Bob Jackson Light Tourer
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| Classic bike, lots of style. |
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"Rosebud
was a bike." The mantra of San Francisco's Citizen Chain bike shop
sits proudly in the front window next to the bikes with the most
personality and character. Rosebud, the
enigmatic last words of the newspaper mogul Charles Kane, has been regarded as
one of the greatest secrets in cinema.
The idea that a bike could be so intimately connected to person to be
their dying utterance seems like a leap to say the least. However, cursory research reveals this to be
one of a half dozen leading hypotheses.
The story is
that in an early draft of the film, screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz wrote that Orwell’s character mentions Rosebud to a secretary who then asks “who is
she?” Kane’s answer is nearly as cryptic
as his dying breath, “It isn't a who, it's
an it." Stories circulate that the
symbol of Mankiewicz's own damaged childhood was a treasured bicycle, stolen
while he visited the public library and, in punishment, never replaced. Some critics believe this is the emotion he
drew on when writing the loss that haunted Kane. I suppose we all have our own Rosebuds.
Welles' may have been "don't-let-them-make-war-of-the-worlds-into-a-shit-film".
