Talk:Gideon Welles

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Article reassessed and graded as start class. --dashiellx (talk) 19:24, 6 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

An IP has twice added the following to the "Biography" section of the article:

"His great-grandson was the legendary actor/filmmaker Orson Welles[4], famous for such classics as Citizen Kane, The Third Man, Touch of Evil, and The Trial, as well as his infamous The War of the Worlds Halloween radio broadcast in 1938, which convinced many people that Martians actually had invaded the Earth."

While I could possibly see a single sentence reference to Orson Welles in a legacy section (if the article had one), it has no place in the main body of the article and there is certainly no need to elaborate on his major works -- anybody who is interested in Orson Welles can follow the link to his own article. I invite the IP to justify here why his/her proposed edit is appropriate to an article on an 19th Century politician. Tom (North Shoreman) (talk) 02:09, 27 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Just before reading this, I had added a single line under a "Legacy" heading indicating that Gideon Welles was the great-grandfather of Orson Welles, which is very appropriate. It's quite a legacy, leaving us Orson Welles; few could match it. I think it's vitally important that we mention it but that to do it this way is entirely appropriate. Gideon Orson (talk) 04:53, 17 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Orson Welles' article says that that is an urban legend and that Orson Welles was not the grandson of Gideon Welles.--67.240.156.83 (talk) 03:18, 15 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The entry says he left Johnson's cabinet on 03/03/1869. That was the day before Johnson left office and Ulysses S. Grant was inaugurated as his successor. In fact, Welles and Seward were the only two Cabinet officers who remained throughout the duration of Lincoln's and Johnson's terms. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.132.213.4 (talk) 14:56, 2 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Welles argued vociferously against the blockade...

It would be interesting to know why he opposed it. Valetude (talk) 10:37, 28 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

This section seems rather light; it just mentions the Union blockade. Was Welles not involved in the Battle of Hampton Roads and the decision to build iron steamships?Valetude (talk) 16:03, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

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In an interview with Dick Cavett on The Dick Cavett Show, actor and director Orson Welles revealed, nonchalantly, that he was the great-grandson of Gideon Welles, and had known a dinner party hostess Cornelia Gray Lunt from the American Civil War era familiar with his great-grandfather Gideon. This relation has, however, become a debunked myth, and this false tale possibly originated from that particular appearance on Cavett's show.^[1] Cmguy777 (talk) 04:23, 10 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Youtube does not carry enough historical weight to be a source. Historical reputation needs better sourcing and context. Cmguy777 (talk) 04:26, 10 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Orson Welles's own article clarifies that although he claimed that Gideon Welles was his "great-granduncle", in 1944 on "The Orson Welles Almanac" and in 1970 on the Dick Cavett Show, subsequent research- included in Charles Higham's "Orson Welles: The Rise and Fall of an American Genius" (1985)- found that this claim was not based in fact. Since the claim is at any rate not cited in this article, surely it ought not to be included here? Although Orson Welles's article, as Peaceray notes, does link to this one, it does so only in the context of disproving Orson Welles's claim of relationship to this Gideon Welles.78.144.75.151 (talk) 16:35, 23 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I note also that this talk page has raised this issue before, with no action seemingly taken. This user- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Gideon_Orson - seems to have been particularly invested in maintaining this narrative on Wikipedia back in 2012. 78.144.75.151 (talk) 16:38, 23 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]