Editing Orson Welles (section)

== Early life (1915–1931) ==
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[[File:Orson-Welles-1918.jpg|thumb|left|upright=.7|Welles aged three (1918)]]
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George Orson Welles was born May 6, 1915, in [[Kenosha, Wisconsin]], a son of Richard Head Welles<ref name="Higham" />{{Rp|26}}<ref name="Ancestry Parents">Ancestry.com, ''Illinois, Deaths and Stillbirths Index 1916–1947'' [database online], Provo, Utah. Ancestry.com Operations 2011. Retrieved September 29, 2014.</ref>{{efn|Richard H. Welles had changed the spelling of his surname by the time of the 1900 Federal Census, when he was living at [[:File:Frederick J. Gottfredsen House 2013.jpg|Rudolphsheim]], the 1888 Kenosha mansion built by his mother Mary Head Wells and her second husband, Frederick Gottfredsen.}} and Beatrice Ives Welles (''née'' Beatrice Lucy Ives).<ref name="Ancestry Parents" /><ref name="McGilligan" />{{Rp|9}}{{efn|Sources vary regarding Beatrice Ives Welles's birth year; her grave marker reads 1881, not 1883.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://greenridgecemetery.blogspot.com/p/photo-gallery.html |title=Green Ridge Cemetery Photo Gallery |publisher=Kenosha (Wisconsin) Cemetery Association |access-date=November 12, 2016 |archive-date=October 6, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006150405/http://greenridgecemetery.blogspot.com/p/photo-gallery.html |url-status=live }}</ref> For more information see the [[Talk:Orson Welles#Mother's Birth Date|talk page]].}} He was named after one of his great-grandfathers, Kenosha attorney [[Orson S. Head]], and his brother George Head.<ref name="Higham">[[Charles Higham (biographer)|Higham, Charles]], ''Orson Welles: The Rise and Fall of an American Genius''. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985 {{ISBN|0-312-31280-6}}</ref>{{Rp|37}}{{efn|An alternative story of the source of his first and middle names was told by [[George Ade]], who met Welles's parents on a [[West Indies]] cruise toward the end of 1914. Ade was traveling with a friend, Orson Wells (no relation), and the two of them sat at the same table as Mr. and Mrs. Richard Welles. Mrs. Welles was pregnant at the time, and when they said goodbye, she told them that she had enjoyed their company so much that if the child were a boy, she intended to name him after them: George Orson.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kelly|first1=Fred C.|title=George Ade, Warmhearted Satirist|date=1947|publisher=The Bobbs-Merrill Company|location=Indianapolis, IN|page=209|edition=First}}</ref>}}

Despite his family's affluence, Welles encountered hardship when his parents separated and moved to [[Chicago]] in 1919. His father, who made a fortune as the inventor of a bicycle lamp,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/participant.jsp?spid=203979&apid=119503 |title=Orson Welles Biography |publisher=[[Turner Classic Movies]] |access-date=May 9, 2015 |archive-date=May 10, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100510185307/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/participant.jsp?spid=203979 |url-status=dead }}</ref> became an alcoholic and stopped working. Welles's mother was a concert pianist who had studied with the pianist-composer [[Leopold Godowsky]].<ref>{{cite news |last= |first= |date=January 29, 1923 |title=Ex-Kenoshan Gains Prestige |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beatrice_Ives_Welles_Kenosha_Evening_News_Jan_29_1923.jpg |work=Kenosha Evening News |location= |access-date=February 11, 2023 |archive-date=December 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241209074612/https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beatrice_Ives_Welles_Kenosha_Evening_News_Jan_29_1923.jpg |url-status=live }}</ref> She played during lectures by Dudley Crafts Watson at the [[Art Institute of Chicago]] to support her son and herself. Welles received [[piano]] and [[violin]] lessons arranged by his mother. The older Welles boy, "Dickie", was institutionalized because he had learning difficulties. Beatrice died of [[hepatitis]] in a Chicago hospital on May 10, 1924, just after Welles's ninth birthday.<ref name="Heyer" />{{Rp|3–5}}<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|326|date=January 2013}} The Gordon String Quartet, a predecessor to the [[Berkshire String Quartet]], which had made its first appearance at her home in 1921, played at Beatrice's funeral.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1924/05/13/page/10/article/chicago-musicians-mourn-passing-of-mrs-welles |title=Chicago Musicians Mourn Passing of Mrs. Welles |work=Chicago Tribune|date= May 13, 1924| page =10 |access-date=October 6, 2014 |archive-date=October 15, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141015162409/http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1924/05/13/page/10/article/chicago-musicians-mourn-passing-of-mrs-welles/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.lib.rochester.edu/index.cfm?PAGE=2456 |title=The Gordon Collection of String Music |work=University of Rochester Library Bulletin|date=Winter 1952 |access-date=August 31, 2014 |archive-date=December 16, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141216123204/http://www.lib.rochester.edu/index.cfm?PAGE=2456 |url-status=live }}</ref>

