"Houseman Again" - How Important was he?

[Fat Annie]

How legitimate was Houseman's beef with Orson?
How much of their success together was due to him?
Do you think things would have gone differently if they'd stayed as a team?
What do you think of his memoirs?

I still find Houseman's books the most enjoyable writing on Welles to read.

[Glenn Anders]

Dear Annie: My take is that Welles and Houseman were tremendous collaborators, but like many collaborators, they got under each other's hides. Given tremendous pressure, much anxiety over the first film project, and apparently working, one way or another, 20 hours a day, Welles blew up at Houseman's questions about their direction, and insulted Houseman in front of the Mercury Players at Chasens, a public place, physically attacked him. Houseman never forgave him, and attempts at later reconciliations erupted in fresh arguments. Houseman had a legitimate desire, as did others, to be recognized for his contributions. [It should be noted, however, that they all colluded in the romantic notion that Welles did EVERYTHING, whereas he actually did maybe 80% of what he was credited with.

They were a great team, each giving what the other needed, to create unmatched quality, with verve and genius, going from strength to strength in several mediums, as long as they were together. Geraldine Fitzgerald, who knew them both well, said Welles was "like a busted water main," and that Welles needed Houseman to direct the flow of his talents. He was never so successful again, following the end of their partnership with Native Son, on Broadway. Houseman went on to show that he was very good with many theatrical, film and academic projects.

We can only speculate what might have been accomplished, if they had stayed together. Houseman was a man of great taste, judgment and business acumen.

I like his memoirs. He perhaps needed to escape Welles' charisma, in any case. The hurt was obviously very deep, on both sides.

Glenn

[blunted by community]

dear annie, my take on it is that orson was a great talent with emotional problems. houseman was no collaborator. Houseman got welles' output and arranged it. he was an editor at best. an editor and everything else welles needed. houseman's real worth was that he was the buffer between welles and the money men. welles never needed to meet with investors during radio days. houseman did that, then dealt with welles, who threw fits, threw dish warmers, and hamburgers at houseman. when houseman had enough and left, welles was throwing hamburgers at the money men.

i have some quotes from mercury players i formed my opinion from.

had houseman been able to continue dealing with orson's behavior, we would have tons of the most innovative cinema work ever seen. it's all houseman's fault for being too sensitive.

welles had very bad behavior problems, he had no control, and he was gobbling diet pills which don't help.

and houseman's book, A RUN THROUGH, is an incredible read, and in my opinion, i found no ax to grind in it. if houseman is lyin in RUN THROUGH, so are all the quotes i've read from mercury players. this book is available through inter library loan from your local public library.

[Wellesnet]

Today is the 75th anniversary of the famous breakup at Chase's restaurant between Welles and Houseman. Here's an excerpt from the transcript of "The Battle Over Citizen Kane", concerning the mounting pressure to get a film project underway at RKO that led to the row:

PETER BOGDANOVICH: The contract was one that people in Hollywood, you know, would kill to have, and they gave it to a twenty-five-year-old radio actor, theater producer, as far as they were concerned, and who came to Hollywood with a beard and looking like--he was smoking a pipe and, you know, they hated him. They just hated him the minute he got here. He said to me he wore the beard 'cause he'd been doing some kind of performance or something, or hadn't had time to shave, and then he saw it irritated people, he decided to keep it.

ORSON WELLES: [1982] I never said I was a genius. Nobody ever called me a genius seriously, certainly not in those days, but Louella Parsons called me ''the would-be genius.'' And she called me that--she was a Hearst columnist.

WILLIAM ALLAND: They were always saying, ''Well, what's the boy genius going to do? Oh, why we understand that he's''--you know, ''he's over--he's not going to get the budget he wants,'' or ''He's doesn't know what he's doing''--all kinds of gossipy--little pieces of gossip about the fact that we were a bunch of amateurs from New York, and here we were, marching around there, you know, as though we owned the place.

NARRATOR: As his clippings piled up, so did the pressure. Welles' contract demanded two films, but Welles demanded that they be revolutionary. He announced he would bring to the screen Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, but with the camera in the place of the central character--very highbrow.

NORMAN LLOYD: Orson and Houseman wanted me to come out and be in this picture, The Heart of Darkness for five hundred dollars a week, and it would be six weeks. Well, there was this first reading. We weren't called back to read anymore. We stayed there six weeks, we were paid regularly, I played a lot of tennis, and finally, after six weeks, RKO said to Orson they didn't want to make the picture.

NARRATOR: Halfway through his contract, Welles announced his second project, Smiler With a Knife, a British thriller, but this time the news was greeted with less fanfare and more doubt. ''They're laying bets over on the RKO lot,'' The Hollywood Reporter insisted, ''that the Welles deal will end without Orson ever doing a picture.'' Faced with failure, Welles reacted with a characteristic round of parties.

SAM LEVE: He was always posing. One time I remember he left a hundred-dollar bill for a Coca-Cola. They brought a Coca-Cola to him and left a hundred-dollar bill for the waiter. I was there! I'm not telling you any stories! And I tell you, I was almost a point of tears. How could a person be so vainglorious?

WILLIAM ALLAND: They rented a house in Hollywood for him, and by this time he was seeing Delores Del Rio. He--he did a lot of drinking, he did a lot of chasing around, but he also did a lot of work, particularly at night. He worked on the scripts, he worked on sketches.

NARRATOR: But his time was running out. When RKO refused to pay his idle actors anymore, Welles, Houseman and their staff held a crisis meeting at Chasen's Restaurant. Welles lashed out at everyone--it was all their fault. When Houseman protested, Welles picked up a flaming can of Sterno and threw it at his face.

WILLIAM ALLAND: In Chasen's Restaurant, second floor--I was there--he threw it at Jack. I think it hit a curtain and started a little bit of a fire. Somebody's holding Orson, somebody's holding Jack, and it was a mêlée.