Young Orson: The Years of Luck and Genius on the Path to Citizen Kane

by McGilligan, Patrick

  “Supplementing this was a discussion . . .” from Herbert Drake, letter to Leonard Lyons, September 29, 1939, (LL). “When Kurtz begins to talk . . .” (George Schaefer), “HONESTLY AGREE . . .” (OW), and “very black skin” (OW) from Brady, Citizen Welles. “Really just seeing what would happen . . .” from Bogdanovich, This Is Orson Welles. “Had my first night . . .” from OW, memo of October 18, 1939, to Herbert Drake (LL). “The demands on Orson’s time . . .” from Drake, letter of November 24, 1939, to MAB (LL). “I decided I was a little obvious . . .” from Bogdanovich, This Is Orson Welles. “A newsreel sequence based on . . .” from Brady, Citizen Welles. “Schaefer was enthusiastic . . .” from Arnold Weissberger, letter of November 21, 1939, to OW (LL).

  CHAPTER 18: NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 1939

  “I asked Mr. Welles . . .” from Louella O. Parsons’s syndicated column, October 11, 1939. “Anna Stafford” was photographed returning from Ireland in the company of Geraldine Fitzgerald: “Notables Arrive on the Manhattan,” New York Times, October 23, 1939. The Helen Hayes–Molnár anecdote from Orson Welles on the Air: The Radio Years. “I urge you now to give Time . . .” from Tarbox, Orson Welles and Roger Hill. Sidney Skolsky’s column “Tintypes” (“There is no truth to it . . .”), Hollywood Citizen-News, December 7, 1939. I have sequenced and quoted from a half dozen mostly undated (a few are marked simply November 1939) pieces of correspondence from MAB to OW (LL). “Solely on money earned . . .” from Richard Baer, letter of November 29, 1939, to Arnold Weissberger (LL). “Exclusive of rent” and “The essential problem is Orson’s psychology . . .” from Weissberger, letter of December 18, 1939, to Baer (LL). “I lost my battle . . .” from Leaming, Orson Welles. I have telescoped the barbs from Hollywood Reporter, Jimmie Fidler, Ed Sullivan, and Hedda Hopper. The Hollywood Reporter’s prediction that the deal would fall through without Welles’s “ever doing a picture” is quoted from the PBS documentary The Battle over Citizen Kane. Fidler (“Ha! They’re saying Orson Welles . . .”) is from McBride, What Ever Happened to Orson Welles? “Chic in a silver fox beard . . .” (Ed Sullivan) from a column of June 1940. “Looks like the only hair-raising . . .” from “Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood,” January 13, 1940. “Working practically day and night . . .” from Edwin Schallert’s column “Drama,” Los Angeles Times, December 28, 1939. “This is no new story . . .” (VW) is from “Reno Bound,” Chicago Tribune, December 20, 1939. Decla Dunning and OW are quoted from Dunning, “Energy Machine,” Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, December 24, 1939. The Screen Actors Guild holiday party is covered as part of a photo spread in the Los Angeles Times, December 25, 1939. Orson named the director he admired “most of all” in Cahiers du Cinéma in English, 1966: the article is reprinted in Estrin, Orson Welles Interviews. “We stared at each other . . .” from Brady, Citizen Welles. “A couple more payments . . .” from Baer, letter of February 5, 1940, to Weissberger (LL). “The greatest female clown around . . .” from Bogdanovich, This Is Orson Welles. OW’s lunch with Hedda Hopper is reported in her column of January 22, 1940. “The Creation of Kane,” Welles’s judicious and witty rejoinder to Kael’s “Raising Kane,” appeared in the (London) Times, November 17, 1971. “The man to seem a very different person . . .” from Bogdanovich, This Is Orson Welles. In this chapter JH is quoted from his testimony in the Lundberg case, unless otherwise noted. “There were and are Americans . . .” from OW’s deposition in the Lundberg case. Whitford Kane takes credit for the last name of Charles Foster Kane in Milton Bracker, “Sir Paddy Cullen Kane” (a profile of the veteran actor), New York Times, April 6, 1941. “Only praise for her husband . . .” from the Associated Press account of the divorce, Rhinelander (Wisconsin) Daily News, February 2, 1938; and “Wife Divorces Orson Welles,” Los Angeles Times, February 2, 1940. “Assigned all claims . . .” from Carringer, The Making of Citizen Kane. “A patient, efficient, nice-looking English girl” is from Houseman, Run-Through. “A mammoth, 300-page version” is from Meryman, Mank. “The great adventure of the day . . .” from Houseman, Run-Through. Rita Alexander is quoted from Meryman, Mank.

