Orson Welles visited the hotel where I work, The Waldorf-Astoria, many times in his life.

In 1938, he attended President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s birthday ball in the Waldorf’s ballroom (seated with John Barrymore and Kitty Carlisle), and in the early 30’s he first met actress Agnes Moorehead at the Waldorf, who he later cast as Charles Foster Kane’s mother in his film Citizen Kane.

But his most amusing stay at the Waldorf-Astoria was in the late 1940s when he was afflicted with the chicken pox. As a practical joke, he kept two movie producers imprisoned in the Waldorf for three days, claiming that they were quarantined upon orders from the Port Authority of New York. He wouldn’t let them leave until they agreed to produce his latest film.

Orson Welles was no stranger to pranks, as we know from his 1938 broadcast of War of the Worlds that drove America into a frenzy.

It should be no surprise, then that Welles was also a keen magician and remained fascinated by magic throughout his life. During World War II, he had his own touring magic show, the Mercury Wonder Show, that he presented for members of the U.S. armed forces. It was performed in a large circus tent, and his assistants were legendary actresses Marlene Dietrich and Rita Hayworth.

“My father loved magic and bought me a couple of big illusions when I was a young boy. In those days we had Thurston and all those great stage magicians. I started doing sleight-of-hand when I was 11 or 12. The first thing I wanted to do was the boxes (that’s what Thurston did). I loved Houdini but he wasn’t an illusionist; he was a challenger. He challenged the audience. He didn’t seduce them. He set up a kind of Olympic game and then won it at the end … he was dynamic … he had a kind of contempt for illusionists.”
(excerpted from an October 1985 interview in Magic Manuscript magazine)

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Here is a very powerful card magic performance that was included in the unaired “Orson Welles Show” filmed in 1979. I particularly enjoy his piercing gaze directly into the camera.

This segment was immediately followed by a compelling Russian Roulette routine.

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Welles performed magic on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, on the Merv Griffin show, on numerous television shows, and in films, including Casino Royale. Watch this clip to see him levitate and vanish a woman in mid-air.

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Here’s a silly routine Orson Welles did with Lucille Ball. They perform the broomstick levitation.

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Orson Welles and Marlene Dietrich perform together for servicemen in this video:

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Finally, here is Welles’ concise explanation of how fraudulent psychics read your mind, using cold reading techniques. He is interviewed by David Frost (of Frost/Nixon fame).