Harlan Lebo’s forthcoming book Citizen Kane: A Filmmaker’s Journey is promising to shed more light on the plot by the media mogul William Randolph Hearst to discredit Orson Welles and destroy his landmark film.
Due April 26 from Thomas Dunne Books/ Macmillan Publishing, the book will include previously unpublished documents that reveal the scale of Hearst’s efforts after learning that Welles’ movie included elements based on his life.
Lebo, who has written books about The Godfather, Casablanca, and a coffee-table photo book for Citizen Kane‘s 50th anniversary, told Britain’s The Guardian: “It’s typically been assumed that Hearst probably didn’t know about it and it was probably just his lackeys trying to protect the boss. But it’s clear he knew about it the entire time.”
Welles and RKO Pictures faced extortion, media manipulation and other underhand tactics in a plot that was much darker and began earlier than was previously known, according to Lebo.
The book cites a memo of 1941, in which Welles’ lawyer, Arnold Weissberger, warned his client that Hearst would stop at nothing: “This is not a tempest in a teapot, it will not calm down, and the forces opposed to us are constantly at work.”
Elsewhere, Weissberger warns that “(Hearst) may decide to use all his legal machinery to harass RKO.”
Records show that Welles felt Hearst was not linked to the attacks on him and Citizen Kane, but that his minions wanted “to show the boss that they were on the ball.”
On a lecture tour before Citizen Kane’s release, Welles was warned by a police investigator: “Don’t go back to your hotel. They’ve got a 14-year-old girl in the closet and two photographers waiting for you to come in.” But the director at the time blamed a “hatchet man” from a local Hearst newspaper.
Of Lebo’s book, Kirkus Reviews wrote, “Everything you wanted to know about one of the greatest films of all time — and then some…Extensive quotes from many participants add a real immediacy to the story, and Lebo splendidly chronicles all the drama, infighting, ups and downs, excitement, and genius that went into creating Welles’ masterpiece.”
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