Talk:Orson Welles/Archive 1

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I'll just do this

I'll flush out the article and scrub it over on Tuesday. When I'm done you guys polish it. I mean seriously, Orson Welles of all people deserves better. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.117.28.34 (talk) 02:36, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

Fake Photograph

I have tried to remove the fake photograph that is apparantly of Orson Welles in a Recording Studio in 1938. List of Reasons why this photo is obviously fake: 1. Orson Welles is in black and white, the table is in colour. 2. The newspaper on the wall has been cut and pasted. 3. Orson Welles has been cut and pasted, you can see the rectangular outline around him. 4. The floor doesn't fit correctly. 5. The ceiling doesn't fit correctly. 6. The floor and ceiling are in colour. 7. Most people have legs below the knee, I think Orson Welles was one of those people. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.44.47.20 (talk) 03:00, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

This photo has been on wikipedia for over two years, it has also been featured in conspiracy documentaries. It makes me laugh quite a lot, but the joke is now old for me.

I didn't create this by the way, or add it to the page, but I do like to show it to people to prove just how accurate this "Encyclopedia" is.

77.44.47.20 (talk) 02:55, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

That "fake photo" was actually a photograph of a display in a German museum. The name of the file ("Museum-fuer-kommunikation") tells you that much. Instead of removing the photo, perhaps the caption should have been changed instead. Clockster (talk) 18:50, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

Intro

I revert some needless additions to the introductory paragraphs. I have noticed that often, the introductory paragraphs are being made to do the work of the body of the article. It makes for a cluttered entry.

Also, what was written was factually inaccurate. It wasn't that Hearst thought he was being portrayed in Kane—he was being spoofed in the picture: Everyone knew it. But it wasn't he who scuttled the picture commercially—it was RKO, which distributed it half-heartedly.

Hearst is a paper tiger—in fact, by 1940, his power was clearly on the wane. And anyway, this sort of argument is not for the introductory paragraph of a long article about Welles. --TallulahBelle 23:11, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

Great -- I almost reverted them myself yesterday, too. The current introduction does seem to be wanting, though; Welles is certainly more generally known to the general public as an actor (which is not currently mentioned), and I really think that the public perception that he was a failure after Kane should be touched upon. --Ogdred 13:02, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

Cleanup

I corrected some statements about Todd School for Boys's headmaster Roger Hill (who did not become headmaster until the year Welles graduated) and clarified that Welles's father died the summer after Orson graduated. In other words, I corrected two errors of fact.

Winfrankmcnet 01:45, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

After spending the last ten minutes correcting some serious syntactical errors in the first paragraph of the section marked "Early career", I think this entire article needs a clean-up to remove grammatical errors and sentences which exhibit a biased POV. As it stands this article does not meet Wikipedia's standards of professionalism. Richardbooth 22:06, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

I made an attempt to tidy up the first identifying paragraph removing extraneous informaton which was, as you note, clotted in syntax. I tried also to add some specificity to why the "War of the Worlds" and "Kane" were important. There is more work to be done of courseMeb53 22:59, 27 July 2006 (UTC).

NPOV

Great as Welles may have been, descriptive terms like "glorious," "masterful," etc. have no place in a wikipedia article. They smack of a big giant POV. --- His one line in The Muppet Movie, where he played Hollywood producer Lew Lord, IIRC, was "Write up the standard 'rich and famous' contract for Mr. Frog and his friends." Trivial as that is, it seems symbolic of the frustrations Welles must have felt during the latter part of his career. (Not sure what to do with that thought, so I put it here.)

Please see naming conventions. Remember, titles of movies are often the titles of other things; e.g., The Trial is a novel first and foremost; Macbeth is a play first and foremost.

But perhaps it's quite interesting for people to enter the main page first and after reading general information, they can click on a separate link. It is easier this way unless we want to repeat ourselves all the time (there are about two dozen Macbeth films and each one has roughly the same storyline. If you write that on the Macbeth main page and list differences on the specific film's page, it makes more sense and is easier to maintain). I'll add a demo, please tell me what you think

a snippet to do something with, as a quote, or whatever...some leads to expand on perhaps

I too had political ambitions, particularly back in the FDR days. I used to help him with speeches and and I like to think I was useful to him. I know he thought I should have a serious go at politics some day. Well, some day came. They wanted me to run for the Senate in my home state of Wisconsin, against Joe McCarthy. Then I let them—another "them"—convince me that I could never win because I was an actor—hence frivolous. And divorced—hence immoral. And now Ronnie Reagan, who is both, is president. [recounted by Gore Vidal United States (1993) p1199]

The main Welles page could certainly do with expanding, with regards to Welles' achievments as a "radio columnist" and political campaigner (an underlooked area). I'll do that later on, if no-one else does first (hint, hint). --Chips Critic 23:01, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC)

True. An interesting, although unfortunately unsorced place to start might be this epinions review. --Samuel Wantman 23:15, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

We don't have anything on 1942's It's All True. -- Tarquin 17:00, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Oh, GREAT idea putting his signature there. Now anyone who wants to can forge his checks! Have you no consideration for Welles' considerable postmortem assets??

Was his father's name really Richard Head Welles, or is that some kind of joke?

I found lots of internet hits with the same info. Apparently, his father WAS a Dick Head. --Samuel Wantman 08:35, 18 May 2005 (UTC)

The link to Pomona in "was previewed without Welles' approval in Pomona" is ambiguous. I'm guessing it refers to Pomona, CA, but unsure. --Bobbozzo (talk) 09:32, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

Journey Into Fear

This article contains contradictory info on Journey Into Fear. In the middle of the article it states that Welles denied directing it, however later in the artice it says he was a co-director uncredited with Norman Foster (director). It was always a rumor that he worked on Journey Into Fear... never really a fact.

Discussion of films

Though both The Trial and The Immortal Story are listed in the filmography, I cannot find any mentions of them in the text of the article. So if nobody minds, I'm gonna work on that, unless somebody else really wants to do it. Also I want to add Peter Cowie's book to the "further reading" list, because it contains competent discussions of the overarching themes of many of his films, as well as many interesting quotes and biographical tidbits. Shakantala 00:47, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

Picture on Front Page

Can we get a better picture here? He looks like...an adult baby in the one there now. Karatloz 21:56, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

He did look like an adult baby! It's not the picture.--Chowbok 01:08, August 5, 2005 (UTC)

Doctored Photo on Front Page

Do you think its time to remove the "Doctored" photo of Welles in a recording studio. It makes wikipedia look really stupid when you consider that it has been on there for over 2 years. I mean how many people need to look at a black and white image with a colour table to realise it has been faked??

This has kept me amused for 2 years, but the joke has worn off. I didn't put it there by the way, but its funny that so many people have looked at that and not noticed.

In case anyone doubts its a fake, here is a list of things that are wrong with the photo: 1. Welles is in black and white, there are colour parts of the photo. 2. The newspaper in the background has been cut and pasted. 3. Welles has been cut and pasted (You can see the rectangular outline). 4. The floor doesn't fit correctly. 5. The ceiling doesn't fit correctly. 6. Most people have legs below the knee, I think Orson Welles was one of those people.

LMFAO!!!! 77.44.47.20 (talk) 02:26, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

There is an inaccurate link in the Unfinished Projects section. There are two very different authors named Charles Williams. The one who wrote Dead Calm (the foundation for THE DEEP) was born in Texas and wrote pulp noir novels. Unfortunately the Charles Williams link connects to the British born Charles Williams who was friends with C.S. Lewis and Tolkien. Who fixes that sort of thing?

