Orson Welles
A Biography
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Narrated by:
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Grace Conlin
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By:
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Barbara Leaming
About this listen
Here he confides his most intimate feelings and recollections of his extraordinary life. With remarkable detail and intimacy, Barbara Leaming reveals the private Welles: from child prodigy and young lion in Dublin and New York, to the succès de scandale of his The War of the Worlds broadcast; from his auspicious directing debut with the legendary Citizen Kane in his 20s, to the sabotage of his further directing career by the Hollywood studios; from his affairs, carousing, and stormy marriage to Rita Hayworth, to his association with Roosevelt and aspirations to the presidency.
It is a picture with an all-star cast, including Olivier, Monroe, Dietrich, Garbo, Warren Beatty, Charlie Chaplin, Princess Margaret, and Prince Aly Khan.
©1985 Barbara Leaming (P)1996 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Will Johnnie Veal—convicted of the murder of two police officers in 1970—be granted parole after 50 years in prison? How can he convince the parole board he’s reformed when he insists he’s innocent? What is prison time even supposed to accomplish? These are the questions that propel The Parole Room forward as it builds toward Johnnie’s 20th parole hearing—after 19 rejections.
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Enlightening story & a must read
- By Patsy on 10-07-24
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Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
- A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed
- By: Lori Gottlieb
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 14 hrs and 21 mins
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Performance
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Story
One day, Lori Gottlieb is a therapist who helps patients in her Los Angeles practice. The next, a crisis causes her world to come crashing down. Enter Wendell, the quirky but seasoned therapist in whose office she suddenly lands. With his balding head, cardigan, and khakis, he seems to have come straight from Therapist Central Casting. Yet he will turn out to be anything but.
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It was like a hallmark movie being waterboarded into my ears for 15 hours
- By Amazon Customer on 10-01-19
By: Lori Gottlieb
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Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
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Overall
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Performance
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The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in 25 years than the Romans did in 400. In nearly every country the Mongols conquered, they brought an unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade, and a blossoming of civilization.
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Golden Horde/Platinum Listen
- By Cynthia on 12-11-13
By: Jack Weatherford
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Elvis and Me
- By: Priscilla Beaulieu Presley
- Narrated by: Priscilla Beaulieu Presley
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
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The inspiration for the major motion picture Priscilla directed by Sofia Coppola, this New York Times best seller reveals the intimate story of Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley, told by the woman who lived it.
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What a story!
- By Pen Name on 08-28-22
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The Wonder of Stevie
- By: Wesley Morris
- Narrated by: Wesley Morris, Michelle Obama, Barack Obama, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
- Original Recording
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The year 1972 saw the beginning of a five-year span in which Stevie Wonder released five groundbreaking, critically acclaimed albums, garnering him more than half a dozen Grammys and more than 10 million albums sold, securing his place as one of the most important American musicians and songwriters in history. For the first time, uncover the untold story of an extraordinary artistic journey that shaped the greatest creative era in popular music history.
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Good but not great
- By Anonymous User on 09-14-24
By: Wesley Morris
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The Last Days of Cabrini-Green
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In 1992, the deadliest year in Chicago’s history, seven-year-old Dantrell Davis was shot and killed in front of his elementary school inside the public housing complex Cabrini-Green. What happened to Dantrell led to a truce among Chicago’s gangs, but it also ignited a national panic about poverty and violence in America’s cities. Dantrell’s name would soon be used to demolish all of Chicago’s high-rise public housing, displacing tens of thousands of low-income families.
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A Gripping and Necessary Work
- By booklover on 11-24-24
By: Ben Austen, and others
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San Miguel Kidnappings
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The close knit community in San Miguel de Allende Mexico was plagued by a string of sophisticated kidnappings for nearly a decade. When the police finally made an arrest the townspeople were shocked by who was accused of masterminding the criminal enterprise. It's everyone's favorite neighbor and a pillar of the community, Ramon Guerra. Except Ramon isn't who he says he is.
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Insightful
- By Tara on 12-11-24
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The Book of Murder
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Examining murder from an insider’s perspective, Matt Murphy—a former senior deputy district attorney and current ABC News legal analyst—discusses cases from his career, how they strained his personal life, and how he found peace seeking justice for victims and their families. Part taxonomy of murder, part prosecutor’s handbook, and part personal memoir, The Book of Murder goes through a dozen cases and his recollections of his 26 years in the Orange County DA’s office (17 in the Homicide Unit).
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Fascinating true crime
- By RueRue on 12-19-24
By: Matt Murphy
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Problem Child
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Problem Child is the unbelievably true story of Terrell Carter, an American musician and actor who grew up in Buffalo, New York, in a dysfunctional family, each member crazier than the next. And the Problem Child is the only one in the story who may, or may not, actually have a problem. An emotional journey of trials and revelations, with a huge secret at its core, this story may force you to laugh - just to keep from crying.
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Worth the wait . . .
