By RAY KELLY
An assistant to Orson Welles during The Other Side of the Wind years is putting a remarkable collection of screenplays and personal mementos up for auction.
Terry Putz is selling the scripts and items through Heritage Auctions of Dallas as part of its online Hollywood Entertainment Signature Auction #7433, which runs through December 10, 2025.
“I worked as Orson’s assistant for four years in the 1970s while he was working to complete The Other Side of the Wind,” Putz said. “When he returned to Europe for an extended period, he gave me a number of personal and professional items. I have kept them for about 50 years, and I feel it is the right time to make them available to Welles scholars and enthusiasts.”
The items on the auction block include:
• “First cutting draft” script for The Other Side of the Wind dated September 9, 1974 with handwritten notes. (“The lot includes two folders of pages removed from the script, featuring his handwritten notes and edits. As I typed new pages, the old ones were replaced — providing a rare look at Orson’s evolving approach to the film.”) The lot also includes a March 19, 1976 letter by Welles referencing Filming Othello.
• Group of unpublished manuscripts including Crazy Weather, The Honorary Consul, Somebody Else, Arizona Story and Blind Window and an unfinished screenplay by Oja Kodar with Welles edits and annotations. (“The collection includes five manuscripts credited to Oja Kodar though she and Orson collaborated closely on them. Due to Oja’s limited English at the time, Orson dictated or typed much of the material.”)
• Personal cigar box, sunglasses, and more than a dozen various personal effects. (“Heritage has grouped additional items with it: A pair of eyeglass frames, a small notebook with his contact phone numbers, a note to me reminding me to pick up a shirt from Acuna, one of his tailors, a letter containing revisions related to a proposed Turkish bath scene for a film Franco Zeffirelli had asked Orson to be in, and a tiny camera Orson discretely used during dinners — long before smartphones existed.’)
• Notes on Welles magic routines and proposed monologues for TV appearances, including The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Several pages are typewritten, others mimeographed, and several containing Welles’ handwritten annotations and editing notations.
• Button up shirt worn by Welles. (It is described as “burnt sienna polyblend long-sleeved button-up shirt made by Anto Beverly Hills.”)
Putz called the Welles and Kodar authored scripts and his personal items a “remarkable and historically significant collection that offers insight into Orson’s creative process,” adding that Welles enthusiasts would “find the collection both meaningful and significant.”
The starting bid for most items is $500 with Heritage Auctions starting the action at $1,000 for The Other Side of the Wind script. Auction information and bidding details may be found at entertainment.ha.com/c/auction-home.zx?saleNo=7433
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