Orson Welles: Before the Movies Quiz

Answer: George

George Orson Welles was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin on May 6th, 1915. Conceived on a holiday in Rio de Janeiro, he was named after two of his parent's travelling companions, George Ade and Orson Wells. Soon after the birth, Welles' father Dick decided that George was an inappropriate name for a boy of his social standing and began calling him Orson.

Richard was the name of both Orson's father and his elder brother. Ives was his mother's maiden name and his brother Richard's middle name.

Answer: "The desire to take medicine is one of the greatest features that distinguishes men from animals."

Maybe it's just me, but I suspect Dr Bernstein may have exaggerated this story ever so slightly. However, as there was no-one else in the room to bear witness to this event, we have only his word to take for it.

Orson's parents were delighted with the praise that Dr. Bernstein heaped upon their second son, especially given the difficulties they had found with their misbehaving eldest son. However, Bernstein soon developed an obsession with Orson (and quite probably with his mother too) and took to visiting regularly. He saw his mission as one of educating Orson in the arts and encouraging his genius, much to Dick Welles' dismay. Of particular concern to Dick was the nickname that Bernstein encouraged Orson to call him; "Dadda".

Answer: Dublin

Orson's mother, Beatrice, died when he was just nine years old. By this time, his parents had separated and Dick Welles, suffering with alcoholism, had taken to travelling around the world. After Beatrice's death, Orson's father returned to take him away on his travels around Europe, Africa and Asia.

Wishing to continue his travels alone, but not wishing for Orson to be released back into "Dadda" Bernstein's grasp, Dick Welles sent Orson to Todd School for Boys, an independent boarding school. Shortly after completing his studies at Todd, where he was taken under the wing of Roger "Skipper" Hill, son of the school's headmaster, news came through that Dick Welles had died. Orson was 15 years old and was given the choice of who should be his guardian. Although Orson wished for it to be Skipper, Hill deferred and so the responsibility went to Dr. Bernstein.

Skipper and Dadda had originally wanted Orson to go to university, but a severe bout of hay fever prompted Bernstein to suggest a tour of Scotland and Ireland. Within two months of arriving in Ireland, Orson had made his way to Dublin. On his second night in the city he visited the Gate Theatre, managed to get backstage after the show and was spotted by theatre director, Hilton Edwards. He announced himself as a visiting actor from New York, was given an impromptu audition and was hired to play the part of Duke Karl Alexander in the play, "Jew Suss".

Answer: John Brown

According to the title page of Welles' script, John Brown was a "prophet, warrior, zealot - the most dramatic and incredible figure in American history." Brown's actions in leading an attempted insurrection amongst African American slaves, in what was then Virginia, in 1859, made him a hero to many and a hate figure to many others. His advocacy of armed struggle saw him tried for treason and hanged. The rebellion he attempted is seen by many historians as a crucial step in the path towards civil war in the US, only a few years later.

"Marching Song" was less about Brown's actions and more about the legends that had developed around him. What is particularly interesting about the play is that it uses the device of telling the story through a newspaper reporter, as he attempted to uncover the real truth about the central (absent) character. A similar device would be used by Welles and Herman Mankiewicz in the screenplay for "Citizen Kane" ten years later.

Answer: Thornton Wilder

Welles' inability to persuade casting directors to hire him, despite his good notices from Dublin, led him to concentrate on his writing. He had embarked upon the book series, "Everybody's Shakespeare", with Skipper Hill, the successful series that offered a guide to schools in how to stage Shakespeare's plays.

When Welles was asked "Are you an actor?" by a gentleman at a party in Chicago in 1933, he responded, "No, I'm a writer." The gentleman persisted, "Aren't you from Dublin? Aren't you Orson Welles?" The man introduced himself as Thornton Wilder and asked Welles about his activities in the two years since his Dublin successes. At the end of the evening, Wilder suggested that Welles should return to New York, accompanied by letters of recommendation from himself. He was put in touch with producer Guthrie McClintic who, on reading the letters, immediately cast him as Mercutio in his touring production of "Romeo and Juliet" and Octavius in "The Barretts of Wimpole Street". Welles was an actor one again.