After her death, Welles ceased pursuing a musical career. It was decided he would spend the summer with the Watson family at a private art colony established by [[Lydia Avery Coonley|Lydia Avery Coonley Ward]] in the village of [[Wyoming, New York|Wyoming]] in the [[Finger Lakes Region]] of New York.<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|8}} There, he played and became friends with the children of the [[Aga Khan III|Aga Khan]], including the 12-year-old [[Prince Aly Khan]].{{efn|Years later, the two men successively married [[Rita Hayworth#Orson Welles|Rita Hayworth]].}} Then, in what Welles later described as "a hectic period", he lived in a Chicago apartment with his father and Maurice Bernstein, a Chicago physician who had been a close friend of his parents. Welles attended public school<ref name="Tarbox">{{cite book |last=Tarbox |first=Todd |date=2013 |title=Orson Welles and Roger Hill: A Friendship in Three Acts |location=Albany, Georgia |publisher=BearManor Media |isbn=978-1-59393-260-2}}</ref>{{Rp|133}} before his alcoholic father left business altogether and took him on his travels to Jamaica and the Far East. When they returned, they settled in a hotel in [[Grand Detour, Illinois]], owned by his father. When the hotel burned down, Welles and his father took to the road again.<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|9}}

"During the three years that Orson lived with his father, some observers wondered who took care of whom," wrote biographer Frank Brady.<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|9}}

{{anchor|Roger Hill}}
"In some ways, he was never really a young boy, you know," said Roger Hill, who became Welles's teacher and lifelong friend.<ref name="Leaming" />{{Rp|24}}

[[File:Orson-Welles-1926.jpg|upright=.7|left|thumb|Welles in 1926: "Cartoonist, Actor, Poet and only 10"]]

Welles attended public school in Madison, Wisconsin, enrolled in the fourth grade.<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|9}} On September 15, 1926, he entered the [[Todd Seminary for Boys]],<ref name="Tarbox" />{{Rp|3|date=April 2014}} an expensive independent school in [[Woodstock, Illinois]], that his older brother, Richard Ives Welles, had attended ten years before until he was expelled.<ref name="Higham" />{{Rp|48}} At Todd School, Welles came under the influence of Roger Hill, a teacher who was later Todd's headmaster. Hill provided Welles with an ''ad hoc'' educational environment that proved invaluable to his creative experience, allowing Welles to concentrate on subjects that interested him. Welles performed and staged theatrical experiments and productions.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NseAVbjgYOMC&q=orson%20welles%20todd%20school&pg=PP11|title=Orson Welles on Shakespeare: The W.P.A. and Mercury Theatre Playscripts|last=France|first=Richard|year=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-97993-6}}</ref>

[[File:Welles-Todd-Schoolmates-1931.jpg|thumb|Welles (fourth from left) with classmates at the [[Todd Seminary for Boys|Todd School for Boys]] (1931)<ref name="woodstockpubliclibraryarchives.omeka/486">{{cite web |title=Todd School Class Photo (Includes Orson Welles) |url=https://woodstockpubliclibraryarchives.omeka.net/items/show/486 |website=Woodstock Public Library Archives |access-date=July 7, 2024 |date=1930}}</ref>]]

