ROSEBUD WAS A BIKE. My first experience with Citizen Kane was watching it with my father on our black-and-white TV one night in the late 60’s when I was 12. In his late fifties he had actually seen Kane on its 1941 first run, sharing that with me.He was a different man in the 40’s living a wild and carefree life as a trumpet player in a Big Band. The man I knew cared not for wealth and fame but for the welfare of others and peace of a quiet family life. Rosebud became to me the symbol of my father, peaceful, centered and thoughtful. Things I wish for yet find elusive to this day.As the years passed I had viewed Citizen Kane as any other great film. However I was unaware of the truth of Rosebud’s origin. In one of my Psychology classes I remember a professor quoting Orson Welles, who explained the idea behind the word “Rosebud.”“It’s a gimmick, really, a rather tawdry device, a dollar-book Freudian gag.”Screenwriter Herman MankiewiczThen in 1989 Gore Vidal, of whom I am a big fan, blew the lid off Rosebud forever with an outlandish claim!

Rosebud was a nickname Randolph Hearst used for his mistress’ clitoris! According to Vidal the “real” Screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz had found out about this and threw it in as a joke.When I told my dad that story he laughed his head off. I had a new hero: Herman Mankiewicz.Rosebud being a clitoris was fine with me and I was happy to leave it at that. Until 2007 and I needed a cool name for a Bicycle Shop.A bicycle was one of the most prized possessions to a boy growing up in the sunny Santa Clara Valley in the 1960’s. Before the “Silicon Valley” there was “The Valley of Heart’s Delight” and it was by bicycle that is was best explored: Stevens Creek Dam, Blackberry Farm, Saratoga Springs, Villa Montalvo, Mt. Eden, and other names a 10 year old boy would be proud to say he had traveled to via bicycle. To Charles Foster Kane, Rosebud may have been a sled; to me Rosebud was my bicycle. So grew the idea for the name of my bicycle shop: Citizen Chain.Citizen ChainThe naming of a bicycle shop can be as daunting a task as the decision to open one.

With a name that referenced memories of the happy times of both my youth and my father, I felt I was halfway there. I bought the Internet domain name and began on the second more difficult endeavor of opening an actual shop.The Usurper in ‘Citizen Kane’It was late on a Sunday night in early September 2007. I was in my soon-to-be-opened shop working on the final t-shirt design when I heard a tap at the window. I opened the door to find Darryll, a friend and owner of the nearby Bike and Roll rental shop, just home from a New York City business trip. Two weeks earlier I shared with Darryll how Citizen Chain was a play on words, and how I viewed my bicycle as my Rosebud.“Rosebud is a Bicycle!” Darryll said as a matter of fact. I protested figuring he had finally gotten my wordplay. “Yes it is my bicycle.” Shaking his head, Darryll proceeded to tell me about his New York trip. About being at a talk by David Byrne — yes that David Byrne — where he shared the pain of the recent theft of his bicycle.

It was here that Mr. Byrne shared a little known secret that Rosebud was in fact based on a stolen bicycle, owned by a young Herman Mankiewicz. My mind began to spin. I began to type, searching Google. With Darryll looking over my shoulder my first Google search’s lead only to the basic sites, or my own new site. Then on my third entry I added the name of Mankiewicz and Wilkes-Barre to Rosebud and bicycle.1960 ford falcon 4 door for saleOne article originally published on May, 1, 1991 titled “Listen Up, Cinema Sleuths: Rosebud Was Really A Bike” by Joe Butkiewicz, a writer for the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader. mahogany exterior door costHis reference was MANK: The Wit, World and Life of Herman Mankiewicz the Richard Meryman biography about Mankiewicz.As the story goes, Rosebud was a bicycle given to Herman Mankiewicz for Christmas, just after his tenth birthday. sliding screen door replacement lowes

