Welles at U Mich
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Alan Brody
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François Thomas
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Le Chiffre
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Index of the UM Welles/Kodar archive
FROM WELLESNET FACEBOOK:
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN special collections library of ORSON WELLES PAPERS has listed some of the fabulous treasures in their vault.
Welles scholars can now check out this Finding Aid compiled by Sally Vermaaten, which lists the incredible contents of the 27 boxes of material in the Oja Kodar collection.
The next time anyone asks the foolish question "What was Orson Welles doing for the last ten years of his life," just point them to this link! The material on THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND alone is quite staggering:
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/s/sclead/umic ... iew%3Dtext
Meanwhile, Catherine Benamou has posted a "Portfolio of Graphics" from the collection, which also includes papers from Richard Wilson.
(Link to be added shortly...)
It also appears that the Univ. of Michigan has purchased the Welles material on CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT that was recently up for auction, so unless Simon Callow has had prior access to all of this material, most of which has not been available to previous Welles biographers, I imagine Volume Three of Callow's Magnum Opus on Welles will be delayed for some time, so he can have a chance to look at and digest all this new material.
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN special collections library of ORSON WELLES PAPERS has listed some of the fabulous treasures in their vault.
Welles scholars can now check out this Finding Aid compiled by Sally Vermaaten, which lists the incredible contents of the 27 boxes of material in the Oja Kodar collection.
The next time anyone asks the foolish question "What was Orson Welles doing for the last ten years of his life," just point them to this link! The material on THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND alone is quite staggering:
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/s/sclead/umic ... iew%3Dtext
Meanwhile, Catherine Benamou has posted a "Portfolio of Graphics" from the collection, which also includes papers from Richard Wilson.
(Link to be added shortly...)
It also appears that the Univ. of Michigan has purchased the Welles material on CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT that was recently up for auction, so unless Simon Callow has had prior access to all of this material, most of which has not been available to previous Welles biographers, I imagine Volume Three of Callow's Magnum Opus on Welles will be delayed for some time, so he can have a chance to look at and digest all this new material.
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RayKelly
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Re: Index of the UM Welles/Kodar archive
http://www.annarbor.com/entertainment/u ... FmyyqAehK0
From annarbor.com on Sept. 18, 2012:
U-M's Orson Welles archive gets new additions
A substantial international collection of archives on filmmaker, actor, director and writer Orson Welles is now available to the public and researchers at the Special Collections Library of the University of Michigan, and the collection just grew a bit larger, thanks to two new, significant additions.
The additional material includes information about different periods of Welles' career, from his youth to the end of his life, while the previously held materials include detailed work for his unfinished projects—including "It's All True," a documentary fictional film about Mexico and Brazil, which he worked on in the early 1940s, the university said in a press release.
Catalogued and kept in protective boxes, the collection totals nearly 100 linear feet, including thousands of documents, letters, telegrams, scripts, production and financial statements, photographs, illustrations and audiovisual materials.
"The different versions of scripts with his handwritten notes and sketches in the margins show different stages of his creative process," Peggy Daub, curator and outreach librarian at the Special Collections Library, said in a press release.
Among the new items of personal interest donated by Welles' eldest daughter, Chris Welles Feder, are private photographs of Welles as a child and letters to his first wife, Virginia Nicholson, which coincided with the beginning of his career, as well as materials related to the 1949 film "Macbeth," in which Welles Feder played a role.
Other vital additions to the Welles archive come from Alessandro Tasca di Cuto, purchased at an auction in London. Tasca was a producer and longtime friend of Welles. Artifacts include materials related to two films especially important for Welles, "Chimes at Midnight" (1965, also known as "Falstaff"), filmed in Spain, and Don Quixote (1955-73, unfinished), filmed in Mexico, Italy and Spain. In many letters, notes and memos, the Tasca collection illuminates Welles' day-to-day concerns as a filmmaker.
These collections supplement two other Welles collections, the "Orson Welles-Oja Kodar Collection" and the "Richard Wilson-Orson Welles Collection," both acquired in 2004-05 and available to researchers for several years.
Of particular interest to researchers is the archival documentation on Welles' cinematographic mission to Brazil and Mexico, where his initial intention was to portray true stories of Latin American cultural life and society during World War II as part of a U.S. "Good Neighbor" propaganda film.
Welles went beyond reproducing the cliches of popular culture and simple perceptions of the Rio Carnival. Instead, he showed an incisive and revealing look at Brazilian society, including the historic journey of raftsmen, or jangadeiros, to Rio from the Northeast. The film was ultimately rejected by RKO studio management and the Brazilian government's Department of Press and Propaganda.
