Talk:Orson Welles

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Proposed infobox image change[edit]

How about an infobox image change for Orson Wells since the current one is in his early twenties. Anybody thinks it needs a change?

Current infobox image

Proposed infobox images

Option 1
Option 2
Option 3
Option 4

Cast your votes here 113.211.210.70 (talk) 16:56, 15 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

No, the infobox image does not need a change. It is a quality image of long standing in this article. See Talk:Orson Welles/Archive 1#Infobox image. — WFinch (talk) 23:05, 26 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Featured picture scheduled for POTD[edit]

Hello! This is to let editors know that File:Orson Welles War of the Worlds 1938.jpg, a featured picture used in this article, has been selected as the English Wikipedia's picture of the day (POTD) for May 6, 2025. A preview of the POTD is displayed below and can be edited at Template:POTD/2025-05-06. For the greater benefit of readers, any potential improvements or maintenance that could benefit the quality of this article should be done before its scheduled appearance on the Main Page. If you have any concerns, please place a message at Wikipedia talk:Picture of the day. Thank you! — Amakuru (talk) 11:24, 5 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer who is remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre.

Poster credit: Acme News Photos

Recently featured:

Welle's (very quentionable) claims[edit]

https://web.archive.org/web/20150814020035/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/what-to-listen-to/the-war-of-the-worlds-panic-was-a-myth/

"Within three weeks, newspapers had published at least 12,500 articles about the broadcast and its impact, but the story dropped from the front pages after a few days. Adolf Hitler referenced the broadcast in a speech in Munich on November 8, 1938. Welles later remarked that Hitler cited the effect of the broadcast on the American public as evidence of 'the corrupt condition and decadent state of affairs in democracy'."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(1938_radio_drama)#Public_reaction

"The myth of the result created by the combination was reported as fact around the world and disparagingly mentioned by Adolf Hitler in a public speech. [...] During a 1970 appearance on The Dick Cavett Show, Welles claimed to have met Hitler while hiking in Austria with a teacher who was a 'budding Nazi'. He said that Hitler made no impression on him at all and does not remember him. He said that he had no personality at all: 'He was invisible. There was nothing there until there were 5,000 people yelling sieg heil'."

WELLES: I think that’s the nicest thing that a man from England could say about the men from Mars. Mr Hitler made a good deal of sport of it, you know, and actually spoke of it in the great Munich speech. And there were floats in Nazi parade showing —

WELLS: He hadn’t much else to say.

WELLES: That’s right! (laughter) And it’s supposed to show the corrupt condition and decadent state of affairs in democracies that The War of the Worlds went over as nice as it did.

https://web.archive.org/web/20190721135841/http://www.rosslawhead.com/blog/2012/09/when-orson-welles-met-h-g-wells/

This obviously stems exclusively from the self-promoting imagination of the Kenosha-born “showman” Wells, who was a generation (26 years) younger than Hitler. For Hitler demonstrably did not give a speech in Munich the day before the so-called Kristallnacht, but was very probably in Berlin. Neither in German nor in English is there any reference on the entire Internet to a speech by Hitler in Munich's Bürgerbräukeller on November 8, 1938.

https://archive.org/details/max-domarus-hitler-reden-und-proklamationen-1932-1945-vol-1-4-compressed/page/967/mode/2up

https://archive.org/details/tcahs/page/n1173/mode/2up

Exactly one year later, however, he gave a speech in the Bürgerbräukeller, in which he did not mention the word decadence or corruption at all, let alone Well(e)s ridiculous “panic radio play about Martians”. He uses the word America once, in the sentence: “After all, this Germany has had more suicides in two years than Americans have died in the West in the middle of the war.”

https://www.georg-elser-arbeitskreis.de/texts/hitler-1939-11-08.htm

https://archive.org/details/19391108AdolfHitlerRedeImBuergerbraeukellerBegruessungVonChristianWeber1h00m

It was the speech in which eight people were killed by Georg Elser's bomb attack, according to the protocoll 20 (not "13") minutes after Hitler had left the scene. Equally truthful is Wells' statement that he once “sat right next to Hitler” in the Tyrol, only to attest to his “lack of personality” 35 (?) years later. I doubt with great emphasis that this guy was ever even close to Hitler, who was indeed “invisible”: because he was physically non-existent (except in the imagination of the fame-seeking Mr. Wells). https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=G_PUUHLknDI 45.76.87.187 (talk) 13:43, 9 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]