Soon afterward, Herman’s bicycle, Rosebud, was stolen from the front of the public library as he studied. Blaming Herman’s irresponsibility for the loss, his parents refused to replace the bike. Rosebud was never returned, but Herman’s loss evolved into the immortal Rosebud of Citizen Kane.A 1907 Cleveland Bicycle, possibly the same or similar to Mankiewicz’ stolen bikeThe unfortunate loss of David Byrne’s bike led me to what? garage door parts albuquerque nmThe little known fact that Rosebud was a bike is one thing. auto glass repair deer park texasWhat else is there?half hour fire door hingesThe scene of the crime: The Osterhout Library, Wilkes-Barre, PennsylvaniaI am determined to find the truth. lambo doors celica for sale

Herman and Rosebud, what was it about this bike and its loss that drove a wedge between a father and son. What happened to Herman’s bike?I discussed the history of Rosebud with Herman’s son Frank Mankiewicz, during a telephone conversation in August of 2011. A charming man, I soon hope to interview in person, gave me the words I now view as my call to action.It is time Vidal’s story be put to rest and the truth be told. Rosebud was a bike. It was my Fathers Bike.–Frank Mankiewicz. August, 2011Rosebud was a bike The truth needs to be told. Solving “The Greatest Bicycle Theft of All Time” may be a more difficult endeavor.We learn at the end of the film that "Rosebud" -- Kane's dying word spoken at the beginning of the film -- was the name of the sled from Kane's childhood in Colorado — a time when he was happy. According to the film's co-writer, director and star, Orson Wells:In [Kane's] subconscious [Rosebud] represented the simplicity, the comfort, above all the lack of responsibility in his home, and also it stood for his mother's love which Kane never lost.

In his waking hours, Kane had certainly forgotten the sled and the name which was painted on it. Casebooks of psychiatrists are full of these stories. It was important for me in the picture to tell the audience as effectively as possible what this really meant. Clearly it would be undramatic and disappointing if an arbitrary character in the story popped up with the information. The best solution was the sled itself. Now, how could this sled still exist since it was built in 1880? It was necessary that my character be a collector—the kind of man who never throws anything away. I wished to use as a symbol—at the conclusion of the picture—a great expanse of objects—thousands and thousands of things—one of which is "Rosebud." This field of inanimate theatrical properties I wished to represent the very dust heap of a man's life. I wished the camera to show beautiful things, ugly things and useless things, too—indeed everything, which could stand for a public career and a private life.

I wished objects of art, objects of sentiment, and just plain objects. There was no way for me to do this except to make my character, as I have said, a collector, and to give him a great house in which to keep his collections. The house itself occurred to me as a literal translation in terms of drama of the expression "ivory tower." The protagonist of my "failure story" must retreat from a democracy which his money fails to buy and his power fails to control. —There are two retreats possible: death and the womb. The house was the womb. Here too was all the grandeur, all the despotism, which my man had found lacking in the outside world. Such was his estate—such was the obvious repository for a collection large enough to include, without straining the credulity of the audience—a little toy from the dead past of a great man.Writer Gore Vidal wrote in an article about Orson Wells that "Rosebud" was actually the pet name William Randolph Hearst [the real-life publisher upon whom Kane is base] used for his girlfriend's, Marion Davies, clitoris and that Orson Welles deliberately used the word to irritate Hearst;

however, this claim has been disputed.Aside from the rumour that 'rosebud' refers to William Randolph Hearst's pet name for his mistress' clitoris (c'mon, we're grownups, we can say it!), it was literally the name printed on Kane's childhood sled : Metaphorically, it refers to the life Kane left behind at this pivotal moment (when he's holding 'Rosebud').   Wealth has suddenly been discovered in his family and he is sent away from his home to start a new life of wealth and power.His new fortune has a ruinous effect on him.   He becomes corrupted, morally bankrupt, he dies friendless and alone, surrounded by a staggering mass of meaningless possessions.His dying word, "Rosebud", is an expression of regret for the turn his life took when he gave up his sled, his family, his values.   It is a yearning for the meaning and potential forever lost in this moment.Spoiler Alert: It's his sled! I suppose there's also some rather obvious euphemistic explanation I won't go into detail about because I'm a gentlemen.