Wellesnet: The Orson Welles Web Resource

Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles had its New York City premiere on November 23, and the next day, on November 24, there was a dedication by Chris Welles Feder and Christian McKay of a plaque in memory of Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre which once stood at the site of the current building which now occupies the lot at 110 West 41st street.

That is why Wellesnet will be recalling some of the memories of the original cast members of Julius Caesar this week, beginning with these filmed recollections of one of the founding members of Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre company, Mr. William Alland.

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Part One: Meeting Welles, Theater and Radio

Part Two: Hollywood and Citizen Kane to Touch of Evil

Photos of William Alland and Orson Welles can be seen at Wellesnet's Facebook page HERE.

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William Alland most famously played the reporter Thompson in Citizen Kane, and was one of the original Mercury Theatre actors, having first met Welles early in his career in 1936. He then went on to play the part of Marullus in Julius Caesar, and joined the other Mercury Actors when they went to Hollywood. Alland debuted as a film actor in Citizen Kane and worked with Welles on several of his subsequent films, including playing one of the murderers in Macbeth.

Mr. Alland also had roles in many of Welles's radio shows, most notably playing several parts in the notorious War of the Worlds broadcast.

John McCarty, a colleague from Cinefantastique magazine, recently wrote to tell me he had filmed an long interview segment with Mr. Alland for a documentary project and had just recently placed it on YouTube for everyone to enjoy.

I asked John to write a short introduction for his documentary, The Man Who Pursued Rosebud, and he readily complied. In looking at Mr. Alland's comments, what I found especially interesting, is how his account of his first meeting with Orson Welles differed so greatly from what John Houseman recorded in his own autobiography, Run Though. Like the reporter he played in Citizen Kane, it seems William Alland and Mr. Houseman have two very different memories of how they first came to meet the great man!

So after you watch John McCarty's documentary, I have included the relevant comments from John Houseman's book, where he recalls his own take on how William Alland became a member of the Mercury Theatre.

It should also be noted that William Alland is portrayed in a featured part in Me and Orson Welles, by the actor Iain McKee. In the movie he is known only as "Vakhtangov" which is explained by Mr. Houseman in the excerpt from his autobiography.

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THE MAN WHO PURSUED ROSEBUD

By John McCarty

In 1994, I published a book titled The Fearmakers (St. Martin’s Press), a compendium of essay-profiles of twenty filmmakers who, in my opinion, had the greatest influence on the evolution of the terror-horror-suspense film genre from the silent era to the present (circa 1993). One of these filmmakers was Jack Arnold, the director of such enduring sci-fi/horror classics of the 1950s as It Came From Outer Space, Tarantula, The Creature of From the Black Lagoon, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and others.

Two years later, a Texas-based video production company contacted me about developing the book into a documentary series for the fast-growing home video market. Each half-hour segment would focus on one of these master fearmakers and include clips from their films as well as interviews with co-workers, cast members, film historians, and even the filmmakers themselves if they were still around. I signed on as narrator, script supervisor, co-director, interviewer, and chief cook and bottle washer.

After selecting a baker’s dozen from the twenty in my book for the thirteen segments that would be produced, I gave the producers a list of potential interviewees. For the segment on Jack Arnold, the interviewee I most hoped to get was William Alland, Universal’s “house producer” of science-fiction and horror films in the ‘50s – and, not unimportantly to me, the man who had played Jerry Thompson, the reporter in pursuit of the identity of “rosebud” in the Orson Welles masterpiece Citizen Kane.

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Many thanks to Paul Condon of Dublin, Ireland for alerting us to the retrospective of Orson Welles films that will be screening in Dublin this month under the auspices of The Irish Film Institute.

Chimes at Midnight is one of only three Welles' movies that will not be shown, the others being Othello and Filming Othello.

This is unfortunate since Welles directed a stage version of Chimes at Midnight at the Gaiety Theater in Dublin in 1960.

