Orson Welles - The Man Who Was Magic: Part 1
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For rehearsals, which had begun in mid-May, the cast would gather at 7 PM at the Play Time. When they ended, usually at 2 or 3 AM, Orson would go home to stay up most of the rest of the night trying to figure out new bits of business or improvements on old ones before grabbing a couple of hours sleep. As usual he was always tinkering with the script. Eighteen different openings were tried out in rehearsals and previews before he was almost satisfied.154
These constant script revisions were an extraordinarily labor-intensive task for his squad of typists, particularly in those pre-computer and pre-Xerox days. With her time-and-a-half contract at the studio Paula Millard didn't mind that Orson was working her 11 to 12 hours a day—normally from 11 AM to around 11 PM. Peggy Vaughan helped out with the typing, although Orson complained about her politically reactionary husband. And Paula would dragoon however many additional late-night Twentienth Century-Fox typists were needed to completely retype the revised scripts that Orson required each morning.155
150 Calvert taped “letter” to BW, May 92.
151For the history of the Needle Trick see Whaley (1989), 472-473.
152Telephone interviews with Alan Wakeling, 22 Apr 91; and Marvyn Roy, 24 Sep 91. Also Charvet (1993), Eichar (pronounced EYE-car) joined the Magic Castle in 1963 as member #R-228 but soon died of cancer.
153Hanlon interview, 12 Dec 91. Luke did not appear in any of the films directed by Norman Foster.
154Hanlon interview, 12 Dec 91.
155Paula Millard Petchon interviews, 23 Jan & 15 Nov 92.
He also taught Rita an old mentalism trick where, although blindfolded, she would give the correct answer to a series of numbers randomly selected by volunteers and written on a slate by him.156 This baffling effect had been invented by popular mentalist Joe Dunninger who was performing it by 1926. The improved method Orson used, the Baker Lock Spirit Slate, had been invented by Al Baker in 1929. (It is also called the Dunninger Slate after the great showman who made it famous).157
Orson decided to also feature Rita as his assistant in the Sawing a Woman in Two illusion using a buzz saw as he had two years earlier when touring with Dolores del Río. Orson and Rita reportedly rehearsed this effect and it was even promised in a press release.158 But she never appeared in this role. In actual performances the victim of the Sawing was always one of the female stage assistants.159 Yet many in the audience at the opening and other later performances “remembered" her having been sawn and several reporters, biographers, and historians dutifully report it as “fact". Indeed, this minor myth would engulf several of his performances and celebrity assistants, the role of sawee being misattributed retroactively to Dolores del Río (in 1941) and in the future to Marlene Dietrich (1943), Elizabeth Taylor (1951), and Paola Mori (1956).160 So much for recollected eyewitness testimony and the fact-checking ability of reporters and writers and their editors.
Particularly tricky was the Houdini Substitution Trunk for which Orson had already trained Rita. Now, with Joseph Cotten in his place, he had to train Jo to work it with Rita. They rehearsed their switch until it took only a few seconds.161
Cotten also trained for his Escape Trunk routine. The playbill promised “The Great Joseph—The Wizard of the South Presents Split Second Escapology. The Redoubtable J. Cotten Risks His Life at Every Performance." For this effect he would climb into a sack inside an open trunk. GI volunteers would tie the sack and close and seal the trunk, which they placed inside a cabinet. By the time their labors were complete, Cotten appears at the back of the tent riding a bicycle down the aisle to bring a telegram to Orson. When the trunk is unlocked out springs one of the showgirls and the trunk lid closed. Immediately a loud pounding is heard from inside the trunk, which is opened to reveal—The Great Joseph!162
Then followed a series of previews, the first in June at the Play Time. Others were done by touring several local military camps.163 Cy Endfield caught a performance at the Play Time and found it “very classy indeed."164 Amateur magician Dick Buffum, then a 22-year old serviceman in the Coast Guard, also saw a preview at the same theater. He remembers Rita doing the Sub Trunk and thought it a “great" show.165
156 Leaming (1989), 86; Brady (1989), 365.
157Jeff Busby FAXes to BW, 20 Sep & 28 Oct 93, based on Abrams (1992), 171n, misattributes the effect to Baker (who had only later devised the improved method).
158Undated [May 1943] 20th Century-Fox draft press release by Bloecher.
159Hanlon interview, 12 Dec 91; OW interview of 23 Jul 1983 in Leaming (1985), 268.
