To celebrate the holiday season, Wellesnet is pleased to present streaming audio of The Mercury Theatre’s 1938 and 1939 productions of Charles Dickens’ classic “A Christmas Carol.” The 1938 broadcast features Orson Welles as Ebenezer Scrooge. The production co-stars Virginia Welles and Joseph Cotten. Welles serves as narrator of the 1939 radio show with Lionel […]
UPDATED ON JAN. 12, 2013: The OSOTW footage has been deleted from vimeo.
Dann Cahn, who worked as an assistant editor on Orson Welles’ 1948 film “Macbeth” and an editorial supervisor eight years later on “Fountain of Youth,” died Wednesday at his California home. Cahn, 89, was the last surviving member of the original creative team behind “I Love Lucy,” according to the Los Angeles Times. He began […]
We are proud to welcome a new addition to Wellesnet: The Orson Welles Family Album. This new web page is a generous sampling of photographs of Welles throughout the years with his three wives: Virginia Nicolson, Rita Hayworth and Paola Mori; his three daughters, Christopher, Rebecca and Beatrice; collaborator-companion Oja Kodar; and assorted friends, lovers […]
The University of Wisconsin – Madison will present Marc Blitzstein’s “The Cradle Will Rock” on November 16 through December 8. The University Theater describes the musical as a “satirical glimpse into ‘Steeltown, USA’ (which) offers a biting critique of corruption, commerce, and humanity’s value in the face of unchecked capitalism – issues that continue to […]
UPDATED: Wonderful news. We have been told by Peggy Daub at the University of Michigan that “The Deep” papers were purchased for the Special Collections Library. U-M is already home to “The Orson Welles – Chris Welles Feder Collection” and the “The Alessandro Tasca di Cutò – Orson Welles Collection.” By RAY KELLY A collection […]
By RAY KELLY Paul Bradbury of the website Total Hvar has been generous in sharing with Wellesnet several rare photographs of Orson Welles filming his unfinished thriller “The Deep” (also known as “Dead Reckoning”). According to Bradbury, the photographs were taken in 1967 on the beautiful Croatian island of Hvar. These black and white photographs […]
By RAY KELLY Kudos to Woodstock, Illinois, officials, who voted to dedicate the stage at the Woodstock Opera House in honor of Orson Welles. The City Council agreed to the measure on Tuesday night. The Woodstock Opera House Advisory Commission recommended the dedication at its October 16 meeting. The vote comes as Woodstock Celebrates readies […]
David Stewart White recently penned a splendid travel feature for The Washington Post on the Third Man Museum in Vienna. The diminutive museum is tucked away on a residential side street in Vienna’s Margareten neighborhood. It boasts some 2,000 artifacts across 13 rooms. The museum is a consuming passion of Gerhard Strassgschwandtner, who is still […]
By RAY KELLY Earlier this year, Wellesnet and Woodstock Celebrates put out the call for a U.S. postage stamp to honor Orson Welles on May 6, 2015, the 100th anniversary of his birth. The stamp would be issued in Woodstock, Illinois, where Welles attended the Todd School for Boys. The stamp would be just part […]
By RAY KELLY “This is Orson Welles, ladies and gentlemen, out of character to assure you that “The War of The Worlds” has no further significance than as the holiday offering it was intended to be. The Mercury Theatre’s own radio version of dressing up in a sheet and jumping out of a bush and […]
From the AT&T Archives comes this six-minute short: retired switchboard operators recall the hysteria surrounding Orson Welles radio dramatization of “The War of the Worlds” on October 30, 1938. (Video introduction runs through 1:20)