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Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu

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Simon Callow's thick and detailed biography of Orson Welles is a staggeringly thorough account of the actor/director's life, from his birth up until the release of his most famous picture, CITIZEN KANE. Callow goes to great lengths to separate the man from his inhumanly grandiose reputation. Armed with years of research, his personal interviews, and a keen sense of humor, Callow sets off to discover the real early life of Orson Welles. He finds a man smaller than his gargantuan myth, yet fascinating and brilliant all the same.

Orson Welles is a notoriously difficult man to write about with any great degree of accuracy. This is attributable to the fact that Welles seems to have spent almost as much time publicizing his work as he spent creating. The difficulty arises when one realizes that the majority of what he said wasn't strictly accurate, and yet it's that publicity which has been accepted for many years. Not to say that Welles was lying, or making up facts (at least, not all the time). It would be closer to the truth to say that Welles was prone to exaggerations, sometimes wild ones when it concerned himself. For the sake of his image, and for the sake of his career, he would embellish and overstate what he was doing and what he had done. Some of the more hysterical (and insightful) portions of the book are those where we see Welles describing something that had occurred several chapters previous. The story that gets told later can be almost totally at odds to what the actuality of the situation was. The further on one goes into the book, the farther away from reality these descriptions become. Welles was obsessed with constantly reinventing himself, creating a gigantic legend that became increasingly difficult for any mortal man to live up to.

This is not to say that Simon Callow is merely running down Orson Welles, or making his achievements seem unworthy. Indeed, Callow appears genuinely impressed by what Welles achieved in such a short amount of time. While Welles apparently preferred his fantasy image of himself, the truth was quite remarkable by itself; Welles packed more living into his first twenty-five years than most people do in a lifetime. The respect that he commanded as an actor/director was unprecedented for someone of his young age. But Callow emphasizes with how Welles thought of himself. He sees Welles' drive to continually achieve more. As a fellow actor, Callow understands and relates to the need for constantly promoting oneself for the benefit of one's career. He compares events in Welles' later life to the man's childhood, looking for the reasons for the overriding desire to drive farther and faster.

The book does tend to take slight detours on its road to CITIZEN KANE's Xanadu. Many of the subjects tangentially related to the main feature are given adequate descriptions. Welles' parents, his hometown of Kenosha, Wisconsin, the state of the American theatre in the 1930s and other assorted topics all benefit from Callow's in-depth research and his wonderful attention to detail. These asides and tangents are vital to understanding Welles in his context, and this biography is much the richer for these additions.

As for the portions of Welles' early life that Callow chooses to focus on, it is Welles' theatre work that receives the lion's share of attention. These sections are remarkably detailed, and I simply cannot imagine the book containing any more information. All of his productions are covered, the bulk of the spotlight being aimed towards those plays that Welles approached as both director and actor. Numerous memorable stories are contained in these sections, one of my favorites being the description of Welles directing a collapsing production by punctuating his screams at the cast with intermittent swigs straight from his omnipresent bottle of bourbon.

Descriptions of Orson Welles' other endeavors can only pale by comparison, though they themselves are also covered meticulously. The portions dealing with his radio career aren't given nearly the same attention, and the chapter involved with his WAR OF THE WORLDS broadcast seems remarkably brief given how big a place it holds in the Welles Legend. On the other hand, Callow is quick to point out how little input Welles had in the writing side of that radio play, so in retrospect it shouldn't really be all that surprising to see it neglected here. Still, even Welles' work as The Shadow is only briefly mentioned; again, probably based on Welles' lack of creative input on that series. However, it would have been interesting to see the same flurry of facts, and anecdotes directed towards the radio and film work as it was towards the stage.