Answer: Voodoo Macbeth

Welles' production of "Macbeth" transported the action to a thinly-disguised Haiti and replaced the three witches with three Voodoo witch doctors. Opening initially in Harlem, New York, the play was hugely successful. The opening night saw ten blocks closed to traffic, as thousands descended upon the theatre. Soon, thousands were flocking to Harlem to see the play that everyone in New York was talking about.

The driving force behind the production was the Federal Theatre Project set up as part of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal initiative. Welles was drawn to the project because, "I wanted to give the black actors the chance to play Shakespeare without it being funny or even exotic." He didn't give any of the actors any readings and most had never read or seen Shakespeare. As Welles stated, "It's wonderful how well Shakespeare sounds when acted by people who have never heard it spoken before."

Answer: Mercury Theatre

Houseman had first hired Welles as an actor in 1934 for a play called "Panic". When Houseman was taken on by the Federal Theatre Project as a producer, he immediately hired Welles as a director. Their successes together included the Voodoo "Macbeth" and Christopher Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus". However, the working relationship between them had not been easy and Welles had decided to break away in the summer of 1937. Unfortunately, the work suddenly dried up for Welles and by the end of the summer, with his first child on the way, Welles decided to contact Houseman again. Houseman had just been fired from the Federal Theatre Project, so the offer of starting a new theatre company with Welles came at the right time.

The Mercury Theatre gathered together a troupe of actors, many of whom went on to have successful theatre and film careers, such as Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorhead and Vincent Price. The first Mercury production was a lavish staging of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar", set in a contemporary Italy under the control of the Fascists. It was both a critical and a popular success.

Answer: The Shadow

Welles took whatever work he could get on the radio to help fund his theatrical ambitions. At his busiest times, when his schedules were very tight, he would travel, by ambulance, across Manhattan, from radio studio to radio studio. This, he claimed, was because he discovered that there was no law that mandated that you had to be ill to be carried in an ambulance.

He begun appearing as "The Shadow" in 1937 and continued for one year before being replaced by Bill Johnstone. At the end of his run in the show, he was given his own show by CBS, "The Mercury Theatre Presents...".

Answer: The War of the Worlds

"The War of the Worlds" was broadcast as a Halloween special of "The Mercury Theatre Presents...". The programme started with an introduction that clearly stated the fictional content to follow. Had a listener missed this intro, they might have been convinced that they were listening to a light music programme interrupted by newsflashes. The newsflashes, which increased in frequency and agitation as the programme progressed, reported on a flaming object in the sky that came to land in Grover's Mill, New Jersey.

The revelation that the object contained Martians who zapped onlookers with a heat ray would no doubt indicate to a modern audience that they were listening to a radio play. However, the innovative style of Welles' broadcast fooled many listeners in 1938. Though the response of the audience is disputed, police received calls from the public alerting them to the presence of Martians in the city of New York and there were reports of attempted suicides and people taking to the streets in panic.

The story was splashed across the front pages of many newspapers the next day. The reports were frequently critical of the "hoax" that Welles had perpetrated against his audience. However damaging the attacks on Welles may have appeared, the broadcast made his name known around the country and prompted interest from executives in Los Angeles.

Answer: RKO Pictures

The contract with RKO was negotiated in New York in 1940, when Welles' star was at its brightest, due to "The War of the Worlds".

Welles had the advantage of indifference during the negotitation process; "This superb contract only happened because I didn't much want to make a movie. I thought the only way I could possibly make one would be without anyone interfering. So I asked for things that nobody had ever had. I was given a limited budget but unlimited control. The studio couldn't even see the rushes."

The arrival of the boy wonder in Hollywood, with the news of his contract arriving ahead of him, caused huge resentment amongst those already established in Tinseltown. Welles' contract allowed him to be the writer, director and producer as well as an actor on his films. Actors attacked him in restaurants but the greatest resentment came from movie producers. As Welles said, "If I could do all those things then what is the need for a producer?"