Orson and Agnes

[ToddBaesen]

Dear Pro Tourist:

Thanks for starting this thread and posting all the pictures. I've found the information you've posted on Anges Moorehead to be very interesting so I would hope you will re-consider and still continue to post here.

I know it's hard for so many people to stay on topic, but now that everyone knows how you feel, how about if everyone who posts here agrees to keep this thread strictly on topic and speak ONLY about Orson and Agnes?

People who want to know about Moorehead's private life, estate, religious beliefs, etc. can simply start a different thread, or go to Aggie's Place for more information.

[keats]

Dear Pro Tourist:

Thanks for starting this thread and posting all the pictures. I've found the information you've posted on Anges Moorehead to be very interesting so I would hope you will re-consider and still continue to post here.

I know it's hard for so many people to stay on topic, but now that everyone knows how you feel, how about if everyone who posts here agrees to keep this thread strictly on topic and speak ONLY about Orson and Agnes?

People who want to know about Moorehead's private life, estate, religious beliefs, etc. can simply start a different thread, or go to Aggie's Place for more information.

I agree with Todd as well. The photos you posted still make me grin with pleasure even though they are now on a different page in this thread. And as the Hedda Hopper article from 1944 shows, there was a solid connection between Welles and Moorehead for a long time. I'm thinking now about something she said in the article which is that she found Hollywood to be so welcoming. Hopefully you'll realize that the stuff you shared here was most welcome too.

[mido505]

This is the most interesting and informative thread that has been posted on this site in quite some time, and I am thrilled to have now found Aggie's Place, a site that does for the great Agnes Moorehead, an extraordinary, talented, endlessly interesting, and above all beautifully complicated personality what Wellesnet does for Orson Welles. Professional Tourist, I was insulted by a long-time Wellesnetter after my second or third post here; that was three years and 240+ posts ago. I called out the insult; he/she apologized; we moved on, no problems. Don't worry about defending or justifying yourself; just post your facts and your opinions as you see them; correct incorrect facts and assumptions as they surface; keep up the good work. It's getting creaky over here; we need transfusions; but we need, as Bela Lugosi or George Zucco would say in a PRC spectacular, strong blood. So keep those corpuscles red and fresh, and keep us up to date on that giant, multifarious feminine presence that Welles first chose to play a goddess in his movies, Agnes Moorehead.

Regarding Welles's studied avoidance of Moorehead later in life; there are plenty of people from early, vital periods of my life, people whom I regarded highly then and, I suspect, would regard highly now, that I would do anything to avoid. It just uses up too much psychic energy to GO BACK. I am always so obsessively focused on what I am doing NOW, that I find shifting perspective back to the past to be too difficult and taxing. My sibllings are all FACEBOOK junkies; my Mom still lunches with friends from 50 years ago. I can't do it. It's not from any animosity, embarrassment, or disdain; I just...can't. Perhaps it was the same with Welles. He certainly had a gift for friendship, and maintained relationships for decades; but that was selective. Perhaps the images of Agnes as Kane's mother and Aunt Fannie were so firmly etched in Welles's psyche that he could not bear to reconnect with the very human and very unique actress who embodied those archetypes for him. In any case, I am sure that the failure of Agnes Moorehead and Orson Welles to continue a relationship in their later years does not reflect badly on either of them. Sometimes things just are as they are...

[Glenn Anders]

Professional Tourist: I fully agree with Mido505 when he writes:

" Don't worry about defending or justifying yourself; just post your facts and your opinions as you see them; correct incorrect facts and assumptions as they surface; keep up the good work."

In that regard, I'm overwhelmed by the amount of relevant information and pictorial content you have posted at your blog site. [I could easily spend at least one of my "working days" going through it all -- and probably shall!] A purpose of yours for joining Wellesnet seems to have been to invite us to come on over to Aggie's Place. As one who stumbled across your effort and became one of your "followers" [as Macresarf1] a month or so ago, I would urge all of us who are praising you here to do likewise. If I am correct, after I joined, you had eleven followers. In the last few days, you have gained a twelfth, but I am not sure if that person may be a Wellesnetter using a different avatar like myself, or if your other original membership contained Wellesnetters.

Come on, gang, let's demonstrate our true admiration by joining our fellow reprobates at Aggie's Place. The red-haired darling's hospitality is open to us 24 hours, after all, and at least another ten to twenty of us should be public supporting the good works on your site (if Larry French's estimates are correct).

See you there, Professional Tourist, and thank you again for your courtesy and patience.

Glenn

[Glenn Anders]

Inadvertent repeat.

[RayKelly]

I started this thread to talk about Agnes' professional relationship with Orson, and requested this morning that it stay on topic, but that has not happened for the most part. I didn't intend discussing her estate when I came here, although I will eventually on her blog (I have posted some bits and pieces there already). What was posted above by RayKelly was not read on my blog.

I feel that I am out of my depth here on this board and am not comfortable, so I may not be back.

Professional Tourist,
My sincere apologies for having offended you.
I think you are a wonderful addition to this forum.
I look forward to your future posts.
Ray

[Alan Brody]

Some people have speculated that the reason Orson didn't want to see Agnes in later years was because he disagreed with her decision to work on the television series Bewitched, that he was ashamed of her and felt it was beneath her talents and skill. Well, I suppose we may never know the real reason(s) but it's hard not to ponder on this sometimes. . . .

My guess is that Welles never fully forgave Agnes Moorehead (or Joseph Cotton) for doing the studio's retakes on The Magnificent Ambersons. Perhaps Moorhead's commercial success on Bewitched in the 1960's triggered some of those painful memories and feelings of betrayal. But then, it may have also triggered the early 70's idea to film more of Ambersons with both of them, an idea that sadly came to nothing.

[tonyw]

I recall reading a newspaper article in the early 70s that Welles contemplated bringing Agnes and Joe together to film a new ending for AMBERSONS. That came to nothing but it does suggest that Orson had no grudges against her. After all, he did work with Joe well after the debacle and both remained friends. I think he eventually realized that they were caught in a situation over which they had no real control and were not film editors unlike Robert Wise.