Letters to the Dead: Things I Wish I'd Said. Ann Palmer
U.S. and abroad. You produced, wrote, and directed several television pilots that did not sell. Acting throughout your life and your last screen appearance was as yourself in “Jaglom’s,” and “Someone to Love” in 1987. I doubt that anyone narrated the countless feature films, documentaries, and television shows as you did. You were able to make a very good living as a commercial spokesman. With as many talents and ambition as you had, then not to be totally accepted, I can understand why you did not feel you were accepted or appreciated. The fact was, you were just too much for the industry to accept and appreciate. Even though I never met with an ounce of success compared to you, I can identify with having a variety of talents that generally the world cannot accept in one person. It seems that everyone must be pigeon-holed in one job or profession. When I pursued a career as a producer and was able to get a job at an Advertising Agency, I learned that there was little or no creativity. I felt like a glorified errand girl with only a title. Since we were both born under the sign of Taurus, perhaps it produces multitalented people.
Where ever you are creating in the Great Beyond, I hope you get this letter through thought forms and know that you were loved, very respected and appreciated by millions of folks who are still struggling in life. Your work is still honored and will remain very respected. I feel sure it will continue indefinitely and you will always be one of the greatest icons in the film industry!
POSTSCRIPT: I heard Merv Griffin on a talk show describing his last interview with you. He was instructed by you not to talk about the past – it was gone and forgotten. A later stipulation was that Merv ask anything he wanted to ask. He said he did and it was a wonderful revealing interview. Merv then said that you went home and died two hours later. Fascinating!
ORSON WELLES WIVES AND CHILDREN:
Virginia Nicholson – (1934-1940) (divorced) Christopher (b. 1937)
Rita Hayworth – (1943-1948 (divorced) 1 daughter Rebecca Welles
Paola Mori - (1955-1985) Beatrice (b. 1955)
GENERAL INFORMATION:
Orson Welles had a mother who was a beautiful concert pianist, unfortunately, she die when he was only eight years old. His father, a wealthy inventor, took his young son with him, while traveling the world, until he died when Orson was only twelve; he then became the ward of Chicago’s Dr. Maurice Bernstein. Orson was a very gifted child. His talents included the piano and magic. He graduated from the Todd School in Woodstock IL in 1931. In his teens, Orson began acting, writing, and directing for theater. He turned down college offers to go on a sketching tour of Ireland. He also traveled to Morocco and Spain where he fought in a bullring. He made his New York debut in 1934, as Tybalt in Katherine Cornell’s road company. In the same year he married, directed and appeared on radio for the first time. He was the voice for Lamont Cranston, THE SHADOW. He teamed up with John Housman in 1937 to form the Mercury Theatre, which broadcast “The War of the Worlds” that rocked the world! It was intended to be a Halloween prank; however it set in motion panic and mass hysteria. The broadcast consisted of a musical program interrupted with news bulletins, eyewitness accounts that Martian aliens were invading the Earth. The America icon, “Citizen Kane,” in 1941, was considered a commercial failure at that time, losing RKO $150,000. Today film buffs regarded it as the best film ever made. Winning only one Academy Award for Best Screenplay, “Citizen Cane” had nine nominations. He was only twenty-five years old at the time. Orson Welles was one of only five actors to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his first screen appearance. Regardless of his abundant talent, he never got along with studios executives and always had getting his ideas across.
Finally, in 1948, he left Hollywood for Europe. In 1958 he won a prize at the Brussels World’s Fair with the “Touch of Evil.” He received the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award, in 1984 the Directors Guild of America awarded him its highest honor, the D.W. Griffith Award, and in 1988 Orson Welles was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame.