- By JPALJ on 12-07-22
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The Meaning of Mariah Carey
- By: Mariah Carey
- Narrated by: Mariah Carey
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It took me a lifetime to have the courage and the clarity to write my memoir. I want to tell the story of the moments - the ups and downs, the triumphs and traumas, the debacles and the dreams - that contributed to the person I am today. This book is composed of my memories, my mishaps, my struggles, my survival, and my songs. Unfiltered. I went deep into my childhood and gave the scared little girl inside of me a big voice. I let the abandoned and ambitious adolescent have her say, and the betrayed and triumphant woman I became tell her side.
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Entertaining glitz glam smoke and mirrors - not the whole story.
- By Anonymous User on 10-04-20
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The Autobiography of Malcolm X
- As Told to Alex Haley
- By: Malcolm X, Alex Haley
- Narrated by: Laurence Fishburne
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Experience a bold take on this classic autobiography as it’s performed by Oscar-nominated Laurence Fishburne. In this searing classic autobiography, originally published in 1965, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and Black empowerment activist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Human Rights movement. His fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American dream and the inherent racism in a society that denies its non-White citizens the opportunity to dream, gives extraordinary insight into the most urgent issues of our own time.
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it's Nearly perfect
- By Kerry on 09-16-20
By: Malcolm X, and others
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The Man Who Invented Christmas
- How Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits
- By: Les Standiford
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 5 hrs and 50 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Just before Christmas in 1843, a debt-ridden and dispirited Charles Dickens wrote a small book he hoped would keep his creditors at bay. His publisher turned it down, so Dickens used what little money he had to put out A Christmas Carol himself. He worried it might be the end of his career as a novelist. The book immediately caused a sensation. And it breathed new life into a holiday that had fallen into disfavor, undermined by lingering Puritanism and the cold modernity of the Industrial Revolution.
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Beautifully Told!
- By JodyB on 12-01-17
By: Les Standiford
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In March 1999, a Palm Beach matron and her socially ambitious husband invited the elite of the island for a dinner dance honoring Prince Edward. Among those dancing to the string orchestra that evening would be those accused of murder and spousal abuse, and others who would suffer fates both unseemly and unspeakable. Among the outer circle there would be murders, suicides, and fatal fires.
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Just what I've been waiting for
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Snooze
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Love the subject, not so much the book
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Everything Was Possible (Updated Edition)
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A Textbook on Old Hollywood
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Citizen Kane
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With the 75th anniversary of Citizen Kane in May 2016, Harlan Lebo has written the full story of Orson Welles' masterpiece film. The book explores Welles' meteoric rise to stardom in New York and the real reason behind his arrival in Hollywood and unprecedented contract with RKO Studios for total creative control. It also delves into the dispute over who wrote the script; the mystery of the "lost" final script; and the plot by Hearst to destroy Welles' project through blackmail, media manipulation, and other tactics.
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Book was great. Narrator was an amateur!
- By katherine on 07-07-16
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The Garner Files
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After suffering physical abuse at the hands of his stepmother, James Garner left home at fourteen. He became Oklahoma's first draftee of the Korean War and was awarded with two Purple Hearts before returning to the United States and settling in Los Angeles to become an actor. Working alongside some of the most renowned celebrities, including Julie Andrews, Marlon Brando, and Clint Eastwood, Garner became a star in his own right, despite struggles with stage fright and depression.
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What a disappointment.
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Sinatra and the Jack Pack
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Frank Sinatra desperately wanted to be part of John F. Kennedy, Jr.'s gang. He had his own famed "Rat Pack", made up of hard drinking, womanizing individuals like himself - guys like Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Peter Lawford - but the guy "Ol' Blue Eyes" really wanted to hang with was Lawford's brother-in-law, the real chairman of the board, John F. Kennedy. In Sinatra and the Jack Pack, Michael Sheridan delves deep into the acclaimed singer's relationship with the former president.
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What listeners say about Orson Welles
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- A
- 09-12-10
A Mesmerizing Tale read by a wonderful narrator
A wonderfully told tale by author Barbara Leaming, made all the more enjoyable by narrator Grace Conlin's patiently nuanced reading. It's easy to lose the thread of a story when the world is the stage - as it certainly was for Welles - and the players so numerous and varied, but Ms. Conlin's pacing and delivery keeps the detailed action compelling throughout the long and winding journey of Welles' extraordinary life
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- Lisa Hodges
- 07-15-19
Outstanding
I can not express how much I enjoyed this work. Thank you for providing such an outstanding experience
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- Todd R. Reis
- 06-05-22
Interesting, enlightening, but still incomplete.
As a Welles fan, never knew much about him. This book, well written & read, helped fill in a lot of info & background, but also skated over some people & incidences I would have liked to know more about. As an example, I have the AFI Tribute on VHS. The focus that night was repeatedly on The Ambersomss movie, not Citicen Kane which was hardly mentioned if at all. I wondered if the Hearst Org had something to do with that and how he really reacted since,,per this bio, the studio had totally changed it via editing from his version.
