Did they actually meet?
At the end of the movie there is a scene where "Orson Wells" and "Hearst" have brief meeting. Did these two ever really meet?
share In the elevator? Welles told Peter Bogdanovich they did. My question is did Welles ever go to San Simeon and meet Hearst before he made "Kane"?
"Now it's dark."
It's hard to say whether or not they really met in an elevator. True or not true, it's a great story, and Welles knew that. He's quoted in "Road to Xanadu" in the beginning as having said the majority of what he says in his biographies is false information anyways because he didn't want to give too much of the mystery of himself away.
I highly doubt Welles went to San Simeon, at least when the movie makes it seem he did. His going after Hearst was far from personal. Herman Mankiewicz proposed it to him and after they collaborated on some Hearst dirt, Welles thought it was a great idea. Just far-fetched writing from 90s writers who didn't put a half-hearted effort into research.
Supposedly Mank and Houseman's first draft was more a veiled portrait of Awesome himself (as they knew him) than of Hearst, tho Mank's original script "American" was inspired by his indignation against Hearst.
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