Of course, anyone who has read any of the numerous Orson Welles biographies will also know that Welles made his professional acting debut in Dublin at the Gate Theatre, in October of 1931.

To celebrate the Irish Film Institutes Welles retrospective, here is what the great Irish actor Michael MacLiammoir recounts about his first meeting with Orson Welles in his book All For Hecuba; An Irish Theatrical Autobiography, published by Methuen in 1946.

It should also be noted that Michael MacLiammoir and Hilton Edwards, the two founders of Dublin's Gate Theater remained friends with Welles throughout his life and were featured in Orson Welles's last completed essay film, Filming Othello.

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...We ransacked our lists for nights for the (part of the) Duke (in JEW SUSS) and could find no one. And it was not, I think, until I was painting the last pieces for The Melians, and the plans for the following production had been all but changed, that Hilton walked into the scene dock one day and said, 'Somebody strange has arrived from America; come and see what you think of it.' 'What,' I asked, 'is it?' 'Tall, young, fat: says he's been with the Guild Theatre in New York. Don't believe a word of it, but he's interesting. I want him to give me an audition. Says he's been in Connemara with a donkey, and I don't see what that's got to do with me. Come and have a look at him.'

We found, as he had hinted, a very tall young man with a chubby face, full powerful lips, and disconcerting Chinese eyes. His hands were enormous and very beautifully shaped, like so many American hands; they were coloured like champagne and moved with a sort of controlled abandon never seen in a European. The voice, with its brazen transatlantic sonority, was already that of a preacher, a leader, a man of power; it bloomed and boomed its way through the dusty air of the scene dock as though it would crush down the little Georgian walls and rip up the floor; he moved in a leisurely manner from foot to foot and surveyed us with magnificent patience as though here was our chance to do something beautiful at last-yes, sir-and were we going to take it? Well, well, just too bad for us if we let the moment slip. And all this did not come from mere youth, though the chubby tea-rose cheeks were as satin-like as though the razor had never known them -that was the big moment waiting for the razor-but from some ageless and superb inner confidence that no one could blow out. It was unquenchable. That was his secret. He knew that he was precisely what he himself would have chosen to be had God consulted him on the subject at his birth; he fully appreciated and approved what had been bestowed, and realized that he couldn't have done the job better himself, in fact he would not have changed a single item. Whether we and the world felt the same-well, that was for us to decide.

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Wellesnet is co-sponsoring Chris Welles Feder's first appearance for her intimate new book about Orson Welles, In My Father's Shadow at the Rafael Theatre, in San Rafael on Monday November 2.

Ms. Welles-Feder has long been a supporter of Wellesnet and we do return those duties back to her as are right fit...

The book is getting sensational reviews, and below you can read just a small sampling of them.

But best of all, Wellesnet will have an exclusive interview with Chris Welles Feder about her book after we talk to her on Monday afternoon...

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The first memoir on Orson Welles by a member of his family, Chris Welles Feder’s beautifully written book offers a fresh and insightful look at her loving but maddeningly elusive father, revealing the great filmmaker as we’ve never seen him before. Along with its compassionate, clear-eyed, and often surprising portrait of Welles in his most vulnerable moments, the book offers us a poignant self-portrait of a bright, lively girl struggling to find hers inner self as the neglected daughter of a famous man. Her triumphant journey to independence and her posthumous reconciliation with her father’s memory is the missing chapter in the story of Orson Welles, one only his first-born daughter can tell with such authority, grace, and wisdom.

--JOSEPH McBRIDE

You can read Mr. McBride's entire insightful review of Chris Welles book at BRIGHT LIGHTS Film JournalHERE.

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Chris Welles Feder has come out of her father’s shadow to write an intimate, candid, yet very loving, very personal portrait of the loving, complicated, contradictory, mercurial and surprisingly brilliant man as she knew him. This is an Orson Welles we have never seen before–a warm, touching, occasionally bewildering side a multi-sided genius. That he was certainly not an ideal parent or husband in no way minimizes the good he gave to his child or how enriched she was by his precious time with him. Chris has shared all of this with us in a beautifully written and moving memoir which should have a most special place in the extraordinary world of Orson Welles.

