In a London registrar’s office on May 8, 1955, Orson Welles wed actress Paola Mori, an Italian aristocrat who co-starred in his film Mr. Arkadin. The marriage would last until Welles’ death 30 years later with Mori dying the following year.
Noted film historian Joseph McBride has uncovered and shared with Wellesnet a detailed celebrity news account of their wedding day, which appeared in Australia’s Women’s Weekly on May 25, 1955. The report on the same day unions of Joan Crawford and Welles were packaged together under the the headline “Two weddings in early morning: Crawford elopes… Orson marries Italian.”
Not surprisingly, there is a little bit of an edge in the writing style and this 1955 account may not be 100 percent accurate. (For example, Peter Brook and Natasha Parry were lifelong friends of the Welleses and it’s doubtful they felt inconvenienced.) What follows is an excerpt of the unbylined story as it appeared in Women’s Weekly:
ORSON WELLES ran true to form by being “difficult”‘ when he married Paola Mori in London, cabled Anne Matheson. He gave only 90 minutes’ notice for the ceremony … and on a Sunday morning.
“The Third Man”‘ got everyone concerned out of bed early on their day of rest for his third marriage. The Caxton Hall registrar who pronounced them man and wife missed his Sunday dinner as well as his Sunday morning golf. He lives in the country and brought his wife to London for the ceremony.
The witnesses, producer Peter Brook and his actress wife, Natasha Parry, who like their Sunday mornings undisturbed — it’s the only day stage people have to themselves — were up and about and on their way to Westminster at an hour not much later than their usual one for retiring.
Earliest riser of the wedding party was Paola. She rang the registrar, William Prince, at his country home just before 7 a.m.
“Please,” she said in her husky voice and accented English, “we want to get married at 8.30. It’s sudden, but can you marry us?”
Prince both could and would.
The 40-year-old bridegroom wore brown tweeds. The bride wore a grey suit.
”This is just how I wanted the wedding,” Welles told the registrar. After that remark he kissed his bride.
Orson and Paola took the maximum precautions against fans and fuss. They slipped in and out a side door, but there were no fans to dodge and only a sprinkling of Press. Giving the slip to fans who were still having a Sunday morning laze seemed to obsess the newlyweds.
As they left the registry office Orson announced, “I must take my darling into the country. The place is a secret.”
They left by car. At Kensington the car stopped and a taxi drew up. Paola jumped out of the car into the taxi and was driven off. Orson was driven away in the car in the opposite direction. That was so no one would guess where they were going for their one-day honeymoon.
Most of these plans were worked out by Mr. Welles but were carried out by Mrs Welles.
When the wedding was announced Paola promised she would organise it for her husband. She did. She organised the whole day, the date, the friends, and the lilies of the valley — favorite wedding flowers of Italian brides—that filled the quiet little room at Caxton Hall.
Mrs. Welles claims she understands her husband. She knows about his being called moody, erratic—a genius, but difficult—and says she knows how to handle such a genius. When she married him she said she would organise him, help him, and understand him.
Paola and Orson claim they understand each other so well that they can sit quietly and perfectly happy together in a restaurant, saying nothing.
“It is contentment, not boredom,” Mrs. Welles says.
Paola says she really loves to act with Orson. She did in his film “Arkadin.” “But I married the man, not the
actor,” she added.
The newlyweds left London for Paris, then went to Perpignan.
“It will not be all honeymoon; I have to work,” said Orson. “I’m preparing a couple of TV programmes. It’s a pity, but Paola will get used to that.”
Paola merely smiled at this.
They met in Rome three years ago and he proposed to her in Madrid last year. They kept the secret until a week before their marriage.
Orson Welles married Rita Hayworth, his second wife, in 1943, and the marriage was dissolved four years later. His first wife was Virginia Nicolson. They were divorced in 1938.
When he married Paola he said, “I take marriage seriously. I’m not happy about divorce. That’s why I’ve kept myself out of marriage until now.”
He is certain this third marriage is going to last.
“She can cope with me and that takes some doing,” he said.
Paola has other plans for making the marriage last.
“I would like a second ceremony in church — maybe in Rome so that my mother could be there to see it,” she said.
Paola, sometimes spell Paoula (you pronounce it pow-a-lah), speaks fluent English. She is tall and very pretty, with luxuriant, dark hair and deep, expressive eyes. She has a little girl way of shrugging and running her fingers through her hair, which ripples round her shoulders.
She doesn’t use her title of Countess di Girfalco, dresses in very casual clothes, rarely, if ever, wears a hat, and is unconventional in many ways, even to not bothering about an engagement ring.
“What matters is the marriage,” she said when announcing her engagement. “Rings can come later.”
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