Orson Welles: "I Started At The Top...."

Today marks the 109th anniversary of the birth of Orson Welles. He has been missing from the world stage for over a generation now. The film and stage industries will always owe him immensely for what he brought to them and for the treatment his genius received at the hands of a Hollywood film cartel that resented outsiders.

Welles at 21

There will never be another cinematic alchemist quite like Orson Welles. Interested in experiment and discovery in the performing arts, he was a remarkably talented actor, writer, director, producer, and more. Before he was thirty he had terrified the nation with his realistic Halloween presentation of H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds radio broadcast (1938) and awed film audiences with Citizen Kane (1941). The film still tops most "best film ever made" lists around the world. Welles was already a rather contentious artist when he achieved almost instant fame. His creativity and drive helped label him as a difficult if not reckless personality and he never endeared himself to the Hollywood in-crowd. As a result his film legacy was limited to a number of noteworthy productions and a long list of unfinished projects and pipe dreams.

The achievement of early fame and the fast and loose pursuit of art at almost any cost gave him a unique perspective on creativity and the entertainment industry. Although he appreciated his solitude he was never one to shy from the limelight and delighted in interviews and personal appearances where he could deliver and endless stream of anecdotes in his rich, unforgettable baritone voice.

For a taste of Welles as writer, director, and co-star, here is the famous "mirror scene" from The Lady of Shanghai (1948). Film critic David Kehr has called the film "the weirdest great movie ever made."

And here from his 1958 film, Touch of Evil, is the classic "crane shot" that makes an appearance in every college film class.

In later life Welles became known as a great conversationalist. From 1974, here are the highlights from an interview with the British broadcaster, Sir Michael Parkinson. Welles talks about politics, bullfighting, his friendship with Ernest Hemingway, personal heroes (Winston Churchill, Gen. George S, Marshall), the power of criticism, the film industry, the stars (he thought James Cagney was far and away the best), his attitude toward his films, and future projects. It's a quick and entertaining 37 minutes and in my mind reveals much about the man who foreshadowed the flourishing independent film movement we know today.

A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet.

                                                                        Orson Welles, 1958

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
Welles portrait, Library of Congress (Carl Van Vechten, photographer, March 1, 1937)

Text:
Title derived from quote, Welles, from the film, F For Fake (1973)
Kehr quote: chicagoreader.com, review of The Lady of Shanghai
Welles quote: "Ribbon of Dreams" in International Film Annual no. 2, 1958

Cinco De Mayo 2024

It's Cinco de Mayo across the USA! And with the Covid pandemic receding in our mrmories Americans can actually sit in their favorite Mexican restaurant to enjoy the festivities for two consecutive years. In fact, Americans are celebrating far more than their neighbors south of the border. Why, you ask? It's simply because Cinco de Mayo isn't what you think it is.

Imagine millions of Mexicans celebrating this historic day from Cabo San Lucas to Cozumel. The dancing . . . the parades . . . the patriotic music . . . the parties and feasts into the night. Doesn't happen. That's right, my friends. Cinco de Mayo in Mexico is a regional celebration of the victory over France at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. Outside the capital city and state of Puebla, today is pretty much just another Sunday. For Mexicans, the big national celebration is Independence Day, celebrated on September 16.

Depiction of the Battle of Puebla Francisco Miranda, 1872

Cross the border into the United States today and it's a very different story. What originated in 1862 as a local victory celebration by Mexican gold miners in northern California has spread across the United States as a celebration of Mexican heritage and culture. Like many American holidays, official and otherwise, Cinco de Mayo has grown in popularity in recent decades due to heavy commercial promotion. Greeting card, candy, and florist industries may drive Mother's Day. In the case of Cinco de Mayo a significant force driving the festivities is the alcoholic beverage industry. The distilled beverage of choice will be tequila.

