by Simon Callow
6 ‘It looks as if the administration …’ Letter from Geneva Cranston to Orson Welles, n.d.
7 ‘Our Astrology department …’ Orson Welles Almanac, New York Post, 22 January 1945.
8 ‘The sting of a bee …’ ibid., 23 January 1945.
9 ‘ACTOR TURNS COLUMNIST …’ Time, 29 January 1945.
10 ‘This column is so important …’ New Yorker, 27 January 1945.
11 ‘The editor of this Almanac …’ Orson Welles Almanac, New York Post, 30 January 1945.
12 ‘I visited our State Department …’ ibid., 31 January 1945.
13 ‘This war is not all destruction …’ ibid., 1 March 1945.
14 ‘The general was the finest …’ ibid., 26 March 1945.
15 ‘Bursting up out of the bloody crust …’ ibid., 7 March 1945.
16 ‘we loved the man this side of idolatry …’ ibid., 1 February 1945.
17 ‘the rest of his life was an anti-climax …’, 15 February 1945.
18 ‘Chaliapin used to hold me on his knee …’ ibid.
19 ‘The me-only boys …’ ibid., 27 February 1945.
20 ‘Every season for quite some time now …’ ibid., 2 February 1945.
21 ‘It isn’t as slick as …’ ibid., 25 January 1945.
22 ‘If it was his plan …’ ibid., 5 February 1945.
23 ‘The villainous customs official …’ ibid., 6 March 1945.
24 ‘Mrs Pankhurst and her lady friends …’ ibid., 2 March 1945.
25 ‘Rub bacon fat …’ ibid., 7 March 1945.
26 ‘it should be sent in a plain wrapper …’ ibid., 2 March 1945.
27 ‘I know that Orson …’ Memorandum from Robert Hall of New York Post Syndicate Department, 22 February 1945.
28 ‘the fantastic Mars genius …’ Letter from Geneva Cranston to Orson Welles, 14 February 1945.
29 ‘People have heard …’ Letter from Geneva Cranston to Orson Welles (undated).
30 ‘Ghost writer … is a member …’ FBI report, 25 April 1945.
31 ‘Then, in a little bit of a giveaway …’ Letter from Jackson Leighter to Ted Thackrey, 9 March 1945.
32 ‘These German newspapers which live …’ Orson Welles Almanac, New York Post, 8 March 1945.
33 ‘I’ve read most of Noël’s book …’ Orson Welles Today, New York Post 10 April 1945.
34 ‘Remember that there is no choice …’ ibid., 3 April 1945.
35 ‘there is no doubt that this leadership …’ Article by Louis Dolivet, ‘Shaping Tomorrow’s World’, Treasury for the Free World, Arco, 1945.
36 ‘Personally it would make me most happy …’ Telegram from Orson Welles to Franklin D. Roosevelt, 8 February 1945.
37 ‘April will be …’ Message from Franklin D. Roosevelt 3 March 1945.
38 ‘“This newsletter” he wrote …’ Orson Welles in Free World daily paper, 6 June 1945.
39 ‘The heaped-up dead …’ Orson Welles Today, New York Post, 8 May 1945.
40 ‘Mr Roosevelt isn’t 29 years old …’ Broadcast, January 1945.
41 ‘No, not for a moment …’ Unpublished interview with Kathleen Tynan, 12 February 1983.
42 ‘Today another servant of the Lord …’ CBS broadcast speech by Orson Welles, 12 April 1945.
43 ‘Something is on its way from Georgia …’ Speech by Orson Welles, 13 April 1945.
44 ‘I am going to ask that you be as co-operative …’ Letter from Wayne Tiss to Jackson Leighter, 15 March 1945.
45 ‘my best in every sense of the word …’ Letter from Orson Welles to Arthur Pryor, 30 May 1945.
46 ‘Editors did not expect …’ Letter from Robert Hall to Orson Welles, 19 May 1945.
47 ‘Frankly I haven’t recovered from the shock …’ Letter from Orson Welles to Robert Hall, 30 May 1945.
