When Charles Foster Kane break down in Orson Welles ’s 1941 filmCitizen Kane , complete with a C. P. Snow world tumbling out of his hand and shattering on the base , he uttered what is arguably the most noted line in the history of cinema : “ Rosebud . ”
Kane , of class , was infamously base on newspaper power William Randolph Hearst — though Welles refuse the connecter , saying , " It is not based upon the life of Mr. Hearst or anyone else . On the other bridge player , had Mr. Hearst and similar fiscal power not hold up during the period we discuss , Citizen Kanecould not have been made . "
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Nice brim service — but Hearst did n’t buy it for a 2nd , and Welles did n’t do much to break up the rumor when he came face - to - nerve with Hearst himself . OnCitizen Kane ’s possibility nighttime , Welles was in an elevator in San Francisco when , by incredible happenstance , William Randolph Hearst walk in . Orson Welles invited him to the premiere , but Hearst refused to acknowledge the invitation . When Hearst croak the lift , Wellessaid , " Charles Foster Kane would have accepted . "
He may not have felt peculiarly chatty that day , but Hearst sure as shooting let his tactual sensation be known . He had his journalists , his critic , his chin-wagging columnists , and probably even his typesetter spread vitriol about Welles ’s character and personal life , squall him out for communism and oppugn his patriotism . Hearst managed to get the movie blocked from most theaters by go with child studios to reserve them . And , of course , none of Hearst ’s immense media holdings would advertise or even mention the movie . When it was unavoidable , they referred to it only as a “ unexampled screen attraction . ”
Stacy Conradt
But now , 75 twelvemonth after the release of the flick , it seems Orson Welles has had the last laugh . Though it may have bombed at the box role , today , Citizen Kaneiswidely regardedas the best movie of all time . However , Hearst ’s repute has n’t get on so well — fair or not , he ’s mostly jazz today as “ the mythic bogeyman of American news media . ”
After being in piteous health for a few years , Hearstdiedof a heart attack on August 14 , 1951 , and wasburiedin the Hearst family mausoleum at Cypress Lawn in Colma , California . Were his last words as famous as Charles Foster Kane ’s utterance of “ Rosebud ” ? It does n’t seem so — there ’s no record of them .
Peruse all the accounting entry in our Grave Sightings serieshere .