--PETER BOGDANOVICH

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Chris Welles Feder paints a beautifully personal memoir/biography that stars herself as much as her father. In My Father's Shadow: A Daughter Remembers Orson Welles (Algonquin. $24.95) is a portrait of the cigar-smoking, work-obsessed, well-intentioned but absent father as well as an exploration of a young girl's admiration and understanding (or misunderstanding) of family dynamics and love. Feder's narrative is one no detached biographer could fashion, and her perspective feels essential.

—ANNA KATTERJOHN, Library Journal.

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Feder, the daughter of Orson Welles and his first wife, Virginia, tells the story of her search for a relationship with her famous father as well as creating an independent identity through a childhood and adolescence influenced by a list of affectionate guardians and brilliant but dysfunctional grownups. The latter category included her own parents: the author was still a child when they separated and her father married Rita Hayworth; her mother, meanwhile, went on to her own second and third marriages. Feder found affection at times, but it was her years in Illinois with her father's former headmaster and the headmaster's wife that provided her first experience of domestic stability. Her peripatetic life resumed, however, while her father arrived irregularly for extended one-on-one visits that shaped his daughter's budding intellect, but left her hungry for a deeper, more permanent connection. Her story conveys a powerful, intimate sense of Welles's creative struggles and her own part in preserving his artistic legacy.

--Publisher’s Weekly

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Excerpt from Orson Welles final unfilmed script for KING LEAR:

CORDELIA: You have begot me, bred me, loved me.
I return those duties back as are right fit,
Obey you, love you, and most honor you.

Why have my sisters husbands, if they say
They love you all? Haply when I shall wed,
That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry
Half my love with him, half my care and duty.

*****

When you have a great figure of myth like Don Quixote, like Falstaff, it is a silhouette against the sky of all time…

—Orson Welles to Juan Cobos.

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A beautifully written and moving memoir which should have a most special place in the extraordinary world of Orson Welles.

--Peter Bogdanovich

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Orson Welles's eldest daughter, Chris Welles Feder has written an intimate memoir about Orson Welles that is due out on November 3rd. In her book, she describes the Orson Welles she knew from her earliest childhood, until the day he died.

Chris Welles Feder has long been a friend and supporter of Wellesnet, and in 2006 she allowed Wellesnet to sell the last 12 copies of her privately printed book of poems, The Movie Director.

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Here is the complete itinerary for Chris Welles Feder's tour supporting the release of IN MY FATHER'S SHADOW:

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November 2, 2009 -- 7:00 PM
San Rafael Film Center
1118 Fourth St.
San Rafael, CA 94901
415-454-1222

There will be a screening of Orson Welles's film noir masterpiece co-starring Rita Hayworth, The Lady From Shanghai, shot in San Francisco and Marin County, which Chris Welles will introduce. After the screening, Chris will participate in a Q & A with the audience and a book signing.

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November 3, 2009 - 7:00 PM
Book Soup
8818 Sunset Boulevard
West Hollywood, CA 90069
310-659-3110

Chris Welles will participate in a talk and reading event.

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November 5, 2009 -- 7:00 PM
Barnes & Noble
2289 Broadway (at 82nd Street)
New York NY 10021
212-632-2285

Chris Welles will participate in a talk and reading event.

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November 14, 2009 -- 1:00 PM
Clinton Bookshop
33 Main Street
Clinton, NJ 08809
908-735-8811

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November 15, 2009 -- 5:30 PM
Darien Public Library
1441 Post Road
Darien, CT 06820
203-655-1234

Chris Welles will participate in a talk and reading event. A wine and cheese reception will follow the presentation.

