Read Orson Welles, Vol I Online

Authors: Simon Callow

Orson Welles, Vol I (111 page)

5.
‘Rumours began to circulate …’ From John Houseman, op. cit.

6.
‘Wheelock says absolutely not …’ Letter to John Houseman in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

7.
‘Practical considerations
suggest enormous advantages …’ Telegram in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

8.
‘Why did you two lice can Chips …’ and ff. Letters in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

9.
‘Please remember that whatever gives our format individuality …’ Telegram in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

10.
‘Orson, who was beginning to have his own doubts …’ From John Houseman, op. cit.

11.
‘Both the diabolic love and the unearthly hate …’ and ff. From
Heart of Darkness
by Joseph Conrad.

12.
‘The picture is, frankly, an attack on the Nazi system …’ Quoted in
Citizen Welles
by Frank Brady.

13.
‘The story is of a man and a girl in love …’ and ff. Undated memo to the RKO publicity department, in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

14.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, this is Orson
Welles …’ and ff. From the screenplay to
Heart of Darkness
printed in
Film Comment
November/December 1972 with article by Jonathan Rosenbaum.

15.
‘All this severe blow …’ Telegram in the RKO archives.

16.
‘… dear mr schaefer: you have my word …’ Telegram in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

17.
‘Thanks so much for your wire
…’ Letter in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

18.
‘If Mr George Schaefer …’
Hollywood Reporter
26 September 1939.

19.
‘… she apparently didn’t consider having an affair …’ From
On the Other Hand
by Fay Wray.

20.
‘He was goggle-eyed …’ Quoted in
Orson Welles
by Barbara Leaming.

21.
‘As for the chronological story …’ Letter in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

22.
‘I never stood in your way …’ Letter in the Lilly Library Welles
Collection.

23.
‘If Marlow was standing on the deck of a boat …’ From
The Making of Citizen Kane
by Robert L. Carringer.

24.
‘… pissing it away …’and ff. From John Houseman, op. cit.

25.
‘In the past year my position with you and the Mercury …’ Letter in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

26.
‘If an artist finds that public response …’ and ff. Quoted in
Virgil Thomson
by Virgil
Thomson.

27.
‘I couldn’t say to him …’ Quoted by Barbara Leaming, op. cit.

28.
‘… his magnetic, brown, gold-flecked eyes …’ and ff. From
The Smiler with the Knife
by Nicholas Blake (C. Day Lewis).

CHAPTER NINETEEN:
Mank

1.
‘… credits that would knock your eye out …’ From ‘Pat Hobby and Orson Welles’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald,
Esquire
May 1940.

2.
‘Idiocy is all right in its
own way …’ and ff. Quoted in
Mank
by Richard Meryman.

3.
‘… you felt this fondness …’ and ff. ibid.

4.
‘Both came away enchanted and convinced …’ Letter to Richard Meryman quoted in
Mank
.

5.
‘He was, variously, my collaborator …’ From
Run-Through
by John Houseman.

6.
‘Sadly, the closer Jack got to Mank …’ Quoted in ‘Is it true what they say about Orson?’
New York Times
August 1971.

7.
‘As a result of Mankiewicz’s wicked sense of humour …’ From ‘Raising Kane’ by Pauline Kael, introduction to
The Citizen Kane Book
.

8.
‘When Mank left for Victorville …’ Quoted in
This is Orson Welles
by Peter Bogdanovich.

9.
‘I have only one real enemy in my life …’ Quoted by Richard Meryman, op. cit.

10.
‘… an error so grave …’ Telegram in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

11.
‘Script ideas and development …’ Letter in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

12.
‘Your suggested revision …’ Telegram in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

13.
‘In his hatred of Hearst …’ and ff. Quoted by Richard Meryman, op. cit.

14.
‘… the tremendous vitality, gaiety and joie de vivre …’ and ff. Quoted in
Citizen Welles
by Frank Brady.

15.
‘dear mank received your
cut version …’ Telegram in Houseman collection, UCLA.

16.
‘He had a sallow complexion …’ From ‘Gregg Toland ASC’ by George E. Turner,
American Cinematographer
November 1982.

