Welles's FBI file

[Wellesnet]

From Wellesnet Facebook. Thanks to Scott Baldwin for this good new article:
http://dangerousminds.net/comments/f_is ... s_fbi_file

[DrG]

Hi, i bought long ago the FBI file (comes as a PDF) from this page: http://www.paperlessarchives.com/welles.html
Now is see very much the same thing can be found here for free download: https://archive.org/details/GeorgeOrsonWelles
or you can read it here: https://vault.fbi.gov/george-orson-welles

[tonyw]

I obtained my copy under the FOI Act some years back. From reading it, I see that the FBI were really concerned about Welles staging NATIVE SON and his involvement with African-Americans. I don't know if other material has resurfaced since.

[Le Chiffre]

From reading it, I see that the FBI were really concerned about Welles staging NATIVE SON and his involvement with African-Americans.

Particularly African-Americans who supported communism, like Richard Wright. I knew something about Wright's communist affiliations, but not how far back it went. According to this webpage...
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/po ... t_life.htm
...he joined in 1933, so his membership probably would have been well known to the FBI by the time Welles staged NATIVE SON.

...in 1932, he became involved in the John Reed Club, an intellectual arm of the Communist party, which he joined the next March.

Welles may have never been a communist himself, but he seemed to be pretty devil-may-care in his associations. Good on him, but it did come with a price. BTW, John Reed was of course, the subject of Warren Beatty's 1982 epic REDS, which was the reason Beatty cited for not being able to play the lead in Welles's BIG BRASS RING film.

Anyway, thanks for the link, Dr. G.