How about this one? Image:Orson Welles.jpg

See below. —Chowbok ☠ 00:03, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Prowse rumor

I'm new here, and I don't mean to seem overly critical, but is the line about David Prowse supposedly holding a grudge against George Lucas for overdubbing his voice in Star Wars really necessary in a piece about Orson Welles? A Runyon 01:31, 1 December 2005 (UTC)

The Shadow

I removed the trivia about The Shadow. While Welles did voice The Shadow for a while, he was not the first or longest or, likely, the most remembered for it, nor did he create the character or have any particualr creative control. He was simply an actor. As such, it would be like referencing Indiana Jones parodies on Harrison Ford's entry. -- Bitt 00:15, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

Actually, the parody in The Spirit was of Welles himself, not of the Shadow. Not sure why they said it was The Shadow. Still, it seems a bit trivial to put in the article. --Chowbok 21:05, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

Things needing attention in this article

A few suggestions for editors:

  • Welles had one of America's most famous and recognizable voices -- this should be mentioned in the introduction. At the time of his death, relatively few Americans understood Welles's artistic importance; he was the fat guy with the famous voice who told stories on the Tonight Show. During his lifetime, he was more famous for his voice than for being a director or actor.
  • As the article makes clear, few of Welles's films were unmutilated by Hollywood, and only restored later. This is worthy of mention in the intro as well.
  • Speaking of film restoration, the statement that certain films were "restored to Welles's original vision" is a marketing claim that should not be repeated without qualification. Restorers have attempted to restore the films to Welles's vision; whether or not they have achieved that goal is a point of view. --Kevin Myers | (complaint dept.) 19:06, 22 December 2005 (UTC)
  • I agree with K Myers's criticism regarding the "restored to Welles's vision" description. In the case of Touch of Evil, for example, the changes were made some 20 years after Welles's death, and it's not clear that he left detailed notes about the changes he may have wanted. As far as I know, the only documented example of Welles leaving detailed instructions on editing for others was when he left the editing of Ambersons to go start filming It's All True. Also, when footage is lost, you don't know that it's lost forever unless the negative and all prints were destroyed. Just "lost" or "believed lost" is sufficient.Jonathan Versen 08:50, 15 February 2006 (UTC)
    • So you'd take the view that the 58-page memo by Welles upon which the 1998 version was based doesn't count as "detailed instructions on editing for others"? --Chips Critic 01:56, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

No, sadly it doesn't, as Welles himself made clear in the memo. Andrew Hanos 203.0.237.32 03:58, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

  • Did Welles narrate the 60's film "King of Kings" starring Jeffrey Hunter as Christ? Did Roman Catholicism influence his film production? Frank Adamick 12:35 19 October 2006

Welles patriotic radio broadcasts during World War II

Right now I'm listening to Orson Welles radio preformance "Between Americans" and I heard one that was alot like this where he's just talking about New York but I can't remember the title. was it "Manhattan" or "New York New York" or "The City" or "The Big Apple" or something like that ... ???

Anyway this article doesn't say anything about Welles involvement in the war effort, and I think it ought to. --Nerd42 (talk) 02:59, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Oh! I found it! Columbia Presents Corwin New York: A Tapestry for Radio. --Nerd42 (talk) 03:06, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Inaccuracies and Infelicities

This is a much better article now than it was the last time I worked on it, but there are a number of inaccuracies.

"Chimes at Midnight was filmed on-and-off for years; and F for Fake was pieced together from a previous 50-minute documentary."

Both these statements are incorrect. Chimes at Midnight was shot relatively continuously during 1964/65, and F for Fake is around 90 minutes long: you can't "piece together" a 90-minute film from a 50-minute one. F for Fake certainly incorporates footage shot by Francois Reichenbach, but this is part of its form: to suggest that Welles incorporated that footage because he couldn't afford to shoot anything new is absurd, as a viewing of the film will indicate. The reference to the circumstances of the production of The Trial notes not its budget or the technical facilities utilised, but the fact that Welles made it as the result of having been given a list of public-domain literary properties to choose from.

Additionally, almost every picture caption contains an inaccuracy, and ocassionally one so obvious as to indicate deliberate vandalism: "Orson Welles (right) as Harry Lime in The Third Man, giving his infamous 'cuckoo clock' speech to Joseph Cotten." - it's a publicity photo from an earlier moment in the scene which ends with the cuckoo clock speech, as anyone who's seen the film could tell you;

"The corrupt Capt. Hank Quinlan (Orson Welles, left) faces off against honest Mexican cop Mike Vargas (Charlton Heston) in the legendary 17-minute single-take from Touch of Evil." - Then as now, a 17-minute take is impossible in film. This take is in fact (if memory serves) around six minutes long.

Quite possible, actually. Russian Ark (2002) used only one take for the entire 90-minute film, and Snake Eyes (1998) started off with a very long take, from memory about 10 minutes. JackofOz 08:30, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
No, it isn't possible. Russian Ark was shot on digital video, not film. Ten minutes is the maximum possible length for a take in film, and several films (including Welles' Macbeth) have included takes of this length. But no longer, unless they were shot on digital video. --Chips Critic 00:19, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for the clarification. I've obviously been reading too much imprecisely-worded movie hype (and, what's worse, believing it). Cheers JackofOz 00:51, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
Glad to be of use. I hope I didn't seem too snappy. --Chips Critic 01:07, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
Not at all. JackofOz 01:10, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
On reflection, it was a bit crass of me to simply assert what I asserted. I'm no expert in such matters, so it would have been better to ask a question. JackofOz 06:18, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

"Welles performing his radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds." - This wording suggests it was a one-man-show. It would be less misleading to say that he performed in that adaptation.

As these are all fairly transparent errors, I'm going to remove them. You can always tell me off if you don't agree.

Less serious, but no less annoying, are the lapses of tone that frequently crop up. Too much of the text at present reads like someone's idea of film journalism. I really don't think "infamous" when used as meaning "very famous" is encyclopedic language. Phrases like "belies the usual view that Welles had lost his touch" and "The film was left to rot" also seem inappropriate, but the nadir is probably the description of Welles as "brazenly chastising" the producers of a commercial he was working on. No encyclopedia would include such sentences, and no-one talks like that anyway, so I can't see any excuse for the inclusion of the phrase. I'm going to remove all of these examples. --Chips Critic 01:46, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

This article has numerous statements that are bizarre/inaccurate, I'm just going to list them and if no one can verify them I'll remove/change them.

First of all, talking about "Touch of Evil" there is the statement that the movie contains "...what is obviously a precursor to Hitchcock's Psycho..." Having seen both movies many times I have no idea what they're talking about, unless they're referring to Dennis Weaver's character in the motel, in which case that line should be deleted because while there are some superficial similarities, neurotic guy in a motel, there is no connection whatsoever between these movies. And if it's something else, it's certainly not obvious.

I deleted a quote attributed to Rita Hayworth: "...a most brilliant auteur and lover. I just wish he hadn't become so fat. It affected his performance in movies and the bedroom." This is clearly fabricated, though mildly amusing. Rita Hayworth isn't going to be calling anyone an auteur 20 years before Truffaut wrote "A Certain Tendency of the French Cinema", and if she said it in the 50's or 60's to be mean it has no bearing on their relationship in the 40's.

"The Monty Python troupe, who won the Jury's Prize in the Cannes Film Festival for The Meaning of Life in 1982, remarked that Orson Welles, who was on the Cannes jury panel, looked remarkably like the Mr. Creosote character from the film." This should really be deleted. Or moved to the Monty Python entry.

Also, it says that an hour was removed from "Lady From Shanghai" and I believe it was only about twenty minutes. Also, the article says "Welles' notes for the film suggest that these portions would have aided audiences' comprehension of the story." But I think this is just wishful thinking, he certainly doesn't say that in the Bogdonavich interview book, he just complains that the 'funhouse' scene was cut down and they kept in the carriage scene at the beginning he wanted to take out. The film is just confusing.

