Article in Film Journal

[Flint]

Hey All-
There's a new Film Journal Orson Welles article linked on the "They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?" website. Appologies if this has been previously posted.

http://www.thefilmjournal.com/issue9/magic.html

-Flint

[mteal]

Good article, Flint- thanks for the link. Mike Caveny's anecdotes are entertaining, and that bit about the "two Alberts" is hilarious. I wonder if the tape of that particular Merv Griffin show still exists. They should get a collection of all of Welles' appearances on talk shows and make some kind of program out of it. I think that could be great, not only for the conversations, but for the magic tricks as well. Obviously Welles's skills as a magician were not always up to the tasks he set for himself, but the screw-ups might be as entertaining to watch as the ones that worked.

Also, it's sad to think that Welles wanted something as simple as to order pizza and shoot the bull with his magician friends, but that they were too intimidated to follow up on it. Caveney describes his regrets about this rather eloquently.

Looks like Peter Tonguette might have a nice little series going here, this being the second after last year's Jim Stienmeyer interview. I wonder if he's planning to interview any of Welles' other magic associates. Maybe Abb Dickson next?

[Peter Tonguette]

Hi all,

Well, this is cool - I log into the site and find my Mike Caveney interview being discussed! Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I, too, found Mike's comments to be very eloquent and insightful. And how about that photo of Mike and Welles that Mike's wife took?

As a matter of fact, mteal, a lengthy interview I conducted with Abb Dickson was just published. I link to it below.

http://www.sensesofcinema.com/content....ns.html

I have another oral history in the works containing the memories of several other magician friends/associates of Welles's. He found real companionship in these gentlemen, as well as a mutual love for an art form Welles adored since childhood.

Cheers,

Peter

[marcoshark]

Peter,
What a great read!! I also want to add my 2 cents for more!! I really wish the existing footage was available for viewing. From what little I have seen, it looked like it was allot of fun.

Marc

[mteal]

Agreed, it's another entertaining and illuminating article. I've seen the Munich museum's abreviated assembly of THE MAGIC SHOW, and frankly, it had me scratching my head a bit, but your interview with Dickson makes more clear what Welles' intentions would have been. Very interesting that for the completed version of the film Welles would have included scenes from some of his old movies where he played a magician- there were quite a few of them. Here's hoping Munich can get a more complete version done sometime. I'd also like to see that TV special ORSON WELLES AT THE MAGIC CASTLE if it's available anywhere.

What you're doing is great. As you say in the Caveney article, few of the many people whose lives Welles touched are being interviewed by anybody. Thinking of the Robert Arden thread, it's great that R. Kadin is interviewing Arden's widow, but isn't it a shame that it can't be Arden himself.

BTW, for anyone interested, here's a synopsis of an excellent Genii magazine article from Feb. 2000 called ORSON WELLES THE MAGICIAN, from the old tierranet board.

http://web.archive.org/web....61.html

[GM]

I thought I heard somewhere that there's alot of never-used footage of Welles's Mercury Wonder Show from the WWII years. Putting all this Welles magic footage together from all the different sources, along with anecdotes of the type found in Peter Tonguette's interviews, would make a great documentary.