Welles / Hemingway

[jaime marzol]

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i was always curious about the welles, hemingway connection. I've always read they had an edgy relationship. Somewhere else I read that in cuba, to a room of people, selznick, peter viretel, when hemingway was asked why he didn't let welles finish narration on hemingway's documentary, said, “when welles said 'infantry' he sounded like a cock sucker swallowing”.

Now I'm reading in in the lilian ross portrait on hemingway, about hemingway being nuts about deitrich.

then i saw deithrich in a documentary say she was nuts about welles but welles never looked at her twice because she was a blonde.

Is it possible that this led to hemingway stopping welles from doing narration on his documentary?

Has any one read anything else on this?

Or with the relationship with welles and toland.

At first all I had read was welles saying that he didn't find out what toland was like till later on. Then I read somewhere that ford's crew of guys had berated welles for not serving in WW2. so I had imagined that this was what welles was referring to, but it wasn't. in later released parts of that interview, welles said that he went to mexico scouting locations with toland, and off the set, toland was a real swinger. Has any one read anything on this?

[Dave]

This from Welles'interview with Cahiers in '65.
"My relationship with Heminway has always been very droll. The first time we met was when I had been called to read the narrartion for a film that he and Joris Ivens had made about the war in spain; it was called Spanish Earth. Arriving, I came upon Heminway, who was in the process of drinking a bottle of whiskey; I had been handed a set of lines that were too long, dull, had nothing to do with his style, which is always so concise and so economical. There were lines as pompous and complicated as this: 'Here are the faces of men who are close to death",'and this was to be read at a moment when one saw faces on the screen that were so much more eloquent. I said to him, 'Mr. Hemingway, it would be better if one saw the faces all alone, without commentary.'
this didn't please him at all, and since I had, a short time before, just directed the Mercury Theatre, which was a sort of avant-garde theatre, he thought I was some kind of faggot and said, "You---effeminate boys of the theatre, what do you know about real war?"
Taking the bull by the horns, I began to make effeminate gestures and I said to him, "Mister Hemingway, how strong you are and big you are!" That enraged him and he picked up a chair; I picked up another, and right there, in front of the images of the Spanish Civil War as they marched across the screen, we had a terrible scuffle. It was something marvelous: two guys like us in front of theses images representing people in the act of struggling and dying... we ended by giving each other accolades and drinking a bottle of whiskey. We spent our lives having long periods of friendship and others during which we barely spoke. I have never been able to avoid gently making fun of him, and this no one ever did- everyone treated him with the greatest respect."

I would love too have been there, but I doubt it ever happened. I certainly have never read any other account of this event. Besides, wasn't Orson more into throwing Hot Plates, than swinging theatre chairs? Still says much about his feeelings for Heminway, though.

[jaime marzol]

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dave, thanks for reply

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"You---effeminate boys of the theatre, what do you know about real war?"

oh, my, this is too funny. sounds just like hemingway

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this cashiers thing you posted is the most i've seen written about it.

[Jaime N. Christley]

That's the funniest thing I've read all week. Who cares if it isn't true!

[jaime marzol]

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i found a lot of things that i though were just stories, were really true.

when welles said he had written part of hawk's I WAS A MALE WAR BRIDE, my friend, a hawks fan, laughed and said it was total BS. a few years later while looking through the lilly library welles holdings, guess what turned up? welles draft of I WAS A MALE WAR BRIDE.

equally, in the welles BBC sory when welles said that while he was at universal making TOUCH OF EVIL, the head of the studio kept coming to him, telling him he was doing great stuff, wanting him to sign long contracts, my hawks fan friend said that was BS. then i found the book, KING OF THE B's, and word for word albert zugsmith confims what welles said.

i do think welles' houdini stories were just stories. welles was friends with buster keaton, and keaton as a kid traveled in the same show as houdini. no doubt welles heard keaton's houdini stories.

i beleive welles' story about hemingway because other people's stories about hemingway have the same flavor as welles' story.

there is a great story in peter viertel book when he introduced hemingway to huston, they got drunk, became competative, and were stopped from a fist fight.

i tried to scan it to post it here, but the crummy paper it's printed on even stumped omni-page pro, impossible to post.

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