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December 2, 2009 -- 7:30 PM
Cinema Arts Center
423 Park Avenue
Huntington, Long Island, NY 11743
631-423-7611

Chris Welles will introduce a film screening of The Lady From Shanghai. After the screening, there will be a discussion with Chris, followed by an on-site reception and book signing.

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Màscares (Masks)

Masks directed by Elisabet Cabeza and Welles's scholar Esteve Riambau, will screen at at the San Sebastian Film festival in the "New Directors" section on September 22, 23 and 24. Anyone in Spain who sees it is encouraged to send us a report.

You can see the trailer, in Spanish HERE.

The program notes from the Festival can be seen HERE.

Actors, like magicians, never reveal their tricks. The accomplished Spanish stage actor José María Pou has made an exception in allowing the camera to film him preparing a stage performance in which he takes on the part of the great movie magician, Orson Welles.

The action of Màscares unfolds backstage, in a place hidden from the eyes of the audience where the actor begins to become the part that will invoke his character. Magic, with tricks, but magic nevertheless.

From the directors of La doble vida del faquir (2005).

The basis for Màscares (Masks) is Richard France's play Obediently Yours, Orson Welles, which has been translated into German, Dutch, Portuguese, Catalan and Spanish. It is an original work by the playwright, scholar and narrator Richard France, who established himself as a leading authority on the life and works of Orson Welles, with the publication of “The Theatre of Orson Welles” and “Orson Welles on Shakespeare.”

The extraordinary Spanish actor, José María Pou, takes on the challenge of playing the artistic genius who was Orson Welles. José María Pou has throughout his career, played great men, including King Lear, the architect in The Goat and the like-able professor in The History Boys, all of which have been performed at the Arriaga Theater.

Wellesnet contributor Leslie Weisman gave this report about Welles's scholar Esteve Riambau's "masterfully detailed PowerPoint presentation" of Don Quixote that was shown at the Locarno Film Festival tribute to Orson Welles:

Esteve Riambau provided a scene-by-scene reconstruction of Don Quixote, contextualizing it within the temporal framework of Welles' other projects (Mr. Arkadin, Touch of Evil, Around the World in 80 Days) and world events. Riambau drew telling parallels between "Quixote" and Welles' other films, including a fondness for chimerical ambitions; Sancho Panza as the Spanish equivalent of Sir John Falstaff; film itself as a hall of mirrors; and Welles' love for Spain, and found that Welles had reinterpreted the Don's windmills as the cinema screen.

On Thursday July 30 2009 The Dax Foundation is hosting a rare screening of Orson Welles masterpiece Chimes at Midnight at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood.

The Dax Foundation has provided Wellesnet with a limited number of tickets for this very special showing, which will be introduced by Dave Weisman, the executive director of the Dax Foundation. Mr. Weisman will discuss the historical context of the Shakespeare plays that Chimes at Midnight is based on. In addition, Peter Bogdanovich may also speak, if his schedule permits.

To win a pair of tickets, all you need to do is e-mail me (at:
lrfrench@yahoo.com) with the correct answer to one of the following questions:

1. What are the titles of the five plays by William Shakespeare that Welles based Chimes at Midnight on?

2. In 1939 Orson Welles staged a Mercury Theater production titled Five Kings that closed before reaching Broadway. Name two cities where Five Kings played before closing?

3. What role did Beatrice Welles play in Chimes at Midnight and what is her last line in the film?

4. What is the name of the Tavern in Eastcheap frequented by Falstaff and Prince Hal?

Tickets will be awarded in the order received and obviously you will have to be in the Los Angeles area on July 30 in order to attend.

Below is the original press release prepared for the American release of FALSTAFF

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I've created a new Wellesnet page on FaceBook and everyone who reads Wellesnet is encouraged to visit it to see pictures, photos, posters, drawings, memos and other material related to the work and career of Orson Welles.

To start things off I have created a gallery of some of my own favorite movie posters from most of the films Orson Welles directed, along with a few he didn't.

