Welles's FBI file

[Tony]

Here's an interesting little article on Welles's FBI file:

http://news.findlaw.com/apbnews/s/20001013/apborson.html

[Kevin Loy]

Yeah, but isn't it a bit of a stretch to say that Louella Parsons was a "close female associate" to Welles?

Seriously, though, it is always troubling to read this sort of thing...especially when considering that things haven't really changed since that time (TIPS, anyone?). It does make you wonder just who the "secret informant" was, but given the way that things like this tend to get blown out of proportion, it could have been anybody.

[RayKelly]

I have a 10 meg PDF file of Orson Welles FBI files. (I bought it on eBay. It is a non-copyrighted public document).
If anyone has web space I can send it to, I'd gladly share it for all to see.

[Wellesnet]

From Wellesnet Facebook. Thanks to Scott Baldwin for this good new article:
http://dangerousminds.net/comments/f_is ... s_fbi_file

[DrG]

Hi, i bought long ago the FBI file (comes as a PDF) from this page: http://www.paperlessarchives.com/welles.html
Now is see very much the same thing can be found here for free download: https://archive.org/details/GeorgeOrsonWelles
or you can read it here: https://vault.fbi.gov/george-orson-welles

[tonyw]

I obtained my copy under the FOI Act some years back. From reading it, I see that the FBI were really concerned about Welles staging NATIVE SON and his involvement with African-Americans. I don't know if other material has resurfaced since.

[Le Chiffre]

From reading it, I see that the FBI were really concerned about Welles staging NATIVE SON and his involvement with African-Americans.

Particularly African-Americans who supported communism, like Richard Wright. I knew something about Wright's communist affiliations, but not how far back it went. According to this webpage...
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/po ... t_life.htm
...he joined in 1933, so his membership probably would have been well known to the FBI by the time Welles staged NATIVE SON.

...in 1932, he became involved in the John Reed Club, an intellectual arm of the Communist party, which he joined the next March.

Welles may have never been a communist himself, but he seemed to be pretty devil-may-care in his associations. Good on him, but it did come with a price. BTW, John Reed was of course, the subject of Warren Beatty's 1982 epic REDS, which was the reason Beatty cited for not being able to play the lead in Welles's BIG BRASS RING film.

Anyway, thanks for the link, Dr. G.