48 ‘a young woman had leaped up …’ Orson Welles Today, New York Post, 23 April 1945.
49 ‘it’s the darnedest thing …’ ibid., 23 May 1945.
50 ‘Jack Benny’s black sidekick …’ ibid., 4 June 1945.
51 ‘in which you are a recognised authority’. Letter from Bob Hall to Orson Welles, 26 June 1945.
52 ‘Without question, the daily task …’ Letter from Ted Thackrey to Orson Welles, 5 July 1945.
53 ‘For three weeks …’ Letter from Orson Welles to Ted Thackrey, 31 July 1945.
54 ‘HOW WAS LAST COLUMN? …’ Telegram from Orson Welles to Ted Thackrey, 1 September 1945.
55 ‘His Gorgeousness, the Bey …’ Orson Welles Today, New York Post, 9 September 1945.
56 ‘Clifton’s. A marvellous place …’ ibid., 22 September 1945.
57 ‘It’s always “Labor trouble” …’ ibid., 29 September 1945.
58 ‘we’re figuring on …’ ibid., 9 October 1945.
59 ‘We are the world’s greatest production …’ ibid., 19 March 1945.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
An Occasional Soapbox
1 ‘EITHER LATIN AMERICA …’ Telegram from Louis Dolivet to Orson Welles, 1 October 1945.
2 ‘FROM MARTIAN BROADCAST …’ Free World, Special Peace Issue, 7 September 1945.
3 ‘We know that for some ears even the word “action” …’ Article by Orson Welles, ibid.
4 ‘YOUR APPEARANCE WILL MAKE …’ Telegram from Will Rogers to Orson Welles, 26 February 1944.
5 ‘We are in complete sympathy with …’ Letter from Ray Pierre to Orson Welles, 26 January 1945.
6 ‘Mr Thomas Martin Wentworth …’ Glamour, 3 March 1945.
7 ‘on the contribution of the Negroes …’ FBI report, 14 December 1944.
8 ‘had your speech put into Braille …’ Letter from Helen Keller to Orson Welles, 26 October 1944.
9 ‘considerable evenings engaged …’ FBI report, 9 April 1945.
10 ‘[an] expert blending of the humorous …’ Letter from William Lear to Orson Welles, 19 November 1945.
11 ‘commentary on affairs of national interest …’ Contract for Lear programme, 16 July 1945.
12 ‘“Hello”, he says …’ Orson Welles’s Commentary, 16 September 1945.
13 ‘I’ll bet it is an interesting experience …’ Quoted in letter to Orson Welles from Kirk Tuttle of Kudner Agency, 21 September 1945.
14 ‘Mr Welles brings his views …’ Orson Welles’s Commentary, 30 September 1945.
15 ‘inasmuch as [he] felt that Carlson …’ Peter Bogdanovich, This is Orson Welles.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The S. T. Ranger
1 ‘its attempt to tie in …’ Letter from Helen Straus to Jackson Leighter, 27 February 1945.
2 ‘we should like to organise …’ Letter from Iris Barry to Orson Welles, 9 May 1945.
3 ‘Orson has genius but in this film …’ Edward G. Robinson, All My Yesterdays.
4 ‘Tell me, Orson …’ Hedda Hopper, Los Angeles Times, 28 October 1945.
5 ‘Our new President …’ Orson Welles Today, New York Post, 18 April 1945.
6 ‘some daredevil instructor …’ ibid., 4 November 1945.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Full, Complete and Unrestricted Authority
1 ‘the crazy and unusual …’ Cole Porter quoted in William O’Brien, Cole Porter.
2 ‘His attitude is pleasant; his remarks …’ Bertolt Brecht, Journals, 10 December 1945.
3 ‘the more scared I become …’ Letter from Charles Laughton to Alfred Lunt, early 1946, quoted in James K. Lyon, Bertolt Brecht in America.