Also, the article says "Welles' marriage to Hayworth—already troubled during filming—ended shortly after the production wrapped." Yet they were divorced prior to the filming of the movie. I'll double check the dates and update this.

Just a general comment, I think it would be a good idea to expand all the information on the films. There is a lot more to say about what happened on "Magnificent Ambersons" and "It's All True". Also, the overall structure of his film career could be improved from the "Hollywood" / "After Hollywood" sections it's in now. I propose organizing it "The RKO years" and add something about his contract with RKO and the films he made with them culminating in the "It's All True" fiasco. Then something about his other projects in Hollywood on which he was given much more limited control, and then his European films. And maybe "Touch of Evil" could be thrown into the Hollywood category.

--Arkadin 17:50, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

I agree absolutely, more detail is needed. I'll come back and try to add things in the next few days. In the meantime, I must say I'm embarassed that I didn't see through that Hayworth quote. It seemed odd, and certainly irrelevant, but it didn't occur to me that it was actually a hoax, although now I look at it, even the worst ghost-writer wouldn't come up with something that crass.
I think The Lady From Shanghai lost a lot more than twenty minutes, but I'll look it up. --Chips Critic 02:44, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
Finally, I've reworked some extremely...idiosyncratic passages such as "also requiring the then-vacant use and sight of ceilings in a Hollywood studio system" (which uses the word "vacant" in a sense with which I'm not familiar) as well as the two paragraphs beginning "Looking back on the masterpiece of Citizen Kane and "Welles' second film for RKO", which were, to my mind, truly bizarre, being full of editorialising which seemed to have been translated from another language. The paragraph on Ambersons was particularly odd as much of what it contains is an unneeded repetition of events which are covered later in the article. I've moved the thing about the colour of his eyes to the "Trivia" section.
The Batman rumour should probably go to another article, though I'm not sure which. I'll do a bit more later. --Chips Critic 01:09, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

I thought Orson Welles provided the voice of Robin Masters for Magnum PI for at least 1 episode. I remember it well. All you saw was his hand pour a glass of wine while dictating his new book. There was no mistaking that voice. [Chris]

I don't understand how Orson Welles could have worked on The Dreamers (2003). Might this be a disambiguation problem? --208.201.160.2 23:07, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

It certainly is! Be Bold! --Roponor 22:00, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

Early death

Is it fair to say Welles died early, considering he was seventy when he died?

It depends on one's benchmark for early/late death. Great artists always die too early, no matter how old they are. JackofOz 11:37, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

Died 1987 or 1985?

The beginning of the article says Welles died on Oct. 10, 1987 but later says he died on the same day in 1985 at the age of seventy. Which was it?

TJSwoboda 16:35, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

He died in 1985, the revised date was vandalism. Philip Cross 16:48, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
You called it vandalism, but you left the rest of the statement stand: "Orson Welles died in 1987,his ashes were scattered on the estate belonging to his long time friend the great bullfighter Antonio Ordóñez." If the date was vandalism, the entire sentence is suspect, ¿sí? Wahkeenah 23:05, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
Apparently es verdad, according to findagrave. Never mind. :) P.S. They also say 1985. Wahkeenah 11:09, 3 May 2006 (UTC)
There is no ambiguity about the date of Welles' death. It was 1985. --Chips Critic 02:26, 5 May 2006 (UTC)
Right. The point was that someone posted the wrong year along with some slightly weird sounding info about where his ashes were scattered. Since the latter is apparently true, the wrong date could simply be a mistake, not deliberate vandalism. Not that it matters, since it has been corrected. Also, I'm guessing there were plenty of ashes to go around. Wahkeenah 02:29, 5 May 2006 (UTC)
How in the hell could he have died in 1985 if he was supposed to have died after the release of the 1986 Transformers movie, for which he provided the voice of Unicron.
It was almost certainly recorded prehumously. El_C 20:49, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

another voice over

Welles did the VO work in the classic cartoon film "Rikki Tikki Tavi"

fights with Hollywood

Perhaps someone might add more info on Welles' feuds with Hollywood. The article mentions that Hollywood frequently re-edited his films against his wishes, but some documentation of how Welles was given trouble even after the beginning of the era of directors would be interesting and relavant.

Havardj, 15:40 18 July 2006 (UTC)

Do we really need this much detail?

I appreciate the effort, but this page is now absolutely bloated. Does every production need to be covered? I thought the page from a few days ago was about the right length/amount of detail. Anyone else for a revert/major re-edit? --Ogdred 01:31, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Maybe could drop mention of things where Welles was only actor, but should keep things he directed. The previous version had few details. I prefer the expanded version. It's a pretty good read. I vote to keep it. --Store Hadji 15 August 2006

Reorganization and simplicity

I was thinking about not only simplifying some parts of the article, but also reorganizing it. There were three main parts of Welles' career: Film, Radio, and Theater. However, they all seemed to run concurrently. How about his professional bio being divided into those three parts. Anyone have an objection? Just wanted to ask before I take the time to do it and someone comes along and reverts all the edits because they don't like it. Nygoodliving 18:06, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

Film, radio and theater did run throughout Welles' life and often connected with each other (like Arkadin beginning on radio and ending with film, or Falstaff starting with two stage productions and ending with film.) I see no way to do it but chronologically and object to any other method, but I agree the entry needs simplification. A lot of the detail could be bumped into pages on the individual film and radio shows, and the less-notable stuff like films Welles only acted in could be dropped. I've been hoping someone else would do it. No Way This Time, This Day, This Time Zone

Wikipedia is too simplified already! Keep the complexity. Or dumb it down to "dead fat guy who sold wine on tv."


It isn't that it's too long, it's that it lacks stylistic coherence, nuance and just some rhythm that corresponds to the peaks and troughs of the subject's life. I'd lavish it with motherish love and effusive grandiosities, but my time online is limited here in the penetentiary. I hasten to add that this need not be gospel, or even necessarily spotlessly accurate, but like any good story needs to be just that to at least attempt justice to this subject.

Likewise, you (in general) don't understand the NPOV concept when you turn Welles's hard won and long established artistic reputation into a bland litany of often unconnected facts about the most prodigious career in the 20th century. Encyclopedic entries have style and weigh the inclusion of facts constantly. Andrew Hanos203.0.237.32 04:24, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

Please don't revert the opening par back to its bland and simplistic version. This not vandalism and your attempt to brand it so is highly suspicious. This now sums up in an interesting way the major points of Welles career that touch on the major themes of his life and work. That's what an intro should be! Andrew Hanos210.11.113.219 06:23, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

I assume that you're talking about the latest edit to the intro paragraph. Sure, it probably shouldn't have been marked vandalism, but regardless, it was wrong and I support who took it out. To say that Citizen Kane was Welles's only work that he had complete control over isn't looking at his other work. Sure, Kane is the most famous - but both "F For Fake" and "The Trial" were made without any major studio interruption and Welles's artistic vision intact. ClassicBri 15:06, 29 December 2006 (UTC)--

Uh, I find the intro sycophantic and scatter-brained now. Online encyclopediae which anyone can edit just aren't a good idea. The hate-mongerers rewrite the sycophants who rewrote the spartans who condensed the long-winded. A never ending parade of flaming trolls. I'll be much more interested in seeing the Welles entry in Citizendium, the online encyclopedia which not just anyone can edit. 4.158.210.64 03:17, 30 December 2006 (UTC) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thank you both for your comments.

1. The statement is that is was the only Hollywood Studio film that Welles was allowed to finish his way. This is incontrovertible, so please don't question it. Welles made Othello, Chimes at Midnight, The Trial, Immortal Story and F for Fake his way. They are European or his own independent productions.

