Orson Welles - The Man Who Was Magic: Part 1

by Barton Whaley

  Having secretly become engaged to Rita, Orson now publically retaliated against Cohn. On the show's second night, at the point he would have introduced her, he announced:220 And now, ladies and gentlemen, I have come to a very unhappy part in this performance. Rita Hayworth rehearsed for this show for sixteen weeks. No one of us connected with it has been more interested than she in contributing a fine evening for servicemen for whom nothing is too good. But Rita Hayworth also works for motion picture studios, and motion picture studios are very odd. Columbia Pictures in the person of Harry Cohn —and I feel it is only fair to name names—has exercised his prerogative by insisting that Miss Hayworth withdraw from the show. This is terribly unfortunate, and I want to tell you that if any of you feels that the absence of Miss Hayworth in any way spoils your evening, you have only to go to the box office and your money will be refunded, and we hope you will remain, as our guests, for the rest of the evening. We had hoped that reason might prevail, but Mr. Cohn is adamant, a chronic condition with that gentleman. Needless to say, I shall never appear in a Columbia picture. It is, as I say, unfortunate to intrude this one unpleasant note. However, I feel you are entitled to an explanation.

  This announcement, which Orson repeated (with minor variations) on subsequent nights, shocked Hollywood. Studio bosses and their mythmaking ballyhooers were appalled by such audacious public airings of one of the industry's shabby little secrets; but most everyone else welcomed Orson's refreshing frankness. The politically cautious (read corrupted) local public and trade newspapers suppressed this touchy story. It was reported only by the distant New York Herald-Tribune and some of its subscribing newspapers.

  Denied Rita and with too little time to rehearse Marlene, “Jo-Jo" Cotten couldn't do the Substitution Trunk that second night. So his performance was limited to his solo Escape Trunk routine and the Voodoo finale.

  “Calliopie Aggie" Moorehead's efforts to pull in celebrity guest stars as stage stooges succeeded. For the second night's show she snagged amateur magician Cary Grant. His appearance on stage in drag amused everyone except possibly his multi-millionairess wife, Barbara Hutton, who allegedly didn't appreciate such public hints at his bisexuality and private fancy for wearing women's clothing and makeup.221 A later guest appearance by Laird Cregar also played well; but he immediately left in a huff, which Tommy Hanlon suspected was the result of the fat homosexual actor's public embarrassment at his turn in drag as the milkmaid in the Canvas Cow trick.222

  218 Leaming (1985), 268, quoting her 23 Jul 1983 interview with OW. Basically verified by Dietrich (1989), 119; and Hanlon interview, 12 Dec 91.

  219Leaming (1985), 268; Leaming (1989), 90; Hanlon interview, 12 Dec 91.

  220Quoted in Brady (1989), 366.

  221Charles Higham & Roy Mosely, Cary Grant: The Lonely Heart (New York: Harcourt Brace, Jovanovich, 1989), 151. The authors claim that Mr. Grant was a secret "homosexual" (they mean bisexual). Higham's attempts at sensationalism are always suspect, although Grant’s bisexuality has been posthumously admitted by such close firnds as Sheila MacRae. I can also report that journalist Jones Harris, who’d been Grant's next-door neighbor in a New York luxury apartment building in the 1970s, told me that Grant would openly walk the upper public hallways in female dressing gown and makeup.

  One of Orson's own featured stunts that he used several nights was the spectacular Bullet Catch, which he billed as “At the Shooting Gallery including Marksmanship's Reward". Orson faced a volunteer sharpshooter armed with a rifle. Taking aim, the man fired. Orson's head would snap back, then recover to show the bullet caught in his teeth.223

  {SIDEBAR} Orson’s Bullet Catch

  To catch the bullet Orson used the Meyer-Annemann method.224 Magician Orville Meyer had devised it in 1931 and performed it only a few times at school shows in Nebraska until 1933 when he gave the secret exclusively to Annemann the Enigma in New York City. Ted Annemann performed it on three or four occasions until 1938 as the grand publicity stunt it was. Meyer's new method was so audacious that it fooled most magicians. The sharpshooter's rifle and round were not tampered with in any way and a ballistic test would prove that the slug recovered from the performer's mouth had indeed been fired from that rifle. The bullet catcher has literally put his life on the line. While the trigger is being pulled, a single slip—now beyond Meyer's or Annemann's or Orson's control – and the bullet will pierce the performer. As worked by Annemann, the effect was spectacular, milked for all its suspense and danger. In early 1942, fourteen days before a scheduled repeat of this harrowing trick, he committed suicide; and Meyer released his method at the year's end in Genii magic magazine, published in Los Angeles by Bill Larsen. Eight months later Orson did the trick.225

