Orson Welles

 
H.G. Wells once met Orson Welles on a radio program but the former was not there when the latter took liberties with the fictional narrative and transformed it into a mediatic event, like a real invasion from the planet Mars. The instruments of Radio and the powers of sound were entirely at their disposal. It was the invention of propaganda. It also had the desired effect, terrorising men and women, making both men famous.

Then some time later, on radio, Orson Welles was reading a Walt Whitman poem when his voice was suddenly interrupted to announce that Pearl Harbour had just been attacked. Guess what people thought. Evidently he received a letter from President Roosevelt himself reproaching him for being indiscrete.

 
Misconstrued often he seemed, he had a firm sense of who he was. During the making of 'Touch of Evil', he threw a party but on the evening returned home late and he still had all his thick fatman make-up on as the corrupt police inspector. His guests some of whom, Hollywood's important moguls, greeted him, "Hi Orson, you're looking great!"

He had the look in his eyes of someone who knew something no one else did. Bob Dylan once said 'that' was the kind of artist he wanted to be. What may this something be? Magic? Welles was a trained illusionist. Perhaps it was this ability that set him apart from the other dramatists of his time. Something about the veneers of superficiality he knew. Evidently his production of 'Moby Dick' at the West End, apart from being a hoot, was an unprecedented theatrical feat, as the stage was made to look like the open sea with waves and all the rest of it. There were on the stage the likes of Kenneth Williams and Joan Plowright in an illustrious cast list before the names became household.

In 1968, Orson Welles met Peter Bogdanovich. They became allies. Peter asked Orson for an interview. There was more than one. The interviews were recorded over the following couple of years at various locations. The transcripts became a book called 'This is Orson Welles', edited by Bogdanovich of course. Some generous organisation has maded some of them available online.

There are eight episodes in the version downloaded from 'www.archives.org'. Each episode is about 25 mintues long beginning with answering how come he had a beard when he arrived in Hollywood: >>>>>