America's latest incarnation of Father Coughlin, Glenn Beck, is a fan of Welles it seems. From a CNN/Time Magazine article on Beck:


Whether Welles would be flattered or horrified we can only imagine.

GAD! Night Man, you've struck us a body blow.

Still, looking at Glenn Beck in all his pudgy, awkward glory on TV, and listening later to his accomplished radio persona, it is easy to understand his affinity for Orson Welles. If there ever was role for a twisted, hidden brother of Welles a la THE BIG BRASS RING, our latest demagogue might well win the part. Even in his intros, which invoke the history of classic radio, the connection is made. Stephen King is quoted as calling Beck, "Satan's mentally challenged younger brother."

[I think Welles would like that bit.]

And of course, Beck's own brother committed suicide, as did his mother (when he was thirteen).

Fortunately, except as a sad reflection on how hero worship may go astray, I think we should allow Mr. Beck to self-distruct, all by himself, and hopefully before he does too much more damage.

Glenn [no relation, except through deviousness and paranoia]

Ah-h-h . . . Peter . . . .

The Night Man has provides you with additional grist for your scholarly Chinese Welles Mill!

I found another kernel, written by Susan Rodman, about my young friend and protegee (of sorts), Nellie McKay, in the Boston Globe, September 30, 2007:

". . . In addition to her early mentors, [Nellie] McKay drew inspiration from her run last year in the Broadway revival of "The Threepenny Opera," in which she costarred alongside Alan Cumming and Cyndi Lauper. The experience figured into her new album [Obligatory Villagers] on the biting song "Galleon," the disc's only real rocker, which makes the backstage portion of the show sound less than ideal: "Beware of dreams come true/ It means you have to share a room," she coos. Still, McKay claims the show had a positive impact on the album and her life.

"That Weimar sound, it's like 'Citizen Kane'; it's still setting the bar to which I aspire," she says. And on a personal level, she adds, "I think I've secured friendships for life whose entire basis was bitching about our experience on 'The Threepenny Opera.' ". . . .

May you find the reference helpful, positive, and much more sincere and honest than Glenn Beck's misuse of Orson Welles' fabled memory.

Glenn

From TIME profile of Glenn Beck: "In June, estimators at Forbes magazine pegged Beck's earnings over the previous 12 months at $23 million, a ballpark figure confirmed by knowledgeable sources, and this year's revenues are on track to be higher. The largest share comes from his radio show, which is heard by more than 8 million listeners on nearly 400 stations — one of the five biggest radio audiences in the country. Beck is one of only a handful of blockbuster authors who have reached No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller lists with both nonfiction and fiction."

That's not a bad track record for a supposed teary-eyed half-wit. Glenn Beck is living the American Dream. If Beck were into filmmaking, he could self-finance his own directorial efforts, unlike Welles, who had less business acumen and depended on the kindness of strangers.

Harvey,

"No one in this world, so far as I know, - and I have employed agents to help me - has ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people." - H.L. Mencken

Welles's error was overestimating it. He thought too well of his fellow human beings.

Yes, Orson was a very generous man and thought only the best things about the audiences he hoped to reach.

Like the man of La Mancha, he dreamed "the impossible dream" - but what a legacy he left!

I've never taken Beck for a half-wit. He seems more like a clever demagogue to me, a calculating fear-peddler exploiting people's uncertainty in a time of great change. Here's more from the CNN/Time article that touches on his self-awareness:


The fact that Beck openly acknowledges Howard Beale as an inspiration suggests to me that he knows exactly what he's doing.


I agree. Considering Welles essentially ruined his American radio career by challenging his audience rather than pandering to them, I think he would be appalled by Beck.

Orson Welles' political evolution saw the youthful anti-fascist morph into a middle-aged conservative who embraced Spanish strongman Generalissimo Francisco Franco for sheltering Spain from corrupting modernity. In the 1970s, Welles seemed favorably disposed towards the Shah of Iran, whom he may have viewed as a stabilizing force in a volatile region. As death approached, Welles was increasingly preoccupied by apocalyptic visions. (Rewriting his narration for the 1981 documentary The Man Who Saw Tomorrow, Welles - and not Nostradamus - predicted 9/11 and the War on Terror.)

In his old age, Welles might have agreed with the opinions and sentiments expressed in this terrifying vision of where our civilization is headed… written by novelist Dan Simmons in 2006 – click on http://www.dansimmons.com/news/message/2006_04.htm

If Glenn Beck is visiting this site, he should take the time to read Simmons’ lengthy message. Beck’s messianic worldview is in synch with Simmons’ grim prophecies for the near future.

I recently saw Dr. Keith Ablow (whose credentials I'd already begun to question) on Dreck's program, telling Gwen that he was being persecuted "just like the great religious leaders - just like Jesus!"

Not the sort of thing you tell someone with a messiah complex.

I live in Australia so while I do keep an eye on American politics, it is the 800 pound gorilla, I've no clue about the punditoids. But the other day I did for the first time see Beck in this clip. I don't think David Lynch could come up with some as equally juvenile and surreal as that.

Anyway people like Beck exploit very real feelings in America. For a lot of people the past 30+ years, going back to Nixon dismantling Bretton Woods, has been pretty bad. Wages declining and stagnating-when they can get a job, extreme concentrations of wealth at the top, roll back of what social support services there were, etc.
For them everythings a mess, broken down, society crumbling from their perspective - and how can this be? They've been brought up as a white working class expecting to be the privileged. They've been decent hard working god fearing Americans so how can it be all this is happening to them?
But being a highly atomized society people aren't in community groups or unions where they might find solidarity so what they instead tend to turn to, since people don't simply give up, to find answers tends to be the church or cults and conspiracy theories and talk back radio and cable news explaining what the 'real' source of their problem is.
Which is everything but the powerful corporations and their policies - "politics is the shadow cast over society by big business". They're taught to support those policies and oppose whatever might put some breaks on it.
By now they're so warped they're actively against their own best interests, just ask them what they think about universal healthcare or progressive taxation or public transportation.

--

Where is Beatrice Welles when we need her?

Shouldn't she be demanding that Glenn Beck, as Richard France notes, stop all of his references to Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater on his idiotic right-wing radio shows?

Interesting piece on Beck in this week's BOSTON PHOENIX: http://thephoenix.com/Boston/News/91016 ... TOPCONTENT