  {END SIDEBAR}

  The method Orson used took real courage to perform—even more than the several other more standard methods. And at least as much courage as he’d shown in that Spanish bull ring ten years earlier. Orson’s cold sweat must have been as genuine as Ted Annemann's, this trick’s most audacious performer. Since 1820 the ever-dangerous Bullet Catch (first reported in 1631) has caused the instant death or mortal wounding on-stage of 7 magicians and 2 or 3 magician's assistants and has wounded 12 others. And another magician was recently killed while rehearsing the Russian Roulette variant.226 Most performers advertise this stunt with Annemann's slogan, “Twelve Have Died!"—the implication being that the bloodthirsty audience might be lucky enough to witness the proverbially unlucky 13th.227 Although this is a deliberately inflated statistic, the danger is sufficient that even the great Houdini once announced and then cancelled the trick,228 and no one ever dared accuse him of lacking physical courage. Orson was at least wise enough to never do the Bullet Catch again (except once by film trickery).

  222 Hanlon interview, 19 Dec 91.

  223Mercury Wonder Show program; and Brady (1989), 365.

  224Orville Meyer telephone interview, 1 Jul 91. Mr. Meyer had heard in 1943 from a magician friend who had just seen the Mercury Wonder Show that Orson seemed to be using his method. This is now confirmed by the summary of Orson's method given in Brady (1989), 365.

  225Orville Meyer, "Catching a Bullet in the Teeth", Genii, Vol.7, No.4 (December 1942), 125-128. Republished by Meyer in his Magic in the Modern Manner (Oakland, CA: Lloyd Jones, 1949). Annemann gave his effect (but not the method) in The Jinx (Summer Extra 1938), 318. Joe Ovette had figured out Annemann's method and reported it in 1942 in a four-page manuscript titled Publicity Methods, published by Teral Garrett. It is unlikely that Orson had seen Ovette's version.

  226For history of the Bullet Catch see Whaley (1989), 111-113. A popular history of this stunt is Ben Robinson, Twelve Have Died: Bullet Catching — The Story and Secrets (Watertown, MA: Magic Art Book Co., 1986).

  227Jay Marshall, "How to Present the Bullet Catching Trick", The New Phoenix, No.346 (20 July 1957), 207-209.

  228Milbourne Christopher, Houdini: The Untold Story (New York: Crowell, 1969), 149-150.

  Orson dropped the Bullet Catch from the show. He'd decided it was pretentious for a 4-F married to the servicemen's favorite pin-up to do this trick. however dangerous, during wartime before audiences that included many real warriors who had been or would soon be targets of armed enemies.229

  Marlene proved a worthy replacement for Rita. John Calvert saw her as a “great leading lady" who was not only “charming" but “added a lot of class" to the show.230 From Orson she quickly learned the The X-Ray Eyes mindreading routine. For this she appeared in a tight-fitting sequined evening dress that displayed her sleek 41-year-old figure and world-famous legs to perfection. This outrageously daring costume was the second of what she proudly called her “nude dresses" since having introduced this style three years earlier in Seven Sinners.

  “When she came on the stage with that gown," Shifra Haran recalled, “and with her knowing look, she just devastated everybody. The soldiers went insane." Each night when a GI was recruited to assist her in the mindreading, their shyness was ev
ident to all—“Those guys practically peed in their pants on the stage."231

  The photograph in the Whaley (ex-Millard) Collection shows Marlene Dietrich on stage in her “Nude Dress”. As with almost everything about Marlene’s public presentation of herself, this gown was cunningly designed by her to create a masterpiece of illusion. Her daughter, who often acted as her dresser, recently disclosed all its several secrets. It was, in fact, a “foundation”, a painfully tight body stocking with built-in bra to shape her pendulous breasts. And being made of flesh-colored silk, it was wasn’t even real see-through “nude”.