  Chapter 19: FEBRUARY–MAY 1940

  The principal sources for my re-creation of the writing of Kane should be clear in context. I have woven together strands of Meryman, Mank; transcripts of the Lundberg case; Carringer, The Making of Citizen Kane; and OW’s conversations with Peter Bogdanovich. In this chapter, I am always quoting JH from his testimony in the Lundberg case unless otherwise noted. “I sketched out the character . . .” and “As author of the film . . .” from Bogdanovich, This Is Orson Welles. “Welles and his Hollywood love . . .” from “Walter Winchell on Broadway,” the last (undated) column of January 1940. “She apparently didn’t consider . . .” from Fay Wray, On the Other Hand: A Life Story (St. Martin’s, 1989). “Absolute sockeroo” and “This may seem a foolish point . . .” from OW, undated memo to his radio show overseers (LL). The footnote about Joan Fontaine is from Fontaine, No Bed of Roses (William Morrow, 1978). “Lecture is informal . . .” from Herbert Drake, undated telegram to Sam Zolotow at the New York Times (LL). “The business of the actor . . .” and details of the Pasadena speech from “Orson Welles Says ‘Actor Is Theater,’ ” Pasadena Post, April 4, 1940. “Of the movies, I will speak . . .” from United Press, “Hollywood! Orson Welles Does Not Approve of You!” Los Angeles Herald, April 12, 1940. OW’s half-page advertisement (“A movie today is a better bargain . . .”), Hollywood Reporter, April 13, 1940. Comments by Ann Sheridan and Pat O’Brien from United Press, “Orson Welles Strictures Draw Wrath of Hollywood,” Eugene (Oregon) Register-Guard, April 13, 1939. “Every time I open . . .” from Frederick C. Othman, “Orson Talks to Replenish Empty Purse,” Hollywood Citizen-News, April 15, 1940. “Nothing in the world . . .” from Hank Grant, “Rambling Reporter,” Hollywood Reporter, May 18, 1940. “A really scurvy trick . . .” from Herbert Drake, letter of April 29, 1940, addressed to AS at the Chicago American (LL).

  Hadley Cantril’s letters to OW and OW’s replies to Cantril are in the Lilly Library (LL) collection. “To the exclusion of myself . . . ,” from OW, letter of March 26, 1939, to Cantril. “The testimony of Mr. Houseman . . .” from OW, letter of April 13, 1940, to Cantril. “WAR OF THE WORLDS WAS NOT . . .” from OW, telegram of April 6, 1940, to Cantril. “Extremely constructive . . .” from Meryman, Mank. “I have tried to sound . . .” from Arnold Weissberger, letter of April 4, 1940, to Richard Baer (LL). “You have paid over . . .” from Weissberger, letter of April 30, 1940, to OW (LL). “I consider at this distance . . .” from VW, letter of June 21, 1940, to Weissberger (LL). “Orson Welles received oodles . . .” from Walter Winchell’s column, Wisconsin State Journal (Madison), May 16, 1940. “Tentative, cut-down version . . .” from OW, telegram of June 6, 1940, to JH, signed, “Love, Orson and Mank.” “A source of some gratification” from OW, note of May 18, 1940, to RH (LL). “I was the one who was making . . .” and “I cut it out because . . .” from Bogdanovich, This Is Orson Welles.

  “Mank fought me terribly . . .” from Meryman, Mank. “The big moment is . . .” from Bogdanovich, This Is Orson Welles. “Do a part for me in my picture . . .” (Paul Stewart) is from “Citizen Kane Remembered,” Action (the magazine of the Directors Guild), May–June 1969. The “Goldberg” anecdote comes from Joseph McBride’s recollection of discussing the scene with Stewart. “We also closed the picture . . .” from OW’s deposition in the Lundberg case. Meet the People, a Popular Front musical, is discussed in my book Tender Comrades; most members of the backstage creative team were later blacklisted.

  Chapter 20: JUNE 1940

  “I suppose I had more low angles . . .” and “behind me, of course . . .” from Bogdanovich, This Is Orson Welles. Helpful biographical background on the cameraman of Citizen Kane came from “Citizen Gregg: Charleston Born, California Bound: Reflections on the Life of Gregg Toland,” biographical research by Kathryn Morice, Joy Prattle, and Dr. Debra Reid for Coles County Historical Society (Charleston, Illinois). Toland is quoted f
rom “Realism for Citizen Kane,” American Cinematographer, February 1941; and “I Broke the Rules in Citizen Kane,” Popular Photography, June 1941. Robert L. Carringer, “Orson Welles and Gregg Toland: Their Collaboration on Citizen Kane” in Carringer, The Making of Citizen Kane, was an important reference. “There was a big back lot . . .” from Bogdanovich, This Is Orson Welles. “Maybe he’ll even have the chance . . .” from Edwin Schallert’s column (his first mention of “John Citizen, U.S.A.”), Los Angeles Times, May 28, 1940. “One of the quickest title changes . . .” from Thomas M. Pryor, “Pot Shots at the News,” New York Times, June 2, 1940. “Am just now polishing . . .” from OW, telegram of June 8, 1940, to AS (NL). “I saw scenes written . . .” (Kathryn Trosper) is quoted in Peter Bogdanovich, “The Kane Mutiny” (his rebuttal to Pauline Kael), Esquire, October 1972; it is included among the Editor’s Notes in This Is Orson Welles. “[Hearst] was, and is, a horse’s ass . . .” from Meryman, Mank. “I threw all the [first] girls out . . .” from Bogdanovich, This Is Orson Welles. “The manner of speaking . . .” (James G. Stewart) is from “Citizen Kane Remembered.” “Drove you mad with pain,” “I kind of based the whole scene . . . ,” and “one take” from Bogdanovich, This Is Orson Welles. “Orson cut his fingers . . .” from MAB, letter of October 30, 1940, to AS (NL).