160This myth was perpetuated by, among others, the San Francisco News, 8 Aug 1943; Kansas City Star, 19 Sep 1943; LOOK, 16 Nov 1943; Fowler (1946), 99, with Hayworth as sawee; "Incomparable Orson" (1947), 6, with Hayworth "4 or 5 times daily"; Bogdanovich (1961), 16, with Dietrich; Bessy (1963/1971), 65, with Hayworth; Andrews (1971), 111, with Elizabeth Taylor!; Houseman (1972), 235, with Dietrich; Bazin (1972), 87, 92, with Dietrich & Hayworth; Donald Ogden Stewart, By a Stroke of Luck! (London: Paddington, 1975), 274, with Hayworth; Buffum (1985) with Hayworth; Friedrich (1986), 266, with Hayworth; Leaming (1985), 268, 412, with Del Río, Hayworth, Dietrich, and a fictitious abort with Paola Mori; Taylor (1986), 71, with Hayworth; Ronald L. Smith, Johnny Carson: An Unauthorized Biography (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987), 24, with Hayworth; Leaming (1989), 86, with Hayworth; Brady (1989), 365, with Hayworth; Higham (1985), 324, with Dietrich; Wood (1990), 59, with Dietrich; Charvet (1993), Thomson (1996), 253-255, with Hayworth & Dietrich, & Thomson (1998), 271, with Hayworth. Dietrich was indeed sawn in the Follow the Boys movie; but that was done, as we'll see, by camera trickery.
161Brady (1989), 364-365.
162Larsen (1943), 6; Leaming (1985), 267.
163Leaming (1989), 87, 88.
* * * Throughout rehearsals, previews, and the show itself Orson adopted Dante's flamboyant style of throwing his small props to off-stage assistants after he'd finished with them. And, as with Dante, this led to frequent breakage. “So", as 15-year-old Bill Larsen Jr of Thayer's Studio of Magic would recall, “we had to constantly rebuild the show."166 Orson's blatant theatricality was just as evident in many clever bits of stage business, such as lighting his long cigar with a blowtorch.167
* * * Johnny Carson had been a semi-pro magician (“The Great Carsoni") since age twelve. He would later tell Orson's friend Ken Tynan that in the summer of 1943 (between graduating from high school and beginning Navy training) he'd hitchhiked out to California. There he claimed to have bought a uniform and gone to the Hollywood Stage Door Canteen where he danced with Marlene Dietrich. (She did dance there occasionally at that time.) He then traveled down to San Diego where he saw Orson Welles' touring magic show. When Orson called for volunteers, young Carson's hand shot up and he was chosen. On stage he “ecstatically permitted himself to be sawed in half."168 One of his unofficial biographers challenged Johnny's story, claiming that it was Rita who was sawn while Johnny sat “thrilled to pieces";169 but, as we've seen, it had become a common error to report Rita as the sawee. In the late 1970s, when Orson was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show, Johnny mentioned that he'd been one of the many volunteer sawees.
Among Orson's favorite magicians was Cardini. This suave Britisher had created the worldfamous silent-act of a tipsy gent in evening clothes and monocle, baffled when magical things happened to him: Discarding a lit cigarette, a fresh one would appear at his fingertips; a cigarette would become a pipe and then four pipes; and so forth. A great favorite with the public, he was also a magicians' magician of whom one said, “Cardini was on the stage. I cannot tell you about any sequences, because it was real magic.170 He and his diminutive American assistant-wife Swan had arrived in Los Angeles to play the Florentine Gardens on the same bill as “The Last of the Red Hot Mamas", singer Sophie Tucker.171 They, in turn, saw one of Orson's preview performances of the Wonder Show and went backstage where Swan met him for the first time.172
Meanwhile, Orson had overlooked one of his many bills for magic app
aratus from William Larsen Senior's Thayer Studio of Magic. Although his close friend Bill Senior wasn't really worried about eventual payment, he thought a dramatic reminder might provide some fun. So he sent a copy of the bill on his legal stationery. When an astonished Orson complained, his lawyer-cum-magic-dealer friend explained with a straight face, "I just wanted to get your attention."173
164 Endfield audiotape (Fall 1992).
165Buffum telephone interview, 20 Apr 91.
166Bill Larsen Jr. telephone interview, 30 Sep 91.
167Hanlon interview, 19 Dec 91.
168Tynan (1978/1979), 166. Tynan's version was copied by Robert Metz, The Tonight Show (USA: A Playboy Press Book, 1980), 188; and Paul Corkery, Carson: The Unauthorized Biography (Ketchum, Idaho: Randt & Company, 1987), 33-34.