  Throughout the show's run, as in rehearsals, Orson added new effects and modified or dropped old ones. One switch that Tommy thought “brilliant" was to change the single decapitated-and-restored bird-head trick as taught him by John Calvert into a two-bird act with a black Chinese chicken and a white one. Orson would wrench off the heads of each bird and then replace them—but, by apparent blunder, putting the black head on the white body and visa versa, as the audience realized when the two mismatched birds strutted off stage.232 Brilliant showmanship, yes; but original, no. This odd sleight-ofhand effect was Orson's revival of an antique bit of magic first seen in Europe more than a century earlier. And it had been featured in his friend Dave Bamberg's act for the previous six or more years.233

  Among other tricks Orson vanishes his wand, cuts, burns and restores a turban, and produces from nowhere a large bowl of water containing goldfish.234 All were classic tricks. The Vanishing Wand had been invented in 1887 by 12-year-old Theo “Okito" Bamberg, David's father, as a practical joke on his magician father. The Cut-and-Restored Turban had been around since at least as early as 1910. And the Goldfish Bowl Production was a marvel of Chinese origin that had been introduced to the West 105 years earlier. Orson, as a youth, had seen it magnificently performed by famous Long Tack Sam.

  When Tommy first saw the Orange Tree trick in rehearsal he was concerned that the spectator holding the fruit containing the borrowed dollar bill might try to sabotage the effect by hiding or switching it. So he told Orson he would make it his responsibility to keep an eye on the loaded orange. His vigilance paid off a couple of weeks later when he saw the serviceman who caught the gaffed orange conceal it in the sawdust under his feet and pick up one of the ordinary oranges. Tommy walked past his boss, whispering this news, which let Orson the Magnificent get through the crucial part of the trick by pointing to the soldier and saying, “I get the feeling that isn't the original orange you had—let's take the one under your foot." The audience was amazed by his psychic powers when he successfully completed the trick by recovering the borrowed dollar bill from the second orange and having its serial number verified by the owner. Passing Tommy he said quietly, “You just got a 25-dollar a week raise."235

  229 Geoffrey Hansen telephone interview, 19 Dec 91, recalling a conversation with OW in the late 1970s.

  230Calvert tape-letter to BW, May 1992.

  231Haran interview of 1 Jan 83 in Leaming (1985), 268-269.

  232Hanlon interview, 19 Dec 91.

  233Specifically by Italian conjuror Bartolomeo Bosco in 1827, as reported by a Bosco playbill of that date. Bosco's performance was witnessed in 1838 by Robert-Houdin. Bosco's effect was an improvement on the single decapitated-and-restored bird performed by Ingleby and Moritz in Britain by 1808. Bamberg's decapitated-and-restored ducks is described in Olson (1986), 127, 136, 174.

  234Larsen (1943), 6.

  While Orson did his solo magic, Marlene recalled that “Evening after evening I would watch him ..., but I never succeeded in seeing through the tricks."236 Orson's older brother turned up after five years welcome absence to volunteer to help saw Miss Dietrich. His offer was firmly rebuffed.237

  As producer-director, Orson ran a generally happy crew. Tommy recalls that “Everyone loved Welles. He never asked you to do anything he wouldn't do and he was always so kind to everybody—he respected everybody." But given the long hours of rehearsal and constant pressure for excellence, tempers sometimes flared. Thus Tommy, working hard and fast with 18 costume changes, resented the frequent criticisms from a couple of the amateur members of the staff. One day, in a huff, he told Orson, “I quit", and went home. A half hour before showtime, Orson telephoned Tommy:

  O: Tom, now I can't do the show without you.

  T: I know, but I'm putting up with too much shit from some of the other people and I just don't have to do it. My life doesn't revolve around this.

  O: Come down and talk about it.

  T: Tell them! Then I'll come down.

  O: It's 7:30!

  So Tommy, who lived only four or five blocks away, came down anyway and they never had another argument.238

  On a different occasion it was Shorty's time to blow up. While driving Orson and Tommy in the Rolls, Shorty was told by his boss to pick up Rita and Orson later: SHORTY: Jesus Christ! You know, I'm doin' this show, I'm doin' the house, the cooking! I'm not goin' to do it, you sonofabitch!

  ORSON (softly and very slowly): Ahh, Shorty, an employEE does not call an employER a sonofabitch.

  SHORTY: I don't care what you say you sonofabitch, I aint gonna do it!

  And he didn't. So, for the rest of the show's run Tommy, observing that Orson “always babied" Shorty, accepted extra duty as auxiliary chauffeur.239 Paula Millard was amused by loyal Shorty's propensity for profane complaints about being overworked, as he indeed was, by his “sonofabitch" boss.240

  235 Hanlon interview, 12 Dec 91.

  236Dietrich (1989), 120.

  237Higham (1985), 324.

  238Hanlon interview, 12 Dec 91.