  “I did the breakfast scene . . .” and “I was constantly encouraged . . .” from Bogdanovich, This Is Orson Welles. Ruth Warrick is quoted from Warrick, The Confessions of Phoebe Tyler (Prentice-Hall, 1980). “One day he shot a hundred takes . . .” (Paul Stewart) is from “Citizen Kane Remembered.” The Dorothy Comingore anecdotes are from Kyle Crichton, “The Forward Faun,” Collier’s, January 18, 1941. “She looks precisely like . . .” from Meryman, Mank. “His name was Red . . .” and “big work . . .” from Bogdanovich, This Is Orson Welles. “The reason Susan is struggling . . .” and “the old classic form . . .” from Smith, A Heart at Fire’s Center. “Sings as [the] curtain goes up . . .” from a July 18, 1940, telegram from OW to “Benny Herman” at Columbia Broadcasting System in New York (LL). “An enormous playback” and “score, like the film, works . . .” from Smith, A Heart at Fire’s Center.

  “Two Jews” and “There are not enough standard movie conventions . . .” from Herbert Drake, memo of August 26, 1940, to OW, recapping his phone conversations with HM, excerpted in Bogdanovich, This Is Orson Welles. “I wrote Citizen Kane” from Louella O. Parsons’s column, August 24, 1940. Mankiewicz’s threat to “come down” hard on OW and “because you are a juvenile delinquent . . .” from an addendum to Drake’s memo of August 26, 1940, (LL). “With a pencil, and drew an arrow . . .” (Richard Wilson) is quoted in Meryman, Mank. “There was a scene in a mausoleum . . .” from Bogdanovich, This Is Orson Welles. The Alan Ladd anecdote is also from This Is Orson Welles. “The very dust heap . . .” from OW’s official RKO press statement, January 15, 1941, explaining the subject matter of Citizen Kane and deflecting comparisons between Kane and William Randolph Hearst. “I have exactly $2.03 . . .” from Richard Baer’s June 22, 1940, letter to Arnold Weissberger (LL). “Strong single light” from Bogdanovich, This Is Orson Welles. I have also consulted Donald W. Rea, “A Critical-Historical Account of the Planning, Production, and Release of Citizen Kane” (thesis, USC, 1966), which contains a letter from OW to Rea, responding to questions about Kane; the answers regarding the film’s genesis and authorship of the script are remarkably consistent with everything Welles ever said on the subject, from the release of the film through to his Lundberg deposition, his rebuttal to Pauline Kael, and his talks with Peter Bogdanovich.

  Chapter 21: OCTOBER 10, 1985

  “Close to fifty” and “about everything under the sun . . .” from Merv Griffin, Merv: Making the Good Life Last (Simon and Schuster, 2003). The Frederick Muller anecdote is from Tonguette, Orson Welles Remembered. The conversation about Strictly Dishonorable and all the material about Jim Steinmeyer are from my interview with Steinmeyer. Howard Suber kindly supplied background about the UCLA teaching post. Also helping to fill in blanks was Gary Graver, Making Movies with Orson Welles: A Memoir (Scarecrow, 2008), posthumously published. Chris Welles Feder is cited here from Feder, In My Father’s Shadow. “Haggard appearance” and Griffin’s views of OW, including comments on Welles and Houseman’s reunion and details of OW’s last booking on the show, from Griffin, Merv, as well as his more expansive From Where I Sit: Merv Griffin’s Book of People (Arbor House, 1982). “He told me my heart . . .” and all OW-RH dialogue in this chapter from Tarbox, Orson Welles and Roger Hill. “People loved to gloat . . .” (Peter Bogdanovich) is from Chris Nichols’s column “Ask Chris,” Los Angeles magazine website, July 1, 2012.