169Ronald L. Smith, Johnny Carson: An Unauthorized Biography (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987), 24.
170Rhadamanthus Jr. in The Jinx, No. 139 (1941), 789.
171Los Angeles Times, 4 Aug 1943, Pt.I, p.14.
172Swan Cardini telephone interview, 8 Feb 92.
Tommy Hanlon, although only 19, had been a pro comedy magician touring the States for three or four years and had recently landed in Hollywood. Hearing about Orson's new project he decided to apply for a job. Walking over to the Play Time he explained his intention to Shifra Haran who sent him into the inner office. There was Orson, legs casually propped upon his desk. All young Tommy got to say was that he was a pro magician when Orson interrupted by announcing, “You're hired!" His main role was to be chief stage assistant; but, typically, Orson also used Tommy as a general handyman by having him pick up needed props or wardrobe and occasionally take over Orson's Rolls Royce to chauffeur Rita to movies, Agnes Moorehead to her home, and Jo Cotten around town. Orson also soon came to appreciate Tommy's recommendations for new magical effects and his coaching in their performance.174
* * * Orson wanted an “extravaganza" and put it together on a scale equal to any of his previous stage productions and most of his movies. Mounting a show of this size involved writing a tight script; putting together an office staff, cast, and stage crew; borrowing and buying props; renting costumes; renting and borrowing space; planning and placing advertisements. The demands upon him as producer, director, and performer were as great as at any time in the career of this 28-year old. And again he would prove his ability to pull it all together at the last minute. And without Houseman.
For this show Orson went the whole way—further in one sense than either Houdini or Thurston. The very staging would imply total entertainment. It would be set in a circus complete with Big Top for the main event plus a midway for side-show attractions including caged wild-animals (Jake the lion, Satan the tiger, and Dynamite the black leopard, all alleged to be Frank Buck jungle movie veterans), red circus wagons, a steam calliope, booths dispensing hot dogs, floss candy, soda pop, and strolling peanut-andpopcorn vendors hawking their wares for a buck a bag. A bevy of buxom female assistants—"all strictly grade A Hollywood pulchritude" in the eyes of Bill Larsen Senior—were garbed in tight-fitting militarytype jackets with white skirts; and the male stage assistants wore similar jackets with white trousers. Another male assistant was disguised in Army khakis so he could work as an unsuspected audience stooge. Informality was emphasized by the sawdusted ground, clowns, and acrobats. Even the box office, which Orson also used as his on-site office, was a red and gold ticket-taking wagon.175
The brand-new medium-sized (two-pole) rented Big Top was pitched on a large vacant corner field (lent by M-G-M Studios) at 900 Cahuenga Boulevard just below the heart of Hollywood and near the USO. Its 1,100 bleacher seats along the sides and back would be free for GIs. The center section of 400 folding wooden chairs was full-priced for adult civilians, ranging from $1.65 to a whopping $5.50 for the first three rows, and 55¢ for kids. Calling the paid seats the “sucker section", Orson's motto was, “A sucker deserves an even break at a slightly higher level."176 Profits were earmarked for The Assistance League of Southern California, a wartime charity for military service personnel.
173 Milt Larsen interview, 4 Oct 91.
174Hanlon interview, 12 Dec 91. Also Card Mondor letter to BW, 23 Jul 91.
175Los Angeles Times, 4 Aug 1943, Pt.I, p.14, col.3; Larsen (1943), 6; Welles' guest column for Leonard Lyons, ca.2 Aug 1943; Daily Variety, 4 Aug 43; Paula Millard Petchon interview, 23 Jan 92.
176Denton & Crichton (1943), 14.
What to do with the dead spaces immediately back of the tent's two thick "king" poles? Both were put to good use. The one behind the front pole would become the Sucker Seat and the one behind the back one later became the Super Sucker Seat. These were reserved for charity-minded celebrities who paid a hefty $50 for the first and a outrageous $100 for the second.177 This profitable idea had originated with Orson as a practical joke. When Chester Morris demanded “the best seat in the house" for opening night, Orson immediately knew what to do. He had an extra seat nailed down behind the front pole. Throughout the performance poor Chester had to lean far to one side or the other to see the stage action. After the show he went backstage to congratulate his friend, greeting Orson with a cheery, “You bastard!"178
Final dress rehearsal under the Big Top on Monday evening, August 2nd, went well, with few hitches.179 Huge garish four-color circus banners (by Caldwell Banner Studio) that featured Orson, Rita, and Jo were up and the word was out.