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1 person found this helpful
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- B. Briggs
- 09-28-23
Excellent
Slow start, but then it became immensely interesting. I found the narrator to possess a very pleasant voice!
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- Tim Simpson
- 09-29-22
A huge
One of if not the best Orosn Wells biography very touching and very informing you simply must listen I it!
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- Amazon Customer
- 05-28-23
Beautifully read and fascinating
I only give it four stars for the story because I got lost in the middle due to my own overall ignorance on the topic. It is so detailed that someone who doesn’t know all of the players of Hollywood and you work at that time can get lost. However, it is more than worth it to follow it to the end. Can’t wait to get a hard copy and look at it again more closely.
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- Toni Hitchcock
- 07-31-24
Amazing book!
What a story, of course. Did not disappoint at all. Narration was excellent. Highly recommended.
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- Troy
- 07-30-14
More Than Just a Biography... a Collaboration
This might be the most heartbreaking review I ever write. I discovered the golden age of radio, The War of the Worlds, and The Shadow through Orson Welles. I discovered Welles at the end of his life when I was 12, when he performed the voice of the monster planet Unicron in Transformers: The Movie. It's not Citizen Kane, and it would never be anything remotely close. I get that, but that's how I came to appreciate one of the greatest geniuses the entertainment world has ever known. My love of radio happened because of this man. This man changed my life and expanded my world.
This biography is truly something special because it has something that other biographies don't have: Welles himself. Author Barbara Learning was able to contact and collaborate with Welles on this biography through means that typifies Welles' life story, and he gave her free reign and resources because he understood that there is Welles the man, Welles the legend, and his own memory, none of which were in alignment. He was curious to learn about all three aspects. More insightful than the story of Welles' life are the inserted dialogues between Welles and Learning, which adds both gravitas and that personal flourish that makes all the difference. Welles was an extraordinary man by any measure, and his life was as equally bizarre.
On a personal note... the epilogue shattered my childhood. After going through the highs and lows, after getting the personal reminiscences from greatness to virtual unemployment, the hardest part was hearing him refer to my first experience with him as "that horrible little project about Japanese robots that transform into vehicles and such" and how at least it'll help him to buy groceries or something. It was one of the last things he performed before he passed, and he didn't live long enough to see it released. I knew all along he wasn't pleased with it, and I get it, I really do. I can see how a man of Welles' star caliber might think that a string of voiceovers in commercials and cartoons would be something terrible, even after a long stretch of failure and unemployment. But to have his own commentary on it is rough. I like to think that it's little projects like this that will ultimately lead people of later generations to find his work through the back alleys when they might otherwise not seek out the likes of Citizen Kane. After all, that's how I discovered his work. And just like nobody could have predicted something like that, nobody could have predicted the kind of twists and turns Welles' life would take. I thought I knew about Welles before. This book expanded on so much I only thought I knew. As biographies go, this one's a treasure.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Michael
- 11-17-12
Leaming & Conlin Bring Orson Back Into Our Lives
If you could sum up Orson Welles in three words, what would they be?
Brilliant, Driven, Humanitarian
Who was your favorite character and why?
Orson is the most important and my favorite character. No one was more collectively brilliant than he. In his early life he was as ego centric as most are at that age, but he did not stay there. Later on, (thou still driven) he would reach out to others. Was more caring and giving. Hi last phone call (the night he died( was to the mother of a close director friend, asking how she was and reminding her to take her meds. I have loved Orson for over 50 years of my life. Orson was yet another example of the good that God gave to us. My friend has been gone for over 25 years and I miss him still....
What about Grace Conlin’s performance did you like?
What a blessing that our reader was Grace Conlin. She seemed to very much understand the nature and depth of this great man. A performer (in this case) has only their voice to tell the story. However, dear Ms. Conlin read Leaming's words like she had known Orson all her life. This wonderful lady is such an artist. At times, I was so drawn buy her ability to communicate it seemed like she and I were sharing wonderful memories of this man I have loved for so long. Thank you so much Ms. Conlin. There just are NO words to describe your abilities and care..
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
NO! The book was over 20 hours long. Actually I wanted to take my time. Knowing early on that this audio book was a pleasure I did not want end anytime soon.
Any additional comments?
If you are into the theater, old time radio, or the movies, this book is for you. It is well worth the money and your time. Do yourself a favor. If you love the fine arts, this book is for you.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Karen
- 03-21-11
Great book; average narration
I had read this book several years ago in print--and enjoyed it very much--so was happy to see an audio version available. It's still a great book, but I grew increasingly frustrated with the reader, who had an annoying habit of occasionally emphasizing (to me) the wrong words in sentences--or using an "arch" tone when one wasn't (again, to me) really called for. I found myself editing her narration in my mind, or frequently wondered what the great director himself might have thought of her reading! So, while it's not terrible, a different narrator--say, Edward Herrmann--might have brought this material to life in a way that Ms. Conlin doesn't.
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8 people found this helpful