The past 12 months have been a rewarding time for Orson Welles’ fans.
Sure, a completed The Other Side of the Wind is still a dream and no one has discovered Welles’ cut of The Magnificent Ambersons, but there was much to celebrate.
• First, there was the discovery of silent footage intended for use in the 1938 stage production of Too Much Johnson. Believed lost for decades, it was discovered in an Italian warehouse and restored by George Eastman Co. The footage was shown in Italy and the United States in October.
• Welles’ radio career drew renewed interest in October with the 75th anniversary of The War of the Worlds broadcast. There were tributes on stage, radio, television and the Internet.
• His voice rang out in two revealing books: Todd Tarbox’s Orson Welles and Roger Hill: A Friendship in Three Acts and My Lunches with Orson: Conversations between Orson Welles and Henry Jaglom, edited by Peter Biskind. Both were based on recorded conversations from the early 1980s.
• Home video fans were treated to quality Blu-ray releases of The Stranger from Kino Classics and Jane Eyre from Twilight Time. Word surfaced that Blu-ray releases in the U.S. of The Lady from Shanghai and Touch of Evil are planned in 2014.
• A semi-staged version of the seldom-seen Around the World by Welles and Cole Porter was performed as a fund-raiser off-Broadway in December after a run in London. You can read the Wellesnet review by Seth Alexander Thévoz here.
• Early in the year, the Orson Welles Stage was dedicated at the Woodstock Opera House in Illinois. Woodstock Celebrates Inc. will host a celebration in May 2014 to mark the 80th anniversary of the Todd Theater Festival. The non-profit group also plans a gala in May 2015 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Welles’ birth. Learn more about the celebrations at our Welles in Woodstock page.
• With all of these Wellesian goings-on, it is not surprising Wellesnet.com witnessed a dramatic growth in audience in 2013. In November, a record 24,443 different tablets, laptops, smartphones and PCs visited the website. Other records were set this month when 213,173 page views and 497,076 hits were tallied.
• Sadly, 2013 also marked the passing of several Welles associates: Jane Eyre co-star Joan Fontaine; Louise Curry, who had an unbilled role as a reporter in Citizen Kane; Valentin de Vargas, who played Pancho in Touch of Evil; Jess Franco, who oversaw a despised restoration of Don Quixote; Dann Cahn, who worked on Fountain of Youth and Macbeth; Richard Collins, an uncredited scriptwriter on Journey Into Fear; The Lady in the Ice composer Jean-Michel Damase; Amparo Rivelles, who appeared in the Spanish version of Mr. Arkadin; and Elliott Reid, an early member of the Mercury Theatre (Cinna in Caesar) and the Mercury Theatre on the Air (Cousin George in Seventeen).
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