Citizen Welles

One day I was in the mood for a biography so I picked this one up at random at the Public Library. Turned out to be more interesting and educational than I expected.

And I guess that's partly because Orson Welles turned out to be more interesting than I expected. I've been a fan of Citizen Kane since forever, and of course I knew of the War of the Worlds radio show, but didn't really know much about the guy beyond that. Didn't know anything, for example, about his stage career, which was actually where he got started and began to build a name for himself before the Mercury Theatre radio shows.

The book is very much about Welles as a person, rather than being about The Movie Star or The Radio Star, and gives an interesting look into his personality and his approach to his work. (One of the biggest personal upsets of his professional life, for example, came when he was playing on a Broadway stage and someone from the back of the audience called out, "Louder!" Ever the confident perfectionist, Welles was mortified.)

The easy access of the Internet makes reading a book like this all the more fun. It's easy to find downloadable .mp3 files of many of the radio shows, and there's even some footage of the "Voodoo Macbeth" on YouTube.

Overall, a fun and worthwhile read, even if you're not a Welles fan.