THE WONDER SHOW OPENS THE WONDER SHOW OPENS minute Mercury Wonder Show had its official “Grand Opening". And grand it was. The outrageous $11 top price seats (for that night only) had sold out in advance. All other seats for the opening show went for $5.50. Although wartime “dimout" rules forbade the usual premiere searchlights, the midway was aglow with stars—Betty Grable who had volunteered to take charge of the weight-guessing scales, Ann Sheridan at the baseball target dip, Kay Francis with the tintype concession, and Agnes Moorehead as “Calliope Aggie" working that cheerfully raucous instrument.180 Comedians Phil Silvers and Rags Ragland and dramatic actor Paul Stewart were, as Orson pointed out, “entirely audible as barkers, or more properly ‘talkers', pitching on the ‘bally walk'."181 Death Valley Mack, who'd gotten his start with Buffalo Bill's circus, worked the midway in a cowboy hat, chaps, and spurs and tended the caged wild animals.182 Professor Bill Provost and his 5-piece Circus Symphony provided the stage music. The star-studded audience included comedian George Jessel, amateur magicians Edgar Bergen, Harold Lloyd, and, in the infamous Sucker Seat, Chester Morris.183
The usherettes—volunteer debutant-types from the Assistance League who had been trained by Paula Millard—finished directing the audience to their proper seats and handing them their programs. Then the show began.184
Under the Big Top, in his own part as magician “Orson the Magnificent"—wearing a white fez and flowing red-&-white striped silk robe—materializes himself from a giant rabbit in a Flash Appearance. The opener, billed as “The Miraculous Chicken Farm—Twenty-five (25) Living Hens Manufactured as You Watch, Without the Aid of a Single Egg"—was a whirlwind production à la Thurston from empty crates of dozens of chickens and ducks and doves.
177 Milt Larsen interview, 4 Oct 91.
178Hanlon interview, 12 Dec 91.
179Los Angeles Times, 4 Aug 1943, Pt.I, p.14, col.4.
180Los Angeles Times, 3 Aug 43, Pt.I, p.10, col.3.
181OW undated [1943] draft guest column for Leonard Lyons, which was published in the New York Post on 25 Jul 1943.
182Miscalled "Cactus Mac" by Brady (1989), 367. Both the contemporary program and Tommy Hanlon Jr.'s memory report "Death Valley Mack". Daily Variety (4 Aug 1943) reported a Melvin Koontz as the animal handler on opening night, so that is probably his real name.
183Los Angeles Times, 6 Aug 43, Pt.I, p.6, col.3.
184Paula Millard Petchon interview, 23 Jan 92.
He introduces the show: “Ladies and gentlemen, tonight we are going to reproduce the Occult Secrets of antiquity, provide original experi
ments in Animal Magnetism, and furnish readings on the Magic Crystal. But, because of the unbelievable strain on the practitioner of this incredible feat, the management must reserve the right to change this position of the program without notice."185 He fancied this quaint old-fashioned patter, finding it amusing to himself and his audience. Only later, when playing magicians in films, would he sometimes do a silent act.
On that first night, Orson's introductory speech was interrupted by the backstage crowing and quacking and screeching of the birds from the preceding act, their two animal handlers having been unable to remove them in time. Orson hollers out, “What's going on back there?" Tommy Hanlon, desperately improvising, shouts back, “Nobody back here but us roosters." That got a laugh and Orson, stalling while Tommy is urging the handlers to get the birds out of the tent, shouts, “What did you say?" And Tommy, camping it up, twitters in falsetto, “Mr. Welles, there's no one back here but us roosters!" At which point Orson brought down the house by quipping, “Must be a capon." Pleased by this improvisational bit of business, Orson wrote it into the script.186
On with the show! Orson—Shorty assisting—swallows live flames, levitates his big Cuban Upmann cigar, produces a live canary from nowhere and shoots it into an electric lightbulb. He milks a canvas cow. He hypnotizes his rooster, wrings its head from its body and tosses it to a female assistant. Tossed back, Orson proceeds to restore the head, and life itself, to the resurrected bird in the trick billed as “DE- and RE-CAPITATED". To prove he is just as adept at hypnotizing humans, a serviceman volunteer is brought on stage and quickly entranced.187
He worked the cigar levitation and other small tricks with the help of a large Black Art Cabinet (a kind of black hole manned by black-clad Invisible Assistants) at the back of the stage that enables objects to materialize from nowhere.188