A Monumental Ego

AMonumental Ego | Yates Michael D. Yates University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown A Monumental Ego David Thomson. Rosebud: The Story ofOrson Welles. Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. $30.00. The subtitle of this often moving but sometimes exasperating book tells us we are in for something a little different : The "Story" of Orson Welles. And quite a story it is. Thomson recalls seeing Citizen Kane for the first time, alone in an empty London theater when he was fourteen: "I had never been alone in that dark before, or guessed the terror it could hold. Nor could I follow Kane very well ... Nevertheless , I struggled with Kane because I knew that its show was more intense than anything I had seen, ... and because the investigator in the film had my name. So being alone felt anointed—I had been drawn there ... I can see now that my future was taken care of, and ruined maybe." At the end ofthe book, there is a dialogue between the author and an invented interrogator: "You like him?" "Worse than that: I fear I'm like him. That Orson Welles took my life. By the time I realized it, it was too late to go back." This is perhaps dramatic, but it does give an idea of die effect Orson Welles had upon people and ofthe darkness ofhis genius. Mr. Thompson renders an exciting and incisive account ofWelles' life, although he warns us that Welles was a notorious fabricator so it is not always possible to know the truth. We do know that Welles was precocious, to put it mildly, and that his parents, including his parents' friend and surrogate father, Dr. Bernstein (whom Welles called "dadda"), encouraged his precocity. In fact, they never said "no" to him, which, the author argues, helped Welles to develop a monumental ego and a belief that he was not an ordinary person. There is no disputing that Welles was extraordinary: reading Shakespeare at three; attending school for only three years; losing a drama competition in school because the judges thought that the two roles he played so brilliantly were being acted by men; appearing on the Irish stage at sixteen; acting in New York at eighteen; directing his famous all-black Hamlet at twenty-one; doing radio dramas, including "The War of the Worlds"; creating the Mercury Theater with John Housman and directing and acting in his incredible Julius Caesar; creating a sensation with The Cradle Will Rock; then on to Hollywood and Citizen Kane at the age of twenty-five. And all the while eating prodigiously , drinking, chasing (many) women, performing magic, and never sleeping. Welles' pace makes the reader dizzy. No wonder he felt like an old man at forty. After Kane, Welles' career careened downward. Thomson's thesis is that Welles was incapable ofcondescending to deal with the realities of Hollywood, which never again gave him the independence he enjoyed with Kane. His ego and his endless restlessness—probably a symptom of depression—precipitated a series of disasters. His second masterpiece, TAe MagnificentAmbersons, was ruined by the studio while he was working and carousing in Rio. The film he was making in Brazil was never completed, and, after this, he became more famous for uncompleted projects than for his achievements. More eating, drinking, womanizing ; eventually he could not move on stage because his bulk was too great for his narrow feet. He still managed to do exceptional work, which Thompson discusses with considerable brilliance, from his magic shows for soldiers during the war to The Third Man and Othello. He did a lot of hack acting , but turned in some great performances as well, especially in Moby Dick and The Trial(which he also directed). He was always short ofmoney, and toward the end of his life, he shilled shamelessly for cheap wines and made innumerable self-serving appearances on television talk shows. Like Charles Foster Kane, he died alone, leaving only a message on the answering machine of an old friend. Welles' downfall was not simply the result of a selfish and spoiled man getting his "comeuppance" (this is actually the title of Part 3 of the book!) What gives his life the aura of...