Editing Citizen Kane (section)

===Hearst's response===
Hearing about ''Citizen Kane'' enraged Hearst so much that he banned any advertising, reviewing, or mentioning of it in his papers, and had his journalists [[libel]] Welles.<ref name="thomson2001"/> Welles used Hearst's opposition as a pretext for previewing the film in several opinion-making screenings in Los Angeles, lobbying for its artistic worth against the hostile campaign that Hearst was waging.<ref name="thomson2001"/> A special press screening took place in early March. Henry Luce was in attendance and reportedly wanted to buy the film from RKO for $1&nbsp;million to distribute it himself. The reviews for this screening were positive. A ''Hollywood Review'' headline read: "Mr. Genius Comes Through; 'Kane' Astonishing Picture". The ''[[Motion Picture Herald]]'' reported about the screening and Hearst's intention to sue RKO. [[Time (magazine)|''Time'']] wrote that "The objection of Mr. Hearst, who founded a publishing empire on sensationalism, is ironic. For to most of the several hundred people who have seen the film at private screenings, ''Citizen Kane'' is the most sensational product of the U.S. movie industry." A second press screening occurred in April.<ref name="Schatz"/>{{Rp|94}}

When Schaefer rejected Hearst's offer to suppress the film, Hearst banned every newspaper and station in his media [[Conglomerate (company)|conglomerate]] from reviewing—or even mentioning—the film. He also had many movie theaters ban it, and many did not show it through fear of being socially exposed by his massive newspaper empire.<ref name="Street, Sarah 1996">{{cite magazine |last=Street |first=Sarah |title=Citizen Kane |magazine=History Today |date=March 1996}}</ref> The Oscar-nominated documentary ''[[The Battle Over Citizen Kane]]'' lays the blame for the film's relative failure squarely at the feet of Hearst. The film did decent business at the box office; it went on to be the sixth highest grossing film in its year of release, a modest success its backers found acceptable. Nevertheless, the film's commercial performance fell short of its creators' expectations.<ref name="PBS"/> Hearst's biographer David Nasaw points out that Hearst's actions were not the only reason ''Kane'' failed, however: the innovations Welles made with narrative, as well as the dark message at the heart of the film (that the pursuit of success is ultimately futile) meant that a popular audience could not appreciate its merits.<ref name="Nasaw">{{cite book |last=Nasaw |first=David |author-link=David Nasaw |title=The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst |url=https://archive.org/details/chieflifeofwilli0000nasa |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]] |location=Boston, MA |date=2000 |isbn=0-395-82759-0}}</ref>{{Rp|572–573|date=April 2012}}

Hearst's attacks against Welles went beyond attempting to suppress the film. Welles said that while he was on his post-filming lecture tour a police detective approached him at a restaurant and advised him not to go back to his hotel. A 14-year-old girl had reportedly been hidden in the closet of his room, and two photographers were waiting for him to walk in. Knowing he would be jailed after the resulting publicity, Welles did not return to the hotel but waited until the train left town the following morning. "But that wasn't Hearst," Welles said, "that was a hatchet man from the local Hearst paper who thought he would advance himself by doing it."<ref name="Welles TIOW"/>{{Rp|85–86}}

In March 1941, Welles directed a Broadway version of [[Richard Wright (author)|Richard Wright]]'s ''[[Native Son]]'' (and, for luck, used a "Rosebud" sled as a prop). ''[[Native Son (play)|Native Son]]'' received positive reviews, but Hearst-owned papers used the opportunity to attack Welles as a communist.<ref name="Leaming OW"/>{{Rp|213|December 2014}} The Hearst papers vociferously attacked Welles after his April 1941 radio play, "His Honor, the Mayor",<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/otr_freecompany |title=His Honor, the Mayor |date=April 6, 1941 |publisher=Internet Archive |access-date=February 21, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151009225441/https://archive.org/details/otr_freecompany |archive-date=October 9, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> produced for The Free Company radio series on CBS.<ref name="Bret Wood">{{cite book |last=Wood |first=Bret |author-link=Bret Wood |title=Orson Welles: A Bio-Bibliography |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=Westport, Connecticut |date=1990 |isbn=0-313-26538-0}}</ref>{{Rp|113}}<ref name="Wellesnet His Honor">{{cite web |url=http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=186 |title=Orson Welles defends American civil liberties in His Honor the Mayor |publisher=Wellesnet.com |date=August 4, 2007 |access-date=December 26, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224030954/http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=186 |archive-date=December 24, 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Welles described his chance encounter with Hearst in an elevator at the [[Fairmont San Francisco|Fairmont Hotel]] on the night ''Citizen Kane'' opened in San Francisco. Hearst and Welles's father were acquaintances, so Welles introduced himself and asked Hearst if he would like to come to the opening. Hearst did not respond. "As he was getting off at his floor, I said, 'Charles Foster Kane would have accepted.' No reply", recalled Welles. "And Kane would have, you know. That was his style—just as he finished Jed Leland's bad review of Susan as an opera singer."<ref name="Welles TIOW"/>{{Rp|49–50}}{{r|chawkins20120123}}

In 1945, Hearst journalist Robert Shaw wrote that the film got "a full tide of insensate fury" from Hearst papers, "then it ebbed suddenly. With one brain cell working, the chief realized that such hysterical barking by the trained seals would attract too much attention to the picture. But to this day the name of Orson Welles is on the official son-of-a-bitch list of every Hearst newspaper".<ref name="Roberts">{{cite book |last=Roberts |first=Jerry |title=The Complete History of American Film Criticism |publisher=Santa Monica Press LLC |location=Santa Monica, California|date=2010 |isbn=978-1-59580-049-7}}</ref>{{Rp|102}}

Despite Hearst's attempts to destroy the film, since 1941 references to his life and career have usually included a reference to ''Citizen Kane'', such as the headline "Son of Citizen Kane Dies" for the obituary of Hearst's son.<ref>{{cite news |last=King |first=Susan |title=Raising 'Kane' With Hearst : An 'American Experience' Recounts the Attempts of the Publishing Magnate to Quash a Film Masterpiece |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-01-28-tv-29475-story.html |date=January 28, 1996 |access-date=December 11, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141223030428/http://articles.latimes.com/1996-01-28/news/tv-29475_1_citizen-kane |archive-date=December 23, 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 2012, the Hearst estate agreed to screen the film at Hearst Castle in San Simeon, breaking Hearst's ban on the film.<ref name=chawkins20120123>{{cite news |last=Chawkins |first=Steve |title=Family 'Citizen Kane' gets inside the castle |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|url=https://www.latimes.com/local/la-xpm-2012-jan-23-la-me-citizen-kane-20120123-story.html |date=January 23, 2012 |access-date=December 11, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141221115331/http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jan/23/local/la-me-citizen-kane-20120123 |archive-date=December 21, 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref>