Collections : [University of Michigan Special Collections Research Center]

The Orson-Welles and Alessandro Tasca di Cutò papers reflect the working and personal relationship between Orson Welles and Alessandro Tasca di Cutò. He was a producer for many of Orson Welles’s films, but two were especially significant for Orson Welles: The Chimes at Midnight (also known as Falstaff, 1965) and Don Quixote (1955-73, unfinished). In both cases, Welles shot the material over a period of years, and on a shoestring budget. The majority of the archive consists of an assortment of letters, handwritten notes, and telegrams that Welles sent to Tasca di Cutò concerning the day-to-day working needs of the filmmaker.

The majority of the archive lies in its assortment of letters, handwritten notes, and telegrams that Welles sent to Tasca di Cutò concerning the day-to-day working needs of the filmmaker. The collection is divided into four series: Correspondence, Projects, Photographs, and Miscellaneous.

In the Correspondence series, the bulk of the letters are written from 1960-1964. Alessandro is usually referred to as Sandro by Orson Welles. The majority of letters are from Welles to Tasca di Cutò mainly discussing film production details. Welles signs many of his letters with just “O”. There is also a letter from Welles to Joseph Marks head of MAfilm in Hungary from 1985. The correspondence contains several references related to Orson Welles’s death in 1985, including a photocopy of a telegram of condolence from France’s President Francois Mitterand to Tasca di Cutò, and from Ann Rogers, Welles’s one-time secretary in London. In the Various to Tasca section letters include correspondence from Paola Mori and Rebecca Welles Manning along with business contacts. The letters are a combination of typed and handwritten letters and some letters are photocopies of originals.

The Projects series includes information on films Orson Welles acted and directed. Included in this series are scripts, production documents such as budgets and filming schedules, and photographs. The films include: "Black Magic", "Nella terra di Don Chisciotte" (In the Land of Don Quixote) a documentary, "Chimes at Midnight", "The Other Side of the Wind", "The Big Brass Ring", "The Dreamers", "King Lear", "The Cradle Will Rock", "Mercedes", "It’s All True", "The Unseen", "Don Quixote", and "Saladino". The "Chimes at Midnight" documents include 22 costume sketches that are attributed to Orson Welles, but are left unsigned. In "Don Quixote" there are eleven drawings and paintings by several different artists depicting scenes from "Don Quixote" based on stills from some early footage. The drawings are from different artists but all are in the style of Gustave Dore. The drawings were to show Don Quixote “reading his book and getting his Big Idea.” The unfinished projects include: "It’s All True", "The Other Side of the Wind", "The Big Brass Ring", "King Lear", "The Cradle Will Rock", "Saladino" and "Don Quixote".

Photographs are included in each project, but the Photographs series contains photographs of Alessandro Tasca di Cutò on set and in some of his acting roles.

Miscellaneous contains material such as stationary, and programs from many Orson Welles tributes. Included is a photocopy of a legal document that is a confirmation of ownership rights to Oja Kodar for some of Orson Welles’s material. The Clippings and Articles contains general clippings from several publications from 1943-1985 documenting Orson Welles’s career with some in French and Spanish.

The Orson Welles-Chris Welles Feder Collection is an assortment of material on Orson Welles collected by his eldest daughter Chris Welles Feder. She was born Christopher Welles in 1938 to Orson Welles and Virginia Nicolson Welles. The collection includes letters written by Orson Welles to his first wife, Virginia Nicolson, and family photographs. Also included are clippings and articles, audiovisual materials such as movies or TV shows dedicated to Orson Welles, and miscellaneous material such as postcards, exhibition programs, and catalogs. The collection has five series: Correspondence, Clippings and Articles, Photographs, Audiovisual, and Miscellaneous.