2. As for you who find me scatter-brained and sycophantic, all I can say as a professional writer is, you're welcome to your opinion. And if you don't like wikipedia don't visit and take up my time with dyslexic gibberish. The opening par does now act as a sounding bell for the arc of Welles's life and career, which I state again is what openings should aim at, especially for a long and over-detailed entry like this. Someone has obviously played around with the spellings and reverted to earlier syntax corrections to be childish. Choose a lesser subject for this puerile behaviour. Andrew Hanos210.11.113.219 05:38, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

Reorganization & simplicity pt. 2

(section break because it was starting to get a little long there) Just thought I'd chime in and say I prefer the reorganized and simplified intro immensely, although, as a newcomer to this article, I am a little aghast with how uncited the info is (listing fifty biographical works at the end really doesn't count), but whatever. A few things:

  • 4.158.210.64, if you are so uncomfortable with the aims of the Wiki Project, perhaps Citizendium is a more compatible fit for you, although I hope you will decide otherwise. It's worth pointing out that, on a practical level, Citizendium is basically the exact same thing as Wikipedia, since the articles that its ~200 part-time or hobbyist experts aren't tinkering with at the time (which must be a very major percentage of its 1,000,000+ articles) are automatically updated from their clones in Wikipedia anyway.
  • ClassicBri, er, Andrew Hanos beat me to it, but yeah, those productions were all Euro or private.
  • Andrew Hanos, while I agree with your sentiments (and your edits), I hope you will bear in mind Wikipedia:Civility when disagreeing with editors over what become contentious changes. Not to wiki-condescend or anything, but defending your edits with an ad-hominem "professional writer" and calling other editors' contributions "dyslexic gibberish" are not great debate tactics, and tend to lead to unnecessary edit wars. Thanks. Ford MF 08:47, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

I take your point(s) but I am a professional writer and being called sycophantic and scatter-brained is hardly "nice" either. So I responded. I couldn't understand our wiki critic's entry: "The hate-mongerers rewrite the sycophants who rewrote the spartans who condensed the long-winded. A never ending parade of flaming trolls." I am not trying to start a range war, just vigorously sticking up for my edit with a coherent rationale. To correct you I refer to this comment only as dyslexic, and after having read the bulk of the other comments carefully in the Welles discussion I believe I am redressing a number of earlier criticisms regarding the entry. Welles is a highly complex individual and artist. His peculiarly American facility to move from huckster and self-confessed charlatan in his magic tricks to commercial tout, serious social critic and political activist, and back always to high art makes him a difficult proposition for some to interpret. But that is the nature of the beast and we need to state it up front rather than just list these disparate activities incoherently in the body of the piece. In any case please accept my assurance that anyone who treats the subject with respect and is polite will be treated likewise in return. Andrew Hanos203.173.41.134 07:47, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

It is rude to keep inserting false and crudely inaccurate statements repeatedly even when these mistakes and others have been clearly highlighted in this talk section. Especially without adding any comment in dission to cover these reintroduced errors.

1. Welles did not first gain fame and wide recognition for his journalism, but for his New York theatre work in the Thirties, his "War of the Worlds" broadcast, and "Citizen Kane". The journalism came nearly ten years later.

2. Likewise, Welles's battles with the Hollywood system are now not only legendary, exhaustively documented (see Clinton Heylin's "Despite the System), but more or less universally accepted. Commercial crassness was one of the main reasons for sabotaging his films. They actually spoiled their commercial possibilities too, either through timidity and buckling under political and commercial pressure, as in "Kane", or deliberate white-anting because of internal power struggles in the case of "The Magnificent Ambersons". Some of this was just simple lack of taste and inability to conceive of film as art, and to respect an artist's moral rights. Some of it was political, because Welles was radical. This is not a personal point of view now but apparent in all serious and informed studies of Welles. It thus needs to be clearly announced in the Welles summary at the start of the entry as a central theme that returns repeatedly, and makes sense of his struggles, efforts and career.

Andrew Hanos210.11.113.219 04:33, 6 January 2007 (UTC) 00:48, 22 January 2007 (UTC)00:48, 22 January 2007 (UTC)00:48, 22 January 2007 (UTC)00:48, 22 January 2007 (UTC)==Reverting edits== Hi there. Please leave some explanation in the edit summary or talk page if you revert edits. I have returned to a previous version of the intro which was reverted without explanation. I would be glad to discuss my edits if you have comments. Thanks. Wachholder0 05:36, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

I reverted the edits because I believe the expostion I devised is stronger. Surely the main statement about Welles, his growing stature as dramatic artist in the 20 century, needs to be up front. Why else read about him in an encyclopedic entry if you downplay this achievement. The rest of the first pars is sufficiently similar to not worry me too much but its style is a little too polite to studios, because Welles is still truly very controversial to today. Witness the 3 latest major bigraphical studies to appear on him in the last 12 months alone, 22 years after his death. Welles is very much alive and kicking as an artist whose later and rich work has yet to permeate the wider cultural scene and so needs to be treated with continuing verve and imagination. There is no need to be overly bland in this entry. I have been making these statements consistently, see above. Cheers Andrew Hanos. 203.0.237.32 00:53, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

There's no need to be overly fruity in the article either. If you had written as much on the article as you have here about yourself you could have finished it a year ago.71.205.219.229 01:38, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

American English

Welles was an American which means that the spellings in this article should be in American English as opposed to British English. Due to the length of this article I have not gone through it and changed the spellings, however it needs doing. --87.254.71.248 17:18, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Welles is international! A lot of his best work, and most of what he was allowed to keep in his own original form was done in Europe. Let's not be parochial about this. There is no universal version of English so the King or Queen's English is fine, for such a lordly maverick. Andrew Hanos210.11.113.219 06:43, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

ALL HAIL HIS MIGHTY WELLESIENESS!!!! A MAN OF GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS DESERVES HIGHER THAN KING'S ENGLISH and yes he was international. The British English is lovely as is. Parable1991 06:02, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Genealogy

If someone would add this link, it shows some primary documents about his family tree. Wjhonson 08:33, 1 February 2007 (UTC)


WTF

"Although never a suspect in the original investigation, Welles has been suggested by some as having been involved in the infamous Black Dahlia murder."

Wikipedia strikes again!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.151.192.164 (talk) 19:09, 5 February 2007

That's true, though. Maybe only by kooks but check out Black Dhalia and Mary Pacios' website. Doctor Sunshine 00:32, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

This is truly scurrilous and does not belong in wikipedia. Andrew Hanos. 203.0.237.32 00:35, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

Photograph!!

I found a great picture of Orson Welles; maybe we should use it! Image:Orson Welles.jpg

Thanks, but that photo is copyrighted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, so we can't use it. The one on the page now is public domain. Also, can you please sign your posts? Simply add ~~~~ at the end of your comment. —Chowbok ☠ 00:03, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Analysis?

One thing this needs is analysis: 1) of Welles' acting and directing styles, and 2) of why so many of his projects collapsed into disarray before completion. Not necessarily a big psychoprofile, but something to help explain the turbulence detailed in his work biography. PedEye1 21:23, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Touchofevil.jpg

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Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot 05:00, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Orson Welles category?

I would think that we would want an Orson Welles category. I can't see how he does not merit one. Anyone object? KConWiki 01:18, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

Welles' vs Welles's

I think either way is right, but the article is not consistent. Gorona (talk) 01:45, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

WP:WikiProject Actors and Filmmakers priority assessment

Per debate and discussion re: assessment of the approximate 100 top priority articles of the project, this article has been included as a top priority article. Wildhartlivie (talk) 00:45, 1 March 2008 (UTC)


Neutrality?

