a question about photos

[Tony]

This is a question about two old albums- Lps- which have rare photos. The first is "The Begatting of the President", put out by Madiarts in 1969. I've always been fascinated by the photos on this Lp. There is a photo of Welles directing Ambersons in 1942, and it's one of my favourite photos of him, but I've never seen it anywhere else.There's also a photo of him on the set of "The Stranger" sitting in the director's chair, and one of him on the set of "Touch of Evil" with Marlene Dietrich, again neither of which I've seen anywhere else. Interestingly, the photos are "...courtesy of Peter Bogdanovich from his forthcoming book, 'This is Orson Welles', to be published by Harper's Magazine Press". Seeing as TIOW did come out under the Harper's imprint (now Harper Collins) in 1992, this has to be the earliest advertising for a book in the history of publishing! (In Joseph McBride's 1972 edition of his welles book, "This is Orson welles" was mentioned as coming out under the Harper and Rowe imprint that year- 1972!). Anyway, those pictures did not come out in the book, and I wonder where they are. Also, it was said at the time that Bogdanovich has a photo of the final shot of Ambersons- the shot of Cotton driving away from the boarding house after visiting Aunt Fanny- but that didn't appear in TIOW either.

Finally, there' another Lp called "Obediently Yours, Orson welles". It features "14th August" and 'King Lear" (both CBS 1945), and was a Mark 56 release in 1980. On the back of that album there is the only picture that I know of of OW and Agnes Moorehead together- and it's a charming, sweet photo. I've never seen it reproduced anywhere else. It makes me sad to see this photo, as I'm reminded that Welles wanted to use Agnes as the FBI agent in "The Stranger", and it's been speculated that he was considering her as Lady Macbeth- I don't know if the latter is true, but what a Lady Macbeth she would have made!

So I'm wondering: does anyone know about these photos? What happened to them, and especially did that photo from the last moments of the Ambersons really exist?

[Roger Ryan]

I'm thinking that since the "final shot" of Welles' original cut of "Ambersons" was probably a matte shot (incorporating live action of the automobiles with a matte painting of city), the alleged still photo would have to be a freeze-frame from the actual film itself, therefore, making it unlikely to exist.

[Glenn Anders]

Tony: In the Da Capo Press Edition of THIS IS ORSON WELLES, there are commentaries by both Boddanovich and Jonathan Rossenbaum about the long and difficult history of the project. It was originally a lark; then, a possible radio series; finally, a projection of the now popular book/recording [CD, today] format. There was a hard cover book early on, but most people agree that the Rossenbaum Da Capa version is superior to the earlier edtion. One of the commentators, Rossenbaum, I think, remarks about the sacrifices which had to made in order to accomplish publication, one of them, a reduction in the number of photos reproduced.

Have I not read recently here of a book of photos on Welles is soon to be published?

Glenn