The Correspondence series contains letters written mainly by Orson Welles to his wife Virginia Nicolson from 1937-1952. They were married in 1934 and separated in 1939 when Orson moved to Hollywood and Virginia visited Ireland with her friend Geraldine Fitzgerald. By 1940 the couple legally divorced. The letters are a combination of handwritten and typed letters and some include drawings in the margins by Welles. A significant series of letters are the ones written between July-August 1939 to Virginia. They provide insight into Welles's professional transition from New York to Hollywood, describing his first month on the West Coast and his introduction to the world of movie-making. Responses from Virginia Nicolson Welles are not included. The early photographs, wedding announcement, and Christmas card of 1937 had been housed together in an album.

The Clippings and Articles series includes newspaper clippings from 1936-2004 on both Orson and Virginia, but the majority are about Orson Welles’s career. Also included are clippings from society pages from the 1930’s announcing Orson Welles and Virginia Nicolson's marriage, the birth of their daughter Christopher, and the couple’s divorce. Some clippings include annotations in the margins by Chris Welles Feder.

The Photographs series includes a wedding portrait of Virginia and Orson Welles’s marriage in 1934. Also included are childhood photographs of Chris Welles Feder with Orson Welles along with photographs of Rebecca Welles Manning, Orson Welles’s daughter with Rita Hayworth. Also included are headshots of Orson Welles for different productions and some photographs of him as a child. Production photographs from "Too Much Johnson" (1938) and "Macbeth" (1948) both directed by Orson Welles are in the collection.

Audiovisual Material is an assortment of audio cassette tapes and VHS tapes. Included are three Smithsonian Historical Performances audio cassettes of the radio dramatization of "Les Miserables" recorded by Orson Welles in 1937. VHS tapes include movies Welles made guest appearances in and television shows, and Criterion Collection material about his life and work.

The Miscellaneous series contains an assortment of legal documents, press packets and exhibit and awards programs from Orson Welles tributes and retrospectives.

The papers, originally from the files of Orson Welles's London agent, Bill Cronshaw, consists of film clippings, film rolls, and photographs; production and post-production notes and schedules; portions of the script (some annotated by Welles); business and and financial materials; and correspondence related to the film "Dead Reckoning, later, "The Deep." A limited amount of miscellaneous materials not associated with the film are also included.

The collection, originally from the files of Orson Welles's London agent, Bill Cronshaw, consists of film clippings, film rolls, and photographs; production and post-production notes and schedules; portions of the script (some annotated by Welles); business and and financial materials; and correspondence related to the film "Dead Reckoning." A limited amount of miscellaneous materials not associated with the film are also included.

The Correspondence series consists of the letters and telegrams of Lawrence Harvey, Jeanne Moreau, Orson Welles, Michael Bryant, and others associated with the actors and the film, as well as several personal letters to Orson Welles.

The Scripts series includes fragments of the old original script, handwritten pages with notes, dialogue changes, an annotated photocopy of the working script, and several copies of “Jugoslav New Shooting, TV Interview, Dialogue.” In addition, there are notes and lists regarding scripts and dialogue pages.

Production and Post-Production contains the notes, letters, and telegrams of agents, merchants, actors, and producers, some in Welles’ hand or signed by Welles. These materials provide information related to casting; cameramen, film equipment and processing; boats, costumes and props; sound dubbing and post-synching; editing; and film scenes. Several shooting schedules give details of filming on the water and at several other locations from October 26 through November 9, 1969. To-do lists and handwritten notes include information on scheduling, travel, and shipments. There are several postcards of Hvar, a Croatian island; Modra Spilja a cave in the Croatian Adriatic; and a map fragment of Biscayne Bay related to filming locations.

The Business and Financial series is comprised of cast contracts, as well as invoices, lists, correspondence, and handwritten notes related to costs for staff, filming, sets, travel, storage, and expenses while on location. Correspondence regarding service agreements, nationality of the film, the novel “Dead Calm,” and film rights is included.

Photographs and Film include black and white photographs of the boats used in the film. There are color film clips of specific scenes and cast members with handwritten lists, typed notes, and annotated script pages. A significant number of the clips are numbered but unidentified. Also included are three rolls of unidentified film.

The Miscellaneous series consists of correspondence, financial information, and a contract related to Welles’ participation in the films "Sarajevo," "Battle on the Neretva River," and "The Immortal Story." In addition to a list of expenses for "The Other Side of the Wind," there is correspondence regarding Welles’s 1974 tax return. Also included is a typed transcript of a1969 interview of Welles.

The Orson Welles – Oja Kodar Papers includes scripts, production documents, photographs, and other materials from Orson Welles's work in film and other media. General correspondence, topical files, papers related to Oja Kodar, and personal materials also make up a portion of collection. The bulk of the papers date from the 1960s to the 1980s with a smaller amount of material from the 1930s-1950s. The Additions to the Welles-Kodar Papers series, acquired in 2015, complements the scripts, correspondence and photographs already held, but also include annotated typescripts of drafts for a planned memoir, additional on-the-set photographs from films, television, and other projects, personal photographs, and documents from collaborations between Welles and Kodar.

The Orson Welles - Oja Kodar Papers primarily document the creative activities of Orson Welles during the last two decades of his life. The papers also contain a smaller amount of materials from the 1930s through the early 1960s. The materials in this collection were obtained from Oja Kodar, his companion and creative collaborator from the 1960s until his death in 1985. Additional papers were acquired in 2015 and are described below in the Additions to the Welles-Kodar Papers series.

The Welles-Kodar Papers have been divided into thirteen series: Theater, Radio, Film, Television, Other projects, Magic, Name and topical, Personal, Oja Kodar, Sound, Motion pictures, Realia, and Articles and clippings. Though much of the collection was loose and unordered, any parts of the collection that were grouped or organized by Welles, his assistants, or Oja Kodar have generally been kept in their original order. The loose, unorganized papers were then arranged according to the patterns that seemed exist in the material that was organized. Essentially, the current organization of the collection is an attempt to more fully implement the organizational schemes that Welles and Kodar were employing in the collection.

The first five series (Theatre, Radio, Film, Television, Other projects) represent the bulk of the collection and are arranged by project. For example, all materials relating to Citizen Kane including correspondence, photographs, and production documents, are kept together, physically and intellectually. The projects are then ordered chronologically. For example, immediately after the Citizen Kane (1941) materials are materials related to Welles' next project, The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). There are two exceptions to this project-based arrangement, where two groups of materials were kept together by production company (Astrophore and Roprama Film). Researchers should also note that Welles often worked on several projects at once so a memo filed, for example, under F for Fake (1974), may touch on Blind Window , which he was working on in roughly the same time period. Browsing through material from projects that occurred during the same general time period may therefore be a useful search strategy for researchers.

The Magic series, consists of a small amount of magic books, scripts for tricks, correspondence with magicians, and playing cards, reflects Orson Welles' strong, life-long interest in magic.

The remaining seven series (Name and topical, Personal, Kodar, Sound, Motion pictures, Realia, and Articles and clippings) contain material not generated during the making or distribution of Welles' creative projects. The Name and topical series consists of an alphabetical set of subject and name files material may range from correspondence with friends to posters from film festivals honoring or featuring Welles's work. The Name and topical series also includes correspondence with many famous filmmakers and actors and actresses. The Personal series contain photographs of Welles and materials relating to childhood friends, family, Welles's houses, and personal legal and financial matters. The Oja Kodar series includes material from her career as a sculptor, scripts she wrote, and some correspondence and personal material.

The final series: Sound, Motion pictures, Realia, and Articles and clippings, are relatively small (taken together they take up roughly 3 linear feet). Some material of note include cigar boxes on which Welles jotted various notes and a set of acetate records which seem to include a rare Welles radio performance.

The Theater series consists of a few files (about .1 linear feet) with he contents made up primarily of photographs and some programs from relatively early in his career, including the Mercury Theatre, as well as some from after he started working in film. Dates span 1934-1960.

