Orson Welles Radio Almanac

[Terry]

Orson Welles, comedian?

See if you agree with Simon Callow that Welles is not funny:

http://www.archive.org/details/1944Orso ... manacpart1
http://www.archive.org/details/1944Orso ... manacpart2

[Jeff Wilson]

Unfortunately for Welles, he chose to mount a program dependent on good writing at a time when writers were at premium due to the war; this was even discussed internally when the show's lack of success was being debated amongst the staff. Welles could be funny in the right context; the scripts that the writers gave him usually relied on silly concepts and bad jokes. The later emphasis on military humor makes the show a real relic when listening these days.

[Glenn Anders]

I think Welles could be funny, but not consistently funny in the Jack Benny or Bob Hope manner. [And listening to those guys now, one realizes how egomaniacal the standup comedians of that day were, much more so, surprisingly, than Welles.] He was charming and very likable in casual conversation, or in a facsimile thereof, especially among close friends. I always thought he was at his best in this regard during the sign-offs at the end of the Mercury Theater on the Air or Campbell Playhouse productions.

Glenn

[Wellesnet]

Good Digital Deli article on the OW Almanac and other Welles radio programs:

http://www.digitaldeliftp.com/DigitalDe ... manac.html

[Jeff Wilson]

There are several mistakes in that article, but the most interesting thing about it is the claim that Welles continued making the 1944 Almanac show for a further period after the accepted June 1944 end date. There's nothing that I've ever seen indicating this was the case, and they don't seem to have any proof beyond newspaper listings. Nothing in the files at the Lilly makes any mention of this work. I wonder if the paper screwed up?

[Wich2]

The story goes that Welles was inspired to take this plunge after his extended guest-host spot on the Benny show. And he's okay there (best, in adlib moments), though the Orson The Magnificent one-note joke wears thin in five weeks.

This is a series I want to love; and I revisited it again recently in the attempt. But even compared to its closest competition (its semi-free, omnibus form is more like Allen's, than Benny's), this project doesn't fare well.

Even the Magnificent among us can not always do everything excellently!

Best,
-Craig

[Le Chiffre]

I've noticed that on the Almanac shows, Welles's ad-libs frequently seemed to either deliberately make fun of the quality of the script or point out the presence of the script; almost as if he were apologizing for it. Maybe he saw this as his comedic angle, but it too often smacks of defensiveness or desperation for any kind of laughs.

Some of the more serious stuff on the shows is of value, though, like some of the poetry and Shakespeare readings.

As far as the post-1944 Almanac, for which there is no evidence, I wonder if they were referring to the newspaper column.

One intriguing section of the Digital Deli article states:

The attention and scrutiny Welles was receiving at the hands of the HUAC, in combination with the controversial subject matter of his last months of Orson Welles Almanac commentaries resulted in Welles' work over American Radio all but finished by the Winter of 1946. Welles, under a reported threat of subpoena by the HUAC, expatriated to England and Europe from 1947 to 1957. The trade papers and newspapers of the era regularly cited alleged problems with the Internal Revenue Service for Welles' expatriation, but history tends to support Welles' growing political problems in the U.S. as the primary motivating factor in Welles' self-imposed exile during the period. As an example, though Variety and other trade papers and newspapers of the era had widely reported Welles owing an arrearage of some $300,000 on his 1946 return, Welles was actually issued a refund check for his 1946 tax return in the amount of $984.00.

This would concur with Joseph McBride's WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ORSON WELLES?, which also alleges that it was HUAC, not tax problems, that forced Welles out of the country in 1948. I wonder if a copy of that refund check still exists. That would, of course, prove the "tax problems" resulting from the AROUND THE WORLD debacle were a fabrication.

[Wich2]

>I've noticed that on the Almanac shows, Welles's ad-libs frequently seemed to either deliberately make fun of the quality of the script or point out the presence of the script; almost as if he were apologizing for it<

LC, that might have come partly from OW's Benny turn, too... Jack (and co.) occasionally broke the fourth wall too, and for similar reasons.

-Craig

[Le Chiffre]

Yes, it's a nice surreal touch when it works, but Welles seemed to have a much lower batting average with it, probably because he didn't have their brilliant timing, or enough good jokes to have already built that kind of rapport with his audience. Johnny Carson, who used Benny as a model, was a genius at getting laughs out of failed jokes, often with just a befuddled expression and nothing else. It became, in fact, one of his signatures.

BTW, has anyone noticed how many times Welles was on The Tonight Show around 1976, even guest hosting it a couple of times that year? It probably reminded him of his old Almanac show in some ways.

This webpage indicates 9 OW appearances in 1976, almost one per month:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Th ... odes_(1976)

[Wich2]

Just re-listened to the last ep. in the "Orson hosts for Jack" series. Re: this discussion, there is a very funny sequence where Jack blows Orson's name - and then, pro that he is, well milks the "save" (as indeed Carson could) for some time.

-Craig

[Le Chiffre]

Sometimes the flubs what are get the biggest laughs. Makes you wonder how often they happened in rehearsals and then were left in. They knew their audiences pretty well.

[Wich2]

Not sure about rehearsals, Chief; the mindset is different there (you're looking to PREVENT mistakes!), and also, there's no objective audience to react.

But I do seem to recall hearing stories that after an effective fluff in an East Coast show, folks were sometimes told to "keep it in!" for the West Coast.

-Craig

[Le Chiffre]

I'm sure most flubs were/are not rehearsed; however, if a flub cracks the crew up in rehearsal, I can see where there would be a temptation to leave it in as an unwritten part of the script. I guess it doesn't really matter whether it's phony or not as long as the audience finds it funny when it airs. That was the bottom line problem with the OW Almanac: it just wasn't funny enough.