The Wellesnet Facebook page is a completely open forum, that I hope will be a useful adjunct to the main Wellesnet page, where anyone can more easily post pictures and even videos related to Orson Welles and his wide-ranging career and interests.

The first FaceBook poster gallery can be seen HERE.

Simon Callow had mentioned some time ago that he originally hoped to finish the third volume of his massive biography on Orson Welles by his 60th birthday. So I thought that today, on the occasion of his 60th birthday, I'd take the opportunity to wish him a very happy birthday on behalf of everyone at Wellesnet, and also wish him well as he continues his monumental task of research and writing on volume three.

Of course, Mr. Callow has not yet finished his work on the last volume, but with the wealth of new information that has come to light about Welles, in just the last year, that is all for the best. I for one think it would be very foolish to rush such an important book into print, before it is actually ready, based on artificial deadlines. Of course, when dealing with Orson Welles's life and career (from 1948 until his death and beyond), there are a great many things Mr. Callow may still be exploring.

However, the final volume is now scheduled to be titled:

Orson Welles volume 3: One Man Band.

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In honor of Sir John Falstaff....

---Christopher Lee

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Queen Elizabeth II of England has bestowed Knighthood honors on one of my very favorite actors, SIR CHRISTOPHER LEE, who is well known to Wellesnet readers for appearing in Orson Welles's never finished television movie Moby Dick-Rehearsed.

Lee was also was featured in Anthony Shaffer's The Wicker Man and Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings. Of course, three years after appearing in Welles's Moby Dick, Lee became world famous as "Count Dracula," which ironically, Welles had played so well on the radio way back in 1938.

What I find especially interesting is how English actors have always embraced horror films. Throughout the seventies, English actors were never "afraid" to be in a horror picture. In fact all of the great acting Knights appeared in horror and fantasy films.

Most significantly, they include:

Sir Ralph Richardson

Started out way back in 1933 with The Ghoul opposite Boris Karloff, made Things to Come with Raymond Massey in 1936, Tales From the Crypt in 1971 with Peter Cushing, and played a Wizard in Dragonslayer. Greystoke, one of his final films brought him an Oscar nomination in 1984, but no Oscar.

Sir Laurence Olivier

Played Van Helsing in Dracula, taking over a role made far more famous by Peter Cushing in the 1958 version of Dracula. Ironically, Olivier used Peter Cushing in his film version of Hamlet, as Osiric, in 1948 and as Clarence in Richard III on stage at the Old Vic. Olivier also played Zeus in Ray Harryhausen's Clash of the Titans, a role he was ideal for, although by then he was getting on in years.

Sir John Gielgud

Gielgud acted with Christopher Lee in The Far Pavillions. However, long before that he was the Chief of Police in Frankenstein: The True Story and also appeared in a 1984 English TV movie of Frankenstein with David Warner as The Monster. He was also friends with Coral Browne, the wife of Vincent Price, and was set to act in the role Price eventually played in The Whales of August.

Sir Alec Guinness

Ironically, this great actor is best remembered in America for Star Wars, more than for his masterful Oscar-winning performance in The Bridge on the River Kwai.

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Orson Welles: Genius and Innovator of the American Cinema is a short documentary written and directed by a 14-year old student, David La Rosa, as part of the National History Day Competition. It won third place out of all the finalists from New York State and can be viewed on YouTube HERE.

I found it to be especially enjoyable, since in only ten short minutes it covers many of the lesser known films from Welles's career, such as It's All True and Chimes at Midnight.

By contrast, take this opening line from a 2003 book review by a so-called "professional" writer who shall remain nameless:

"The 1964 Spanish/Swiss film Chimes at Midnight, based on several Shakespearean plays, will never be recalled as one of the cinema's high points. With a budget only $800,000, there were no makeup artists on set to aid director and star Orson Welles, long exiled from the Hollywood mainstream."