Also included in the archive are photographs, screenplays and other documents from Welles' major films produced in Hollywood, Mexico, North Africa and Europe from the late 1940s to the early 1970s, screenplays for works-in-progress, as well as materials pertaining to his Mercury theatrical productions in the U.S. and Europe.
Former U-M professor Catherine Benamou, author of "It's All True: Orson Welles' Pan-American Odyssey" who now teaches at the University of California-Irvine, propelled the acquisition of the first special collections of Welles through connections with his family and close collaborators.
The Special Collections Library at the University of Michigan holds internationally renowned collections of books, serials, ancient and modern manuscripts, posters, playbills, photographs and original artwork. It is home to some of the most historically significant treasures at U-M and is open to the public. Collections do not circulate; material is retrieved upon request for use in a reading room. A listing of holdings in the Orson Welles collections can be accessed at http://www.lib.umich.edu/special-collections-library
From annarbor.com on Sept. 18, 2012:
U-M's Orson Welles archive gets new additions
A substantial international collection of archives on filmmaker, actor, director and writer Orson Welles is now available to the public and researchers at the Special Collections Library of the University of Michigan, and the collection just grew a bit larger, thanks to two new, significant additions.
The additional material includes information about different periods of Welles' career, from his youth to the end of his life, while the previously held materials include detailed work for his unfinished projects—including "It's All True," a documentary fictional film about Mexico and Brazil, which he worked on in the early 1940s, the university said in a press release.
Catalogued and kept in protective boxes, the collection totals nearly 100 linear feet, including thousands of documents, letters, telegrams, scripts, production and financial statements, photographs, illustrations and audiovisual materials.
"The different versions of scripts with his handwritten notes and sketches in the margins show different stages of his creative process," Peggy Daub, curator and outreach librarian at the Special Collections Library, said in a press release.
Among the new items of personal interest donated by Welles' eldest daughter, Chris Welles Feder, are private photographs of Welles as a child and letters to his first wife, Virginia Nicholson, which coincided with the beginning of his career, as well as materials related to the 1949 film "Macbeth," in which Welles Feder played a role.
Other vital additions to the Welles archive come from Alessandro Tasca di Cuto, purchased at an auction in London. Tasca was a producer and longtime friend of Welles. Artifacts include materials related to two films especially important for Welles, "Chimes at Midnight" (1965, also known as "Falstaff"), filmed in Spain, and Don Quixote (1955-73, unfinished), filmed in Mexico, Italy and Spain. In many letters, notes and memos, the Tasca collection illuminates Welles' day-to-day concerns as a filmmaker.
These collections supplement two other Welles collections, the "Orson Welles-Oja Kodar Collection" and the "Richard Wilson-Orson Welles Collection," both acquired in 2004-05 and available to researchers for several years.
Of particular interest to researchers is the archival documentation on Welles' cinematographic mission to Brazil and Mexico, where his initial intention was to portray true stories of Latin American cultural life and society during World War II as part of a U.S. "Good Neighbor" propaganda film.
Welles went beyond reproducing the cliches of popular culture and simple perceptions of the Rio Carnival. Instead, he showed an incisive and revealing look at Brazilian society, including the historic journey of raftsmen, or jangadeiros, to Rio from the Northeast. The film was ultimately rejected by RKO studio management and the Brazilian government's Department of Press and Propaganda.
Also included in the archive are photographs, screenplays and other documents from Welles' major films produced in Hollywood, Mexico, North Africa and Europe from the late 1940s to the early 1970s, screenplays for works-in-progress, as well as materials pertaining to his Mercury theatrical productions in the U.S. and Europe.
Former U-M professor Catherine Benamou, author of "It's All True: Orson Welles' Pan-American Odyssey" who now teaches at the University of California-Irvine, propelled the acquisition of the first special collections of Welles through connections with his family and close collaborators.
The Special Collections Library at the University of Michigan holds internationally renowned collections of books, serials, ancient and modern manuscripts, posters, playbills, photographs and original artwork. It is home to some of the most historically significant treasures at U-M and is open to the public. Collections do not circulate; material is retrieved upon request for use in a reading room. A listing of holdings in the Orson Welles collections can be accessed at http://www.lib.umich.edu/special-collections-library
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Glenn Anders
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Re: Index of the UM Welles/Kodar archive
What a superb report of an equally superb acquisition, Ray! A number of people we have met here from time to time are to be thanked, too, for sure.
