What Ever Happened to - - - Joseph McBride's new Welles Bio?

[Johnny Dale]

What Ever Happened to Orson Welles?:
A Portrait of an Independent Career-
by Joseph McBride
ISBN: 0060012714
Publisher: Ecco

...Also, if possible, Jeff,
could you reprint the link to order this bio from Amazon through Wellesnet?

If we want to order more than one book aftet clicking the link,
does each purchase in that transaction help support Wellesnet,
or does Wellesnet only benefit from our purchase of the designated book from the Wellesnet link?

In other words, can we help Wellesnet
if we make all our amazon purchases
by first linking through this site.

[Wilson]

Sure, this is the link: McBride book I don't think it has been released yet, though. And as far as Amazon, anything you order gets credit for the site as long as whatever you order is ordered from your clickthrough from Wellesnet. In other words, you can't visit later on your own and order and have them count.

[Gordon]

Can't wait for McBride's new book.

His essays on John Ford (written with Michael Wilmington) and his recent Ford bio are worth reading again.

Also his little picture book on Welles as an actor is a gem, and his book of essays on Welles' films as a director is great.

I bet the new Welles book will be the definitive bio. To get an idea of McBride's great ability as a biographer, compare his wonderful book, "Searching for John Ford", with another Ford bio, "Print the Legend" that appeared the same year.

[Wilson]

From what I've gathered, this isn't a full bio, but focuses more on Welles' final period, thus the title. But very little info has been forthcoming about the book, so I can't say for sure.

[Johnny Dale]

Jeff,

could you also please (re?)print the links for:


Medium And The Magician: Orson Welles, The Radio Years, 1934-1952 (Critical Media Studies)
by Paul Heyer
ISBN: 0742537978
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (January 30, 2005)


Despite The System: Orson Welles Versus The Hollywood Studios
by Clinton Heylin
ISBN: 1556525478
Publisher: Chicago Review Press (February 28, 2005)


Walking Shadows: Orson Welles, William Randolph Hearst, and Citizen Kane
by John Evangelist Walsh
ISBN: 0299205002
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press (December 22, 2004)



Here's a list of orson Welles titles from amazon:


amazon welles list

[Wilson]

I can post them here a little later when I have time, but all the links are still on the News page; just scroll down and look for the appropriate title or cover image.

[Wilson]

In the interests of keeping all the comments about the recent and upcoming books on Welles in one place, here are my thoughts on the John Evangelist Walsh Kane and Hearst book. I have a copy of the Heylin book, which I will post some thoughts on once I get through it. Bogdanovich fairly raves about it on the back cover. Let's hope it lives up to that.

Walking Shadows: OW, WR Hearst and Citizen Kane, is a book that I can’t recommend to anyone who already has a reasonable knowledge of Welles. The book purports to prove that it was Hearst himself who was personally behind the attacks on Welles in the time leading up to and immediately after the release of Kane. Which, let’s face it, is not something I would imagine many of us have a hard time believing. But what author John Evangelist Walsh fails to do is provide any real “smoking gun” type evidence. Everything is circumstantial at best, and simple assumptions of guilt at worst.

He does make some interesting points on occasion; for example, the story commonly bandied about in descriptions of Kane’s reception at the 1942 Oscars is one of outright hostility by the gathered audience, but Walsh notes that no source is given for this story, and no description of it exists in the contemporary stories about the ceremony. But by the same token, his assumption that Hearst was behind Welles and Kane being denied Oscar glory is only that, as he himself admits: “Full proof of Hearst’s part in the ultimate defeat of Orson Welles is likely beyond retrieving. But where a man of Hearst’s savage reputation is concerned…in some things for some minds it isn’t needed.” It isn’t? Okay then!

In the final section, Walsh discusses Dorothy Comingore’s sad fall from starring in Kane to her eventual arrest for solicitation in 1953 and subsequent disappearance from public life until her death in 1971. Walsh posits that it was Hearst’s hand behind her downfall, but again only has suppositions and Hearst’s vengeful nature as evidence. “Whether Hearst had any link to the sad chronicle of Dorothy Commingore’s [sic] fall cannot at the moment be said. Given his known ruthlessness in his journalistic pursuits, however, and his savage way of exacting revenge, that possibility cannot be brushed aside.” But Walsh fails to follow up on at least two leads that might have helped his case in this regard. He mentions Ruth Warrick’s autobiography, which makes brief mention of Comingore’s claims of “injustice” done to her, but apparently didn’t contact Warrick to ask if she knew any further information about it. Walsh also mentions that Comingore had two children, and they might have been a good source to look into as well.

Walsh summarizes with this, in describing Welles’ difficulties in Hollywood after Kane and before Hearst’s death: “During the ten years that Hearst lived after the Citizen Kane affair, no evidence shows him as continuing to harass or target Welles. Nor has anyone yet thought to suggest, even offhandedly, any such sustained vendetta…Whether those ten troublesome, less than triumphant years [for Welles] were solely a result of Welles’ own shortcomings or of bad luck, or might have been to some extent a result of Hearst’s secret manipulation, must for now remain an open question.” I’m still trying to decide which is crazier – this, or the “Welles as Black Dahlia murderer” theory. Walsh suggests at one point that hard proof might come to light when sealed papers of Hearst’s are eventually opened, but he gives no indication as to what these papers are or why they would contain evidence proving Hearst’s involvement.

In the end, it comes to this: I’ve always assumed that Hearst had some role in what went down in the battle over the release of Kane. Does anyone think he didn’t? But the extent and nature of that involvement is going to remain unknown until we get some kind of real proof, and saying that “it would be just like Hearst to have done this” doesn’t count.

