Read Orson Welles, Vol I Online

Authors: Simon Callow

Orson Welles, Vol I (110 page)

48.
‘Personally we were grateful to our investors …’ and ff. From John Houseman, op. cit.

49.
‘the high-livers were killing me …’ Hiram
Sherman quoted by Andrea Nouryeh, op. cit.

50.
‘The pace had become so wild …’ From John Houseman, op. cit.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
Theatre of the Air

1.
‘… limp and huge in a darkened room …’ and ff. From
Run-Through
by John Houseman.

2.
‘What can management do to encourage …’ Quoted in
On a Note of Triumph
by R. LeRoy Bannerman.

3.
‘Orson Welles, the twenty-three-year-old actor-director
…’
New York Times
12 June 1938.

4.
‘The less a radio drama resembles a play …’
Radio Annual 1939
.

5.
‘There is no place where ideas are as purely expressed as on the radio …’
Lecture Notes on Acting
at the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

6.
‘… avoiding the cut-and-dried dramatic technique …’
Newsweek
11 July 1938.

7.
‘He seemed to assume I would be working with him …’ and ff.
From John Houseman, op. cit.

8.
‘Welles’ specific contribution was putting it over …’ An interview at NYU.

9.
‘Orson in his usual way heard it
and said …’ Paul Stewart quoted in
Positif
, edited by François Thomas, translated by S.C.

10.
‘At first Orson tried to produce the Mercury …’ ibid.

11.
‘There was absolute chaos …’ ibid.

12.
‘Tottering to the microphone …’
New York Times
1 July 1938.

13.
‘All come out of a little affair …’ From
Too Much Johnson
by William Gillette.

14.
‘Would you prefer the slow sit or the fast sit, Mr Welles?’ Quoted in
Citizen Welles
by Frank Brady.

15.
‘A sequence in Cuba …’ From
This is Orson Welles
by Peter Bogdanovich.

16.
‘… laughing at his own footage …’ From John Houseman, op. cit.

17.
‘Orson opened the script and
said …’ Quoted in
The Mercury Theatre
, unpublished thesis by Andrea Nouryeh.

18.
‘… the play and the film were too surreal for the audience …’ Quoted by Frank Brady, op. cit.

19.
‘… one of our best things, but aborted …’ From Peter Bogdanovich, op. cit.

20.
‘… he retired into his air-conditioned tent at the St Regis …’ and ff. From John Houseman, op. cit.

21.
‘I’d like you to meet
Jim Hawkins …’ Transcribed from the
Mercury Theatre on the Air
broadcast of
Treasure Island
.

22.
‘It struck us as a brilliant notion …’ From John Houseman, op. cit.

23.
‘I doubt if any stage …’
Commonweal
4 January 1928.

24.
‘The impression of a tremendous plenitude and variety of life …’ From
Reinhardt and his Stage
by Heinz Herald, translated by J. L. Styan.

25.
‘… a treacherous
system of gaping holes …’ From Andrea Nouryeh, op. cit.

26.
‘… had that awed and childlike respect …’ From John Houseman, op. cit.

27.
‘Mister Soldier, handsome soldier …’ Quoted in
Mark the Music
by Eric A. Gordon.

28.
‘… backstage at the Mercury …’ Quoted in
Drama was a Weapon
by Morgan Himelstein.

29.

ACTORS OFTEN “LIVE“ IN THE THEATRE
…’
New York Herald Tribune
23 October
1938.

30.
‘We pre-empted all the masks in New York that year …’ Richard Barr in his unpublished memoirs.

31.
‘… a steely-gray, vicious, as though …’ From The
Theatre of Orson Welles
by Richard France.

32.
‘I kept saying, “it’s going to look like a lot of pebbles …”’ Howard Teichmann in an interview with NYU.

33.
‘Orson yelled out for some lights …’ Quoted by Andrea Nouryeh, op.
cit.

34.
‘… with instructions from Houseman …’ From Howard Koch’s introduction to
The Panic Broadcast
.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
War of the Worlds/Danton’s Death

1.
‘Radio was full at that time of remote programs …’ Eric Barnouw in an interview with NYU.

2.
‘All during rehearsals Orson railed at the text …’ Richard Barr in his unpublished memoirs.