Especially, the original impetus of Catherine Benamou! And the loving devotion of Chris Welles Feder.
I was particularly struck, Ray, by your description of the emerging picture of the scope which Orson Welles envisioned for IT'S ALL TRUE. I had long maintained that Welles was going far beyond the original proposition the State Department had requested, and which RKO had agreed to, which was after all to be a kind of propaganda film. The wonderful audacity of what Welles was up to must have brought them all up short.
One wonders how he could have thought that he might bring a project of such epic political and sociological import off during the midst of World War II. He must have had a small green light from somebody.
Somewhere in those boxes may be a "rosebud" as splendid, sad, and tragic as that which drove his masterful command of CITIZEN KANE.
Glenn
Especially, the original impetus of Catherine Benamou! And the loving devotion of Chris Welles Feder.
I was particularly struck, Ray, by your description of the emerging picture of the scope which Orson Welles envisioned for IT'S ALL TRUE. I had long maintained that Welles was going far beyond the original proposition the State Department had requested, and which RKO had agreed to, which was after all to be a kind of propaganda film. The wonderful audacity of what Welles was up to must have brought them all up short.
One wonders how he could have thought that he might bring a project of such epic political and sociological import off during the midst of World War II. He must have had a small green light from somebody.
Somewhere in those boxes may be a "rosebud" as splendid, sad, and tragic as that which drove his masterful command of CITIZEN KANE.
Glenn
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Le Chiffre
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Re: Index of the UM Welles/Kodar archive
The UM Special Collections Library has recently added once again to their Orson Welles archive by purchasing production materials for THE DEEP:
http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=3037
http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=3037
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Wellesnet
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UM acquires huge OW collection from Beatrice Welles
University of Michigan acquires Orson Welles papers, unproduced scripts from daughter Beatrice Welles:
http://www.wellesnet.com/university-of- ... ce-welles/
http://www.wellesnet.com/university-of- ... ce-welles/
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Le Chiffre
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Re: UM acquires huge OW collection from Beatrice Welles
Thanks the kind of shock and awe I like! A huge selection of vital and unseen, although much-discussed written work by Welles. Bravo to Beatrice for putting this in the right hands, and bravo to the University of Michigan for acquiring it. Also, a big shout out to Wellesnet's own Ray Kelly for helping bring the two together!
I had the pleasure of going to UM last week and reading several unpublished Welles scripts from the Oja Kodar archive, including SANTO SPIRITO, MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH, CRAZY WEATHER, SURINAM, and perused parts of THE DEEP and BECAUSE OF THE CATS. Some are in a more advanced stage than others, but all of them are fascinating reading and come across as Welles films that happen to exist on paper instead of film. As Peter Conrad, author of ORSON WELLES: THE STORIS OF HIS LIFE put it: "(Welles's) essays, journalistic articles, works of fiction, and unproduced screenplays are an invaluable guide to his motives, too seldom consulted by critics." Looks like this relatively unexplored Wellesian frontier is starting to open up!
I also had a nice chat with Phil Hallman, who purchased the archive from Beatrice Welles, and who was the guiding force behind UM's 2015 centennial celebration of Welles. Mr. Hallman said the unpublished scripts should be the first things from the Beatrice archive to be made available to the public, probably within the next six months. Can hardly wait.
In the meantime, here's an index of all of UM's other Welles-related collections:
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/s/sclead?type ... mit=Search
I had the pleasure of going to UM last week and reading several unpublished Welles scripts from the Oja Kodar archive, including SANTO SPIRITO, MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH, CRAZY WEATHER, SURINAM, and perused parts of THE DEEP and BECAUSE OF THE CATS. Some are in a more advanced stage than others, but all of them are fascinating reading and come across as Welles films that happen to exist on paper instead of film. As Peter Conrad, author of ORSON WELLES: THE STORIS OF HIS LIFE put it: "(Welles's) essays, journalistic articles, works of fiction, and unproduced screenplays are an invaluable guide to his motives, too seldom consulted by critics." Looks like this relatively unexplored Wellesian frontier is starting to open up!
I also had a nice chat with Phil Hallman, who purchased the archive from Beatrice Welles, and who was the guiding force behind UM's 2015 centennial celebration of Welles. Mr. Hallman said the unpublished scripts should be the first things from the Beatrice archive to be made available to the public, probably within the next six months. Can hardly wait.