In 2015, the library acquired the remaining Orson Welles papers in the possession of Oja Kodar. The Additions to the Wells-Kodar Papers series has been arranged into eleven series, mirroring the arrangement of the papers in the original acquisition. The series are: Theater, Radio, Film, Television, Other Projects, Magic, Name and Topical Files, Personal, Oja Kodar, Biographical Works, Clippings and Articles, and Oversize Photographs.

The Radio series consists of a few files (about .1 linear feet), related to Welles' work in the late 30's and early 1940s, including photographs, scripts, articles, and correspondence.

The Film series is the largest in the added material, comprising ca. 3 linear feet of scripts, drafts, correspondence, articles and clippings, promotional materials, and photographs. Films represented include both those directed by Welles and those directed by others in which he acted or participated. The series is arranged chronologically by film, dated according to their first public showing or general release date. Unfinished or unreleased projects are identified with an approximate date range of the years in the work took place.

The material related to the earliest films from the 1940s and 1950s consists primarily of photographs. Later unfinished films of particular interest include The Deep, Because of the Cats, The Other Side of the Wind, Crazy Weather, Assassin/The Safe House, The Other Man, The Dreamers, Big Brass Ring, and King Lear. Also included is articles, promotional materials, correspondence, and photographs from Don Quixote, filmed on and off from the late 1950's to the early 1970s. Materials are primarily related to the version which was released in 1992 after a the footage was edited and finished by director Jesus Franco, but the photographs are from the original filming.

As with drafts in the earlier accessions, Welles typically worked on scripts in sections, producing successive drafts which he then amended. The collection preserves many pages of these working drafts, which sometimes also include Welles's typed or written notes about the story and characters, along with messages to and from his typists. Minimal reorganization of the papers was done in order to preserve evidence of the process, and there are many files of "drafts" which may contain repetitions and out-of-sequence pages, filed as they were found. As Welles often worked by inserting new pages into older drafts or blending together several different versions of a scene, page numbers may not follow a logical sequence. In many cases no information about the script material was recorded before it was filed away, so dating the drafts is difficult. The dates assigned to this material are approximate. Because of the lack of identifying information on some of the material, a miscellaneous sub-series is included at the end of the series, which includes unidentified photographs and drafts of scripts.

The Television series comprises about .4 linear feet, and includes scripts, photographs, correspondence, and other materials relating to projects that were originally meant for television. This includes The Orson Welles Show, a talk show that only ever shot one episode with guests Burt Reynolds and the Muppets. Aslo included are materials related to Orson's Bag, a collection of short films including Swinging London, Stately Homes, and the Merchant of Venice, the contents of which were eventually released in 1995 as part of The One-Man Band. Other materials reflect the initial stages of a Christmas TV movie and a special for NBC.

The Other Projects series (.1 linear ft.) includes materials related to Welles' non-film related work, including advertising and vioceover work, as well as correspondence about various job offers.

The Magic series (about .5 linear ft.) includes scripts, correspondence, photographs, and other materials related to Orson Welles magic performances, including the Mercury Wonder Show, and television specials The World of Magic and Orson Welles' Magic Show. Also included are collected printed magic tricks, drafts of trick patter that he used during performances, articles and clippings, and drawings of costumes.

The Name and Topical Files series (approximately 1 linear ft.) contains primarily correspondence and various other materials arranged alphabetically by the name of a person, place, event, or subject. The series includes letters from directors and film executives such as Martin Scorsese and August Coppola, actors and actresses such as Charleton Heston and Charles Fawcett, close friends such as Roger Hill and Peter Bogdanovich, and some fans of Welles's work. Also included are posters, programs, and other materials related to film festivals and tributes to welles, including the Cannes International Film Festival and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

The Personal series (1 linear ft) includes a variety of materials related to Welle's personally, rather than his screen work. This includes drafts of his writing including essays and articles about various topics, including Shakespeare and tributes and remarks about others in the film business, as well as untitled, unidentified drafts. Also in this series are works by others given to or collected by Welles including poems, short stories, and tributes. Most significant is the material from Welles' unpublished memiors, both in draft form and shorter more organized versions, along with notes, correspondence, and photographs meant for the book. Additionally, there are miscellaneous personal documents, including the notes he would write himself with lists of things that needed to be done, and notebooks with similar content as well as several doodles, one a self protrait. Correspondence with his daughters and Oja is also found in this series, as well as personal and family photographs, some from very early in his life.