ONLY A FEW OF THE UNBELIVABLE LIST OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
Pulp Cinema (2001), AMC Backstory: The Long Hot Summer (2001), A Huey P. Newton Story (2001), Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces (2000), Shylock (1999), The Best of the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts (1998) (TV), The Great Depression (1998), Martian Mania: The True Story of The War of the Worlds (1998), Orson Welles: The One-Man Band (1996), Welles and Hearst (1996), Who Is Henry Jaglom? (1996), The Battle Over Citizen Kane (1996), A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995), The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Movies (1995), It’s All True (1993) Don Quixote (1992), Orson Welles: What Went Wrong? (1992), Here’s Looking at You, Warner Bros. (1991), Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio (1991) (voice) (archive radio broadcast), Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (1991), John Ford (1990), Stars and Stripes (1990), Hollywood Mavericks (1990), Someone to Love (1987), The Transformers: The Movie (1986), Matrix Forever (1989), Orson Welles’ Magic Show (1985), Scene of the Crime (1985), Almonds and Raisins (1984), The Enchanted Journey (1984), In Our Hands (1984), The Spirit of Charles Lindbergh (1984) The Road to Bresson (1984), The American Film Institute Salute to John Huston (1983), Hot Money (1983), Getting Centred (1983), Going for Broke (1983), The Great Madison County Robbery (1983), Never Trust an Honest Thief (1983), Zen Business (1983), Where Is Parsifal? (1983), Slapstick (Of Another Kind) (1982), Butterfly (1982), Genocide (1981), Search for the Titanic (1981),, History of the World: Part I(1981), Mel Brooks’ History of the World: Part 1 (1981), Tales of the Klondike (1981), The Tomorrow (1980), James Clavell’s Shogun (1980), The Secret Life of Nikola Tesla (1980), Sinatra: The First 40 Years (1980), The Double McGuffin (1979), The Muppet Movie (1979), The Late Great Planet Earth (1979), Filming ‘Othello’ (1978), The Magic of David Copperfield (1978), Tut: The Boy King (1978) (TV), A Woman Called Moses (1978), Hot Tomorrows (1978), NBC: The First Fifty Years - A Closer Look, Part Two (1978), The Biggest Battle (1977), The Lions of Capitalism (1977), Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1977) “Moonlighting” (1985), “Magnum, P.I. (1980) several, The ABC Comedy Hour (1972), Night Gallery (1970), The Name of the Game (1968), The Jackie Gleason Show (1966), Biography (1961), I’ve Got a Secret (1952), I Love Lucy (1951), Toast of the Town (1948), Omnibus (1952), Citizen Kane (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Jane Eyre (1944), The Stranger (1946), The Lady From Shanghai (1948), Macbeth (1948), The Third Man (1949), Othello (1952), Mr. Arkadin (1955), Touch of Evil (1958), Compulsion (1959),The Trial (1963), Chimes at Midnight/Falstaff (1966), F for Fake (1975).
DIRECTOR:
Moby Dick (1999), It’s All True (1993), Don Quixote (1992), Orson Welles’ Magic Show (1985), The Spirit of Charles Lindbergh (1984), Orson Welles Show (1979), Filming ‘Othello’ (1978), Other Side of the Wind, The (1972), London (1971), The Deep (1970), The Merchant of Venice (1969), The Southern Star (1969), Vienna (1968), The Immortal Story (1968), In the Land of Don Quixote” (1964), No Exit (1962), David and Goliath (1961), Portrait of Gina (1958), The Fountain of Youth (1958), Touch of Evil (1958), Orson Welles and People (1956), Around the World with Orson Welles” (1955), Mr. Arkadin (1955), The Orson Welles Sketchbook (1955), The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice (1952), Black Magic (1949), Macbeth (1948), The Lady from Shanghai (1948), The Stranger (1946), Journey Into Fear (1942), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Citizen Kane (1941), Too Much Johnson (1938), Hearts of Age (1934)
PRODUCER:
Orson Welles’ Magic Show (1985), The Deep (1970), Vienna (1968), In the Land of Don Quixote (1964), Orson Welles and People (1956), Mr. Arkadin (1955), The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice (1952), Macbeth (1948), The Lady from Shanghai (1948), Jane Eyre (1944),, Journey Into Fear (1942), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Citizen Kane (1941), Too Much Johnson (1938)
MISCELLANEOUS CONTRIBUTIONS:
Continental (1989) (acknowledgement), Trick or Treats (1982) (consultant), In the Land of Don Quixote (1964) (additional photographer), The Fountain of Youth (1958) (designer) (music