3.
‘Awakening many listeners to the
swift …’ From
On a Note of Triumph
by LeRoy Bannerman.

4.
‘You really had the feeling that the world …’ Eric Barnouw in an interview with NYU.

5.
‘We know now that in the early years …’ and ff. From the script of
The War of the Worlds
by Howard Koch from the novel by H. G. Wells.

6.
‘I’m sorry, we don’t have that information here …’ Quoted in the introduction by Howard Koch to
The
Panic Broadcast
.

7.
‘Everyone ran to get their coats …’ Letter to
New York Daily News
magazine 30 October 1938.

8.
‘Whose farm I knew was in the destruction path …’ ibid.

9.
‘… no further significance than the holiday …’ Transcribed from the
Mercury Theatre on the Air
broadcast of
The War of the Worlds
.

10.
‘Someone had called threatening to blow up the CBS building …’ Richard
Barr in his unpublished memoirs.

11.
‘… young Mr Welles, a student of Shakespeare …’
New York World Telegram
1 November 1938.

12.
‘… one of the most fascinating and important events …’
New York Herald Tribune
2 November 1938.

13.
‘The most terrifying thing …’ and ff. Alva Johnston and Fred Smith, ‘How to Raise a Child’,
Saturday Evening Post
3 February 1940.

14.
‘America today
hardly knows …’ London
Times
1 November 1938.

15.

HE’S A LAD
…’ London
Daily Express
1 November 1938.

16.
‘He has had a career …’ London
Star
1 November 1938.

17.
‘… by his energetic direction …’ London
Evening News
1 November 1938.

18.
‘He said he was sorry …’ From John Houseman, op. cit.

19.

LEFT ON BROADWAY
…’
Daily Worker
20 October 1938.

20.
‘Welles stumbled and
stumbled …’ William Alland in an interview with S.C.

21.
‘… living one hour and a little more …’
Brooklyn Eagle
6 November 1938.

22.
‘… overwhelming and a worthy successor …’
New York Times
3 November 1938.

23.
‘It is too arty, too self-conscious …’
New York Post
5 November 1938.

24.
‘Its only purpose …’
New York World Telegram
3 November 1938.

25.
‘… it may be electrically
…’ George Jean Nathan:
Newsweek
14 November 1938.

26.
‘O
RSON
W
ELLES DOES
B
ÜCHNER’S
D
ANTON’S DEATH
…’ Arthur Pollock:
Brooklyn Eagle-Examiner
6 November 1938.

27.
‘Every movement is made as if it were artistically precious …’
New York Herald Tribune
3 November 1938.

28.
‘It is done with great deliberation …’
New York Daily News
3 November 1938.

29.
‘Incoherent and handsomely fatuous
…’
New Republic
30 November 1938.

30.
‘… that baleful voice …’
New York Times
7 November 1938.

31.
‘… he had trouble with the English language …’ and ff.
New Yorker
12 November 1938.

32.
‘Welles is at heart a magician …’ From John Houseman, op. cit.

33.
‘After twenty-one performances we threw in the sponge …’ ibid.

34.
‘… co-operative in every sense of the word …’
New York
World Telegram
29 April 1939.

35.
‘… an enterprise the Press was sincerely fond of …’ From
The Fervent Years
by Harold Clurman.

36.
‘I guess they figured if we could sell …’ From John Houseman, op. cit.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
The Campbell Playhouse/Five Kings

1.
‘I am here to introduce the white hope of the American stage …’ and ff. Transcribed from
Campbell Playhouse
’s broadcast
of
Rebecca
.

2.
‘The situation of Orson becoming a great national figure …’ From
Run-Through
by John Houseman.

3.
‘The performance of Shakespeare’s historical plays …’ ibid.

4.
‘Some of the plays of Shakespeare have been lost to the living theatre …’
New York Times
24 April 1939.

5.
‘I allowed Orson to use the theatre not only as an instrument …’ Letter quoted in
Virgil Thomson
by Virgil Thomson.

6.
‘Any bum can get a crack at …’ From
This is Orson Welles
by Peter Bogdanovich.

7.
‘… a part which Orson regarded …’ From John Houseman, op. cit.