This doesn't sound neutral to me:

"Out of the blue, the studio wrested Touch of Evil from Welles' hands, re-edited it, re-shot scenes, and shot new exposition scenes to clarify the plot. Despite the trauma of having the film ripped from his creative control for no ostensible reason, Welles wrote a 58-page memo outlining suggestions and objections. The studio followed a few of the ideas, but cut another 30 minutes from the film and released it. Even in this state, the film was widely praised across Europe, awarded the top prize at the Brussels World's Fair."

It sounds as if Welles would have done the film right and the studio had no right to alter it. Welles worked - I assume - under contract wich - I assume - allowed the studio to do that. And if the film won a prize, that means that the studio couldn't be that wrong about what it did. I think it's not useful that the whole article sounds like Welles always knew what's best for the film, but the producers and studios never. This is a subjective, artistical point of view wich praises the director and blames the producers and the studio anything happens. 81.182.236.153 (talk) 13:32, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Darth Vader

Rumors of him being considered for a role should be documented. IMDB would not be a good source as the trivia section both describes him as declining the role and being declined for having too recognizable a voice. Novangelis (talk) 11:15, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Hmm, after a short period of time on google, I couldn't find any reliable sources for this information, however I do recall hearing this before. Tiggerjay (talk) 16:41, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Was Orson Welles part black?

I was recently watching one of his old early black-and-white films, The Stranger, and noticed that Welles had very apparent Negroid features. Obviously, he is not completely black, because he was playing a white man in the film, but he did not appear to be the typical Caucasian American. Are there any Orson Welles fans out there who have watched more of his movies? I wonder whether anyone else has noticed this, or is it just me. When I look at his current photograph on display here at Wikipedia (at the top of the article) I don't notice any sign of his being black at all, so I am quite confused. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.190.22.156 (talk) 00:54, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

Lucille Ball

At one point, the article says, "owned by his former protégé Lucille Ball and her husband Desi Arnaz"

In what sense can Lucille Ball be considered his protégé? Welles isn't mentioned even once in the Lucille Ball entry, but the "protégé" term would indicate a close, foundational relationship. --Eric.d.dixon (talk) 08:19, 30 August 2008 (UTC)


Although protégé is probably too strong a word, Welles did admire Ball's talent and featured her on his radio program at least once. He also wanted to cast her in the star role of "The Smiler with a Knife", one of his early Hollywood projects. That production failed largely because the studio disagreed with his choice of Ball, at that time one of their "stock" actresses, saying she was too old and could not handle a leading part. Welles discussed this at length in his book interview with Peter Bogdanovich. Stebbinwolf (talk) 18:24, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Orson Welles Mystery Theatre

In my high school sophomore English class 13 years ago, I remember watching many films (yes, on a 35mm projector) with an intro by Orson Welles intro-ing his "Mystery Theatre." While a lot of the titles of the short-story adaptations we saw escape me, I distinctly recall Bartelby the Scrivener being one of them. I've Googled and IMDB'd, to no avail. Please tell me I'm not losing my mind, and that there was indeed something like that on television or in the movies! And given that I'm most likely NOT remembering it wrong, surely that series (or film shorts) is notable enough to include here, yeah? --MicahBrwn (talk) 07:13, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

Trivia

  • Welles's persona and his problems in the 1950s and '60s are paid (under the alter ego of Leander Starr) an extremely witty and affectionate tribute in the 1962 novel Genius by Patrick Dennis, of Auntie Mame memory.
  • During Welles's radio years, he often freelanced and would split his time between the Mercury Theatre, CBS, Mutual and NBC, among others. Due to this, Welles rarely rehearsed, instead reading ahead during other actors' lines, a practice used by some radio stars of the time. Many of his co-stars on The Shadow have remarked about this in various interviews. There are a number of apocryphal stories where Welles was reported to have turned to an actor during the mid-show commercial break and commented that this week's story was fascinating and he couldn't wait to "find out how it all ends." Welles admitted to preferring the cold-reading style in his on-air performances as he described the hectic nature of radio work to Peter Bogdanovich in This Is Orson Welles: "Soon I was doing so many [programs] that I didn't even rehearse. I'd come to a bad end in some tearjerker on the seventh floor of CBS and rush up to the ninth (they'd hold an elevator for me), where, just as the red light was going on, somebody'd hand me a script and whisper, 'Chinese mandarin, seventy-five years old', and off I'd go again... Not rehearsing... made it so much more interesting. When I was thrown down the well or into some fiendish snake pit, I never knew how I'd get out."
  • Due to his busy radio schedule, he was hard pressed to find ways to get from job to job in busy New York City traffic. In an interview conducted in his later years, Welles tells how he "discovered that there was no law in New York that you had to be sick to travel in an ambulance." Therefore, he took to hiring ambulances to take him, sirens blazing, through the crowded streets to get to various buildings.
  • He was originally considered for the part of Darth Vader in Star Wars (1977), but George Lucas thought that Welles's voice would be too recognisable. Welles later lent his voice to the film's trailer.
  • Welles narrated Drippy the Runaway Raindrop by Sidney, Mary and Alexandra Sheldon which continues to be a popular English educational series in Japan.
  • He performed narration for two songs by the heavy metal band Manowar, a favorite of his niece. The narration of the song "Defender" from Fighting the World, released two years after his death, is among Welles's last performances.
  • Orsonwelles, a genus of linyphiid spiders from the Hawaiian Islands, was named in Welles's honor in 2002. Many species - like Orsonwelles othello, Orsonwelles macbeth, Orsonwelles falstaffius, Orsonwelles ambersonorum- are named after well-known characters played by the late actor.
  • Welles's ashes were buried on the property of a long time friend, retired bullfighter Antonio Ordoñez, in Ronda (Málaga), Spain. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.49.145.189 (talk) 18:56, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
  • A statue of Welles was recently unveiled in Split, Croatia. It was sculpted by Oja Kodar – Welles’s companion during the final years of his life.[1]
Why don't these warrent? Certainly some should go, i.e. the radio material would serve better being incorporated in the portion of his biography covering that era or the Mercury Theatre on the Air page, but the Spider genus? LamontCranston (talk) 20:36, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

self-contradictory material in article for removal

Section:

In his book, Whatever Happened to Orson Welles?, writer Joseph McBride claims that Welles left America in the 1950s to escape McCarthyism and the blacklist, though Welles himself denied this.[2] According to Welles, he personally asked the House Un-American Activities Committee to allow him to appear and "explain to you why I'm not a communist." They turned him down.[3]

According to McBride, Welles disapproved of many of the excesses of the 1960s, and disliked the counterculture in general. Much of The Other Side of the Wind is taken up with a satirical depiction of countercultural tastes and style. Welles was also extremely puritanical about sex, and told his friend and biographer Peter Bogdanovich that his film The Last Picture Show was "a dirty movie".[4] The only films Welles directed which contain overtly erotic elements are F for Fake and the unfinished Other Side of the Wind, which many attribute to Oja Kodar's influence.

The above material is garbage. The first paragraph is self-contradictory in that it wishes to claim that something is true and at the same time say that it is not true. If the person in question denied what is claimed, its difficult to understand what the point of this is. The second problem is that McBride offers no particular evidence that HUAC turned Welles down or that this offer was in fact ever made.
The second paragraph is even worse. It makes no sense. Welles is presented as a anti-counterculture sex prude even though two contemporary works of his contain erotic elements. Worse yet, we get conspiratorial garbage to the effect that Welles work doesn't reflect Welles but rather "influence" of Oja Kodar.

If anyone wants this material in the article, at a minimum it has to be presented in a coherent manner. The article cannot make claims that it then immendiatly contradicts. The article cannot offer theories about the influence of Oja Kodar. I dont see removing this material as controversial or even worth much discussion. Is anyone out there going to defend it? 70.234.224.231 (talk) 04:46, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

I've re-edited the section to keep the text but remove the contradictions in the text. 70.234.224.231 (talk) 05:06, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

I would say it represented a clear distinction between the statements of a biographer and his subject. Rich Farmbrough, 11:11, 2 February 2010 (UTC).