Whatever the reason for such popularity, it's a great time to experience and enjoy the rich heritage and culture of the people of Mexico and their contribution to the American experience. For starters here is some traditional music to set the mood for the day.

The culture of Mexico is a rich mosaic of Mayans, Aztecs, Mestizos (European, American Indian, African, and Asian), and more. May you experience a bit of all of it today as you have a safe and enjoyable Cinco de Mayo.

The Day Kent State University Became A Killing Field

John Filo took this photo - a Pulitzer Prize winner - of Mary Ann Vecchio screaming over the body of Kent State University student, Jeffrey Miller, murdered by National Guard troops during an anti-war protest on campus. The event we know as the Kent State University massacre became a landmark in American history. The date was May 4, 1970.

That day four unarmed students were killed and nine others injured by members of the Ohio National Guard. Years of conflict over the nation's role in the Vietnam War already had millions of Americans on edge. In seconds, 67 shots fired into a crowd of defenseless students marked the beginning of both the end of an already very unpopular war and a controversial president already well-known as "Tricky Dick" Nixon.

For three days prior to the massacre Kent State had been hit with violent demonstrations threatening both the campus and downtown commercial district. The Ohio National Guard had been on scene by the evening of May 2. From a city firehouse, Governor James Rhodes fueled the conflict by referring to the protesters as "brown shirts...the communist element... night riders... and the vigilantes." Days earlier President Richard Nixon referred to some campus protesters as "bums."

May 4 began with university officials attempting to ban a campus protest that had been planned days earlier. The result was a loose gathering of around 2000 persons met by guardsmen armed with tear gas and fixed bayonets. For reasons undetermined shots were fired into the unarmed crowd. The average distance of those killed was 345 feet from the guardsmen. The event incited a strike involving millions of students across the nation, forced the closing of hundreds of universities and colleges, and marked a turning point in national opinion among many who had supported American involvement in Vietnam, an ever escalating action that began in 1959.

On May 18, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, one of the nation's most popular bands, released the song, Ohio, as an expression of the anger and frustration as well as a call to action among young Americans over both the war and the murders.

A week after Kent State, police killed a student and a passerby at a demonstration at Jackson State College in Mississippi. An unquestionable sense of rebellion began to grip the nation. The Nixon administration was well aware of the situation and took steps to mitigate the danger and political erosion. One of those steps was the creation of the President's Commission on Campus Unrest- the Scranton Commission - in June 1970. The commission was tasked with reviewing the incident. After three months of work the commission concluded:

Even if the guardsmen faced danger, it was not a danger that called for lethal force. The 61 shots by 28 guardsmen certainly cannot be justified. Apparently, no order to fire was given, and there was inadequate fire control discipline on Blanket Hill. The Kent State tragedy must mark the last time that, as a matter of course, loaded rifles are issued to guardsmen confronting student demonstrators.

Location map, Scranton Commission report

Over time the event has been remembered in several way including the designation of the seventeen acre site as a National Historic Landmark in 2016. Kent State University also commemorates the event through its May 4 Visitor Center.

Savannah: Ever Changing, But Still The Same If You Know Where To Look

May 2 is a significant date in Savannah's modern history. On that day in 1981 Jim Williams shot and killed Danny Hansford. It marked a violent end to a tragic love story and the catalyst for an enormously successful non-fiction novel and the economic and social transformation of a city. In 1977 I moved to a new job near Savannah and was soon seduced by the city's charm and opportunities. I bought a townhouse in the historic district and in a matter of weeks realized the city was a most unusual urban tapestry inhabited by a full range of entertaining and eccentric characters. There could have been a book about Savannah in my future but I was too busy adjusting to new work, stumbling through a failing relationship with the woman who came with me, and serving as general contractor restoring my "livable" townhouse.

John Berendt, the man who would eventually write that book, first visited the city around 1981 long after I escaped to the beach. He returned two or three times gathering even more fascinating and compelling characteristics about the city and its people. Three years later he moved to Savannah in search of broadening his writing career. The project that emerged was a travelogue built around the Williams-Hansford story. The result was unlike any proposal the publishing industry had ever seen.

