Peter: I'm glad you are here to learn, and that you believe in the Socratic method. So do most of us, I hope.

The problem with your response is that you appear to learn nothing from the "evidence" presented. And as far as I can see, while ignoring rather than refuting what I write, you never bother to ask a single QUESTION yourself. You confine yourself to assertions about how irrelevant are the arguments "he" presents.

So much for coming to "learn." [Or even using the simpler devices of logic.] So much for "The Socratic Method."

I'm afraid, Peter, that you have turned into a personal attack on "he," a discussion full of allusions to Todd School for Boys which Welles makes toward the setting of THE STRANGER, and to the susceptibility of even small American towns like Woodstock, Il, or Harper, Conn, to harbor unknown Nazis.

Why should he and/or his collaborators set the story in New England rather than the Midwest? How should we know? Perhaps because Welles in this period tended to center his attention on the East and New England, as in those concepts which were so universally revered then in his patriotic radio shows: "The Founding Fathers" of American Democracy, the "Home of the American Revolution," etc. In 1945, it might have seemed to Welles and his collaborators that Harper, Connecticutt, had more symbolic juice; and that it would be easier for an escaped war criminal to get into New England -- with its many Nazi connections, as we now know from the biography of Senator Prescott Bush -- rather than journey by train (a couple of days), plane (difficult in wartime), or bus (uncomfortable), nearly a 1000 miles to Chicago environs.

[The producers had already nixed a circuitous route through South America, such as Welles would have taken in IT'S ALL TRUE.]

The Nazi saboteurs who landed from U-boats on the East Coast in 1942, basis of the present Bush Administration detention laws, were daunted when they came ashore by difficulties getting around the sheer confusing size of America, and so were apprehended, despite the incompetence of the FBI. Franz Kindler's pilgrimage would have been even more complicated.

Certainly, setting the story in New England would have helped take care of one of your own objections to THE STRANGER, the presence of a Supreme Court Justice in a little American town. Imagine how incongruous it would have been back then, when relatively few Americans before the War had ventured beyond their city limits, that a Supreme Court Justice would be commuting from Washington to, say, some little town south of Chicago.

And so ignoring hypothetical connections between THE SEEKERS and "fart jokes in PORKY'S II," or invidious comparisons of Pauline Kael with Fox News, "he" must simply plead to have presented insights to substantiate an evidentiary relationship of Todd School to Harper, Conn, in THE STRANGER. You, Peter, call my presentation "condescending," "irrelevant," and you pound away at "the question of Harper being THEMATICALLY linked to Todd" without a single explication of your contrary argument. [I may infer, I guess, that there must be a one for one match, or a thematic element can't be established.]

"I have enunciated my opposition; ergo, my thesis (whatever it is) must be gospel!"

Peter, I get the impression that, whatever you do, you are not used to being rebutted.

A pity.

I'm certainly glad that you "never object to being proven wrong."

Practice makes perfect.

Glenn

Here's the latest news on saving Todd School's Grace Hall. Now that Beatrice Welles has sold her Oscar to Dax for $850,000. maybe she has enough money to start a fund to establish the Orson Welles museum she has frequently talked about. It appears Grace Hall would be the perfect place for such a museum.

____________________


DECISION ON EXPANSION OF WOODSTOCK SENIOR DEVELOPMENT POSTPONED

By TIM KANE


WOODSTOCK – City Council members on Tuesday postponed a vote on the proposed expansion of a 55-and-older housing development along Route 47 to give the developer more time to rethink the demolition of historic Grace Hall.

Dozens of residents came out to voice concerns about what would become of Grace Hall dormitory on the old Todd School Campus. Todd School was a school for privileged young men, the place where Orson Welles went to school from the ages of 9 to 16.

Terrence P. Egan, CEO of Woodstock Christian Life Services, said Grace Hall was up for sale. The asking price is $1. He wanted to clear the property to make room for 13 more units of senior housing.

But he did abide by the wishes of Mayor Brian Sager and members of the City Council, who wanted Egan give some thought to what could be done to preserve Grace Hall.

The vote on the expansion senior housing was postponed indefinitely.

