FDR Eulogy on CBS Radio

[garycurtis]

On April 19, 1945 (possibly April 20, 1945)` Orson Welles was in the CBS studios doing his own show when the world learned that Franklin D. Roosevelt had died. In view of his close connection to the President, and considering his towering radio presence, CBS asked Mr. Welles to write and deliver a Eulogy for broadcast that day. It was reported that close to 100 million listeners heard that address.

I have been knocking my brains out trying to find the text. It is among his collected papers at Indiana University, but they will not release a transcript because of copywrite issue.

Does anyone here on the forum have that text, or know of anything in print which contains it?

Gary Curtis
160 Miles North of San Francisco

[NoFake]

Hi, Gary. I don't know for sure --- and I haven't looked far --- but it may be in this book: http://www.bluelips.com/pd_euologiesout.cfm

In any event, there's a Welles eulogy in here. (The fact that it's out of print may make it hard to come by. But libraries may have it.)

[garycurtis]

No Fake,

Another book of eulogies is currently in print and being sold by Amazon. It is not the eulogy for OW I seek. But one written and delivered on CBS Radio BY Orson Welles on the occassion of Roosevelt's death.

I know that the text is among the collected papers of OW and now archived at the Indiana University. But the Welles estate has a copyright on those documents, and so the hide-bound librarians won't make a Xerox of it or put in electronic form to send over the Internet.

I just don't know where else that might be printed. You have to remember that, at the time, Radio was king of the media. But it was always done 'on the cheap'. Maybe some Radio Museum might have such an archive, but they too would be stuck by that copyright issue.

Where does one find a friend in Indiana when you need one????? Or in Cleveland, for that matter???

Thanks,
Gary
160 miles North of San Francisco in the Redwood Forest

[Night Listener]

Gary, The date isn't quite right (and FDR died on April 12) but could it possibly be this radio program:

From www.radiogoldindex.com:

This Is My Best. April 17, 1945. CBS net. "I Will Not Go Back". Sponsored by: Cresta Blanca Wine. A program dedicated to "an American president who has fallen in battle." The writing is highly dramatic, but the imagery is hard to follow. Orson Welles (producer, performer, narrator), Milton Geiger (writer), Joan Lorring, Bernard Katz (composer, conductor), Verne Smith (announcer), Whit Burnett (? co-producer). 29:48. Audio condition: Very good. Complete.

You can listen to or download it here: http://www.archive.org/details/ThisIsMyBest

[garycurtis]

You hit it on the nail. Yest it was April 112, 1945. The title of the radio address -- -I Will Not Go Back --- is cited in that two-part English bio of Welles by Simon Callow. But the text isn't included.

I pursue this matter because I am a fan of FDR. I even have a 48-star U.S. flag.

Thank you so much. My wife just retired from Warner Brothers Studio. They are a bit unique in that they posted small plaques outside each sound stage listing the classic films shot in each particular building. Casablanca was filmed on Stage 12.

My wife's department --- Costume -- has still shots on the wall and real costumes in glass cases throughout the building. Captain Blood's pirate suit, etc. But on the whole, the studios are fixated on youth, and thus ignore their history. They know who their paying customers are.

Thanks you so much for your response.

Gary Curtis

[Night Listener]

Gary,

My pleasure, I'm glad I could assist.

You might also be interested in some of the other treasures at archive.org, like FDR's fireside chats (http://www.archive.org/details/fdrfiresidechat) and some of the tributes broadcast after his death (http://www.archive.org/details/FDRMemorialRadioPrograms). There may be other stuff of interest over there too.

[Jeff Wilson]

It hadn't even occurred to me that this was the program you were looking for; you should know, if you haven't already downloaded it, that this isn't a strict eulogy, but a dramatic monologue about mankind "not giving up" through the ages. It's quite odd in relation to the rest of Welles' work. I'm trying to recall if FDR is even mentioned by name. My impression upon listening to it was that if you went in not knowing the context, you might not have any idea it was intended as a tribute to FDR.

[Glenn Anders]

Jeff: Only because someone more knowledgeable than I has not jumped in here, let me report that Welles does mention President Franklin D. Roosevelt in "I Will Not Go Back." After the This Is My Best announcer notes that the production is a departure from the show's dramatizations of "the World's great stories," Welles tells his audience that the program [written by Milton Geiger] is dedicated to a President "who fell in the midst of battle last week," to the future of freedom he envisaged, and to the President who has taken over. He quotes at some length President Roosevelt's "last letter" to him from several weeks before, that "April will be a critical month in the History of Human Freedom," for 50 nations of the World will be meeting in San Francisco to form what would become the United Nations. They are coming together at the end of the month, April 25, 1945.

And that's why Welles is narrating a kind of semi-biblical History of Man, which leads from the primordial ooze to, presumably, the rostrum of San Francisco's Civic Center, where as we know, Welles would be observing the events of the formation of the United Nations as an accredited correspondent.

The title of the program, like several others in the series, leaves the browser without much clue as to what it is about. It might easily have been missed, had not Night Listener uncovered it.

