Orson Welles, Vol I (105 page)

A galaxy of stars in Welles productions

Welles arrives on the West Coast, 1939

Above:
Dinner with journalist Fred Smith in Hollywood. The inscription reads: ‘We look as though we’d already made that million.’
Below:
Maurice Abraham (Dadda) Bernstein, Welles’s guardian, who moved to California to be his personal physician

Welles working on his never-produced screenplay for Joseph Conrad’s
Heart of Darkness
in 1939

The transformation of Orson Welles into Kane
Above
: Make-up man Maurice Seiderman with his cast of Welles’s head.
Centre
: Halfway done.
Below
: The finished product

Orson Welles, made-up as the young Kane, frames a shot during the filming of
Citizen Kane

Macbeth

by William Shakespeare, adapted by O.W.

14 April 1936

Lafayette Theatre, New York

Horse Eats Hat

by Eugene Labiche and Marc-Michel (
An Italian Straw Hat
), adapted by Edwin Denby and O.W.

26 September 1936

Maxine Elliott Theatre, New York

Doctor Faustus

by Christopher Marlowe, adapted by O.W.

8 January 1937

Maxine Elliott
Theatre, New York

The Second Hurricane

by Aaron Copland (musical score) and Edwin Denby (libretto).

21 April 1937

Henry Street Playhouse, New York

The Cradle Will Rock

by Marc Blitzstein.

16 June 1937

Venice Theatre, New York

Caesar

by William Shakespeare (
Julius Caesar
), adapted by O.W.

11 November 1937

Mercury Theatre, New York

The Shoemaker’s
Holiday

by Thomas Dekker, adapted by O.W.

1 January 1938

Mercury Theatre, New York

Heartbreak House

by George Bernard Shaw.

29 April 1938

Mercury Theatre, New York

Too Much Johnson

by William Gillette, adapted by O.W.

16 August 1938     Stony Creek

Summer Theatre, Connecticut

Danton’s Death

by Georg Büchner, translated by Geoffrey Dunlop, adapted
by O.W.

5 November 1938

Mercury Theatre, New York

Five Kings

by William Shakespeare (
Richard II, Henry IV
, Parts I and II,
Henry V
and
The Merry Wives of Windsor
), adapted by O.W.

27 February 1939

Colonial Theatre, Boston

The Green Goddess

by William Archer, adapted by O.W.

June 1939     Palace Theatre, Chicago

Native Son

by Richard Wright, adapted by
the author and Paul Green.

24 March 1941

St James’s Theatre, New York

Hearts of Age

Produced by William Vance, co-directed by O.W.

1934     Woodstock

Summer Theatre Festival

Too Much Johnson

Sequences for insertion in stage play, never used.

Produced by O.W. and John Houseman

1938     Stony Creek

Summer Theatre, Connecticut

The Green Goddess

Introduction to stage play.

Produced by O.W.

1939     Orpheum
Circuit

Citizen Kane

Written by O.W. and Herman J. Mankiewicz

Produced by O.W.

1941     RKO

(Radio Keith Orpheum)

1.
‘Welles’s father was in trade.’ Leaflet about Badger Brass Company.

2.
‘The big city.’ Chicago at the turn of the century:
Chicago’s Left Bank
by Alston J. Smith;
Insight Guide
; various Chicago books.

3.
Information on Welles’s family background largely culled from
Orson Welles: The Rise and Fall of an American Genius
by Charles Higham, whose
work in this area is unrivalled.

4.
‘Orson Welles’, Christmas edition of French
Vogue
, December 1982.

5.
‘They were both charmers.’
Orson Welles
by Barbara Leaming.

6.
‘… a microcosm of industrial America.’ Charles Higham, op. cit.

7.
‘… she was a very handsome woman.’ From
My Life
by Mary D. Bradford.

8.
‘… among the best-known pianists in Kenosha.’ From
Music in Kenosha
by
Mrs Brown, an unpublished study.

9.
‘Over and over again …’ Russell Maloney, ‘This Ageless Soul’:
The New Yorker
8 October 1938.

10.
‘It is the spirit of Loyalty …’ Quoted in
The Todd School
, an unpublished thesis by John Hoke.

11.
‘… the desire to take medicine.’ Quoted in
The Fabulous Orson Welles
by Peter Noble.

1.
‘Out in Chicago …’ H. L. Mencken quoted
in
Chicago’s Left Bank
by Alston J. Smith.

2.
‘Chicago the jazz-baby …’ Smith, op. cit.

3.
‘… a paradise he’d lost.’ Quoted in
Orson Welles
by Barbara Leaming.