17.
‘Not only should the cameraman know all about …’ and ff. From ‘The Motion Picture Cameraman’ by Gregg Toland,
Theatre Arts Monthly
September 1941.

18.
‘A great deal has been written and said about the new …’
and ff. Gregg Toland in ‘How I Broke the Rules in
Citizen Kane’. Popular Photography
June 1941.

19.
‘I was constantly encouraged by Toland …’ Quoted by Peter Bogdanovich, op. cit.

20.
‘We tried to plan the action …’ and ff. From ‘How I Broke the Rules …’ op. cit.

21.
‘… that illusion of roundness …’ Quoted in
The Classical Hollywood Cinema
by David Bordwell.

22.
‘We called it pan-focus
…’ Quoted by Peter Bogdanovich, op. cit.

23.
‘Norman Mailer wrote that when I was young …’ Quoted by Peter Bogdanovich, op. cit.

CHAPTER TWENTY:
Shooting
Kane

1.
‘During this scene, nobody’s face is really seen …’ From the screenplay to
Citizen Kane
.

2.
‘He’s the waiter in every movie ever made!’ From
This is Orson Welles
by Peter Bogdanovich.

3.
‘He was willing, and this
is very rare in Hollywood …’ Gregg Toland in ‘How I Broke the Rules in
Citizen Kane’, Popular Photography
June 1941.

4.
‘I said, well, God, there’s a lot of stuff …’ and ff. From Peter Bogdanovich, op. cit.

5.
‘He had a huge set of Xanadu …’ Quoted in 50th Anniversary souvenir booklet.

6.
‘He shot more film than anyone in the history of the cinema …’and ff. Quoted in
Positif
October
1988.

7.
‘Alland was treated almost as a personal slave …’ From Richard Barr’s unpublished memoirs.

8.
‘Ford’s greeting to him was the first hint …’ From Peter Bogdanovich, op. cit.

9.
‘It was clearly going to be an extraordinary …’ and ff. From
Run-Through
by John Houseman.

10.

RE FURTHER TELEPHONE CONVERSATION
…’ Memo in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

11.
‘As of Sep
30 …’ Memo in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

12.
‘Mr M. is in the biggest fever …’ Memo in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

13.
‘It would seem to me …’ Letter in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

14.
‘… he wrote the entire script …’ ibid.

15.
No production executive … Quoted in
The Making of Citizen Kane
by Robert L. Carringer.

16.
‘… his ability to push a dramatic
situation …’ From John Houseman, op. cit.

17.
‘I tried to persuade Houseman …’ Quoted in
Monk
by Richard Meryman.

18.
‘I informed him that if anyone …’ From John Houseman, op. cit.

19.
‘… which will give us all a little bit of rest …’ Letter to Arnold Weissberger in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

20.
‘… that’s the nicest thing a man from England …’ and ff. Transcribed from
KTSA broadcast, 28 October 1940.

21.
‘Many of
Citizen Kane
’s deep-focus effects had been created …’ From ‘Film Style and Technology’ by David Bordwell in
The Classical Hollywood Cinema
.

22.
‘Telling Orson about the optical printer …’ Quoted in Robert Carringer’s laser-disc documentary about
Citizen Kane
.

23.
‘I was months and months and months …’ From Peter Bogdanovich, op. cit.

24.
‘Backward ran sentences …’
Quoted in
Raising Kane
by Pauline Kael.

25.
‘He overwhelmed me with his radio background …’ Quoted in 50th Anniversary souvenir booklet.

26.
‘I’d work all day. He’d make an appointment …’ Quoted by Richard Meryman, op. cit.

27.
‘I was given twelve weeks to do my job …’ ‘Score for a Film.’
New York Times
25 May 1941.

28.
‘in second scene, we cut to kane
…’ Telegram in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

29.
‘… cues of a few seconds were often overlooked …’ and ff. ‘Score for a Film,’ op. cit.

30.
‘I want to make it absolutely clear …’ Quoted by Richard Meryman. op. cit.

