… speaking of Orson Welles
OK… Now, the guy’s dead… been dead for 23 years… and the incident I’m going to direct your attention to happened around 25 years ago… There’s a (big) part of me that admires Welles’s frankly expressed disgust with the ad copy he’s charged with reading
Check out this page and listen to the Orson Welles - Frozen Peas Spot.
Having worked in radio and having recorded hundreds of local spots and promos, I can attest to the frustration of trying (and being expected) to read clumsy, awkward copy written by ham-handed hacks. I also sympathize with Welles’s irritation with (what I assume to be) the session’s producer. Sure, the producer had been given a job to do: Have the fat man read the paper. In all likelihood, the producer had no control over the ad’s copy, and had no authority to edit it. Nevertheless, Welles was right. The copy did suck, and there was no way to read it properly. The question is a philosophical one: Does one play the sycophant, or does one tell the emperor that his wedding tackle is hanging out and refuse to compliment him on his new suit? It is, really, a moral issue, and speaks to one’s personal integrity.
Welles can be heard walking out of the session at the end of the clip. Good for him!