For anyone who is slightly curious as to actor Simon Callow's ability to write, let me put your mind at ease. Not only is Callow a competent writer, but he's a very engaging one. The subject of Orson Welles is not a simple one for any biographer to attempt, yet Callow has put together a superbly researched and diabolically entertaining portrait of a man who surrounded himself with so much misinformation that sorting through it all must have been an exhausting task. Callow himself is never far from his descriptions, injecting his wry sense of humor into numerous observations. His style of writing makes it very clear when he's talking about verifiable facts, or when he is basing something on conjuncture. Further to this, there are twenty-five pages of references, as well as two and a half pages of bibliography. This is both a lively read and a superbly researched book --a rarity, but an extremely welcome one. In the preface, Simon Callow states that this is merely the first book of two and the second will deal with Welles' descent from the peak of his career. That second book has yet to be published, but based on the extraordinary achievement of this volume, it should be well worth the wait.

Mr. Callow (best known as the funeral in 'Four Wedding and a Funeral') does a fine job detailing Welles' early life, especially his time at the Todd School, and how it formulated his later character. That later character, however, spends an inordinate amount of time in the theatre. It is here that Callow lost me. Although I understand the need for these scenes (and some of them are rip-roaring good yarns), they sometimes come across as addendums to a larger book on the history of theatre that Callow is writing, rather than have any relevance to Orson's life. He tends to get over excited, going into too much detail about the most minor productions of Welles' career. Yes, his modern dress 'Julius Caesar' and the rest of the Mercury Theatre's first season were groundbreaking, but do we really need a whole chapter devoted to 'Shoemaker's Holiday' and 'Heartbreak House'? Those of you with passion for the theatre, its history, and various theories of acting will eat up these sections (comprising a good two thirds of the book), but for those of us anxious to get to the 'Kane' scenes, they are merely delaying the inevitable.

As for those 'Kane' scenes, Callow does yeomen's work debunking the myths that went into the production of that particular masterpiece. Mankiewicz, Toland, Schaefer, and Hearst are all heard from (in one way or another) in a way that makes Welles' contributions to that picture much clearer. My one complaint is that this section didn't dominate the book the way I hoped it would have. I suspect that in the title of his book, Mr. Callow wanted to emphasize "The Road" over "Xanadu"; that is his prerogative, but not my preference.

Overall, Welles comes off as a man whose talents justified the hype surrounding them. Also, he appears to be guided by fate. For as Callow points out time after time, just when things could have stagnated, a figure appears in Welles' life at just the right time to propel him along a fruitful path. From Skipper Hill, to John Houseman, to Gregg Toland, the pattern holds true. Someone, or something, appears to have wanted the prodigy to grow up to direct the world's greatest motion picture. And he did. Callow promises that a second volume is in the works, presumable one that will chronicle Welles' decline into artistic irrelevance and obesity. I am looking forward to it.

P.S. I've debated with myself if this is worth mentioning (which probably means it is), but Callow sometimes throws in out-of-the-blue references to an individual's homosexuality. With regards to Houseman, I can understand these allusions, for Callow infers that he was at once Welles' father figure/lover/brother/advisor/friend/enemy (if not in practice, than at least metaphorically). But there are other such allusions that make little or no sense. In describing Edna Thomas (a player in Welles so-called "Harlem MacBeth"), Callow refers to the actress as "a discreet and rather statuesque lesbian..." Marc Blitzstein, author/composer of 'The Cradle Will Rock', is described as having a "sexual orientation [that] was homosexual with occasional heterosexual lapses..." These are just two examples. I don't understand the necessity in their inclusion, for they are never referenced again, and have little or no bearing on their relationship to Orson. Just a curiosity, I guess.