Refs

  1. ^ Orson Welles becomes "Citizen of Split"
  2. ^ McBride, Joseph (2006). What Ever Happened to Orson Welles?: A Portrait of an Independent Career. University Press of Kentucky. p. 105. ISBN 0-813-12410-7.
  3. ^ McBride, Joseph (2006). What Ever Happened to Orson Welles?: A Portrait of an Independent Career. University Press of Kentucky. p. 55. ISBN 0-813-12410-7.
  4. ^ McBride, Joseph (2006). What Ever Happened to Orson Welles?: A Portrait of an Independent Career. University Press of Kentucky. p. 145. ISBN 0-813-12410-7.
Rich Farmbrough, 11:17, 2 February 2010 (UTC).

Hilarious if true

In 1937, he rehearsed Marc Blitzstein's pro-union "labour opera" The Cradle Will Rock.

Since the unions forbade the actors and musicians performing from the stage, The Cradle Will Rock began with Blitzstein introducing the show and playing the piano accompaniment on stage, with the cast performing their parts from the audience.

208.127.59.28 (talk) 00:00, 14 May 2009 (UTC)

No it was the WPA-FTP, and the whole affair is actually blown out of proportion - it was really just some political technicalities and they asked it be delayed a day or two. You dont see the same level of attention being lavished on Living Newspaper which was subject to censorship and condemnation on a number of occasions due to depictions of Italies invasion of Ethiopia and domestic labor strife. LamontCranston (talk) 20:29, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Ancestry accuracy

Surely his father was not "Richard Head Welles" -- that must be mischief. —Preceding unsigned comment added by You, Me and Everyone Else (talk • contribs) 13:24, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

It should be double-checked, but Head is a surname still around in England. Actor/Singer Murray Head (Judas in the original 1968 album "Jesus Christ Superstar") and his brother Anthony Head (Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer) are an example.--WickerGuy (talk) 13:29, 25 July 2010 (UTC)
Yessir. Richard Head Welles. See Orson Welles, a biography by Barbara Leaming--WickerGuy (talk) 13:32, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Regarding the reference to Gideon Welles, "Perhaps the genesis of the myth dates to a 1970 interview on The Dick Cavett Show during which Welles remarks about his venerable great-grandfather Gideon Welles." In a radio broadcast in 1944 he referred to Gideon as has "great-grand-uncle" which predates this by 26 years, and gives the relationship as being different, and not contradicted by the evidence mentioned in the article. This occurs about 3 minutes into the show, downloadable at http://www.archive.org/download/1944OrsonWellesRadioAlmanacpart1/440503_Lucille_Ball_AFRS_64kb.mp3


96.251.199.205 (talk) 02:34, 21 September 2010 (UTC)billybob —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.251.199.205 (talk) 02:30, 21 September 2010 (UTC)

Treasure Island

I say keep the image - I don't see how it fits speedy deletion criteria. --Scott Free (talk) 14:56, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Unreferenced "dispute" about The Third Man

Some user accounts are persisting with a claim that there is some "dispute" or vague rumor which states that Welles, rather than Reed, directed The Third Man. This is clearly unsupported -- there is no reliable source for this claim and none has been offered. (One brief speculation by a fringe viewpoint like Dan Schneider does not qualify as a scholarly source nor does it pass Wikipedia criteria forWP:UNDUE). All books and documentaries only mention Reed. More importantly, in his 1969 interview with Peter Bogdanovich (This is Orson Welles, page 220), Welles specifically said he made only minor contributions to the film -- and stated the film was all Greene, Reed and Korda. Without any reliable citations or references, this "dispute" remains a fanciful rumor, violates WP policy on WP:OR and WP:BOP and should be removed. — CactusWriter | needles 16:50, 13 July 2009 (UTC)

Apparent contradiction - Citizen Kane

"...making back its budget and marketing, but RKO lost any chance of a major profit. .... Its frequent revivals on television, home video, and DVD have enhanced its "classic" status, and it ultimately recouped its costs."

So did it break even at the time or only after 30 or 40 years? Rich Farmbrough, 11:16, 2 February 2010 (UTC).

Begatting of the President

Who wrote it if not Orson Welles? I am not questioning whether the statement that he was not the writer is true, but rather requesting a citation and a point of information as to the actual author. 69.253.96.227 (talk) 06:38, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

List of awards and nominations received by Orson Welles

This new article has the details of all awards and nominations received by Orson Welles. I think a different article is not necessary and should be merged into Orson Welles.--Nilotpal42 (talk) 19:37, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

Consistent possessive needed

Both "Welles's" and "Welles'" are used within the article. According to the Manual of Style either is legitimate but we should agree on which one to use to make the article consistent. Does anybody have any strong (and useful) opinions?

For my part as the name is mono-syllabic I think that we should settle on "Welles's" as that probably reflects most people in the English speaking world's verbal pronunciation. Blakkandekka (talk) 10:02, 10 September 2010 (UTC)

  • I concur. But then I was brought up on Strunk & White which prescribes "Welles's". Herostratus (talk) 18:09, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
I changed all possessives to "Welles's" which seems to be the most standard one. Thanks for bringing this up. Grunge6910 (talk) 14:07, 11 September 2010 (UTC)
Great, thank you. Herostratus (talk) 15:39, 11 September 2010 (UTC)

Unfinished projects tidy-up

A long while ago I started the 'Unfinished Projects' section. Since then it's grown more than a little unwieldy and has been sitting under a refimprove tag for more than a year. I've therefore tidied it up, categorised it and removed the biggest sections of uncited material. The offcuts I've been left with are below. Can references and space for them in other sections (Final Years, perhaps) be found?

Director and friend Henry Jaglom said of this period: "These same stars and whiz kid directors wouldn't help him get one of his movies made. Any one of these people could have made Orson's life so much happier these past 10 years just by nodding their heads."[citation needed] The same theme was repeated by another Welles friend, singer Eartha Kitt after Welles's death: "The way Hollywood treated him was a form of envy, jealousy. He died a frustrated man. In the eyes of Hollywood he never achieved Citizen Kane again, but ironically Hollywood wouldn't let him achieve another great success like Kane."
In his later years Welles became a regular fixture at the Hollywood restaurant "Ma Maison" (part owned by chef Wolfgang Puck) where he would try to enlist the aid of financiers, producers and directors to back his various film projects. Although he was unable to obtain any funding, Welles came close with two of them: The Big Brass Ring and The Cradle Will Rock. Producer Arnon Milchan agreed to produce The Big Brass Ring if any one of six actors—Warren Beatty, Clint Eastwood, Paul Newman, Jack Nicholson, Robert Redford, or Burt Reynolds—would sign on to star. All six declined for various reasons.
Independent funding for The Cradle Will Rock had been obtained and actors had signed on, including Rupert Everett to play the young Orson Welles. Location filming was to be done in New York City with studio work in Italy. While pre-production went smoothly, three weeks before filming was to begin the money fell through. Allegedly, Welles approached Steven Spielberg to ask for assistance in rescuing the film, but Spielberg declined. The scripts to both films were published posthumously. After a studio auction, he complained that Spielberg spent $50,000 for the Rosebud sled used in Citizen Kane, but would not give him a dime to make a picture. Welles retaliated by publicly announcing the sled to be a fake, the original having been burned in the film.
The 1995 documentary Orson Welles: One-Man Band, included on the Criterion Collection DVD release of F for Fake, features scenes from several of these unfinished projects, as well as footage of Welles reading chapters from Moby-Dick; and a comedy skit taking place in a tailor shop and co-starring Charles Gray. One short, also included in the documentary, is a comedy routine in which Welles (filmed in the 1970s) plays a reporter interviewing a king, also played by Welles, but in footage shot in the 1960s. Welles finished the skit and edited it together years later. The documentary also includes two completed and edited sequences from the unreleased The Other Side of the Wind, and footage from an unbroadcast television pilot for a talk show (he is shown interviewing The Muppets and discussing his rationale for doing the talk show, which was produced in the round). The documentary is built around a college lecture given by Welles not long before his death, in which he displays frustration at being unable to complete so many projects and having spent so much of his career raising money for films rather than doing creative work.