31.
‘Don’t think me a saint …’ and ff. From Orson Welles’ screenplay
Santa
.

32.
‘please give orson all my love …’ Telegram in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

33.
‘my beamish jack …’ Telegram in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

34.
‘give your friends a night …’ Telegram in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

35.
‘Dearest Hedda, I owe you …’ Letter in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

36.
‘As the story was reported to me …’ Quoted in
Marion Davies
by Fred Guiles.

37.
‘It has been assumed that
Citizen Kane
…’ Letter in the Lilly
Library Welles Collection.

38.

Citizen Kane
is the story …’ Article in
Friday
magazine reprinted in
Focus on Citizen Kane
ed. Ronald Gottesman.

39.
‘Mr Hearst casually gave them a hundred …’ Quoted by Richard Meryman, op. cit.

40.
‘I am going slowly mad because my hands are tied …’ Letter to Arnold Weissberger in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

41.
‘Until quite recently,
a lot of people …’
New Masses
4 February 1941.

42.
‘This article will probably make me no friends …’ and ff. ‘Orson Welles Writing About Orson Welles’,
Stage
February 1941, reprinted in
Hollywood Directors
ed. Richard Koszarski.

43.
‘Will Hollywood stand up …’
New Republic
24 February 1941.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE:
Waiting/
Native Son

1.
‘A blow at the white man …’ Irving Howe. Quoted
in
Richard Wright, Daemonic Genius
by Margaret Walker.

2.
‘Bigger Thomas is not presented in
Native Son
…’ and ff. Letter in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

3.
‘Please believe that both Welles and I …’ and ff. Letter in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

4.
‘Knowing what you and Welles have done in the past …’ Letter in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

5.
‘please inform
our crippled …’ Telegram in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

6.
‘This play is indecent …’ Quoted by Richard Wright in
The God That Failed
.

7.
‘… till the day of the play’s opening …’ and ff. From
Run-Through
by John Houseman.

8.
‘… the fabulous city in which Bigger lived …’ From
Native Son
by Richard Wright.

9.
‘I want this show to be surrounded by brick …’ Quoted in ‘
Native
Son
Backstage’ by Jean Rosenthal,
Theatre Arts Monthly
June 1941.

10.
‘From the tiny, poverty-stricken …’ ibid.

11.
‘I want the play to end …’ Letter quoted by Margaret Walker, op.cit.

12.
‘Houseman doesn’t reveal quite how shat on he was …’ William Alland in an interview with S.C.

13.
‘He is beyond doubt the most courageous, gallant and talented …’ Richard Wright in an interview;
copy in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

14.
‘he had a constant privilege to interrupt …’ From Margaret Walker, op. cit.

15.
‘Orson began to howl at him …’ From John Houseman, op. cit.

16.
‘Think about the impossible strain you have put …’ Telegram in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

17.
‘A free speech, a free press …’
Variety
11 March 1941.

18.
‘As in some grotesque
fable …’
Time
17 March 1941.

19.
‘It is with exceeding regret …’
Newsweek
17 March 1941.

20.
‘How can you copyright an enterprise, a profession …’ Quoted in
Citizen Welles
by Frank Brady.

21.
‘Welles will show the picture …’ ibid.

22.
‘saw your show tonight …’ Telegram in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

23.
‘let me thank you both …’ Telegram in the Lilly Library Welles
Collection.

24.
‘thanks for my big chance, orson …’ Telegram in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

25.

STARK DRAMA STAMPED WITH GENIUS
…’
New York World Telegram
25 March 1941.

26.
‘… it may at times be quite ham …’
New Republic
25 March 1941.

27.
‘It is as if the theatre had been shaken …’ Brooks Atkinson:
New York Times
25 March 1941.

28.
‘Canada Lee has added a figure
of heroic dimensions …’
Theatre Arts Monthly
October 1942.

29.
‘1. Get support of Negro press …’ Mercury Productions memo in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

30.
‘… it was a little shameful …’ Quoted by John Houseman, op. cit.

31.
‘… to illustrate by a series of plays …’ From James Boyd’s introduction to
The Free Company Presents
.

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