"Todd provided Welles with many valuable experiences," wrote critic Richard France. "He was able to explore and experiment in an atmosphere of acceptance and encouragement. In addition to a theatre, the school's own radio station was at his disposal."<ref name="France" />{{Rp|27}} Welles's first radio experience was on the Todd station, where he performed an adaptation of ''Sherlock Holmes'' written by him.<ref name="Heyer">Heyer, Paul, ''The Medium and the Magician: Orson Welles, the Radio Years 1934–1952''. Lanham, Maryland: [[Rowman & Littlefield]], 2005 {{ISBN|0-7425-3797-8}}</ref>{{Rp|7}}

On December 28, 1930, when Welles was 15, his father died of heart and kidney failure aged 58, in a hotel in Chicago. Shortly before, Welles had told his father that he refused to see him until he stopped drinking. Welles suffered lifelong guilt and despair that he was unable to express. "That was the last I ever saw of him," Welles told biographer Barbara Leaming 53 years later. "I've never, never ... I don't want to forgive myself."<ref name="Leaming" />{{Rp|32–33, 463}} His father's will left it to Welles to name his guardian. When Roger Hill declined, he chose Dr. Maurice Bernstein,<ref name="Feder" />{{Rp|71–72|date=April 2014}} a physician and friend of the family.<ref name="newyorker/ageless-soul">{{cite magazine |last1=Maloney |first1=Russell |title=The Young Orson Welles |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1938/10/08/this-ageless-soul |access-date=July 7, 2024 |magazine=The New Yorker |date=October 1, 1938}}</ref><ref name="umich.edu/never-before-seen">{{cite web |title=U-M's new Orson Welles acquisition from his daughter reveals never-before-seen work |url=https://news.umich.edu/u-m-s-new-orson-welles-acquisition-from-his-daughter-reveals-never-before-seen-work/ |website=University of Michigan News |access-date=July 7, 2024 |date=April 24, 2017 |archive-date=July 7, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240707063538/https://news.umich.edu/u-m-s-new-orson-welles-acquisition-from-his-daughter-reveals-never-before-seen-work/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Following graduation from Todd in May 1931,<ref name="Tarbox" />{{Rp|3}} Welles was awarded a scholarship to [[Harvard College]], while his mentor Roger Hill advocated he attend [[Cornell College]] in Iowa.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.cornellcollege.edu/2015/05/when-orson-welles-was-recommended-to-cornell-college/ |title=When Orson Welles was recommended to Cornell College |date=May 6, 2015 |publisher=[[Cornell College]] |access-date=May 9, 2015 |archive-date=May 18, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518073501/http://news.cornellcollege.edu/2015/05/when-orson-welles-was-recommended-to-cornell-college/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Instead, Welles chose travel. He studied for a few weeks at the Art Institute of Chicago<ref name="Time and Chance">Hill, Roger, [http://lookatillinois.info/content/one-mans-time-and-chance-memoir-eighty-years-1895-1975-cover ''One Man's Time and Chance, a Memoir of Eighty Years 1895 to 1975''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140907031035/http://lookatillinois.info/content/one-mans-time-and-chance-memoir-eighty-years-1895-1975-cover |date=September 7, 2014 }}. Privately printed, 1977. Woodstock Public Library collection, digitized by Illinois State Library.</ref>{{Rp|117}} with [[Boris Anisfeld]], who encouraged him to pursue painting.<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|18}}

Welles occasionally returned to Woodstock, the place he named when he was asked in a 1960 interview, "Where is home?" Welles replied, "I suppose it's Woodstock, Illinois, if it's anywhere. I went to school there for four years. If I try to think of a home, it's that."<ref>{{cite AV media|url=http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1869482748 |title=Close Up: Orson Welles, part 1 |publisher=[[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]] |date=February 25, 1960 |time=22:58–23:12 |access-date=December 26, 2017}}</ref>