Blakk and ekka 14:27, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Orson Welles height in feet/inches/centimeters

If first it says that he was "6 feet (180 cm)" tall, how come that further below in the same paragraph it says that other sources claim that he was "6 feet 4 inches (193 cm)", and "6 feet 1 inch (185 cm)" if 1 inch = 2.5 cm?

I mean 6 feet 4 inches should be approx. 190 cm (not 193 cm), and 6 feet 1 inch should be approx. 182,5 cm (and not 185 cm).

No, it's actually the first figure that's incorrect: 6 feet is approx. 182.88 cm (see here: Feet Inches to Centimeters Conversion Calculator and Table)

--Wayfarer (talk) 01:02, 29 April 2011 (UTC)

1974 BBC Interview

There's a 1974 Parkinson interview with Orson Welles on YouTube here: [1]

"Influenced" section of infobox

There appears to be a lot of action recently in the "Influenced" section of the infobox that, to me, appears POV. I would think there is no limit to the number of people "influenced" by Orson Welles. Is there some standard that would warrant the inclusion of particular names? — WFinch (talk) 01:20, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

There's surely a case for just removing both the 'influenced' and 'influenced by' sections. Neither could be distilled down to three or four names adequately and still be NPOV. 'Influenced by Shakespeare' seems to be redundant for a start (who isn't?).Blakk and ekka 16:17, 24 July 2012 (UTC)
I agree that removing those two sections should be considered. Those fields have been left blank in the article infobox for Laurence Olivier, a comparable artist notable in multiple fields. The template guidelines advise, "Only use those parameters that convey essential or notable information about the subject." The names of most of the people listed in this article infobox in the 'influenced' and 'influenced by' sections don't appear in the body of the article, and those that do (John Ford, William Shakespeare) aren't present because of their influence on Welles. Orson Welles's notability is not related to his influence on the people listed. As they read right now, those two sections of the infobox do not convey "essential or notable information about the subject of the article." — WFinch (talk) 09:27, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Request for comment at Template talk:Infobox person

A discussion is under way: RfC: Should the "influences" & "influenced" parameters be removed?

An abbreviated version of the Infobox person template, lacking those fields, is used in the Orson Welles article. For at least a year now, these fields have been persistently added to the infobox by anonymous editors and unsourced, subjective lists of names have been contributed. Comments are requested on the infobox person template talk page (scroll down to the "Survey" section). — WFinch (talk) 13:06, 16 July 2013 (UTC)

Following a survey and discussion, the "influences" and "influenced" parameters have been removed from the Infobox person template and are no longer supported. — WFinch (talk) 00:14, 23 July 2013 (UTC)

Radio Broadcast Claim

I refer to the line " The War of the Worlds (1938), the most famous broadcast in the history of radio ". I'd like to see some references to back up this claim please. While it may very well be true, as it stands, it reads more like someone's personal opinion. Robvanvee (talk) 17:15, 7 October 2012 (UTC)

It's been 5 days since I last posted on this issue. As of yet no one has commented. If there are no objections, I'm going to edit the sentence to read " The War of the Worlds (1938), possibly the most famous broadcast in the history of radio " in 7 days time. Unless someone can provide references to back this statement up. Robvanvee (talk) 08:58, 12 October 2012 (UTC)

I wouldn't object to you doing it now. Off the top of my head Herbert Morrison's Hindenberg disaster commentary and We shall fight on the beaches (which Churchill adapted for radio) are equally notable and there must be many others. Blakk and ekka 11:03, 12 October 2012 (UTC)

Thanks Blakkandekka. I'll wait to see if anyone can provide references or to see if there are any objections, if that's ok with you? Robvanvee (talk) 11:26, 12 October 2012 (UTC)

I'd agree with either "possibly the most" or "one of the most famous broadcasts" — although I think I'd prefer the latter since there's no air of POV about it. — WFinch (talk) 12:18, 12 October 2012 (UTC)

Agreed Wfinch Robvanvee (talk) 13:02, 13 October 2012 (UTC)

When his mother died

Welles tells Cavett, in interview done sometime in the 70s, that his mom died when he was seven. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1fauAc48tA&list=PL0563F28E249DFDC4&index=3 (at the 2 min. 42 sec. mark of clip)

(Not necessarily with determining this particular fact, but in general; I suspect, given his personality, line of work, and type of life experiences, that 'facts would not get in the way of a good story' with Welles - perhaps that cliche was started in reference to Mr Welles. He is likely not the most source for facts even regarding, or perhaps particularly so, his own life.) Mayumashu (talk) 19:54, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

Editing With Wikipedia's New VisualEditor

The edits I made on 07:51, 16 June 2013‎, were the first that I've done with Wikipedia's new VisualEditor. One thing I noticed is that it changed a lot of the spacing and some mark-up automatically. I guess it's an improvement to the original article, but if anyone sees a problem, feel free to revert my edits.

The only purposeful edits I did were the ones that were copyedits.

Jeremy Butler 12:58, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

Infobox image

I've restored the Carl van Vechten image of Orson Welles to the infobox. This 1937 photograph presents Welles on the eve of his fame and shows the imposing presence he possessed at age 21. Perhaps consensus is needed to continue its use as the article's signature image, which it has been for many years. — WFinch (talk) 01:44, 20 August 2013 (UTC)

I prefer the Kane image by far over van Vechten's since it's much better IMO, and because it represents him at his career's highest point. Why show him in a bland pose on the eve of his fame when you can show him at the moment of it? The rationale for removing it because the other was by a "notable photographer" is irrelevant, even if the photo was good by comparison. --Light show (talk) 03:35, 20 August 2013 (UTC)
The recently uploaded publicity photo of Welles, copied from eBay, is a stock photograph from Photofest distributed by the A&E Network to promote its Biography series in 1994. It is a scan of a copy of a photograph with a source that is unattributed; nothing on the front or back even identifies the image as being from Citizen Kane. The Van Vechten photograph, from the collection of the Library of Congress, is regarded as a fine image and suits an article that encompasses Welles's life and achievements in stage and radio as well as film. — WFinch (talk) 00:03, 21 August 2013 (UTC)
I revised the photo's description removing the reference to Citizen Kane, and set its date as circa 1940. I think the fact that A&E Network chose it to publicize their televised biography, speaks strongly of the quality of the image. --Light show (talk) 03:55, 21 August 2013 (UTC)
Both are impressive photos but personally I would prefer an non-character image of Welles (or at least while only performing his 'Orson Welles' character) at the article head. Blakk and ekka 08:58, 21 August 2013 (UTC)

Height

He was never 6'3.5". (CWLilius (talk) 18:30, 21 February 2015 (UTC))

Orson Welles was 6'2" (about 189 centimeters) during his young adulthood when he filmed Citizen Kane. He stayed at the same height for quite a few years during the 40s and 50s according to various sources. While the IMDb states his height as 6', that was only in his older age when he was very ill and heavy. Some loss of height in older age is a common fact. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kotofski (talk • contribs) 22:55, 1 July 2021 (UTC)

Religion

This infobox says that he's Christian, but we also have that quote which says that he's an atheist (stated later in life). So wouldn't the latter be true? My guess is that Welles started off with some form of belief in Christianity in his early life, but lost it towards the end.