The Oja Kodar series (approximately .75 linear ft.) consists of materials related to Oja Kodar's work both with and Without Orson Welles, as well as correspondence, and personal matters. The series is divided into subseries for film, writing, name and topical files, and personal. The writing and film subseries both include unpublished drafts of scripts and stories. The personal subseries included several topics related to Orson Welles' estate after his death, including real estate, legal papers related to the dispute over film rights, and Oja's eulogy for Welles. Also included are materials from her sculpture work and photographs.

The Biographical Works series (about .25 linear ft.) includes published and unpublished works about Welles written by others, including a collection of annotated correspondence, "Orson!:An Original Play", drafts of biographies by Jonathan Rosenbaum and Barbara Leaming, and a copy of The Unknown Orson Welles.

The Clippings and Articles series (approximately .5 linear ft.) is a collection of articles and clippings about Welles from various publications including magazines and newspapers. Materials are mainly arranged chronologically from before 1970 to 2014, but also included are folders of undated materials, undated clippings from Croatian/Yugoslavian publications, and photographs clipped from articles.

The Oversize series comprises two oversize boxes with oversize photographs that correspond with materials in the Film, Television, Magic, Personal, and Oja Kodar series and follows the same order. The magic subseries includes pages from a scrapbook with images from vintage magic ephemera together with images of Welles performing magic.

The collection includes business and personal correspondence, production materials, scripts, photographs, motion picture, and sound recordings related to Richard Wilson and Orson Welles's work in radio, theater, and film from the 1930s to the 1950s. Also included are materials related to each man's later solo careers and personal life.

The Richard Wilson-Orson Welles Papers document many aspects of the two men's creative collaboration in radio, theater, and film for the Mercury Theater and Mercury Productions. Material related to several moments in Welles's post-Mercury Productions solo work and life form part of the collection. Richard Wilson's post-Mercury Productions work is also represented. The collection includes business and personal correspondence, production materials, scripts, photographs, and audio and motion picture recordings.

Materials relating to classic films such as Citizen Kane , The Magnificent Ambersons , The Lady From Shanghai, and Macbeth are included in the collection. The original filming and 1980s-1990s reconstruction, led by Richard Wilson, of the suddenly-terminated Welles film, It's All True (1942) is particularly well-documented.

The Wilson-Welles collection has been divided into seven series: Orson Welles; Richard Wilson; Mercury Theatre/Mercury Productions; Sound; Motion Pictures; Realia; and Bill Krohn: It's All True (1993).

The three primary series: Orson Welles, Richard Wilson, and Mercury Theatre/Mercury Productions have been largely organized by production type (e.g. Theater, Radio, and Film) and then chronologically by project. Completed films, theatrical productions, and radio broadcasts are dated according to their first public showing or general release date. Unfinished or unreleased projects are dated according to the year in which most of the work on the project took place.

Correspondence and business papers for each project are located together under the project name. An important exception to this organizational scheme was necessitated by the fact that Welles frequently worked on several projects simultaneously and a single letter or memo may address several projects. Sets of memos and correspondence are filed with the project to which they are most closely related. Notable examples of overlapping projects and sets of memoranda that address at least two films are Macbeth and Othello (much of the information related to Othello is actually in correspondence in the Macbeth files), and The Magnificent Ambersons and It's All True (much of the information related to The Magnificent Ambersons is contained within the It's All True files).

The Richard Wilson and Orson Welles series also contains material related to both men's families and personal lives.