4 ‘Dear Charlie …’ Letter from Orson Welles to Charles Laughton, undated, late April/early May 1946.
5 ‘I said to him one day …’ Peter Bogdanovich, This is Orson Welles.
6 ‘So you find my confidence in my own charm …’ Letter from Orson Welles to Charles Laughton, op. cit.
7 ‘OUR CHOICE IS SIMPLE …’ Telegram from Orson Welles for World Peace Rally, 1 November 1945.
8 ‘Peace is possible without appeasement …’ Speech by Orson Welles, 24 September 1946.
9 �
�NATIONAL COMMITTEE TO ABOLISH …’ Telegram from National Committee to Abolish Poll Tax to Orson Welles, 16 January 1945.
10 ‘CITY BEING VERY BACKWARD NEEDS OUTSTANDING …’ Telegram from Brotherhood Rally Committee to Orson Welles, 26 January 1946.
11 ‘IMPOSSIBLE TO CONSIDER …’ Telegram from Orson Welles to Lloyd F. Saunders, 2 March 1946.
12 ‘“Dear Orson,” wrote the photographer …’ Letter from Brent Gallagher to Orson Welles, 30 January 1946.
13 ‘I can’t say it any better …’ Letter from Marc Blitzstein to Orson Welles, 3 April 1946.
14 ‘Laugh it off./This little thought …’ Text of The Airborne Symphony by Marc Blitzstein.
15 ‘The scenery and mechanical effects …’ Quoted in the programme booklet for Around the World.
16 ‘and a maid to help the maid’. From Arthur Margetson ‘Orson and I’ (unpublished article).
17 ‘I’ve decided I simply can’t afford you …’ Mike Todd, reported in ‘The Nine Lives of Mike Todd’, Herald Tribune, 13 November 1958.
18 ‘part of luck is a pet superstition …’ ibid.
19 ‘It became apparent …’ ibid.
20 ‘a Mercury offering …’ ‘Mercury Theatre Planning Return’, New York Times, 7 March 1946.
21 ‘The theme of this picture is sex in the raw …’ Memorandum from Harry Cohn, early 1946.
22 ‘We are the prey of drunken stage hands …’ Letter from Cole Porter to Sam Stark, 1 May 1946.
23 ‘the Orson Welles genius …’ Boston Daily Globe, 29 April 1946.
24 ‘A good theatrical plot …’ Eliot Norton, Boston Post, 29 April 1946.
25 ‘Orson has been a tower of strength …’ Letter from Cole Porter to Sam Stark, op. cit.
26 ‘in a fashion typical of his past …’ Boston Post, op. cit.
27 ‘a miniature extravaganza …’ Eliot Norton, ‘Second Thoughts of a First-Nighter’, Boston Daily Globe, 6 May 1946.
28 ‘This is the greatest thing …’ Bertolt Brecht, quoted in James K. Lyon, Bertolt Brecht in America.
29 ‘With your kind indulgence …’ Arthur Margetson, op. cit.
30 ‘Around the World bears the eccentric …’ Philadelphia Daily News, 15 May 1946.
31 ‘The show has about everything in it …’ Edwin Schloss, Philadelphia Record, 15 May 1946.
32 ‘I never heard of a show …’ Orson Welles interviewed by John Wilson, PM, 29 May 1946.
33 ‘the dump of all dumps’. William Craxton quoted in Nicholas van Hoogstraten, Lost Broadway Theatres.
34 ‘HOW WELLES’S “WORLD” GOES ROUND …’ Murray Schumach, New York Times, 30 May 1946.
35 ‘In hot weather …’ Fanfare, quoted in Lost Theatres of New York.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Wellesafloppin’
1 ‘There is hardly a word …’ Vernon Price, New York Post, 1 June 1946.
2 ‘as amorphous as a splash of mud …’ Irving Cahn, 1 June 1946.
3 ‘only eighty days? you ask yourself …’ Robert Garland, New York Journal-American, 1 June 1946.
4 ‘Around the World is Orson Welles …’ Time, 4 June 1946.
