"The Real Rosebud" - she claimed it was named after her

[Oscar Christie]

another bogus claim

[Glenn Anders]

Oscar: Strangely enough, the authors do not close the circle by pointing out Del Rio as the most prominent love of Welles' life in the period of CITIZEN KANE. Nor even more strangely -- I might say interestingly -- they do not connect Rosebud's relationship with Sitting Bull to the fact that the creek near which Colonel George Armstrong Custer died was called The Rosebud.

Now there might have been a reference not so bogus!

You will recall, apropos a movie like CITIZEN KANE, which is full of references to other movies, that Raoul Walsh's THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON, with Errol Flynn as Custer, was one of the most successful movies of 1941.

"The Union forever!"

Thank you for presenting this article for our amusement.

Glenn

[blunted by community]

in the lilly collection there is a letter from another crack pot claiming to be rosebud, and she threatened schaffer with, "and be careful, i can write prose too." i think she was from queens, or bronx, one of those ny places.

when rko lawyer contacted mank to see how he thought up rosebud, he told the lawyer that he was sitting on the toilet when he thought up rosebud.

i have the letter transcribed, it's here somewhere but i don't know where at the moment.

[Christopher]

Is there any truth to the story that "rosebud" was the word Hearst used for Marion Davis's genitalia, that Mank knew this and inserted it into the script as a horrible inside joke? How anyone besides Hearst and Davis would know this has never been clear to me (assuming it was true to begin with). It's hard to imagine Hearst, a very private man, announcing to the assembled guests at San Simeon, "Oh, by the way, do you know what I call Marion's...." This story, which has been infiltrating the Welles literature for decades, is offered as the reason why Hearst was so incensed by CITIZEN KANE and did everything he could to suppress it.

[Glenn Anders]

Mankiewicz's brother said that there was a real sled with the trade name "Rosebud," in their Midwestern childhood, and that's where Herman came up with the idea and the title. To be fair to the new "Rosebud" of this thread, according to the article, she is not quoted as saying she is Welles' direct inspiration. She says, ". . . the sled was named after me." In fact, "Custer's Last Stand," especially after Anhauser-Busch got hold of it, became one of the first pieces of American event/product advertising. There is room for some confusion about how far she wanted to push her claim

Yes, the popular explanation for "rosebud," spread by the simplifiers, who want CITIZEN KANE to be reduced to some petty revenge on William Randolph Hearst, does lay it on Marion Davies. Of course, Mankiewicz might have known the rumored nickname, and Welles could have learned it from Charles Lederer (nephew of the "breezy Marion"), who had married Welles first wife.

Finally, "Rosebud" was just a common term of endearment in "the breezy 20's and 30's."

Glenn