Writing a biography can be compared to being the captain of a ship sailing through hazardous waters; we, the passengers/readers, trust our captain to guide us safely to our destination, avoiding the storms of revisionist excess, (i.e. Paul Alexander's fetish/fantasy biography of James Dean), and avoiding the sand-bars of worshipful praise or savage deconstructing. Callow is our Good Captain, steering us carefully, ethically and factually through the early life and career of a Great Genius. Callow's biography is refreshing in that he does not dwell on endless psycho-analysis or speculation, if he cannot substantiate an item, he leaves it there. Almost incredible in this age of paparazzi-revisionism-and outright falsehood. He respects his readers and Callow's tone through-out this extremely well-written book is that of a conversation with a trusted friend. If you are a Welles fan, you will enjoy reading of his exploits in Dublin at the Gate Theatre and the passages dealing with the Mercury are pure gold. Callow's portrayal of Welles' experiences in Hollywood at the time of CITIZEN KANE will leave you in awe that Welles could have survived that period of his life; but it also reveals the sheer energy, tenacity and genius of the man. Callow shows a man burning both ends of the candle...burning them off with a blowtorch. It's heartbreaking to read how Welles, for all his genius, is already in the early days of his life sowing the seeds of his own downfall through excess. An excellent book about an incredible man written by a wonderful actor...and a wonderfully decent man. Why can't more biographies be this ethical?

This is an impressive piece of work. Callow catches Welles out at countless examples of self-mythologizing, yet never gloats or judges him harshly -- merely letting his findings speak for themselves. And he doesn't diminish Welles's achievements or fascination as a man one whit. (Nor does he customarily split infinitives, which is refreshing in this day and age.) Though personal failings and the stuff of gossip are noted, Callow does not dwell upon them. His descriptions of Welles's stage productions in the 1930s and early 1940s especially make me wish I had been alive then -- or videotape technology had existed -- in order to see them. The introduction notes that most studies of Welles ask "what went wrong after _Citizen Kane_"? Callow sought to discover what went wrong BEFORE it, and I think he did an admirable job. I can hardly wait for the second volume.

This is a fantastic, very detailed and rather objective biography of the boy genius of the theatre world. 600 pages about Welles for only the first 26 years of his life is a lot, but definitly worth all the details.

The author basically tells Orson's early life around the plays he directed and that were his life at the time. It is amazing to me how a 14 year old kid was able to succesfully direct Shakespeare plays and even write a book on how to understand Shakerpeare's work.

The book gives great details on every single play he directed, radio shows he produced, the making of citizen Kane and on a broader scale gives a great insight on what broadway was like during the 30s. The account of the war of the world radio broadcast that terrorised the northern US on halloween night 1938 will make you relive the moment as if you were there.

I highly recommend this biography to any fan of Orson Welles or anyone who is interested in the history of broadway or the theatre in general.

In his later years, Welles often complained that he spent more time trying to find money to make films than he did actually making films. And seeing Welles still scrambling for cash in his last days as a commercial pitchman for such products as Dark Tower and Paul Masson Wines ("Where we will sell no wine before it's time"), you know he was right.

This entertaining and exhaustive book by Simon Callow doesn't deal with most of his film career - only covering up to 1941. (We're still waiting on part two to cover the rest. Simon? Simon?). However, what it does do is clear up much of Welles' confusing past (he often told conflicting stories in interviews) and delve into the two main works that set Welles up for stardom...and the fall...in Hollywood - The War of the Worlds radio broadcast and Citizen Kane. And no wonder they were sharpening knives for the boy wonder when Welles publicly put down the Hollywood community, his Kane script bit the hand that feeds him by taking obvious shots at newspaper mogul Randolph Hearst and he was given the kind of directorial freedom veteran directors could only dream of.

Some people may tire of reading about Welles' theatre days with Houseman, anxiously waiting to get to the meat of his film career. But to understand why Welles became a "has-been" at 26 and the long slide to come, this is required reading.

