You can watch Orson Welles give an account of the War of the Worlds hoax on YouTube here.
Of course this is from F is for Fake, so treat it accordingly. FDR never met with the aliens. If he had, he would have driven them from New Jersey by the sheer force of his awesomeness.
UPDATED to add, hear the original here.
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12 comments
August 29, 2010 at 12:00 am
redfox
“F for Fake,” that would be — no “is”. I wish that movie were as good as it might have been.
August 29, 2010 at 1:39 am
erubin
And you can watch Orson Welles give an account of Paul Masson wine on YouTube here.
(Should I also link to his infamous frozen peas commercial or have I fulfilled my quota of inane posts?)
August 29, 2010 at 2:16 am
Ralph Luker
I can do a good version of Eleanor Roosevelt’s Blue Bonnet Margarine commercial for you.
August 29, 2010 at 2:43 am
Ralph Luker
Oops. My memory of the commercial was in error. It was for Good Luck Margarine.
August 29, 2010 at 9:15 am
eric
“F for Fake,” that would be — no “is”.
Of course, sorry about that.
August 29, 2010 at 9:16 am
eric
I wish that movie were as good as it might have been.
True of much of Welles, though.
August 29, 2010 at 2:24 pm
TF Smith
Speaking of FDR, if only we could get someone willing to tear the “economic royalists” a new one today…
Like these scumbags, for example:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer?currentPage=1
August 30, 2010 at 12:23 am
erubin
Okay, now that no one is listening, I feel free to guiltlessly derail this thread.
Here is Orson Welles doing some voice-over work on a frozen peas commercial.
And here is a brilliant parody by Pinky and the Brain of the same incident (actually, it’s not so much a parody as a line-by-line recreation). I doubt more than a dozen viewers got the joke when this first aired. I know I didn’t.
The Critic took things in a slightly different direction. That’s the prolific Maurice LaMarche, who also voiced Brain, impersonating Welles.
Welles’ last major film appearance (aside from archival footage) was as Unicron in the 1986 Transformers movie, which also featured Leonard Nimoy. Neither actor’s voice is much recognizable.
And lest these links sour you on Welles’ legacy, here you will find rare footage of Welles’ rare pet project Don Quixote. Please forgive Nico’s cover of The Doors’ “The End”. Perhaps it’s your sort of thing, but I think it’s out of place in this clip.
August 30, 2010 at 6:38 am
matt w
I’ll do it if you won’t, erubin.
August 30, 2010 at 9:20 am
PorJ
You realize, I hope, that its a myth that “millions” or even
“hundreds or thousands” of Americans were completely freaked out by Welles’s broadcast. See this or this.
August 30, 2010 at 12:33 pm
erubin
matt w:
I wrote a post last night with a handful of Welles-related links including the one you posted. Unfortunately, it’s “awaiting moderation”.
[Should be out of the queue now. -- Vance]
But in short: I hope you realize that The Critic had a little inspiration.
August 31, 2010 at 5:24 am
matt w
I did — I was just trying to out-inane you. Of course, now that your old one is out of the queue I look like a big copycat.