Rare Citizen Kane scripts up for auction in California

The three screenplays, which illustrate the evolution in the creation of the classic masterpiece, are being offered by Profiles in History on September 30.

Orson, who directed and starred in the film about the rise and fall of a publishing tycoon, was 25 when the movie debuted in 1941.

“To have something that comes directly from Orson Welles, items that he used himself in structuring the movie, is incredible,” said Harlan Lebo, whose book Citizen Kane: A Filmmaker’s Journey is scheduled for release next year.

An original first rough draft of American – the working title for Citizen Kane – written in 1940 by Orson’s collaborator Herman Mankiewicz is estimated to bring $20,000 to $30,000 (£13,000 to £20,000) as part of the Calabasas, California-based auctioneer’s three-day sale of Hollywood memorabilia.

It’s the earliest known existing draft of the movie in private hands, the auction house said. It was “created so early that writing of major scenes and characters is yet to come,” Harlan said in the introduction to the auction catalogue.

The next draft “is a fuller evolution of the script, now with the principal plot elements,” he said.

The third and final revised shooting script includes Orson’s handwritten annotations, directing notes and camera-angle diagrams and is signed by most of the cast principals. The 156-page manuscript is dated 7/16/40.

“This is the actual script Welles held in his hands while directing the movie with his camera blocking notes,” said Profiles’ owner Joseph Maddalena.

“What’s so significant about this is there’s been so much written about Citizen Kane that is inaccurate or we just don’t know because there are gaps in the story because no one had the source reference,” he said. “For people who study film, it’s a big deal because you actually now have the entire story.”

The other two scripts also are estimated to sell for $20,000 to $30,000.

Joseph said the seller was a close friend of Orson’s who acquired the material directly from the filmmaker, who died in 1985 at the age of 70.

The sale also includes a rare original 49-page CBS-issued transcript of the 1938 Mercury Theatre radio broadcast of War Of The Worlds – an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ science-fiction novel – and the cover letter from the network apologising for the mass hysteria created by the realistic dramatisation of a Martian invasion of Earth.

It comes from another collector and is estimated at $20,000 to $30,000.

In addition, the sale is offering a typed manuscript with Orson’s handwritten directorial notes for a proposed television adaptation of Citizen Kane in the 1950s. Its presale estimate is $20,000 to $30,000.

The Welles collection also contains scrapbook pages, contracts, photographs, storyboards, unproduced scripts and other material from his career.