Orson Welles FBI Files, Court Documents, Newspapers

Orson Welles FBI Files, Court Documents, Newspapers

This collection contains 772-pages.  

Orson Welles was born on May 6, 1915, to a concert pianist mother and a wealthy businessman father. After his mother's death in 1924, he traveled the world with his father, who died in 1928. At the age of 12, Welles found himself rich and parentless. 

He traveled the world pursuing his interests, including theater. He found success in New York directing plays produced by John Houseman for the Federal Theatre Project. Most notably, his "voodoo" adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth, starring an African American cast. Welles along with John Houseman latter formed the Mercury Theatre. 

The group is most well-known for its 1938 Mercury Theatre on Air, "The War of the Worlds" radio production. Some found the news radio format staging of the H.G. Wells novel's tale of space invaders so realistic, that some went into a state of panic.

Welles starred in and directed his first feature film Citizen Kane in 1941. A commercial failure, RKO Pictures lost $150,000 on the movie, which went on to be regarded by many as the greatest film ever made. 

Welles died of a heart attack in 1985.

This collection contains

FBI Files

304 pages of FBI files covering Orson Welles. The files date from 1941 to 1976.

A 1941 FBI memo states, "This office has never been able to establish that Welles is an actual member of the former Communist Party or the present Communist Political Association, he has consistently followed the Communist Party line and has been active in numerous front organizations." This was the basis for the FBI considering Welles to be a potential threat to the internal security of the United States.

The files detail Orson Welles' background and political activity. Mention is made of a campaign against Welles organized by the American Legion. The files show that at least two close associates of Welles were willing to inform on Welles to the FBI. The informants were willing to pass on information concerning Welles' finances, The finances of his wife Rita Hayworth, travels, and extramarital affairs. 

Files show that Welles was on a list of people considered security risks, who the government might want to take into custody during a national emergency. A memo by a FBI agent recommends that Welles' have his phone tapped while he was in San Francisco promoting the foundation of the United Nations. Files show that agents contacted columnist Hedda Hopper after she wrote that Welles was going to South America on a secret mission for President Roosevelt. Hopper admitted to agents that the source for the story was Welles' wife Rita Hayworth.

Excerpts from a file documenting an FBI investigation on communist infiltration of the motion picture industry is replete with the name Orson Welles. Many of the organizations he and his future wife Rita Hayworth were members of, were considered by the Bureau to be subversive.


Prologue: The Journal of the National Archives Fall 2003 – Excerpt

Prologue is the quarterly journal of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

Extracted from the Fall 2003 issue is an article titled, "Jitterbugs and Crack-pots.” NARA's Education Specialist Lee Ann Potter writes about the letters some outraged Americans flooded government regulators with after the famous 1938 Orson Welles “War of the Worlds” broadcast, which led some listeners to believe that Martians had landed in New Jersey.


Lundberg v. Welles, Deposition of Orson Welles, May 4, 1949

A 28-page deposition of Orson Welles taken on May 4, 1949, in the case of Ferdinand Lundberg v. Orson Welles, Herman J. Mankiewicz, and R.K.O. Radio Pictures, Inc., held at U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The complaint against the plaintiffs is for copyright infringement of "Imperial Hearst: A Social Biography" in the creation of the motion picture "Citizen Kane".


Films

Universal News Volume 10, Release 715, October 31, 1938 – Orson Welles Press Conference

54 Second Section - Orson Welles Press Conference 

On October 30, 1938, CBS broadcasted a radio play adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds. The novel, first published in serial form in 1897, tells the story of an alien invasion of England. The Mercury Theatre on the Air production changed the location to New Jersey and employed a series of news bulletins to heighten the realism of the story. The next day, national media reported widespread panic, with citizens taking to the streets and scores of injuries resulting. 

The “panic” was more likely media hype: while some listeners were fooled, there is little evidence that more then a few actually took action or injured themselves because of the broadcast. Whatever the extent of the terror The War of the Worlds incited, the broadcast has become legendary. In a press conference the following day, 23-year-old Orson Welles explained why he didn’t expect listeners to think the well-known story was true. The actor-director’s visible exhaustion is more than just mental, Welles had stayed up until dawn rehearsing a new play.


Film: Who's Out There? (1975)

This National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) produced film explores the current (1975) view of extraterrestrial life emerging from the results of probes to the planets and interstellar discoveries and findings about the nature of life itself. The film discusses the conclusion drawn by a number of distinguished scientists that other intelligent civilizations exist in the universe.

The narrator Orson Welles often mentions H.G. Wells’ 1898 novel The War of the Worlds, and his 1938 radio adaption of the book.


Books

The Cinema of Orson Welles by Peter Bogdanovich, The Film Library of the Museum of Modern Art (1961)

A 16-page pamphlet written by Peter Bogdanovich, published in 1961 by the Film Library of the Museum of Modern Art, covering films by Welles including Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Stranger, Journey into Fear, The Lady from Shanghai, Macbeth, Othello, Confidential Report and Touch of Evil.


The Mercury Shakespeare (Re-Publishing of Everybody’s Shakespeare (1934/1939)

The Mercury Shakespeare Edited for Reading and Arranged for Staging by Orson Welles and Roger Hill; The Merchant of Venice; Twelfth Night; Julius Caesar (1939)

In 1933, at the age of 17, Welles and his former teacher Roger Hill, began working on, “Everybody's Shakespeare.”  In three volumes one covering Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, a second The Merchant of Venice, and the third Twelfth Night. These were assembled with intention for use as guidelines for staging the plays in schools.

In her journal articling appearing in the British Shakespeare Association’s Journal “Shakespeare” in 2004, Angela Courtney characterized Welles’ childhood interaction with Shakespeare as reflected in Everybody’s Shakespeare as, “Welles was at once a child engaging with his own world through Shakespeare, and an advocate of Shakespeare as the possession of children, as well as adults.”


Newspapers

198 full-sheet pages from newspapers from across America with content related to Welles, dating from 1934 to 1957. Coverage includes a 19-year-old Welles’ first acting tour with Katherine Cornell's theatrical group. Welles work with the Mercury Theatre, and entry into radio production with The Mercury Theatre on the Air. The 21-year-old Welles' production of "Voodoo Macbeth" with a black cast. References to the War of the Worlds broadcast. Early mentions say it frightened hundreds of listeners. Later, the number was thousands. By the middle of the 1940's when the myth of a wide panic had become legend, reference is often made to the fear of millions.

Tidbits from Welles' life in the 40' and 50's, accolades on the movie Citizen Kane, reports on marriages and divorces, his civil rights work, etc.