Orson Welles was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1915. His wild father loved dames, booze and travel while making an upper class living in industry. His mother was a socialite well known in church and community. His older brother had mental problems and spent time in an institution. And so the scene is set for the Kenosha kid the inimitable huckstere, magician, director, actor, storyteller and good time Charlie we call Citizen Welles!
Orson studied at the prestigious private Todd School for boys near Chicago. He did well at Todd, acting in student productions; directing plays and becoming the big man on campus. Welles did not go to college but instead became an actor on the Dublin Gate Theatre stage for a period of ten months. He was on his rocket ride to the top of the slippery slope of showbiz.
Welles became an actor in the prestigious Katherine Cornell company touring the nation. He wed his first wife Virginia, sired a daughter but kept busy whoring around town. Wells had a gargantuan appetite for food, drink, women, the stage and fame. He was tempermental and liked to receive all of the credit for collaborative efforts. Welles was often vain and childish. He could be a tyrant or pussycat depending on his mood.
Welles was the voice on countless radio programs earning him a comfortable living. He teamed with John Houseman in the Harlem "Macbeth" which was a sensation of the New York branch of the Federal Theatre Administration during the Great Depression.
Wells hosted and created the Mercury Theatre on the air becoming notorious for the 1938 production of "The War of the Worlds. He was lured to Hollywood directing what has been considered the greatest American film of all time: "Citizen Kane" in 1941. The movie was controversial being based on the life of William Randolph Hearst.
This book focuses on the career of Welles on stage and screen. The book does report the private life of Welles but does so in a tasteful manner free of innuendo or gossip. Welles comes across as massively egotistical, selfish, sybaritic and self-destructive. He was, despite his faults, a genius of show business.
Simon Callow is a famous British actor and writer who has served his subject well in this massive volume one which takes us through Citizen Kane and ends in 1941,

Orson Welles, by his very nature, made himself an almost impossible subject for biography. He told so many stories about himself that in later life, even he didn't know what the truth was anymore. He also spent most of his life as the ultimate hustler living a roll that was bigger than anything he ever played.

The genius of this book is that it cuts through the nonsense and gives us the truth about Welles...or as close as anyone will ever get. He lays bear the rise of the boy genius from school into the theater, on to radio and then to Hollywood. The theater portions are the best part of the book. In some ways, just the portions of the book dealing with Welles in the theater would have been enough for a great work. We get a level of detail about each production that no other book really provides. The author also avoids the obvious tendancy to focus on the sensational and gossip.

There is nothing new really in terms of Citizen Kane because that particular set of events was long-ago mined for anything of worth by many others. The coverage of Welles on Radio isn't as complete as his work in the theater, but its still good.

I think Peter Bogdonovich appears way too much in the book. As a source, he is rather flawed in the sense that he is so devoted to promoting the Welles legacy.

The author, in my opinion, comes just short of saying that the manic portion of Welles career was fueled by amphetamines. He drops every hint in the deck but only comes close to saying it once. I'm not sure what the sensativity is about it at this point. I suppose it could be lack of final confirmation from the inside.

What comes across in the book is a talented Welles whose attempts at self-promotion ultimately destroyed everything he did. At every stage of the book, he seems more intrested in creating the aura of genius and being publically acclaimed rather than methodically creating works. The book shows him burning every bridge behind him on a trajectory for hollywood. The book ends with him at the apex with nowhere left to go but down.

.... "He wandered it's corridors, looking for money." Simon Callow gifts us with the deep portrait of Orson Welles from a gay man, an actor, and, like Welles, a virtuoso of many fields of endeavor. Like Shakespeare, Orson was comfortable, and indeed dependent upon, those of us who lean toward the familiar in the search for love. (Because, perhaps, of his own stoney heterosexuality). Be that as it may, Mr. Callow's own insights are what add volumes to this biography beyond what all else has already been written. His chronicle of America's Depression-era Federal Theater Project, and Orson's impact upon it, invites us in to the exiting era of the 1930's.

Orson's Road to Xanadu is sad, and it's glorious -- amazing. Read Simon Callow's biography of America's Great Voice -- Orson Welles.

Simon Callow is an actor's actor, a director's director, and, it turns out, a writer's writer. Anyone interested in Welles' dazzling accomplishments in Theatre, Radio, or the early Golden years in hollywood will eat this book up. I can't wait for the sequel