Orson Welles' Sketch Book

Episodes

The first episode, "The Early Days," broadcast on 24 April 1955, covers a timely earthquake, first-night audiences at the Gate Theatre in Dublin, and how Welles became an actor. "Critics" (8 May 1955) discusses a Boston performance of Five Kings, the impact of Percy Hammond's negative review of the Voodoo Macbeth, and a curse on the film It's All True. "The Police" (22 May 1955) recounts the story of Isaac Woodard, a black World War II veteran blinded in a 1946 beating by South Carolina police, a case Welles had previously covered on his radio show Orson Welles Commentaries.

Welles's comments in this episode foreshadow a speech from Touch of Evil. "People I Miss" (5 June 1955) touches on actors' prompts, Harry Houdini, gender differences in appreciating magic tricks, and John Barrymore. "The War of the Worlds" (19 June 1955) addresses the 1938 Mercury Theatre broadcast mistaken for a real invasion, skepticism during Norman Corwin's Between Americans on 7 December 1941, and the opening night of Danton's Death. The final episode, "Bullfighting" (3 July 1955), tells the true story of Bonito the bull, partially filmed in 1942 for Welles's unfinished film It's All True.

Reviews and commentary

Ben Walters of The Guardian noted in 2009 that Welles, though famous as a large actor, was more comfortable as a storyteller and saw television as an ideal platform. Welles considered television a conversational form like radio, suited to his role as a hands-on narrator. In Sketch Book, he addresses the camera directly, making eye contact while discussing subjects such as stage fright and state interference, and doodling sketches. The programme fosters an intimate, conspiratorial tone, and to modern eyes resembles a monochrome forerunner of Skype or YouTube.