Mark Gummerson, Egan’s attorney, said Egan would meet with residents who were concerned about the demolition and other setback issues. But he added that saving Grace Hall from the wrecking ball was a slim chance.

“It’ll cost $750,000 just to bring it up to minimum standards,” Gummerson said. “The project [the Woodstock Christian Life Services expansion] is the lifeline of this entity.”

Kathleen Spaltro, a Woodstock resident, told the City Council members that Welles was recognized internationally and that Woodstock should turn Grace Hall into a museum for Woodstock’s most famous former residents, including Welles and Chester Gould, creator of the comic strip “Dick Tracy.”

Spaltro suggested that the city get in contact with Welles’ daughter, Beatrice Welles, and run the idea of a museum past her.

“[Grace Hall] is a unique and irreplaceable artifact,” Spaltro said. “We would like to see Todd School designated as a landmark.”

Very heartening news.

Congratulations to you Todd, Larry, and Jeff, among other Wellesnetters, and the good people of Woodstock, Il, for holding up the demolition of Grace Hall.

The article is quite informative. [I had not known (or forgotten) that Chester Gould went to Todd School.]

My take is that the developer just wants the land. If someone offers to undertake moving the building to a cow pasture, he would be for it.

It also occurs to me that if Wellesnetters contacted the production company of ME AND ORSON WELLES, there might be a great PR tie-in for getting American distribution of the production. Linklater's picture about a young fellow (based on Arthur Anderson, I suppose) being mentored by Orson Welles, as Skipper Hill had mentored him, is set in the New York of 1937, when Welles was staging his "modern dress" Julius Caesar. The picture actually was shot in the old Gaiety Theater on Isle of Man as a way of helping preserve that landmark. What better American Heartland connection than to hold a premier in or near the town of Woodstock, as part of a fund to save Grace Hall, where Welles himself learned so much about theater?

You get the idea.

There are new pictures, videos, and reviews of the film from the Toronto Film Festival at the IMDb:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1175506/

I gather there are people who like the film, and others who think it misses an opportunity. There is also a passionate group of the young for Zac Efron, and critics who think he is simply a pretty boy, going through the motions.

Almost all seem to agree that Christian McKay is a force of theatrical nature as Orson Welles.

Glenn

Wonderful idea Glenn!

Now if it could only actually happen... maybe the combined power of Roger Ebert and Jonathan Rosenbaum could actually bring the premiere to the Chicago area...
_______

Richard Linklatter presents

The U.S. Premiere of
ME AND ORSON WELLES

To be held at the Historic Woodstock Opera House

Where Orson Welles debuted his first repertory theater (before the Mercury) in the summer of 1934!

To you great people at WellesNet:

Chester Gould did not attend Todd but was a resident of Woodstock. The third world-class figure associated with Woodstock is Eugene V. Debs, jailed here for his role in the Pullman Strike. A Woodstock museum (in Grace Hall?) could showcase Welles, Gould, and Debs.

Your support has been invaluable and heartening. It certainly has helped our local efforts to slow demolition.

Kathleen Spaltro

She now has a web site, though one imagines she might not respond to anything not sent through her lawyers:

http://beatricewelles.com/

Thanks, Jeff. I sent an email just now to her via the address posted on her website.

Kathy

Now that the Woodstock City Council has tabled (just for now) consideration of the special-use permit that would allow Woodstock Christian Life Services to build on the land vacated by demolishing Grace Hall, our focus shifts to the application for landmark status for the building. The Historic Preservation Commission hearing that considers this application occurs on 6 October. Please keep attending to developments. Your emails to the Mayor and City Council were and remain crucial. Thank you.

Kathleen Spaltro

Just saw these comments from IL residents on the net of the proposed demolition of Grace Hall. Reminds me of the current mess on Wall Street, and Erich Von Stroheim's film, that was also cut cut to ribbons: GREED.

I wonder, can the Mayor and City council be recalled by the voters of Woodstock if they let this sacrilege happen?


____


It's a beautiful building.

The current owners are ONLY interested in PROFIT. I've seen the way they run their assisted living, retirement and nursing homes and believe me, they do NOT know how to manage people or properties.


