On Wednesday, May 27th, I will be kick starting The Orson Welles Centennial Celebration, at Huntington’s Cinema Arts Centre. I will introduce Citizen Kane that evening at 7PM.  The Lady From Shanghai, on June 18th, Magician: The Astonishing Life And Work of Orson Welles, on June 25th, and Othello, on June 30th; Film Noir Historian Foster Hirsch will introduce Touch of Evil, on June 15th, and Royal Brown will introduce The Trial, on July 8th.

When Newsday commented in the May 24th Sunday edition, that Citizen Kane is considered the greatest film ever made, that may not be a complete exageration. This was Welles’ first film as a director, and he broke all the rules. He redefined what film making was all about,. He also created a storm, since the film was discovered to be loosely inspired by William Randolph Hearst.

I like to tell a story about Orson Welles, during  his years as a radio actor and director. He would do radio, because it made money for his Mercury Theatre. He appeared on all the networks, on all types of radio shows. He was Lamont Cranston, better known as THE SHADOW (“The Shadow knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men…..”). He would appear on Columbia Workshop, The March of Time (a dramatized radio newsreel). Welles could read a script cold. His schedule was so hectic, that he would walk into a studio, be handed a script. Welles would ask, “What am I?”. Oh, a chinese man? And immediately, Welles would speak in that dialect that was required.

These were the days before transcribed programs, so most radio shows were broadcast live. Many programs were 30 minutes, to an hour. Many were 15 minutes. There were times when Welles was finished with one program, and had to get to the next studio anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes to do his next show. How to get through traffic and make good time? It was not always easy to get a cab. Welles found a solution: he made an arrangement with an ambulance service, who would whisk him from one studio,,to another, with sirens blaring. According to Welles, there was no law that stated that you had to be ill to ride in an ambulance.

Alice Faye, one of Hollywood’s most celebrated actresses, would have been 100 on May 5th, this year. She did everything at Fox: musicals, drama, co-starring with Tyrone Power, Shirley Temple. She was the darling of such films as Alexander’s Ragtime Band (1938), Tin Pan Alley (1940), The Gang’s All Here (1943), and many others. When she came to 20th Century Fox in 1935, she looked like a Jean Harlow clone. Within the next couple of years, her features softened By the 1940’s, the columnists were trying to create a rivalry between Faye and fellow contract actress Betty Grable. Realistically, Faye and Grable were the best of friends. By 1945, Faye was moving into more gritty film fare. By this time, she was happily married to Bandleader Phil Harris, and had her first daughter (she had been married to Tony Martin, then divorced). Faye was starring in a film, directed by Otto Preminger, called Fallen Angel. A film noir, with Dana Andrews and Linda Darnell. Faye noticed that many of her scenes were being cut, since 20th Century Fox Studio head Daryl Zanuck was focusing more on Darnell. Faye made a deicision: she wanted to focus more on her family, and doing the things she had never done before.  She felt that she was getting the short end of the stick. So, Faye dropped off her dressing room key in her dressing room, left a departing note for Zanuck, and left the studio. She was sued for breach of contract by Zanuck, who would then try to bring her back for a couple of films. Faye was determined to stand by her decision. During this period, Faye and Harris appeared on the radio comedy, The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, a situation comedy about the “private” life of Faye and Harris, with their two daughters. On the show, Harris and Faye would poke fun at themselves. The Faye-Fallen Angel incident was the subject of alot of funny jokes. Alice Faye would not return to 20th Century Fox until 1962, when she would be one of the stars of the remake of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s State Fair.

Fallen Angel (1945): Alice Faye and Dana Andrews