Citizen Kane was not just a drama shown on-screen, it was based on a real life newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst and thinly veiled by cinematic flourish. However, Hearst was a powerful man and Orson Welles, an arrogant yet brilliant rising star, had made himself a powerful enemy.
According to PBS, Orson Welles was an ambitious young man who set out to dethrone Hearst, but Hearst would not take this lying down. He banned any mention of this film in his newspapers and intimidated theatre managers into refusing to show the movie. As such, Citizen Kane was initially a box office flop, failing to recoup its production costs. Despite the boycott, Citizen Kane still managed to get nominated for nine categories at the 14th Academy Awards, but only winning for Best Original Screenplay. Hearst’s influence managed to reach into the Academy voters, with many claiming that Citizen Kane was snubbed due to personal dislike of Welles among voters and Hearst’s supporters. The film was reportedly booed by audience members every time it was named at the Oscars.
Although Citizen Kane was a less than flattering depiction of Hearst, there is an interesting theory about why Hearst was so adamant to obscure the film. According to the writer Gore Vidal, “Rosebud,” the phrase that the film centers around, was a nickname given by Hearst to his mistress Marion Davies’s clitoris. Marion Davies was an actress who was well liked in Hollywood, and the controversy over Citizen Kane was said to be “a fight over her honor” as her depiction in the movie as Susan Alexander was as Welles claimed himself– “a dirty trick.”
Out of the three sources I used, only the PBS article seems to be based in fact and backed up by other sources. Although Far Out Magazine titles their article as “Why Citizen Kane was Booed at the 1942 Oscars,” the article clarifies that the booing was only account of Citizen Kane being booed came from Welles himself, who wasn’t even in attendance. Additionally, the Guardian article reads more as celebrity gossip with speculation about Welles and his co-writer Mankiewicz and their hidden motives.
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/why-citizen-kane-was-booed-at-the-1942-oscars
https://www.theguardian.com/unsolvedmysteries/story/0,,1155656,00
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