[78-L] Me and "Me and Orson Welles"

[Michael Biel]

On 12/26/2010 11:45 AM, David Lennick wrote:
> If it's a bootleg, wait for the real thing..it's worth it.

My copy arrived in the mail today and it is the real thing.  The 
Canadian issue, hard box, double layer pressed disc, region 0. But the 
dollar (plus $3 shipping) is gone.  It now is $6.31 but shipping is free.

Additional comments about the broadcast scene.  The scripts would not be 
stapled down the left margin, only in the corner, and the actors would 
remove the staples for the broadcast.  Turning stapled pages is too 
noisy.  I think that this early in 1937 would be too early for the RCA 
44 BX, or at least shopworn examples.  They might still only have RCA 
44A mics then, and if the B was in use, they would be quite new at that 
point.  Of all mics to have in front of the orchestra it would not be an 
RCA BK 74 Velocity Jr.  The sound effects record is OBVIOUSLY an LP -- 
look at the stamper groove in the label.  Since it was the traffic noise 
it MUST be consistent throughout the whole side, not become quieter for 
the middle third of the side.   The pickup looks very European -- HMV 
perhaps?  And is that a slide-automatic mechanism at the spindle hole 
taking up the right third of the screen?  Or a 1950s RCA lathe 
mechanism?  The cast started  making comments before the last words of 
the scene died away -- no program closing?  I've never seen photos of 
Welles with a cigar during a broadcast -- too much risk of someone 
coughing -- and what would he do with the ashes?  Since his script is 
stapled, and you can't speak with a cigar in your mouth, how would he 
turn the page if it happened during one of his speeches? Which it almost 
does.  Why is there a guy in bib overalls, the one who closes the studio 
door, standing at the aiming controls of a TV studio boom mic which has 
a mic over two guys sitting on a platform  -- from which they can't move 
-- and from which they don't speak.?  Why is there an upright piano and 
a pianist next to that platform all the way across the studio from the 
orchestra and facing away from it?   And Orson is facing away from the 
director and control room because the mic is not positioned correctly 
with the side facing the control room since the whole cast is using it.  
Blowing smoke in the star's face, going off-script, and facing away from 
the director might be dramatic techniques to show his superiority when 
he wasn't entitled to it, but Welles was a perfectionist and a 
perfectionist would not face away from the clock and the timing 
signals.  He was a master at filling allotted time, but any broadcaster 
knows that you have to know what the allotted time is.

And certainly as mentioned before by others it is an NBC not CBS program 
from Chicago not New York, live not recorded.  They spent so much effort 
to be correct to the period, they really unnecessarily fell apart during 
this short scene.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com

