It’s widely known that the 1941 Orson Welles film Citizen Kane is based upon the life of newsp
It’s widely known that the 1941 Orson Welles film Citizen Kane is based upon the life of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, including elements of his life such as his relationship with a much younger actress, his failed political career and how his palatial estate has a zoo in it because rich people are weird.And while it is also pretty common knowledge that Hearst’s retaliation against the film may have led to it initially failing financially due to him banning his papers from even mentioning the film and thus preventing the movie from getting much needed publicity, the full extent of his retaliation against both Welles and the production is less well known.For example, Hearst arranged a smear campaign against Welles to label him as a communist for his involvement with the film, a decision that led to the FBI opening a file on the actor/director/producer which kept him under surveillance from 1941 through to 1948. The idea that film criticising the rich must be in some way trying to undermine America also leading to the FBI investigating the creators of the later film It’s a Wonderful Life.What is less well know is how Hearst used his clout to lean on the other film studios in Hollywood, in an attempt to get them to pressure Citizen Kane’s distributor RKO into not releasing the film. Indeed MGM’s Louis B. Mayer offered RKO $ 800,000 for the film so that they could burn all traces of it, an offer that the head of RKO refused.Additionally, at one point a police investigator warned Welles not to return to his hotel room as a 14 year old girl had been put in his room’s closet and two Hearst-employed photographers were on standby to photograph Welles’ planned arrest. SO YEAH, in addition to trying to use the Red Scare to end Welles’ career Hearst also attempted to frame Orson as a sex offender.However, despite Citizen Kane’s historical standing, the successful damage Hearst did to Welles’ career lingered for decades, with studio interference with his follow-up the Magnificent Ambersons leading to his getting disillusioned with the Hollywood studio system. -- source link
#irregular incidents#film history#history#red scare