Orson Welles’ personal manuscripts for Citizen Kane, including three screenplays, sold for more than $102,000 at auction on September 29.
Radio talk show host Glenn Beck revealed he bought Welles’ personal typed manuscript “original story and screenplay by Herman J. Mankiewicz” and a 49-page CBS-issued transcript of the 1938 Mercury Theatre radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds.
“We just won at auction Orson Welles personal script for Citizen Kane and his copy of the rushed transcript from CBS of War of the Worlds. Both from his personal collection,” Beck posted on Facebook. “One tells the story not just of Hollywood and the most important film of the 20th Century but also of the most powerful man on earth (“Kane” / W. R.Hurst [sic]) and how they controlled media and shaped truth to his liking. The other is the script that woke the world up to the power of the media and also how gullible Americans can be if it is produced correctly as most only half listen.”
Collector Keith Burns, a former NBC News editor and son-in-law of RKO Pictures assistant director Samuel Ruman, told Wellesnet he decided to sell off some of his Welles-related treasures, including the Kane scripts, through Profiles in History.
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