I was struck, listening to the show, I think for the first time, how magical and important those Welles' narrated programs always seemed. As a boy, on the floor of my home in Northeastern Ohio, I was carried away.

Even the commercial didn't bother me that much.

All the way from sunny California: "C-R-E-S-T-A -- B-L-A-N-C-A: Cresta . . . Blanca -- CRESTA BLANCA." Bringing us the United Nations and other good things.

Though I didn't know what wine was, and my family never bought the product, the best Radio series, "the really good stuff," as some would say later, were often sponsored by Cresta Blanca or Roma Wines (Suspense!).

It seems a long time ago.

At least, I suppose, the United Nations, or at least the wine, kept us from slipping back into the "primordial ooze" we are now in again, for a few more decades.

Glenn

[Jeff Wilson]

Thanks, Glenn, it's been quite a while since I listened to it. On the subject of eulogies to FDR, I did find a listing in the American Radio Archives and Museum for a eulogy script dated the next day, so unless this is the same show misdated, there may be an actual eulogy out there. They don't copy scripts, of course, at that library. They are in Thousand Oaks, CA, though, so they're a bit closer for Gary if he chooses to go down there than Indiana.

[garycurtis]

NightListener, Glen and others, I posted this notice after I heard about this forum on -- I think -- the Internet Movie Database. Or perhaps that Welles Archive at Indiana University referred me in their email.

The Eulogy is mentioned in Simon Callow's two-volume book on Welles. That's were I learned of it. He wrote that it was a Eulogy. The pertinent text from his book was posted on the Internet. At the Amazon.com webpage, I think. Barbara Leaming's book on O.W. also mentions it.

I guess Callow the writer is the same person as S. Callow the actor. Four Weddings and a Funeral, Shakespeare in Love, etc. Does anybody know?

I've had feet in these various domains, and know the scale of effort needed to write about people like O.W. The man himself is a new interest. I'm a retired writer. I grew up in Hollywood, am married for 36 years to a career studio employee. Welles has traits common to exceptionally creative people. How does a biographer condense the bristling intelligence down so that the narrative doesn't sound like 18 different people trapped in one body? The sheer energy, and the ease at carrying off unbelievable feats!

Comparing my reading of bios about Hollywood luminaries, and then meeting the subjects often reveals weakness in the writing at fully depicting character. Character shows up best in a good script. Or a novel.

If the community of Los Angeles were ever to give the resources for a Hollywood Museum, then there might really be something worth researching and visiting. Until then, I'll cruise through this website,
Thank you all for your help and advice.

Gary Curtis

[Glenn Anders]

Yes, Gary, many of us will be familiar with Actor/Director/Scholar Simon Callow's works on Orson Welles (and Charles Laughton). In fact, I wrote a review of his Hello Americans (wherein you found the reference to Welles' tribute to FDR):

http://www.epinions.com/content_270770867844

As a matter of fact, according to Callow, there were three eulogies. [Earlier, I was lazily going with the flow of the comments here.] All were written and delivered upon the CBS Radio Network, the first of which came on the night of the announcement of FDR's death (April 12, 1945 -- ironically, just two days before the anniversary of Lincoln's Assassination). It covers our domestic grief, and begins: "Today another servant of the Lord . . . " The second eulogy, more expansive and carefully wrought, came the next evening, April 13, 1945, and that one starts: "Something is on its way from Georgia . . . " And finally, nearly two weeks later, Welles presented his most comprehensive tribute (with the assistance of Milton Geiger), a special production on his This Is My Best series. That's the one we've been discussing, and it contains a quotation from FDR's last letter to Welles, about how important April 1945 will be in World History because the founders of the United Nations will be meeting in San Francisco.

In all three of these efforts, Welles evidently built upon personal correspondence and memories he had of the President. These expressions on Radio were among literally dozens given by familiar voices (such as Basil Rathbone) that the Networks carried in the latter part of April, and there is evidence that Welles also delivered variations of his speeches at number of forums on the East Coast.

Just where you would find the actual texts of these works is hard to say. They appear hidden on the Internet, and no doubt, Jeff Wilson's advice that you try to get over to the American Radio Archives and Museum in Thousand Oaks, Ca., would be the way to find the full text or texts, if available. Meanwhile, it would appear that the actual recording of "I Will Not Go Back" is an example of This Is [Our] Best, here at Wellesnet.

I hope that you will continue to utilize wellesnet.com, and to contribute posts. It sounds as if you and your wife have had an interesting life in Hollywood, with many insights and writings of possible interest to us.

You will find, I think, that we have a wealth ideas, facts and opinions concerning Orson Welles. Some of us feel that he could do no wrong, and others discern some pernicious mythology evident in his career. The board can become contentious, and Founder Jeff Wilson has to send us to the corner, at times.

Orson Welles was, as Marlene Dietrich said of Hank Quinlan in TOUCH OF EVIL: ". . . some kind of man."

A critic on the PBS News Hour this evening quoted that line in a summing up of the late Norman Mailer.

The beat of Welles' influence continues!

Glenn