In the meantime, here's an index of all of UM's other Welles-related collections:
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/s/sclead?type ... mit=Search
Orson Welles - Oja Kodar Papers
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/s/sclead/umic ... son+welles
Creator: Welles, Orson, 1915-1985
Creator: Kodar, Oja
Bulk dates: Bulk, 1965-1985
Inclusive dates: 1910-2000
Extent: 41.5 Linear feet (27 record center boxes, 15 manuscript boxes, 4 flat oversize boxes, and 1 oversize drawer )
Extent: 27 record center boxes, 15 manuscript boxes, 4 flat oversize boxes, and 1 oversize drawer
Abstract: The Orson Welles – Oja Kodar Papers includes scripts, production documents, photographs, and other materials from Orson Welles's work in film and other media. General correspondence, topical files, papers related to Oja Kodar, and personal materials also make up a portion of collection. The bulk of the papers date from the 1960s to the 1980s with a smaller amount of material from the 1930s-1950s. The Additions to the Welles-Kodar Papers series, acquired in 2015, complements the scripts, correspondence and photographs already held, but also include annotated typescripts of drafts for a planned memoir, additional on-the-set photographs from films, television, and other projects, personal photographs, and documents from collaborations between Welles and Kodar.
Search Results: 99 matches in Entire Finding Aid
search terms in context | standard view | full text File Size: 346 K bytes
Request Material From This Collection for Use in the Special Collections Library
Orson Welles - Chris Welles Feder Collection
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/s/sclead/umic ... son+welles
Creator: Welles, Orson, 1915-1985
Creator: Feder, Chris Welles
Inclusive dates: 1931-2009
Extent: 2.0 Linear feet (1 record center box and 1 oversize box)
Abstract: The Orson Welles-Chris Welles Feder Collection is an assortment of material on Orson Welles collected by his eldest daughter Chris Welles Feder. She was born Christopher Welles in 1938 to Orson Welles and Virginia Nicolson Welles. The collection includes letters written by Orson Welles to his first wife, Virginia Nicolson, and family photographs. Also included are clippings and articles, audiovisual materials such as movies or TV shows dedicated to Orson Welles, and miscellaneous material such as postcards, exhibition programs, and catalogs. The collection has five series: Correspondence, Clippings and Articles, Photographs, Audiovisual, and Miscellaneous.
Search Results: 38 matches in Entire Finding Aid
search terms in context | standard view | full text File Size: 20 K bytes
Request Material From This Collection for Use in the Special Collections Library
Orson Welles Dead Reckoning/The Deep Papers
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/s/sclead/umic ... son+welles
Creator: Welles, Orson, 1915-1985
Bulk dates: 1967-1971
Inclusive dates: 1966-1975
Extent: 1.0 Linear feet (1 record center box)
Abstract: The papers, originally from the files of Orson Welles's London agent, Bill Cronshaw, consists of film clippings, film rolls, and photographs; production and post-production notes and schedules; portions of the script (some annotated by Welles); business and and financial materials; and correspondence related to the film "Dead Reckoning, later, "The Deep." A limited amount of miscellaneous materials not associated with the film are also included.
Search Results: 9 matches in Entire Finding Aid
search terms in context | standard view | full text File Size: 16 K bytes
Request Material From This Collection for Use in the Special Collections Library
Orson Welles - Alessandro Tasca di Cutò Papers
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/s/sclead/umic ... son+welles
Creator: Welles, Orson, 1915-1985
Creator: Tasca di Cutò, Alessandro, 1906-2000
Bulk dates: 1964
Inclusive dates: 1947-1995
Extent: 7.0 Linear feet (2 record center boxes, 4 oversize boxes, and 1 portfolio)
Abstract: The Orson-Welles and Alessandro Tasca di Cutò papers reflect the working and personal relationship between Orson Welles and Alessandro Tasca di Cutò. He was a producer for many of Orson Welles’s films, but two were especially significant for Orson Welles: The Chimes at Midnight (also known as Falstaff, 1965) and Don Quixote (1955-73, unfinished). In both cases, Welles shot the material over a period of years, and on a shoestring budget. The majority of the archive consists of an assortment of letters, handwritten notes, and telegrams that Welles sent to Tasca di Cutò concerning the day-to-day working needs of the filmmaker.