5 ‘When the guffawing Mr Welles …’ Lewis Nichols, New York Times, 1 June 1946.
6 Orson in casting himself …’ Radie Harris, Variety, 1 June 1946.
7 ‘a fine musical cheese dream …’ Wolcott Gibbs, New Yorker, 8 June 1946.
8 ‘Out of the same mould as the British …’ William Hawkins, New York World-Telegram, 1 June 1946.
9 ‘These products of showmanship …’ Lewis Nichols, op. cit.
10 ‘I, on the other hand …’ John Chapman, Sunday News, 9 June 1946.
11 ‘[the show] needs discipline …’ Lewis Nichols, New York Times, 8 June 1946.
12 ‘Mr Davison has been prodigal …’ John Chapman, op. cit.
13 ‘and as the world tour progresses …’ ibid.
14 ‘Cole Porter’s tunes have a way …’ ibid.
15 ‘if God will forgive me …’ Wolcott Gibbs, op. cit.
16 ‘The production at the Adelphi …’ John Chapman, op. cit.
17 ‘the recent arrival of Around the World …’ Lewis Nichols, New York Times, 8 June 1946.
18 ‘There are mischievous rumours …’ Wolcott Gibbs, op. cit.
19 ‘Unless some means are found …’ Burns Mantle, Theatre Year Book, 1946.
20 ‘HATE TO KEEP HECKLING YOU …’ Telegram from Orson Welles to Walter Winchell, 7 June 1946.
21 ‘this wild-and-woolly wunderkind …’ Billy Rose, New York Times, 10 June 1946.
22 ‘Orson tells me that if necessary …’ John Chapman, op. cit.
23 ‘I was thrilled, entranced …’ Elsa Maxwell, New York Post, 13 June 1946.
24 ‘I think the theatre is suffering …’ Orson Welles’s Commentary, 15 June 1946.
25 ‘your production is fresh, witty …’ Letter from Joshua Logan to Orson Welles, 14 June 1946.
26 ‘I have been to see the show …’ Letter from Oliver Smith to Orson Welles, 25 June 1946.
27 ‘that … altruistically minded …’ Burns Mantle, op. cit.
28 ‘YOU COULDN’T KILL HIM WITH A CLUB …’ Robert Sylvester, Sunday News, 28 July 1946.
29 ‘4): am enclosing …’ Memorandum from Lolita Herbert to Orson Welles, 26 July 1946.
30 ‘would have been a big and substantial hit …’ Letter from Richard Wilson to Charles Laughton, 25 July 1946.
31 ‘directing Galileo is only half …’ ibid.
32 ‘I do not appreciate your habit …’ Letter from Charles Laughton to Orson Welles, 26 July 1946.
33 ‘It seems that Brecht is our man …’ Letter from Charles Laughton to Alfred Lunt, early 1946, quoted in James K. Lyons, Bertolt Brecht in America.
34 ‘YOUR TRAGIC NEWS ARRIVED THIS MORNING …’ Telegram from Cole Porter to Orson Welles, 29 July 1946.
35 ‘REGRET IMPOSSIBLE SECURE …’ Telegram from Sir Charles Cochran to Orson Welles, 17 September 1946.
36 ‘“I thought,” Dick Wilson wrote …’ Letter from Richard Wilson to Morris Halpern of London Films, 20 August 1946.
37 ‘The show flopped …’ Stanley Kauffmann, New Republic, September 1985.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Officer X
1 ‘SOUTH CAROLINA COP …’ Daily Worker, 13 July 1946.
2 ‘My Dear Mr Welles …’ Letter from Edna Fraser to Orson Welles, 13 July 1946.
3 ‘Dear Mr Welles …’ Letter from Mary Houston to Orson Welles, 12 August 1946.
4 ‘hate-filled orgy …’ Langston Hughes, Fight for Freedom.
5 ‘the inevitable, inescapable …’ Walter White, quoted in Oliver Harrington, Why I left America.