--Carpentersville, IL

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This is another article about developer's greed.
I truly hope this building is not demolished. It is a beautiful landmark.

--Palatine, IL

Today's Woodstock Independent (p. 3) notes that Woodstock Christian Life Services is resubmitting its proposal (including the demolition of Grace Hall) for consideration by City Council on Tuesday, 7 October, following the Monday, 6 October, consideration by the Historic Preservation Commission of the application by Caryl (Roskie) Lemanski for landmark status for Grace Hall. Both meetings occur at City Hall at 7 p.m. Please keep your eye on this issue.

Last night, the Woodstock City Council unanimously approved the special-use permit requested by Woodstock Christian Life Services, including the portion that would necessitate the demolition of Grace Hall. However, the City Council attached two conditions to this approval. One requires WCLS to work in good faith with those concerned with saving Grace Hall to explore alternatives to demolition. There must be firm evidence of a developed alternative in seven months' time, by the 2nd City Council meeting in April 2009.

So now we must work together to generate ideas, leads, and funds.

I saw and see this as a shared problem amenable only to solutions arrived at by our working together in a congenial way with WCLS.

We greatly appreciate the help that WellesNet members have already given us by emailing the Mayor and City Council and by writing letters to the local newspaper, the "Woodstock Independent." I hope to structure some online network of concerned persons in and outside Woodstock in order to generate ideas, leads, and funds. When I do so, if you would participate, you will only add to my store of gratitude to you.

Kathleen:

Thanks for the update. It's too bad more of Welles friends aren't around to give a helping hand. For instance I just came across this quote from film composer Bernard Herrman, which seems very appropriate to the situation:


Music is a beautiful art – if not the greatest of all arts. It's the kind of beauty that lives in time and space, and in each performance over and over again...

Some people have got to preserve the beauty of the past. It's important to preserve the past, because you can't have a present and a future if you have no past.

Bernard Herrmann, 1970

Thanks, Todd, for your thoughts and support.

Kathy

This is just a reminder that the Woodstock Historic Preservation Commission will convene to hear Caryl Roskie Lemanski's petition for local landmark status on Monday, 10 November, at City Hall at 7 p.m. I understand that local landmark status gives more protection to a structure than either Illinois or federal landmark status.

Good news today from the NORTHWEST HERALD... Now will the Woodstock City Council members agree? Let's hope so!!

______________________________


FIRST HURDLE CLEARED FOR GRACE HALL'S LANDMARK STATUS
Woodstock City Council to make decision at meeting in April

By TIM KANE

WOODSTOCK – The city's Historic Preservation Commission this week unanimously recommended landmark status for a "Prairie"-style brick building that once served as a classroom and dormitory for legendary filmmaker Orson Welles.

Whether Grace Hall – on the former campus of Todd School for Boys – will be designated a landmark will be decided by the City Council in April, city officials said.

If the City Council bestows landmark status upon Grace Hall, it would mean that the property's owner, Woodstock Christian Life Services, would need the Historic Preservation Commission's permission to make any major changes to the exterior of the building, including demolishing it.

City Council members last month granted the expansion of Hearthstone Senior Living Community with the understanding that a moratorium be placed on the razing of Grace Hall, which sits near the intersection of Routes 47 and 120.

Woodstock Christian Life Services wants to expand its senior-living campus and plans to put senior housing on the 1-acre lot where Grace Hall now stands. The building is used for office space by Woodstock Christian Life Services.

A preservation group – led by Woodstock resident Caryl Lemanski – wants to preserve the building, perhaps turning it into a museum. Lemanski said she would like to keep Grace Hall where it is, perhaps retrofitting the building to make it accessible to the handicapped.

"You shouldn't move the building," Lemanski said. "It defeats the historical purpose."

Nancy Baker, Woodstock's city planner, said that thus far she had found only a few grant opportunities for Grace Hall through the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.

"Grant money I found, only a few thousand dollars, would be for planning, not capital projects," Baker said.

Moving Grace Hall and retrofitting it to make it handicap-accessible would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, officials with Christian Life told the city.