Now, in only two lines, this reviewer has made between three to five mis-statements about Chimes at Midnight, simply because he believed the numerous factual mistakes from the error-ridden captions in the photo book he was supposed to be offering critical advice on: Stars on the Set.

David, on the other hand has done quite a commendable job of research. After watching the film, I asked David to write an introduction for his documentary, which I've posted below, along with the process paper he wrote, that tells how he went about researching Orson Welles career for National History Day.

Introduction by David La Rosa
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I've always liked old movies and one day I watched Citizen Kane on Turner Classic Movies. I was astonished by the film and thought it was brilliant. It made me want to see more of Welles' films. I thought that his directorial style reminded me of Hitchcock's. We went to our library and borrowed all of the DVD's we could find. As I watched them, I saw how brilliant they were and decided to learn more about Welles and his work.

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Kudos to Jack Marshall, the artistic director of The American Century Theater for bringing yet a third Orson Welles production back to the boards, after previously reviving Welles's Moby Dick-Rehearshed (twice!) and Marc Blizstein's The Cradle Will Rock. Since The American Century Theater concentrates on 20th Century American playwrights, it is too bad that precludes them from mounting a revival of Welles's epic adaptation of Shakespeare's Five Kings for a future season!

Judging from the reviews, however, their revival of Native Son is well worth checking out if you live in the Washington D.C. area.

Below is the press release for Native Son, followed by Time magazine's report on the original 1941 production, which sadly, marked the last time Orson Welles and John Houseman would work together on a Mercury Theater production.

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Novelist Richard Wright’s searing novel Native Son aroused violent controversy from the moment it was published. The saga of a young American black man who becomes an unrepentant killer, the book was hailed as an uncompromising indictment of the nation’s racial divisions and social injustice, and condemned as feeding white bigotry while excusing crime. Naturally, Orson Welles, then the most dynamic force in American theater, thought it was just the kind of story his Mercury Theater needed to tackle. He commissioned Wright to do a stage adaptation in collaboration with playwright Paul Green, and the production, much to Welles’ delight, was as controversial as the novel.

At a very different time in our nation’s history, The American Century Theater (TACT) is giving Washington area audiences a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience Native Son, in a new production of the Right-Green-Welles adaptation that still raises disturbing and important questions. The production opens April 14 and will continue through May 9 in Theater II, at the Gunston Arts Center in Arlington, Virginia.

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I recently received a letter from a 7th grade student in Mass. who asked me a series of interesting questions about Orson Welles. By a strange coincidence, I had just been talking with Joseph McBride about the upcoming group of younger Welles scholars. In any event, I was quite impressed by the intelligence of the questions about Welles and his career, especially coming from a student who was only in the 7th grade. So I thought instead of giving only short one or two sentence answers, I'd provide the answers to his questions here at Wellesnet, just in case there are any other budding Welles scholars out there who may also be writing about Orson Welles as an important "individual in history" for National History Day.

To begin, here is some background about the National History Day contest:

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The National History Day contest engages students in grades 6-12, who engage in discovery and interpretation of historical topics related to an annual theme. Students hone their talents and produce creative and scholarly projects in the form of exhibits, documentaries, historical papers, performances, or web sites. After a series of district and state contests, the program culminates with a national competition at the University of Maryland in College Park each June.

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Here is the letter I received along with my replies:

Dear Mr. French:

Hello, my name is Valentin Prince and I am a seventh grade student at a middle school in Somerville, Massachusetts. I am taking part in National History Day and I am writing my paper on Orson Welles. This project is a nation wide competition, and I hope to do well, so I am looking for more information on my topic. I have used your site as a large source of information for my project already, but I still have a few questions about Welles that I hope you have the time to answer:

Most of Orson Welles’ movies were very unpopular at the box office upon release, but some of his movies are now regarded as staples in the movie world, and Citizen Kane is widely regarded by critics as the best movie of all time. My question is: why do you think that Welles’ movies are so revered now, but when first released so unsuccessful?

