What is ” Rosebud ” in Citizen Kane ? ?
According to Welles author David Thomson, “Rosebud is the greatest secret in cinema…” Orson Welles, explaining the idea behind the word “Rosebud,” said, “It’s a gimmick, really, and rather dollar-book Freud.” The symbolic sled ‘Rosebud’ used in the film was bought for $60,500 by film director Steven Spielberg in 1982. Spielberg commented, “Rosebud will go over my typewriter to remind me that quality in movies comes first.” According to Peter Bogdanovich, Welles’ reaction to Spielberg’s purchase of the sled was “I thought we burned it…” According to Louis Pizzitola, author of Hearst Over Hollywood, “Rosebud” was a nickname that Orrin Peck, a friend of William Randolph Hearst, gave to his mother, Phoebe Hearst. It was said that Phoebe was as close, or even closer, to Orrin than she was to her own son, lending a bitter-sweet element to the word’s use in a film about a boy being separated from his mother’s love. In 1989, essayist Gore Vidal cited contemporary rumors that “Rosebud” was a