> And I've had more
> bad luck than good with a lot of those pirated movies (not that I've viewed
> them for any purpose other than research, you understand).
>
> dl
>
> On 12/25/2010 10:14 PM, Cary Ginell wrote:
>> Here's the DVD for a buck on eBay. Can't beat that with a stick.
>>
>> http://cgi.ebay.com/ME-AND-ORSON-WELLES-NEW-DVD-/110621390395?pt=US_DVD_HD_DVD_Blu_ray&hash=item19c18c763b
>>
>> Film stars Christian McKay and Zack Efron.
>>
>> Cary Ginell
>>
>>> Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2010 18:44:38 -0800
>>> From: danvanlandingham at yahoo.com
>>> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
>>> Subject: Re: [78-L] Me and "Me and Orson Welles"
>>>
>>> Who was in "Me and Orson Welles"/Is this something I can get thru Amazon.com or
>>> the local Wal Mart,Fred Meyer or Bi Mart here in southwestern Oregon?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ________________________________
>>> From: David Lennick<dlennick at sympatico.ca>
>>> To: 78-L Mail List<78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
>>> Sent: Sat, December 25, 2010 6:34:31 AM
>>> Subject: Re: [78-L] Me and "Me and Orson Welles"
>>>
>>> p.s.  Julius Caesar was the only one of the Welles plays to be reissued on LP,
>>> on Entre, and it's seen in "Lucy Meets Orson Welles".
>>>
>>> dl
>>>
>>> On 12/25/2010 9:32 AM, David Lennick wrote:
>>>> Julius Caesar was commercially recorded, but not in the theater. Welles and
>>>> company did 4 "complete" Shakespeare plays, recorded by Columbia and issued as
>>>> "Mercury Records" (well before the Chicago-based label of the same name) on 78
>>>> sets of 8 to 12 discs, and there was a 5-disc set of highlights from Caesar
>>>> prior to this on Columbia. The latter is one of those early examples of an
>>>> album with a photo attached to the front cover. Most were done in New York in
>>>> 1938 while Macbeth was done in Los Angeles, during the filming of Citizen
>>> Kane,
>>>> and I've always suspected from the terrible sound quality that Welles tried
>>>> recording it on film. I did all of these for Pearl some years ago.
>>>>
>>>> The record that is glimpsed briefly in the "First Nighter Program" scene is an
>>>> LP..if you get the film, slow it down. There are two other errors in that
>>>> scene, one of which is on the IMDB page.
>>>>
>>>> I'm still awe-struck by this picture.
>>>>
>>>> dl
>>>>
>>>> On 12/25/2010 2:24 AM, Michael Biel wrote:
>>>>> Because Leah and I know Arthur Anderson, the little boy who really was
>>>>> the lute player in the real show, we saw it in the theater.  Arthur
>>>>> played many kid roles in the Mercury Theater broadcasts, is on all the
>>>>> Let's Pretend 78s, did hundreds of other radio programs, and has lived a
>>>>> secure life as the voice of the Lucky Charms Leprechaun. The most
>>>>> amazing part of the movie to me was to see the re-creation of the play.
>>>>>
>>>>> I've heard all these years that it was in "modern dress" but this and
>>>>> the rehearsals in the movie do not give any clue to the surprise when
>>>>> you see the opening night that the modern dress was NAZI (or Fascist)
>>>>> dress.  When I saw Arthur in Oct I didn't get a chance to ask him the
>>>>> question that I think is important -- how accurate is that re-creation
>>>>> of the play?  We know he wasn't the type who would go around screwing
>>>>> Orson's girlfriend, but that aspect of the movie is all he ever gets
>>>>> asked aboutI and he is annoyed with it -- especially since his wife is
>>>>> always by his side!
>>>>>
>>>>>      I only have the abridged set on 78s but I do have the un-abridged 2-Lp
>>>>> set on Listening Library.  I've been meaning to see if Arthur is there.
>>>>>
>>>>> Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 12/25/2010 1:37 AM, Cary Ginell wrote:
>>>>>> Just got through watching "Me and Orson Welles" and I agree with David that it
>>>>>> is a magnificent film. It kind of sank out of sight at the box office, and never
>>>>>> came to my town, not even the art theaters, but that's probably because of its
>>>>>> subject matter. The drooling teenage crowd that most theaters are courting these
>>>>>> days would not sit still for a minute with something this esoteric, without any
>>>>>> blatant sex or violence, car crashes, or explosions, and a plot that centers on
>>>>>> Shakespeare and the theater. Talk about the cinematic kiss of death. But I found
>>>>>> it to be a lovingly assembled, extremely faithful historical document of Orson
>>>>>> Welles' Mercurial (pun intended) personality and the most realistic portrayal of
>>>>>> what it was like to be in the New York theater during the 1930s that I've ever
>>>>>> seen. Christian McKay was devastatingly good in the role of Welles. I did a lot
>>>>>> of research on Welles when writing my Jazz Man book -(he is the subject of two
>>>>>> chapters), and found this
>>>>>>
>>> p
>>>> ar
>>>>>      t
>>>>>>      of his career ultimately fascinating.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I was reminded of the other outstanding performance as Welles in a film - by
>>>>>> Paul Shenar in another extraordinarily well-done period piece, "The Night That
>>>>>> Panicked America" (from 1975) about the "War of the Worlds" broadcast of 1938.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I thought the best line in "Me and Orson Welles" was during the tumultuous
>>>>>> applause received after the opening of "Julius Caesar" when Welles quips, "Now
>>>>>> how the hell can I top this?" The music was great - with Ellington, Goodman,
>>>>>> Dorsey, all the bands you'd expect to hear on the radio in 1937, and it was also
>>>>>> nice to hear Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven version of "The Music Goes 'Round and
>>>>>> Around" played over the closing credits. There's one shot of a turntable playing
>>>>>> a record - it was during the radio broadcast and the record was supposed to be a
>>>>>> sound effects disc, but the label wasn't clearly displayed. No matter. The
>>>>>> details of the film were marvelous and, from what I could see, perfectly
>>>>>> correct, even down to the tabletop radio in Welles' apartment and the paste they
>>>>>> used to stick playbills on walls and telephone booths.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Discographical note: in "The Encyclopedia of Orson Welles," co-author Chuck
>>>>>> Berg states that Welles' "Julius Caesar" was the first drama to be commercially
>>>>>> recorded in its entirety - by Columbia Records, with a score by Marc Blitzstein.
>>>>>> Apparently everything that was audible in the theatre production was captured,
>>>>>> including dialogue, cries of the mob, offstage sounds, and conversations of
>>>>>> secondary characters. Can anyone verify this?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Anyone reading this should go out and rent this movie - it's apparently only
>>>>>> been available for a few months. Target had an exclusive on selling it but I
>>>>>> rented mine from our neighborhood Blockbuster.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Cary Ginell
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2010 22:26:11 -0500
>>>>>>> From: dlennick at sympatico.ca
>>>>>>> To: 78-L at 78online.com
>>>>>>> Subject: [78-L] Me and Orson Welles
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Just watched this movie tonight..I don't recall seeing it mentioned on any
>>>> of
>>>>>>> our groups, and it's a shame because it's fabulous and jam-packed with
>>>>> vintage
>>>>>>> 1930s recordings. Lots of Duke Ellington, which is fine by me..the music
>>>> list
>>>>>>> will be huge and it was impossible to read. Oh, and the acting ain't half
>>>> bad
>>>>>>> either, and Joseph Cotten looks like Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles looks
>>>>> (and
>>>>>>> sounds) like Orson Welles. Actually this is the best Welles portrayal I've
>>>>>> ever
>>>>>>> heard or seen.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Three false notes occur in a scene at a radio station. Don't know why those
>>>>>>> were the only ones I noticed. (Okay, the sprinkler makes four.)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1175506/
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> dl
>>>>>
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