UPDATED: Wonderful news. We have been told by Peggy Daub at the University of Michigan that "The Deep" papers were purchased for the Special Collections Library. U-M is already home to “The Orson Welles – Chris Welles Feder Collection” and the “The Alessandro Tasca di Cutò – Orson Welles Collection.”
By RAY KELLY
A collection of production notes, correspondence, film rolls, contracts, scripts, and other materials related to Orson Welles' unfinished movie "The Deep" were sold at auction in California for $8,320.
Paul Bradbury of the website Total Hvar has been generous in sharing with Wellesnet several rare photographs of Orson Welles filming his unfinished thriller "The Deep" (also known as "Dead Reckoning").
According to Bradbury, the photographs were taken in 1967 on the beautiful Croatian island of Hvar. These black and white photographs show Welles in character as Russ Brewer and directing co-stars Jeanne Moreau, Laurence Harvey and Oja Kodar. The photographs were supplied to Total Hvar by the son of a cook, who worked on the set. Read the rest of this entry »
Kudos to Woodstock, Illinois, officials, who voted to dedicate the stage at the Woodstock Opera House in honor of Orson Welles.
The City Council agreed to the measure on Tuesday night. The Woodstock Opera House Advisory Commission recommended the dedication at its October 16 meeting.
The vote comes as Woodstock Celebrates readies to mark the 100th anniversary of Welles' birth in 2015. Read the rest of this entry »
David Stewart White recently penned a splendid travel feature for The Washington Post on the Third Man Museum in Vienna.
The diminutive museum is tucked away on a residential side street in Vienna’s Margareten neighborhood.
It boasts some 2,000 artifacts across 13 rooms. The museum is a consuming passion of Gerhard Strassgschwandtner, who is still collecting Read the rest of this entry »
Earlier this year, Wellesnet and Woodstock Celebrates put out the call for a U.S. postage stamp to honor Orson Welles on May 6, 2015, the 100th anniversary of his birth. The stamp would be issued in Woodstock, Illinois, where Welles attended the Todd School for Boys.
If you have not done so already, please take the time to write a letter to the U.S. Postal Service in support of an Orson Welles stamp.
Requests must be submitted to the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee in writing. Proposals made by email will not receive a response. Read the rest of this entry »
"This is Orson Welles, ladies and gentlemen, out of character to assure you that “The War of The Worlds” has no further significance than as the holiday offering it was intended to be. The Mercury Theatre’s own radio version of dressing up in a sheet and jumping out of a bush and saying Boo! Starting now, we couldn’t soap all your windows and steal all your garden gates by tomorrow night …so we did the best next thing. We annihiliated the world before your very ears, and utterly destroyed the Columbia Broadcasting System. You will be relieved, I hope, to learn that we didn’t mean it, and that both institutions are still open for business. So goodbye everybody, and remember the terrible lesson you learned tonight. That grinning, glowing, globular invader of your living room is an inhabitant of the pumpkin patch, and if your doorbell rings and nobody’s there, that was no Martian …it’s Halloween!"
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Tuesday night marks the 74th anniversary of Orson Welles' infamous "The War of the Worlds" radio broadcast. Since its inception, Wellesnet.com has posted some fine pieces chronicling the events of October 30, 1938.
In the fall of 1944, Orson Welles wrote an article for FREE WORLD which supported his hero FDR, even though Welles must have been highly distraught at FDR letting Henry Wallace being dumped as his Vice-President from the ticket. Harry Truman became Henry Wallace's replacement, and of course we have no way of knowing what would have happened if Henry Wallace had stayed on the ticket and become President after President Roosevelt died, but I think it's rather safe to say we wouldn't have had one of the most shameful era's in American history, starting with the Communist witch hunts, that had been ongoing but only gained traction while Harry Truman was President. The most significant Truman decision was of course using Nuclear weapons against Japan. Read the rest of this entry »
From the AT&T Archives comes this six-minute short: retired switchboard operators recall the hysteria surrounding Orson Welles radio dramatization of "The War of the Worlds" on October 30, 1938. (Video introduction runs through 1:20)
UPDATE: Due to a power loss at Country Gate Playhouse, the production has been postponed until Nov. 17 at 8 p.m.
By RAY KELLY
New Jersey's Country Gate Players will present "Orson's Path," a new play about the maverick road taken by theater and film director Orson Welles.
The new drama will be presented on November 3, at 8 p.m. at the Country Gate Playhouse, 114 Greenwich Street, Belvidere, New Jersey.
In receiving the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award in 1975, Welles had characterized himself as a "maverick." In "Orson's Path," Read the rest of this entry »
"Orson Welles: A One-Person Play in Two Acts" by Michael B. Druxman is now available as an audiobook.
Performed by Edward French, the 69-minute performance is available through audible.com, iTunes.com and amazon.com. It is also available in paperback and Kindle.
According to the publisher, "The play finds Welles trying to find the financing for one Read the rest of this entry »
Toronto's The Art Of Time Ensemble will once again present "The War of the Worlds" on stage at Harbourfront Centre from October 30 through November 4.
Actors, musicians and a Foley man will recreate the 1938 radio play, which convinced many frightened listeners into believing a Martian invasion was taking place. Art Of Time Artistic Director Andrew Burashko guided Read the rest of this entry »
Orson Welles' candid lunchtime conversations with director Henry Jaglom will be the basis of the upcoming book "My Lunches with Orson: Conversations between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles."
Peter Biskind ("Easy Riders, Raging Bulls") is editing the book using transcripts of conversations taped by Jaglom. "I'm excited about it. I'm reliving these wonderful, amazing lunches," Jaglom recently told Slant.
By RAY KELLY
By RAY KELLY
By LAWRENCE FRENCH 
UPDATE: Due to a power loss at Country Gate Playhouse, the production has been postponed until Nov. 17 at 8 p.m. 