8.
‘That subdued muttering you hear …’
New York Herald Tribune
26 March 1939.

9.
‘I was introduced to a young lady …’ From
The Magic Curtain
by Lawrence Langner.

10.
‘… much to the annoyance of Burgess Meredith
…’ From Richard Barr’s unpublished memoirs

11.
‘Those vaguely based on truth …’ From John Houseman, op. cit.

12.
‘inordinately willing to suspend their disbelief …’ From
Orson Welles on Shakespeare
by Richard France.

13.
‘Having demonstrated his superiority as an artist …’ and ff. From John Houseman, op. cit.

14.
‘Welles, looking like a large moon-faced boy …’ Joseph Hardy in a
letter to S.C.

15.
‘… having achieved his real objective …’ From John Houseman, op. cit.

16.
‘… his prologue ultimately over …’ and ff. From Lawrence Langner, op. cit.

17.
‘Not until Mr Welles, still wearing the flesh of Falstaff …’
New York Times
5 March 1939.

18.

FIVE KINGS EXCITING
…’ Peggy Doyle:
Boston Evening American
28 February 1939.

19.
‘There are moments when mannerisms
intrude …’
Christian Science Monitor
28 February 1939.

20.
‘To this courier, just back from Agincourt …’ John K. Hutchens:
Boston Evening Transcript
28 February 1939.

21.
‘Orson Welles has bitten off a big hunk …’
Variety
22 March 1939.

22.
‘Like OI’ Man River …’
New York Times
5 March 1939.

23.
‘What might have been a tour de force …’
Time
13 March 1939.

24.
‘Not only are
certain members of the
Five Kings
company …’
Washington Daily News
14 March 1939.

25.
‘The occasion consisted of a lot of …’
Philadelphia Daily News
21 March 1939.

26.
‘… only a gigantic Shakespeare vaudeville …’
Philadelphia Evening Bulletin
21 March 1939.

27.
‘… its weakness appears to be …’
Philadelphia Record
21 March 1939.

28.
‘To compare Orson Welles’ Falstaff to Mr Evans’s
…’ Linton Martin,
Philadelphia Inquirer
21 March 1939.

29.
‘The reports from the road …’
New York Herald Tribune
26 March 1939.

30.
‘Orson had a kind of No Man’s Land …’ Martin Gabel in an interview
with NYU, 1985.

31.
‘It fell on its face not through any difficulties …’ Quoted in Virgil Thomson, op. cit.

32.
‘… all of us on the production staff …’ From
The Magic of Light
by Jean
Rosenthal.

33.
‘I will play him as a tragic figure …’ Quoted in an interview with
Christian Science Monitor
17 February 1939.

34.
‘The closer I thought I was getting to Falstaff …’ From Peter Bogdanovich, op. cit.

35.
‘… comic symbol for the supernatural order of Charity …’ From ‘The Prince’s Dog’ in
The Dyer’s Hand
by W. H. Auden.

36.
‘… the death song of the drunkard …’ ibid.

37.
‘… the drunkard is unlovely to look at …’ ibid.

38.
‘Still, Welles would not accept defeat …’ From John Houseman, op. cit.

39.
‘Fatigue, humiliation, mutual reproaches …’ and ff. Quoted in Virgil Thomson, op. cit.

40.
‘I don’t know if I care very much …’ and ff. From
The Green Goddess
by William Archer.

41.
‘… with three rooms and bathrooms …’ From
Orson Welles
by Barbara
Leaming.

42.
‘The theatre has lost its narrative style …’ From
Lecture Notes on Acting
, Lilly Library Welles Collection.

43.
‘O
RSON
W
ELLES GIVING
M
ETRO THE PIX CHILL

Variety
29 December 1939.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:
Hollywood/Heart of Darkness

1.
‘Who’s this Welles?’ and ff. From ‘Pat Hobby and Orson Welles’,
Esquire
May 1940.

2.

LITTLE
O
RSON
A
NNIE
’ Gene Lockhart. Quoted in
Orson Welles
by Roy Alexander Fowler.

3.
‘a full contingent …’ From
Run-Through
by John Houseman.

4.
‘Orson does not think of his income …’ Letter in the Lilly Library Welles Collection.

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