6 ‘the bestial gouging out …’ ibid.
7 ‘At a time when our statesmen …’ ibid.
8 ‘It was on Friday night …’ Letter from Orson Welles to Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas, 12 October 1946.
9 ‘I, Issac Woodard …’ Affidavit by Isaac Woodard, 23 April 1946.
10 ‘Down South they think …’ Speech by Isaac Woodard, 7 July 1946.
11 ‘GET THAT COP! …’ Daily Worker, 17 July 1946.
12 ‘I, Isaac Woodard …’ Orson Welles’s Commentary, 28 July 1946.
13 ‘“Orson,” Les Lear, his former sponsor …’ Letter from Les Lear to Orson Welles, 29 July 1946.
14 ‘as soon as your broadcast …” Letter from Al Laster to Orson Welles, 30 July 1946.
15 ‘Yes, Mr Welles, you spoiled …’ Letter from Sol Stein to Orson Welles, 28 July 1946.
16 ‘A FORMER FAN …’ Anonymous letter to Orson Welles, 30 July 1946.
17 ‘Since your Sunday night broadcast …’ Letter from Odell Weeks to Orson Welles, 30 July 1946.
18 ‘some people feel that Mr Truman …’ Orson Welles’s Commentary, 4 August 1946.
19 ‘Isaac Woodard is on the conscience of America …’ Statement by Orson Welles read by Joe Louis, 18 August 1942.
20 �
�HOSPITAL RECORDS AMAZINGLY BRIEF …’ Telegram from NAACP to Orson Welles, 14 August 1946.
21 ‘the actual celluloid driven out of the city …’ Orson Welles’s Commentary, 12 August 1946.
22 ‘I grabbed it away from him …’ Statement by Lynwood Shull 17 August 1942.
23 YOUR TRULY GREAT COMMENTARIES …’ Telegram from Oliver Harrington to Orson Welles, 21 August 1946.
24 ‘The crying need of the minorities …’ Letter from Samuel Procter to Orson Welles, 25 August 1946.
25 ‘it seems that I was fighting in the wrong place’. Anonymous letter to Orson Welles, 25 August 1946.
26 ‘Thousands of years ago …’ Anonymous letter to Orson Welles, 20 August 1946.
27 ‘Please don’t come to Georgia …’ Anonymous letter to Orson Welles, 12 August 1946.
28 ‘COME OVER HERE …’ Telegram from John Willingham to Orson Welles, 24 August 1946.
29 ‘OUR NEWS DEPARTMENT …’ Telegram from Adrian Samish to Orson Welles, 20 August 1946.
30 ‘The place was Batesburg …’ Orson Welles’s Commentary, 18 August 1946.
31 ‘a commercial spot …’ Letter from Adrian Samish to Orson Welles, 2 October 1946.
32 ‘I’m being sued for $2 million …’ Orson Welles’s Commentary, 25 August 1946.
33 ‘ACTION OF JUSTICE DEPT …’ Telegram from Oliver Harrington to Orson Welles, 27 September 1946.
34 ‘You will all be disappointed …’ Letter from Orson Welles to Helen Gahagan Douglas, 12 October 1946.
35 ‘alarmed at the increased …’ J. Waties Waring, quoted in Tinsley E. Yarborough, A Passion for Justice.
36 ‘We’re told that we should …’ Orson Welles’s Scrapbook.
37 ‘ORSON WELLES NEEDS HELP!’ Advertisement taken out by Hollywood Independent Citizens Committee of The Arts, Sciences and Professions, 26 August 1946.
38 ‘We, the People …’ Anonymous letter to Orson Welles, 30 August 1946.
39 ‘You mustn’t quit – don’t quit …’ Anonymous letter to Orson Welles, 29 September 1946.
40 ‘His Summer Theatre version …’ Mercury Summer Theatre of the Air, 30 August 1946.
41 ‘If Larry wishes to play Herod …’ Letter from Richard Wilson to Alexander Korda, 11 September 1946.
