Welles champagne commercial

Harry Lime · Post by **Harry Lime** » Sat May 03, 2003 7:25 pm

Someone just sent me this link to some outtakes of a Paul Masson commercial in which Orson appears to be drunk. http://www.viceland.com/issues/v9n4/htdocs/touching/4b.mov

Can anyone tell me the background story behind this session? Are there more outtakes floating around somewhere, or is this the complete outtake? Can someone direct me to a biography that might talk about this clip or the infamous frozen food outtakes? I am just beginning my exploration of Welles' work and his life and I find these outtakes oddly interesting. Thanks.

Le Chiffre · Post by **Le Chiffre** » Tue May 06, 2003 12:11 pm

Per Barbra Leaming's book, Paul Masson switched from Welles to John Gielgud as spokesman in order to emphasize thier new low-cal wines. But of course, Welles showing up on the Masson set too shitfaced to work couldn't have helped his cause either.

What I find interesting about Welles' commercials is the fact that he only did them for food, drink, or entertainment, as far as I know. I don't know if he ever did one for any industrial product like, say, tires or batteries. I suppose that, given his size, he got pegged as a food and drink man, but in general, his world viewpoint seemed vaguely opposed to industrialism anyway.

Welles Fan · Post by **Welles Fan** » Tue May 06, 2003 10:07 pm

There was a sad-but-funny parody of the Welles "outtake" on video. It featured a deep-voiced rotund actor who could not stick to the script. At the end of several takes, "Welles" gets semi-passed out, and one of the grips goes over to hear what "Welles" is muttering while in a drunken stupor. He says "I thing he said he wants a Rose'....wait- I think he changed it to a Bud or something..."

The sad part, is that as "Welles" describes how long it took to do various things (the theme of the Masson commercials), he says that it really took time to "run a flourishing genius into the ground". In other words, it's the old "Welles made Citizen Kane and his career was a flop afterwards" schtick all over again. Still, the parody was funny in light of the (in)famous Masson out-takes.

I have a third-generation tape of it somewhere....

Harvey Chartrand · Post by **Harvey Chartrand** » Mon May 12, 2003 2:33 pm

In the seventies, Welles did voicework on ads for Uniroyal Tires and Eastern Airlines (The Wings of Man). It wasn't always food and booze he peddled to pay the bills.

Harvey Chartrand · Post by **Harvey Chartrand** » Mon May 12, 2003 3:51 pm

Welles also lent his magisterial presence to a series of commercials for Vivitar pocket cameras, circa 1977.
And in 1971, Welles' voice could be heard in TV commercials for Man, Myth and Magic Magazine.

71-1045893605 · Post by **71-1045893605** » Mon May 12, 2003 8:11 pm

I have a 1st generation copy of the "Welles TV commercial parody", given to me by a friend of the Cal Arts film grad who
directed this hilarious short back in '81. From what I've heard, it's pretty scarce and rare (go figure!) It lasts about 3
minutes, as Welles sits in an outdoor cafe (preferably Mexican), as Flamenco guitar music is heard in the background. The basic premise is that Welles keeps adding his own take to the script, which always ends up demeaning the wine he's trying to pitch. Perhaps I'll post the transcript on Wellesnet at a later time. One such classic line has Welles explaining how he came up with his greatest ideas.
Welles: "Citizen Kane" was written in a week, while "War Of The Worlds" was written on a toilet seat!".

GA

Le Chiffre · Post by **Le Chiffre** » Sat May 17, 2003 5:35 pm

Harvey,
The pocket cameras I could see, since Welles used cameras as part of his profession. The Eastern airlines thing too, since he was a frequent traveller. But Welles peddling Uniroyal tires? That would be strange to hear. I wonder if the voiceovers for that still exist.

That Welles commercial parody sounds good. I vaguely remember seeing another Welles parody years ago on SCTV, with John Candy as Welles and someone else as Liberace (disheartening but funny to see them put in the same boat). There's also CITIZEN KANE II, with the original cast of Saturday Night Live. Dan Akroyd played Kane, shooting at people from the Enquirer's office window in order to liven up a "slow day for news".

Harvey Chartrand · Post by **Harvey Chartrand** » Sun May 18, 2003 11:01 am

Mr. Teal,
Welles worked on the Uniroyal Tire commercials in 1979, when he was in Toronto making Zen Business (a crappy tax shelter movie). As I recall, it was a series of commercials, all featuring Johnny Hart's characters from the comic strip B.C. The ads won numerous awards.

Le Chiffre · Post by **Le Chiffre** » Sun May 18, 2003 2:23 pm

I'd like to see them. I guess it's just a little ironic for Welles to do tire commercials since one of the implied themes of Ambersons is how the automobile helped to ruin civilization. No big deal.

Barbra Leaming's book has an interesting section dealing with the TOSOTW fiasco. After the Khomenei regime seized the film, they eventually declared it worthless. This left Welles to fight it out with the Shah's brother-in-law - Bouscheri, a principal investor in the film - in a French court. The court declared the film to be Orson's property, but with the catch that the film had to be edited in France. As Leaming notes,

"Orson simply could not afford to spend the many months in France it would take to finish the film, meanwhile largely cutting himself off from earning a living by doing commercials and voiceovers in Los Angeles".