A 118-foot long mural honoring Orson Welles and other hometown heroes from Woodstock, Illinois, will be feted an opening night gala on September 29 along the Main Street Pedway.
The mural, now in its final stages, was conceived by former Woodstock City Councilman RB Thompson, designed by local designer Michael Stanard, and painted by noted Rockford muralist Mark Adamany. At 15 feet in height, the colorful mural runs along the pedway adjacent to Classic Cinemas Woodstock Theatre.
A community-supported effort paid for the cost of the mural, which is the first phase of a project that will also include a bronze statue of Welles. The campaign received money from 70 individuals, businesses and the McHenry County Community Foundation.
Artist Bobby Joe Scribner of Woodstock is donating the sculpture.
During a May 2015 meeting with Welles’ longtime companion, Oja Kodar, Scribner said she noted noted with disbelief that there was no statue of the late filmmaker in his native country.
“When I told her that I would do a sculpture of him she said, ‘You should do it’,” Scribner recalled. “Those were the last words she spoke to me. I have no reason to think she would remember, but I would like her to know that I kept my word.”
About $5,000 for the final bronzing and siting in the Sculpture Garden next to the mural with on-site recognition is still needed.
Tax deductible contributions may be made to Friends of the Opera House / Mural Fund; BMO Harris Bank; 225 West Jackson Street; Woodstock, Illinois 60098.
Those wishing to donate toward the statue can find more details at woodstockmural.org/support
The mural features four of Woodstock’s cultural legends: Welles, Dick Tracy creator Chester Gould, the 1993 movie Groundhog Day; and stars of the Woodstock Opera House. Gould lived in Woodstock during the final 50 years of his life and is buried there. The romantic comedy Groundhog Day with Bill Murray was filmed in Woodstock and the Opera House is a local landmark with a rich history.
The mural panel depicting Welles features a late 1930s Welles at a CBS radio microphone next to a War of the Worlds poster. It also features artwork from his landmark movie Citizen Kane.
Welles was educated at the Todd School for Boys in Woodstock from 1926 to 1931. In 1934, he co-directed his first film, an eight-minute short “The Hearts of Age,” in Woodstock, organized the Todd Theatre Festival there and published Everybody’s Shakespeare on Todd Press. He visited the Illinois campus in the years that followed. His eldest daughter, Chris Welles Feder, attended Todd in the late 1940s.
Although born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Welles expressed a deep fondness for Woodstock. “I have lots of homes … I suppose its Woodstock, Illinois, if it’s anywhere. I went to school there for four years, and if I think of home, it’s there.”
In an October 1945 Los Angeles Times interview uncovered by biographer Simon Callow, Welles spoke to Hedda Hopper about his desire to return to Todd School in Woodstock. “My real interest in life is education. I want to be a teacher … One day I shall leave all this behind me, go back there, and give full rein to my ideas. That’s when life will really begin for me.”
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