“Who do I think I am and where do I get off becoming a radio commentator?”: The “woman from Weehawken” as a mediated legend in Orson Welles Commentaries

Early in his short-lived radio program, Orson Welles Commentaries (1945–1946), dramatist Orson Welles responded to letters said to be sent from a ‘woman from Weehawken.’ Through rhetorical use of these letters, and his ‘dialogue’ with the alleged woman from Weehawken, Welles advanced and defended his progressive opinions that did not align with the post-WWII US political and cultural climate. In this essay, we argue Welles’ rhetorical use of the letters crafted a mediated legend in the woman in Weehawken. The woman from Weehawken allowed the dramatist to introduce and defend his personal and political viewpoints to connect with, and potentially persuade, a national radio audience. Regardless of whether the letters were Welles’ creation or real and faithfully represented, Welles’ rhetorical fashioning of the woman from Weehawken allowed him to preemptively counteract potential critiques and ground political opinions as audience shared fact-based responses. This amalgamation of media, celebrity, politics, legend, and epistolary rhetoric provides a historical perspective in which to further explore the rhetoricity of twenty-first -century media messages and, with it, the relationship between content, creators, and their audiences.