Template:Infobox person advises that the religion field be completed "only if relevant". I frankly don't think it's enough of a leading characteristic to be called out in the infobox at all. His height was recently removed from the infobox as not being relevant, and that wasn't challenged; perhaps the religion field can be left blank, as well. — WFinch (talk) 01:10, 18 May 2015 (UTC)

Regarding Too Much Johnson

If The Immortal Story remains counted in the template as a feature film, why is Too Much Johnson still considered a short? The latter is (apparently) 66 minutes, which would actually make it longer than the former.

Very interesting. I can't think of it as an unfinished feature film, though; as the National Film Preservation Board puts it, "This 2014 edit of the Too Much Johnson work print is one rough guess at how the three films—the short silent movies intended to precede each act of the 1938 stage production—might have looked if Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre colleagues had completed them." — WFinch (talk) 14:00, 9 July 2015 (UTC)
There are actually two versions that have been released: a 66-minute version, and a 35-minute version. The 35-minute version is clearly a short, and has been fully edited by George Eastman House. The 66-minute version is simply an amalgamation of all the surviving footage, run from end to end without editing - it includes multiple takes of the same scenes. So it's fairer to say that it is a short. Added to which, it was never intended to be a standalone film, but just a series of filmed inserts (albeit very elaborate ones!) for the play. Debonairchap (talk) 07:55, 17 May 2016 (UTC)

Mother's Birth Date

The article gives his mother's birth date as September 1, 1881. An efn notice has been placed there noting that the article is going by the year on her headstone. The "Illinois Deaths and Stillbirths, 1916-1947" database gives her date of birth as September 1, 1883 (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N3CV-JXT). Her headstone only includes the year 1881, with no date. Her marriage certificate gives her age on November 21, 1903 as 23, which would correspond to her being born before November 21, 1880 (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N74D-56L). What is Wikipedia's policy with such discrepancies? Typically in my own genealogical research, I tend to go with the source which is most specific (i.e. If there's a headstone with only a year but a death record with a day, a month, and a different year than the headstone, I'm going to go with the death record.)VladJ92 (talk) 02:38, 12 November 2016 (UTC)

The Wikipedia policy calls for a reliable source, preferably a reliable secondary source. Fortunately, in the years since this information was entered (by me), one has been published: Patrick McGilligan's Young Orson (2015), the only biography that acknowledges the contradictions. Regarding Beatrice's birth, he writes (page 9), "Though accounts vary, the baby girl was most likely born on September 1, 1883."
A grave marker dated 1881 rather than 1883 is quite a contradiction, though. In addition to the fact that her husband (not to mention Dr. Bernstein) would have ordered the stone, a primary source supports the 1881 date. The 1900 Federal Census taken in Chicago on June 4, 1900, states Beatrice's date of birth as September 1881 (only the month and year are requested), and her age as 18. Robert L. Carringer (The Magnificent Ambersons: A Reconstruction, page 8) obliquely supports 1881 as Beatrice's birth year by writing that she was 42 when she died on May 10, 1924.
Barbara Leaming (Orson Welles, page 15) and Jonathan Rosenbaum (This Is Orson Welles, page 326) state that Beatrice was 43 at the time of her death, which would mean that she was born in 1880.
Some biographers obliquely state 1882 as the birth year by stating her age at the time of her marriage on November 21, 1903. These include Charles Higham, who did a good deal of genealogical research for Orson Welles: The Rise and Fall of an American Genius. He deliberately contradicts the age listed in the Cook County Marriages Index when he writes (page 33) that Beatrice was "just twenty-one in 1903". David Thomson concurs, writing in Rosebud: The Story of Orson Welles (page 7) that Beatrice was "married in November 1903 … she was twenty one". Simon Callow (The Road to Xanadu, page 7) directly states that Beatrice was born in 1882.
Frank Brady (Citizen Welles, page 8) writes that Beatrice was "just barely forty" when she died, which seems to support 1883 as the year of her birth.
So, with all that now on the record, I agree that the most reliable birthdate for Wikipedia purposes is September 1, 1883, supported by McGilligan, and I'll correct the article and the note. I'm glad this came up — what a tangle! — WFinch (talk) 15:59, 12 November 2016 (UTC)

Politics

Should the refimprove template still be up for this section? It appears most statements are sourced. The ones that aren't can be tagged with "citation needed". AndrewOne (talk) 16:16, 28 March 2017 (UTC)

I trimmed the template and added calls for citations at two points. The sources are present, as you say; but this section could sure use some development. — WFinch (talk) 19:20, 29 September 2017 (UTC)

Marriage templates in infobox

The infobox used in this article is Template:Infobox person, currently used on more than 302,000 pages. The template documentation states that the spouse field be completed as follows:

Name of spouse(s), followed by years of marriage. Use the format Name (married 1950–present) for a current spouse, and Name (married 1970–99) for former spouse(s). Use article title (if linking) or common name. For multiple entries, use an inline list. For deceased persons still married at time of death, close the date range with death year.

In recent years, various editors have reformatted the information in the spouse field of the Orson Welles infobox by using the Template:Marriage. This template provides a great deal more detail, and is today being used on approximately 23,000 pages.

I would ask that editors who wish to use the marriage template in the Infobox:Person template propose the change and argue the merits at Template talk:Infobox person. The idea of using the marriage template as an alternative for presenting the spouse information has been raised before, but doesn't appear to have gone anywhere. — WFinch (talk) 13:18, 24 April 2018 (UTC)

No changes to propose, no merits to argue, as it is already there. It has been many years (more than half of Wikipedia's lifetime) since an example was added to the Template:Infobox person documentation showing how an editor would use Template:Marriage when populating Template:Infobox person. Furthermore, the day Template:Marriage was created all those years ago (and still there today, slightly updated), it included the opening statement that "The Template:Marriage would typically be in an infobox, such as in Infobox person's spouse field." This was added early in the life of Infobox person and has been present ever since - because it has been an informative tool, proven to be used-and-useful for thousands of editors, applied in this two-template tandem, for more than half of Wikipedia's lifetime. Jmg38 (talk) 00:09, 15 March 2019 (UTC)
Please get consensus for using Template:Marriage at Template talk:Infobox person. — WFinch (talk) 16:30, 16 March 2019 (UTC)

Dick Cavett Interview

Anything from this interview worth adding to the article - his interactions with Churchill, Roosevelt, even his forgettable meeting of Hitler? MartinezMD (talk) 00:49, 1 July 2019 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion:

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 11:06, 16 September 2019 (UTC)

Same-day death.

Welles died the same day as actor Yul Brynner, who was five years younger than Welles.Maccb (talk) 04:09, 8 December 2019 (UTC)

International ?

Introduction said : In 1938, his radio anthology series The Mercury Theatre on the Air gave Welles the platform to find international fame.... It might be more accurate to write "national" fame, or "continental". --Marc-AntoineV (talk) 04:41, 5 March 2020 (UTC)

Lead section too long?

A template was added to this article in April 2020, requesting consideration of whether the lede for this article is too long. Given the length of the article, I think the length of the lead section in its present form is appropriate. — WFinch (talk) 13:20, 12 September 2020 (UTC)

Congrats for writing a good article.

That "career" section was one of the most fascinating things I have read in a long time. Major kudos to those who have worked on this section. MightyArms (talk) 01:34, 29 December 2020 (UTC)

The Free Company

In the spring of 1941, Welles got involved in this patriotic project by James Boyd. He and his Mercury players were in one of the plays “His Honor, the Mayor”, discussing free speech issues. Predictably, Herast did not like it, and there were ads and editorials. There should be some discussion of this, maybe in the ‘Citizen Kane’ section? 2A00:23C7:E284:CF00:1DF8:F103:A732:80DC (talk) 11:08, 20 January 2021 (UTC)

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