This is the classic dilemma that all true artists face, but particularly artists who are considered "ahead of their time." Many movie classics from years ago were not very successful when they were first released. The prime example of this is The Wizard of Oz, which like Citizen Kane took years to break even. As did Walt Disney's Fantasia. All three of these movies were re-released in theaters after their initial runs, to much greater success and eventually all became movie classics.

But in terms of a different artistic medium, just think of important artists like Edgar Allan Poe and Vincent Van Gogh. In their lifetime of creative work, they could barely support themselves. In ten short years, Van Gogh completed nearly 1,000 paintings, each of which today is worth millions of dollars. But in his own lifetime, Van Gogh sold only two of his canvases!

Thankfully, Orson Welles was a success on the stage and in radio, before he ever went to Hollywood. But just imagine if Welles had only been able to make his living as a director of movies. In that case, it is very unlikely he would even been able to complete the 12 films he managed to finish in his career, although today most of these 12 films are widely considered to be milestones of the cinematic art.

The point to be made here is that great art rarely has any connection to great success, especially in the cinema. Citizen Kane was pretty much hailed as a masterpiece by every critic in America from the day of its arrival in 1941 (except for people writing for the Hearst press). However, it was simply a movie the public didn’t like. As a matter of fact I didn’t like it, either, the first time I saw it, when I was in High School. At the time I had no idea why people said it was the greatest movie ever made. However, when anything is difficult to understand or demanding, people seem to look to the experts to help them make up their minds. So it has now become almost impossible to say that Citizen Kane is not the greatest picture every made. Which is rather absurd, because Welles himself made a much better picture with Falstaff. Unfortunately, these "best of" lists which used to be fun to look at, have now become nothing more than marketing tools. In any case, it's dangerous to believe in the opinions of the so-called “experts” who tend to believe they are always right and you are always wrong.

This of course, was the theme of one of Welles's own later films, F For Fake. The public is supposed to blindly follow these experts, and believe everything they say. This seems to happen in all fields of the arts. Just look at the work of the sculptor Richard Serra. I personally find most of his work incredibly bad, not only conceptually but in execution. But art critics and museum curators tell us that these ugly slabs of steel are important works of art. Yet, a sculptor like Oja Kodar, who may make more beautiful works of art, is mostly unknown. Presumably, for exactly for the same reason Van Gogh was not discovered in his own lifetime, and why many minor painters who are now forgotten were considered to be great artists in their time.

So as Welles says in F For Fake, most experts views can often prove to be quite incorrect in the eyes of history. True art is in the eye of the beholder. So if you think Citizen Kane is a masterpiece, then for you, it is. If you don’t like it, why agree with the pack who parrot each other, if you in your heart disagree? Welles himself thought his best film was Falstaff, as do I and many other Welles scholars. Of course, that film is nowhere to be seen in the lists of best movies ever made. Probably one good reason why, is because many experts haven’t even seen it, including presumably most of the members of the AFI!

Orson Welles is a very popular man in the movie world, but he also is widely known for his radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds in 1938. Why do you think that this was such an important event for the world, and why did it make Welles so famous?

It was this event that really made Orson Welles career and contract at RKO possible. Welles had already established himself as a brilliant director on the stage in New York, and had appeared on the cover of Time magazine earlier in 1938, before the broadcast of The War of the Worlds. So when Welles’s famous broadcast caused such a panic in October of 1938, the massive coverage it received across the nation insured that there was literally no one in America who didn’t wake up on Halloween morning who didn't know the name of Orson Welles. The immediate result was that Welles's weekly radio show got upgraded with a sponsor, Campbell’s Soup, which allowed Welles's to hire name co-stars to act with him on the air, such as Katherine Hepburn, Laurence Olivier, Helen Hayes, Lionel Barrymore, Ida Lupino and Walter Huston. It wasn't long after that that Hollywood studios began to court Welles services as director and actor, with RKO winning out with it's offer of total artistic freedom.

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