  “The bulky, blushing brother . . .” from “Brother of Orson Welles Vexed on Return with Bride,” Los Angeles Times, April 17, 1941. Details of Richard I. Welles’s (R1W) wartime work in Sierra Madre from “Sierra Madre Selects Queen as Climax of Victory Week,” Los Angeles Times, May 31, 1942; and “Hitler and Hirohito Will Be Court-Martialed as Salvage for Victory Drive Ends,” Sierra Madre News, May 28, 1942. RIW’s time in South Dakota, including correspondence and church reports, is documented from the St. Mary’s School files at the Center for Western Studies, Augustana College, in Sioux Falls. The Center for Western Studies also yielded Les Helgeland’s interview with RIW, “Writer of 1938 Hair-Raiser Radio Script Now Teaching at Springfield,” Yankton Press and Dakotan, undated clipping.

  “Descended from my bone . . . ,” MAB, undated letter of 1940 to AS (NL). “The Herrmann music is grand . . .” from Hazel Bernstein, letter of December 10, 1940, to AS (NL). “I am very happy . . .” from MAB, letter of March 17, 1941, to AS (NL). “Her father was the famous . . .” and the visit with Chaplin from MAB, letter of May 20, 1942, to AS (NL). “He looks very well . . .” from MAB, undated letter to AS (NL). “I took lunch with Dolores . . .” from MAB, letter of February 19, 1942, to OW (LL). MAB hailed John Houseman as “an unusual man . . .” and gave other details of the visit with Chaplin in his letter of May 14, 1942, to OW (LL). “Have you seen Mrs. Miniver . . . ?” from Hazel Bernstein, letter of July 26, 1942, to AS (NL). “Gaudy Hollywood modern mansion . . .” from Hazel Bernstein, letter of July 12, 1944, to AS (NL). “As hard as I try not to write . . .” from MAB, undated letter of 1946, to OW (LL). “The cutter for Macbeth . . .” from Hazel Bernstein, letter of May 29, 1948, to AS and “Pals” (NL). “I have not heard from Orson . . .” from MAB, letter of December 14, 1948, to AS (NL). “Orson is such a great-hearted person . . .” from Florence Stevens, letter of January 22, 1951, to the Bernsteins (NL). Hedda Hopper wrote about MAB as OW’s “foster father” in her syndicated column “Looking at Hollywood,” November 24, 1955. “A severe sprain of . . .” from an Associated Press account of the accident, March 11, 1957.

  The anecdote about Joseph Cotten’s alleged homophobia comes from Darwin Porter, Merv Griffin: A Life in the Closet (Blood Moon, 2009). “Both men walked out . . .” from Griffin, Merv. “The close-up when I had the mud . . . ,” “You see this ID bracelet . . . ,” “unjustified visual strain . . . ,” and “He and my father . . .” from Bogdanovich, This Is Orson Welles. “I think what gives dignity . . .” is from Bart Whaley, Orson Welles: The Man Who Was Magic: Part I (Lybrary.com, 2011). Whaley’s book, an exhaustive investigation into Welles’s lifetime of fascination with magic, also takes many biographical detours, including a careful depiction of the last hours of his life. The anecdote about OW watching the Academy Awards from a hotel room comes from Peter Bogdanovich’s interview in the documentary Orson Welles: What Went Wrong? (directed by Peter Guenette, 1992). “A man is not from where he is born” and “untroubled by the itch of ambition” from the Spanish bullfighting documentary El Americano. “If Citizen Kane wins again . . .” from David Thomson, “The Mark of Kane,” Sight and Sound, January 2011. “Of course, I didn’t know . . .” from Peter Bogdanovich, commentary on “The Sight and Sound Poll” posted at indiewire.com, August 10, 2012. James Naremore is quoted fro
m his correspondence with me. “It pained me not to vote . . .” from my interview with Joseph McBride for my analysis of the Sight and Sound poll, “Hang in There, Kane,” Wall Street Journal, August 15, 2012. “Cinema buffs consider it . . .” from Doreen Carvajal, “Orson Welles’s Last Film May Finally Be Released,” New York Times, October 28, 2014. “I promise you it didn’t . . .” Oja Kodar is quoted in Jon Tuska, Encounters with Filmmakers: Eight Career Studies (Praeger, 1991). “I’m against posterity in principle . . .” from Bernard Braden, Orson Welles’s The Paris Interview (CBC, 1960).

  Permissions

  Peter Bogdanovich and (editor) Jonathan Rosenbaum have graciously permitted extensive citations from This Is Orson Welles.

  The reminiscences of William Ash, George Coulouris, Arlene Francis, Guy Kingsley, William Mowry Jr., and L. Arnold Weissberger are quoted courtesy of the Columbia Center for Oral History Collection (CCOHC). In all instances Harry Goldman was the interviewer for the Mercury Theatre/Theater Union Oral History Project.

  INDEX

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