The book was a sensation, a best seller with a broad impact. Savannah's tourism exploded, also enhanced by the highly successful Savannah College of Art and Design and its historic preservation initiative. For comparison, there were 5 million tourists who spent $600 million in 1993. The numbers jumped to 12.5 million and $2.2 billion in 2013. A decade later nearly 20 million tourists visited the city. They spent $5 billion and made the city a leading destination for international tourism.

Yes, Savannah experienced change quickly. There were more restaurants to enjoy. The night life flourished. Tour options abounded, from ghost, to pirate, to transsexual. The pace changed: faster, broader, deeper, never ending, and more expensive. The downtown historic district became a hot real estate market on an international scale. It also became a fishbowl brimming with tourists. Soon the preservation pioneers from the '70s and '80s paid $6,000, $8,000, then $10,000 or more in city/county taxes to live in the homes they had lovingly restored. Many of them left. Had I stayed, I too would have been displaced.

Today, the people go about their daily lives shadowed by those magnificent, moss draped live oaks. The wonderfully restored facades provide a pleasing backdrop. The ships glide in and out of port with the flood and ebb of the tides. And Bonaventure's ancient gate welcomes the living and the dead into what I believe is by far the nation's, perhaps one of the world's, most beautiful cemetery. So much has changed in Savannah, but in the quiet hours, in the intimate gardens, and in the music of the squares as well as that of a piano a few door away, you can still find the essence of the old Southern city I knew over forty years ago. One thing you can't find is my book. You'll have to look to another author for the story.


John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was published in 1994. It was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in non-fiction in 1995. More than 3 million copies have been sold. The book remains the longest running title - 216 weeks - on the New York Times Best Seller list. Trust me. It's a good read.




Sources


Photos and Illustrations:
front cover art, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Random House, New York, 1994, fair use


Text:
Wikipedia.org
interview, Booknotes, interview with Brian Lamb, C-SPAN, August, 12, 1997

Celebrating Warmth And New Life

To be fair we could be talking about workers of the world, the joys of collectivist thought, and even the "fruits" of Communism on this day. I would rather speak of a more ancient and far happier theme.

May 1, 2023, in Glastonbury, United Kingdom

The Gaelic festival day, Beltane ("be-EL-ten-a" in Irish, "BEL-tayn" in English)) occurs on May 1 and is a cross-quarter day marking the beginning of summer in their ancient calendar. It is one of two "turning" days of the year and exactly six months apart from the other, Samhain (saa-wn), marking the beginning of the dead season of winter. In the United Kingdom and other places with Gaelic heritage Beltane celebrations began last night with the lighting of bonfires, dancing and feasting long into the night.

 

The fun continues with the welcoming of the sun, the selection of the May Queen or earth goddess representing fertility, and the May King or Green Man - the latter first appeared in the 12th century -  representing vegetation and growth. The partying includes a Maypole dance - once an ancient fertility rite - and the decoration of houses, farms, and livestock; and more feasting.

Here in the United States there isn't much associated with the day unless there's an opportunity to sell something under the May Day Sale label. Even schools show little interest in May Day but it was a day-long festival at my elementary school in the 1950's. Actually the day was a big event for the whole community. It was so important that I recall the teachers having us outside days in advance to practice the May Pole dance until the lattice pattern on the pole was perfect. I wonder how enthusiastic they would have been had they known we were practicing a fertility rite. Aside from a few New Agers all religious associations with the activities have been left to an ancient past. These days it's simply good fun. Or at least a happy memory.




Maypole Dance, Bascom Hill, Wisconsin, May 1 ca. 1917





May you have a most festive celebration of the arrival of a time of warmth and new life





Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
Photograph: University of Wisconsin Digital Collections