  239Hanlon interview, 12 Dec 91.

  240Paula Millard Petchon interview, 23 Jan 92.

  Hanky-pank artists enjoyed the show as much as the general public. For Alan Wakeling, 17, it was “a fun show".241 Marvyn Roy, 18 then but now the world-famous “Mr. Electric", thought Orson gave “a dynamite performance."242 Red Baker, a 12-year-old amateur, found it “fabulous"; although he kept nervously worrying why his ticket had assigned him a seat in something called the “Sucker Section".243 The Larsen boys were delighted, Milt judging it “totally magical".244 Bill Larsen Senior's lengthy review in his Genii magazine proclaimed, “Welles may not be the world's greatest magician. But his is a marvelous personality and the show is terrific entertainment. ... He is not Dante. He is not Blackstone. He's Orson Welles. And magic is the better because of him! I have never been better entertained!"245

  A belated rave notice of the show appeared in the first issue of The Conjurors' Magazine. Reporting from Hollywood, Joe Hayman, brother of Houdini's first partner, wrote that Orson “could easily be one of the outstanding men in the mystery world, had he adopted magic as a career." And added “he presented a two-hour show of magic, illusions and card tricks, as good, if not better than many of our Master Conjurors."246

  On September 7th Orson gave a radio interview about the show.247 Two evenings later, a Thursday, after two successive weeks of extensions, the Wonder Show show closed in its fifth week. It had been a great public and publicity success. Almost every performance had been sold out and 50,000 service men and women had seen it free.248 It had been exhausting and exhilarating for everyone involved. Orson fondly remembered the sheer “fun" of the show and, speaking for the entire Mercury troupe, he proclaimed over three decades later that:249

  It's one of our great works, as any and all who were concerned with it will say. We're as proud of that as anything we ever did. Ask Aggie Moorehead or Jo Cotten. And Marlene Dietrich. And Rita Hayworth, until she was forced to quit.

  And it had been a not-to-be-missed opportunity to tease the Hollywood moguls who, Orson said gleefully:250 had to pretend it was all good fun, because our boys in khaki were there, you know. We really gave it to them [the moguls]. If any of them came late, we'd stop the show dead and escort them to their seats, and I explained everything that had gone before and introduced them in a humiliating way to all the soldiers.


  241 Wakeling telephone interview, 22 Apr 91.

  242Roy telephone interview, 24 Sep 91.

  243Baker interview, 5 Mar 93.

  244Milt Larsen interview, 4 Oct 91.

  245W.W. Larsen Sr., in his "Genii Speaks" column, Genii (Sep 1943), 6.

  246The Conjurors' Magazine, Vol.1, No.1 (Feb 1945), 13.

  247Wood (1990), 129.

  248On September 7th, two days before closing, Orson told a local radio interviewer that about 48,000 service personnel had seen the show. Rosenbaum in Welles & Bogdanovich (1992), 378. This figure was also reported in Jerry Mason, "Everybody's Making Magic!", syndicated article by United Newspapers Magazine Corp., 1944.

  249OW in Welles & Bogdanovich (1992), 177. Their sharing this great pleasure is confirmed for Hayworth by Leaming (1992), 87, 88.

  250OW in Welles & Bogdanovich (1992), 177. Verify with Millard & Hanlon.

  Further sweetening the deal was the fact that Orson had recovered his out-of-pocket expenses and the wartime Assistance League got a substantial check, although not as much as he'd hoped. And Orson and Rita had a sweet two-day-old marriage.251

  * * * At the end of July Houseman moved back to Hollywood to start his new career as a movie producer at Paramount. He had driven out with his former mentor, Virgil Thomson, who was on summer vacation from his job as music critic for the New York Herald-Tribune, and the two took an apartment at the Town House. While Houseman didn’t renew contact with Orson, Thomson did. On a few occasions he’d be dropped off by Houseman for dinner at Orson and Rita’s for dinner and driven back by other guests.252

  While the show was still running under canvas Orson had been interviewed by a photo-reporter team from LOOK magazine. He took advantage of them to script a mini-detective story along the lines of that popular weekly's regular “Photocrime" series where all the clues the reader needs to solve a mystery appear in a short series of photos of the crime scene. “The Trunk Mystery" squeezed in Jo Cotten, Shorty, Tommy Hanlon, Death Valley Mack, and three of the showgirls. Orson, as the great MagicianDetective, solves the murder in the Sub Trunk of Jo and one of the girls.253 Trivial mystery but imaginative showmanship.