 375, 380, 399, 400
Barr, Richard, 377, 397, 400, 404, 429, 433, 513
Barrett, Edith (Mrs Vincent Price), 348, 356
Barretts of Wimpole Street, The (Besier), 141, 143, 144–5, 148–9, 153, 154, 185, 200
Barrier, Edgar, 384, 428, 470, 503
Barry, Phillip, 546
Barrymore, John, 140, 150, 154, 169, 198, 241, 263, 284, 319, 424, 446, 561
Bartholomew Fair (Jonson), 349
Batista, Miriam, 208
Baudelaire, Charles, 196
Bax, Clifford, Rose Without a Thorn, 112
Bazin, André, 50, 566
Beardsley, Aubrey, 109
Beau Geste (Wren), radio adaptation of, 445
Beaumarchais, Pierre, The Marriage of Figaro, 295
Beaumont, Francis and Fletcher, John, 159, 164
Beck, Martin, 439
Beethoven, Ludwig van, 292
Belasco, David, 181, 188, 210, 214
Belfrage, Cedric, 565, 566, 572
Benchley, Robert, 278, 342, 411
Benét, Stephen Vincent, 119, 555
Benson, Sir Frank, 83, 100
Bergman, Ingrid, 470
Berlin, 50, 109, 1
21, 288, 429
Berman, Pandro S., 450
Bernhardt, Sarah, 50
Bernstein, Edith (née Mason: second wife), 23, 65, 73
Bernstein, Hazel (née Moore: third wife), 20, 23, 49, 73, 75
Bernstein, Leonard, 288
Bernstein, Dr Maurice Abraham (‘Dadda’), 13–14, 15, 17, 20, 23, 30–1, 32, 41, 47, 50, 57, 58, 61, 62, 198, 199, 514; Beatrice’s relationship with, 14, 20, 21, 31, 63, 74; Highland Park house, 47, 49, 73; legal guardian of Welles, 65, 474; moves to California, 475; second marriage to Edith Mason, 65, 73; third marriage to Hazel Moore, 73; as trustee of Dick Welles’s estate, 74, 435; Welles’s letters to, 76, 77, 79–80, 81, 86–7; Welles’s relations with, 13–14, 21, 27, 28, 30–1, 33, 34, 37, 49, 54, 63, 69, 73, 74–5, 118, 125, 126, 127, 128, 141, 142, 185, 474, 475–6
Bernstein, Minna (née Elman: first wife), 14
Betterton, Thomas, 178
Big Sisterhood Association, 14
Big White Fog, 552
Bijou Theatre, New York, 208
Bird, William, 278
Birdseye, Clarence, 230
Bitter Sweet, 83
Blackbirds, revue, 221
Blake, Eubie, 219
Blavatsky, Mme, 64
Bleak House (Dickens), 158
Blitzstein, Eva (née Goldbeck), 288, 289
Blitzstein, Marc, 288–302, 346, 354, 384, 386, 394, 529, 556; Christina (song), 393; The Condemned, 289; The Cradle Will Rock (operetta), 287, 288–303, 304, 345, 346; Danton’s Death, music score for, 393, 394; The Harpies, 289; I’ve Got the Tune (radio play), 302; Julius Caesar, music score for, 310, 322, 328, 332, 336, 353; Ode to Reason (song), 393
Blossom Time, 211
Bodenheim, Max, 16, 20
Bogdanovich, Peter, This is Orson Welles, ix, x, 26–7, 43, 50, 87, 127, 137, 196, 234, 263, 264, 320, 329, 346, 385, 386, 424, 442, 486, 501, 503, 506, 509, 511, 514, 523, 535, 561, 565, 571
Bohm, Adolph, 19
Bokassa, Emperor, 222
Boleslavsky, Richard, 251
Bond, Ward, 460
Bonstelle, Jessie, Detroit stock company of, 143
Book of Todd, The 1931, Welles’s editing of, 69–71
Booth, Edwin, 95, 109, 169, 178
Booth, John Wilkes, 120
Booth, Clare, 334
Bordwell, David, 522, 523, 571
Borges, Jorge Luis, 570
Borgias, The, 481, 484