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THREE TROUBLESOME

CITIZENS

WO or three years ago a young American named Orson Welles hit the headlines by producing a radio play about an invasion from Mars which was so_ realistic that according to most reports, it brought half the inhabitants of the United States to their knees in the firm belief that the end of the world was at hand. Since that memorable day of mass hysteria, Mr. Welles has contrived to keep himself fairly consistently in the headlines. With a flair for publicity which Barnum might have envied, he grew himself a beard and, when a sarcastic newspaper"man sent him a bearded ham for Christmas, he saw to it that the fact was duly recorded; recorded also was the news that he had been dubbed " Little Orson Annie" because Hollywood didn’t seem to want his pictures, and that a playful actor had cut off his tie with a table knife one night while Mr. Welles was dining out. Another of his newsworthy exploits was to make himself the centre wf solicitous attention at a popular restaurant by arriving on crutches with one foot heavily bandaged, and then, when the band struck up a hot rhumba, throwing away the crutches and stepping out with abandon. Explosion! ’ And now this bright young man-he is only 25 years old-has put himself back in the headlines again by producing a film, Citizen Kane, which, as everyone realised as soon as they saw it, was not only revolutionary in technique, but also highly explosive in sub-ject-matter. The explosion was not long in happening. It happened when a special preview of Citizen Kane was given to Louella Parsons, famous Hollywood correspondent of the Hearst newspapers. In the words of Time, "Loly Parsons: nearly fell out of her chair." As well she might. For it was plain that Orson Welles, as cheeky as he is bold and clever, had drawn the char-

acter of Citizen Kane, a corrupt newspaper publisher, in the very close image of William Randolph Hearst. Aldous Huxley had already done much the same thing on paper, in After Many a Summer, but Welles had done it with more vigour, more punch, and all the illumination of the film medium, improved and renovated for the purpose by a playful young fellow setting out to make the best of a good method of dragon-bearding. The Chauffeur Enjoyed It "The seed of suspicion," said Time, "had been deftly planted in the Parsons mind"a week before. She had not been included among Hollywood’s journalistic elite who saw the initial preview of Citizen Kane." A week later, at her own insistence, RKO gave-a special screening for Miss Parsons. With her she togk her chauffeur and two lawyers. The chauffeur enjoyed the picture. Miss Parsons and the lawyers, in the descriptive language of Time, "rose like a geyser. As the lights came on they steamed out." After that the explosion began to rock Hollywood. For Mr. Hearst’s reviewer and Mr. Hearst’s lawyers-and apparently the mighty Mr. Hearst himself-were anything but pleased, it seemed, by the likeness which Citizen Welles had drawn between Citizen Kane of the film story and Citizen Hearst of the real-life sen-sation-mongering newspaper chains, the castle in California, the imported antiques, the this, the that, and all that’s marvellous. There was not even a very discreet veil drawn over Mr. Hearst’s more private life. In the cast of the picture was an actress with no small resemblance to Marion Davies. Rumours of Libel Hearst newspapers immediately banned all mention of RKO picturesnot just of Citizen Kane, but of the whole lot. Mr. Welles put this down as all good publicity. Time valued it as being worth several thousand dollars, and reported that it would help con-

siderably as advertisement when RKO officials decided to release the picture, notwithstanding rumours of libel. For a libel action was a two-edged weapon; if Citizen Hearst decided to sue for damages, how could he succeed without publicity pointing out the similarities between himself and Citizen Kane? But-shadows fell across this bright publicity prospect. Mr. Heart had other weapons in his armoury. Three months later, with the film still not released, it appeared that Hollywood was " about to turn upon and destroy its greatest creation" (Time again, with some exaggeration). Everything pointed to the withdrawal of the picture. Mr. Hearst’s 1 ers had not been idle. According to Time, Louis B. Mayer, the head of M.G.M., and an old Hearst friend and Hollywood’s spiritual shepherd, had been approached and had listened to hints that the release of Citizen Kane would mean a Hearstwide attack on Hollywood through the back garden, with plenty of muck-raking about the intimate lives of the movie colony. Hearst’s gossip-writing columnist, Adela Rogers St. John, was reported to have been placed in the firingline. Appeasement? Louis B. Mayer gathered his own forces and worked fast for appeasement. He was in a position to drop hints in the right quarters to the effect that RKO didn’t control many theatres in which to show a film, whereas Louis B. Mayer did. There was talk that, rather than withstand a yellow press attack on the whole movie industry, other studios would chip in to defray the 800,000 dollars which RKO. had spent on. Citizen Kane. Orson Welles was constrained to announce that he would rather see Citizen Kane die unopened than put RKO in difficulties, However, news at last leaked out from the palatial surroundings of Mr. Hearst himself. The mighty man admitted that personally he didn’t care whether the picture was released or not. Reassured by this news, RKO execu-

tives ordered the release of Citizen Kane (it is now in New Zealand). Hollywood, and all other citizens who had been following the affair with eager interest, agreed that the man who had scared Mars out of half America with a radio thriller had come out on top again with another big story. But in the back of all their minds was now a big question-mark: was Orson Welles just abnormally lucky-or was he an inspired publicity-hunter? In other words, could the whole thing have been just a stunt?

This article text was automatically generated and may include errors. View the full page to see article in its original form.I whakaputaina aunoatia ēnei kuputuhi tuhinga, e kitea ai pea ētahi hapa i roto. Tirohia te whārangi katoa kia kitea te āhuatanga taketake o te tuhinga.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19410829.2.37

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 114, 29 August 1941, Page 20

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,022

THREE TROUBLESOME CITIZENS New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 114, 29 August 1941, Page 20

THREE TROUBLESOME CITIZENS New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 114, 29 August 1941, Page 20

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