[Harvey Chartrand]

From Turner Classic Movies Essentials:

The cast of Citizen Kane enjoyed a close camaraderie with director Orson Welles and with each other, with the exception of Dorothy Comingore (Susan Alexander Kane). Welles treated her with contempt on the set, while showing only courtesy to Ruth Warrick, who played the first Mrs. Kane. Warrick objected to the shabby treatment that was obvious to everyone on the set. But Welles explained, "I treat her that way because she's got to hate my guts when we get to the later scenes. When she yells and screams and finally walks out on me, I want her to feel every bit of it in her bones." Warrick argued that an actress does not have to suffer real abuse in order to show those emotions. But Welles said, "That's just the point. She is not an actress. She is Susan Alexander, and she'll probably end up just like the woman she's playing. I'm not mistreating her. I treat her exactly as she expects to be treated. She wouldn't respect anything else." Comingore's subsequent life played out like a bad melodrama. Her film career after Citizen Kane came to a grinding halt when she was blacklisted in 1951 for her affiliation with known Communist Party members. Her final film was The Big Night (1951), directed by Joseph Losey (also blacklisted). Her personal life was also rocky. A few years after the release of Citizen Kane, her marriage failed. Once her ex-husband won custody of their children, Comingore became an alcoholic and frequented nightspots, telling willing patrons her tales of woe. It was later reported that she was arrested for solicitation on Hollywood Boulevard. Her sad life came to an end in 1971.


Poor Dorothy Comingore ended up just like Susan Alexander Kane – broke, lonely and a self-pitying drunkard, although she "sang for her supper" in a different way. She was only 58 years old when she passed on.

And yes, John Evangelist Walsh lacks a fundamental virtue of a good writer – curiosity. I would have made every effort to contact Ruth Warrick and Dorothy Comingore's children to find out why her life turned in on itself. It's a subject of intense fascination to me.

If I may boast, I once interviewed actor Christopher Jones, whose own downfall was equally mystifying, for a story that appeared in Outré Magazine in 2001. Jones went from A-list star in 1970 (Ryan's Daughter) to homeless person and (some say) male prostitute by 1973. I just had to find out why Jones allowed himself to go downhill like that. So I tracked him down (which wasn't easy) and he agreed to an e-mail interview. By 1999, Jones had bounced back and was working as a professional artist. (He even did a cameo in TRIGGER HAPPY.) The complete truth about Jones's downward spiral in the 70s and 80s was never revealed, but at least I went straight to the source and got some great quotes from him. Too bad Walsh didn't avail himself of the opportunity to get the lowdown on what really happened to Dorothy Comingore.

[Wilson]

The upcoming book on Welles' radio career, The Medium and the Magician, has some sample pages online, for those who want to take a look. It is only the frontmatter and introduction, but some may wish to check them out. Looks promising, based on the intro, at least. Just click on the Sample Pages link.

[url=http://www.rowmanlittlefield.com/Catalog/Singlebook.shtml?command=Search&db=^DB/CATALOG.db&eqSKUdata=0742537978]Radio Book Sample[/url]

[Wilson]

A fairly scathing review of David Thomson's latest book, which is a history of Hollywood:

The Whole Equation

[mteal]

Thanks for the Medium and Magician link, Jeff. It looks like a good book, but it also looks like a short book, so I'll have to check it out first, to make sure it's worth $30. I was particularly struck by the fact that Marshall McCluhan had a fascination with Welles. The Wellesian influence keeps on bringing more interesting revelations all the time.

[Wilson]

Yeah, that was my main concern with the radio book, that is appears to be fairly short; I was hoping for something that covered all of Welles' radio work in some detail, and maybe this does, but we'll see before long. I have a connection that is getting me a copy, so I will let everyone know what's in it soon as I can.

[Glenn Anders]

Excellent references, Jeff. The book on Welles' radio reminds me of our Radio Project. What happened to it?

[I know, I know, it was only you, me, and two other guys who bothered to listen to the first shows and comment upon them.]

At last, I found my copy of Rosenbaum's edition of This is Orson Welles, and reading through that splendid chronology of Welles' life and career again, I found more and more references to radio shows and appearances on radio. There must be over a hundred hours of his stuff, maybe two hundred, if it were all collected.

Reminds me, there was an article in yesterday's SF Chronicle "Home Section" about a gal who won a shopping spree on Ebay and bought second hand furniture. Anyway she was identified as Maerian Morris, daughter of Michael Barrier (Lt. Desalle of STAR TREK), also the grand daughter of Edgar Barrier, "science fiction nut and actor," and Ernestine Ernestine, "a Hollywood actress and travelling woman." Edgar Barrier was identifed as having appeared in "Around the World in Eighty Days," but I think the feature writer thought it was Mike Todd's movie, rather than Welles' Mercury Theater on the Air radio version. At least, Halliwell does not list the movie as one Barrier appeared in.

The review of Thomson's new book does make it look strange. I've expressed the view before that David Thomson is a disappointed lover of movies. For him, the movies have been so personal that the deaths of his heroes and heroines have left him melancholy about them and what they left behind.

It may well be that his interesting novels, in which movies take on a historical reality, are his best work.

You would be pleased to know, perhaps, that Thomson interviewed from the stage of San Francisco's Castro Theater, Sunday, Bruno Ganz, star of the new German drama of Hitler's last days, DOWNFALL (Der Untergang). Ganz was not an easy interviewee. Guarded about his personal life, and possibly nervous about the DOWNFALL's American reception (record breaker in Europe, not scheduled for release yet here), he gave Thomson quite a time.

Glenn