Search Results: 26 matches in Entire Finding Aid
search terms in context | standard view | full text File Size: 30 K bytes
Request Material From This Collection for Use in the Special Collections Library
Richard Wilson - Orson Welles Papers
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/s/sclead/umic ... son+welles
Creator: Wilson, Richard, 1915-1991
Creator: Welles, Orson, 1915-1985
Inclusive dates: 1930-2000
Bulk dates: 1930-1991
Extent: 61 boxes, 2 oversize drawers (approximately 63 linear feet)
Abstract: The collection includes business and personal correspondence, production materials, scripts, photographs, motion picture, and sound recordings related to Richard Wilson and Orson Welles's work in radio, theater, and film from the 1930s to the 1950s. Also included are materials related to each man's later solo careers and personal life.
Search Results: 161 matches in Entire Finding Aid
search terms in context | standard view | full text File Size: 456 K bytes
Request Material From This Collection for Use in the Special Collections Library
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RayKelly
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Re: UM acquires huge OW collection from Beatrice Welles
Thanks for the kind words. The papers that Beatrice had in storage were simply amazing and I am glad she chose the University of Michigan.
I share your interest in the scripts, but the letters to "Dadda" Bernstein, the diary excerpts and routine correspondence are equally fascinating.
Beatrice had kicked around the idea of a museum in Spain long ago, but felt her father would have objected to a shrine. She made it very clear to me her father would likely have hated the idea of all of his papers in a university library too. But, as I pointed out at the start, the other option is they are scattered to the wind and end up in the hands of wealthy fans/collectors. Phil Hallman and the fine folks at U-M will make sure these papers are available to the public.
Having papers from Beatrice, Chris Welles Feder, Richard Wilson, Oja Kodar and Alessandro Tasca di Cutò in one place is grand.
I share your interest in the scripts, but the letters to "Dadda" Bernstein, the diary excerpts and routine correspondence are equally fascinating.
Beatrice had kicked around the idea of a museum in Spain long ago, but felt her father would have objected to a shrine. She made it very clear to me her father would likely have hated the idea of all of his papers in a university library too. But, as I pointed out at the start, the other option is they are scattered to the wind and end up in the hands of wealthy fans/collectors. Phil Hallman and the fine folks at U-M will make sure these papers are available to the public.
Having papers from Beatrice, Chris Welles Feder, Richard Wilson, Oja Kodar and Alessandro Tasca di Cutò in one place is grand.
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Le Chiffre
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Re: UM acquires huge OW collection from Beatrice Welles
No question, all that stuff sounds great too, plus there is a lot of behind-the-scenes legal wrangling that is illuminating and compelling as well. I myself got caught up – in Box 2 (or maybe it was Box 6) of the Oja archive – in reading about the legal battle between her and Mauro Bonanni over the rightful ownership of the Don Quixote negative. There was a lot of interesting info I was not aware of before, and I basically just casually stumbled on those legal documents while randomly picking through the box. I took a few notes, but by that time it was late in the day and I was getting a bit of writer’s cramp (all notes have to be written in pencil). There’s just so much there already it’s amazing, and I'm sure Beatrice's archive will add so much more to it.I share your interest in the scripts, but the letters to "Dadda" Bernstein, the diary excerpts and routine correspondence are equally fascinating.
Here are some other important gems that should be given a high priority:
Unfilmed scripts and story treatments – Authorship and exact titles will have to be verified, though they appear at first glance to be Welles original stories and adaptations. Titles include
Operation: Cinderella,
Two By Two (Noah’s Ark),
Saladin, (related to Sirhan?)
The Big Question from Affair of Antol,
The Heroine,
The Cherry Orchard,
Green Thoughts,
Beatrice and Benedick, Much Ado About Nothing,
Fair Warning
Movie and stage production notes, photos and/or scripts – The projects include
Dead Reckoning (The Deep),
Merchant of Venice,
Green Thoughts,
Lady on Ice,
Rhinoceros,
The Unthinking Lobster, Time Runs,
The saga of The Other Side of the Wind is first glimpsed in 1962 character development notes and finally in legal correspondence written 20 years later as Welles struggled to see the film completed.
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Wellesnet
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Re: UM acquires huge OW collection from Beatrice Welles
From a deleted thread-
"First impressions of University of Michigan’s new Orson Welles papers" by Robert Kroll:
http://www.wellesnet.com/first-impressi ... es-papers/
Complete text of the Oja Kodar/Orson Welles collection contents summary:
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/s/sclead/umic ... ?view=text
"First impressions of University of Michigan’s new Orson Welles papers" by Robert Kroll:
http://www.wellesnet.com/first-impressi ... es-papers/
Complete text of the Oja Kodar/Orson Welles collection contents summary:
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/s/sclead/umic ... ?view=text