By RAY KELLY
Another, previously lost Cartrivision home video short directed by and starring Orson Welles has been acquired by his estate in hopes of an eventual commercial re-release.
William Lonergan, a Welles fan and archivist from Pittsburgh, bought American Heritage Vol. 1 – Selections from George Ade, Thomas Wolfe, Mark Twain via an online auction. The early 1970s half-inch videotape features Welles reading from the works of those three writers. Lonergan recently gifted the nearly 22-minute tape and a digitized copy to the estate, which is helmed by the filmmaker’s youngest daughter, Beatrice Welles.
“I just happened to stumble upon that particular eBay auction and thought I would take a gamble since it was a relatively low price,” Lonergan told Wellesnet. “The tape could have been blank or unplayable with mold inside, but neither of those happened. A gamble of $265 – total investment – for what is likely the only known copy of the film in existence.”
Welles and cameraman Gary Graver shot a total of six shorts for Avco Broadcasting’s fledgling Cartrivision line in the late summer of 1970. Work on the shorts commenced on August 31, 1970 at Welles’ rented Beverly Hills home on Lawlen Way, according to Graver’s memoir. The August 31 date puts the shoot just eight days after Welles began filming The Other Side of the Wind.
Cartrivision players and tapes, which predate Sony Betamax and VHS, were sold through retail giant Sears, Roebuck & Co. in 1972. However, dismal sales forced Cartrivision to file for bankruptcy the following year.
In addition to American Heritage Vol. 1, Welles directed, starred and produced five other titles: American Heritage Vol. 2: Clarence Darrow; Ring Lardner’s The Golden Honeymoon; Two Wise Old Men: Socrates and Noah; Oscar Wilde’s The Happy Prince; and a tape comprised of works by G.K. Chesterton and P.G. Wodehouse. The Golden Honeymoon was recovered two decades ago and shown at the Locarno Film Festival in 2005. The Welles estate acquired a copy of Two Wise Old Men: Socrates and Noah in early 2022. The estate also bought a copy of American Heritage Vol. 2 in 2002, but that tape had been erased sometime over the past 50 years.
David Reeder of Reeder Brand Management, which handles licensing deals for the Welles estate, has been shopping Two Wise Old Men: Socrates and Noah, the award-winning Fountain of Youth from 1956, and an unsold 1978 talk show pilot to streamers and home video labels in the U.S. and Europe.
Beatrice Welles said she was very grateful that Lonergan discovered the Cartrivision title and shared it with the estate in hopes it can be made commercially available for all to enjoy.
Wellesnet was afforded an opportunity to screen American Heritage Volume 1. The readings from Ade, Twain and Wolfe are chiefly shot with Welles seated in a comfortable chair and holding a book.
“I wonder does the name George Ade mean anything to you? I like to think it does,” said Welles at the start of the program, noting the playwright and celebrated Chicago newspaper columnist was his godfather.
Welles also claims a personal connection with other authors he features. Welles states at the close of the Cartrivision short that he was fortunate to have met Wolfe, who died in 1938 at the age of 37; and that his father, Richard Head Welles, was an acquaintance of Twain.
The Cartrivision titles, which were marketed as An Evening with Orson Welles, were low budget productions and the camerawork seen so far is no-frills. As Lonergan quipped, this program could have entitled Orson Welles Reads to You Mostly Sitting in a Chair. However, Welles’ performances in American Heritage Vol. 1 are characteristically rich, and as moving as those found in Two Wise Old Men: Socrates and Noah.
Like the other television projects owned by the Welles estate, American Heritage Volume 1 deserves to be seen by Welles aficionados – hopefully as part of a collection of Welles’ work for television.
(Video added 9/22/2024):
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