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Jim Masson Biography & Facts

Orson Welles acted in a series of advertisements for Paul Masson California wine from 1978 to 1981, best known for their slogan "We will sell no wine before its time," becoming a much-parodied cultural trope of the late 20th century. Years later, the commercials regained notoriety when a bootleg recording of out-takes was distributed, showing an apparently inebriated Welles on the set of one of the commercials. Background In 1978, Paul Masson's California wines hired actor-director Orson Welles to make a commercial for their "Emerald Dry" white table wine. Although Paul Masson's winery had been producing California wines since 1892, they had long catered to the lower end of the wine market, and this commercial was part of a concerted effort by the company to rebrand itself as a higher-end wine producer, tying in with a period of diversification, when they were seeking to expand from the sparkling wines which had first brought them success, and to sell more of their other wine ranges, including chablis, burgundy, riesling, chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, port and sherry. As The New York Times noted in 1990, Paul Masson's long-term problem remained the same: "While many consumers know them—who can forget Orson Welles's breathy incantation of 'We will sell no wine before its time' for Masson—they lack cachet." After the success of the initial commercial, Welles was signed to a Paul Masson contract worth $500,000 a year (worth $2 million in 2021) plus residuals, making further ads for the brand on television and in print, which continued for three years until his sacking by the company in 1981.: 225  Despite Welles's poor behavior on set, Paul Masson was described as "a very happy client," with sales of their wine reportedly rising by 30% during the Welles advertising campaign. By this stage in his career, Welles found it nearly impossible to obtain work as a director (his last directorial credit to be released in his lifetime was a television movie in West Germany, which aired in 1978); and from the mid-1970s onwards, his only acting credits were cameo appearances, mostly in low-budget fare. Accordingly, he was heavily dependent for his income on a series of ads, for products of variable quality. These included Carlsberg beer, Domecq sherry, Sandeman's port (playing the "Sandeman Don" in a TV advertisement),: 175  Jim Beam bourbon whisky, Nikka Japanese G&G whisky, Perrier mineral water, Nashua photocopiers, Vivitar instant cameras, Preview pay-per-view television, the board game Dark Tower, Eastern Air Lines, Texaco,: 225  Post's Shredded Wheat,: 225  Hayden Flour Mills, Lone Star Cement, Walt Disney World, Uniroyal tyres, and perhaps most infamously, Findus frozen foods. Although Welles had made ads for his entire career, beginning when he was a well-known radio actor in the 1930s, by the late 1970s these had become his staple, and he was often (anonymously) directing them as well. John Annarino, the advertising executive handling the Paul Masson account at the time, remembered that Welles "was eager for almost any kind of work in the early 1980s, hoping to complete a film that was languishing in some European vault (The Other Side of the Wind)." Welles was often highly dismissive of the work, pointing out that he tended to be hired "to give a little class" to such productions.: 227  Offscreen, Welles was noticeably dismissive about the Paul Masson commercials' often-pretentious claims to high culture. When asked during shooting to liken a Paul Masson wine to a violin by Stradivarius, he complained, "Come on, gentlemen, now really! You have a nice, pleasant little cheap wine here. You haven't gotten the presumption to compare it to a Stradivarius violin. It's odious.": 222  Welles was not alone in mocking the pretensions of the adverts—even crew members on the set would spout spoofs such as, "We will sell the swine no more wine until it's brine!" Tensions between Welles and DDB Needham The advertising campaign was marked by noticeable animosity between Welles and the advertising agency which commissioned the ads, DDB Needham. Welles once complained to his regular lunching companion, the director Henry Jaglom, "I have never seen more seedier, about-to-be-fired sad sacks than were responsible for those Paul Masson ads. The agency hated me because I kept trying to improve their copy." The DDB Needham executive who handled the Paul Masson account, John Annarino, responded to the 2013 publication of Welles transcripts describing the commercials by sharing his own reminiscences with his local paper, The Desert Sun, and recalling of the experience, "It was no picnic." This acrimony was underlined by the assistant director, Peter Shillingford, who recalled: [I] made sure none of the crew, the extras or people from the agency were coming up to Orson. The agency was particularly an issue, because they used to all want to chat with him, especially because he was always changing their dialogue. I never saw an outburst from him, but there were confrontations between him and the agency, even though he always changed their dialogue for the better. They kept approaching him, though, and I had to tell the agency, "No! He's not going to deal with all of you. Select a spokesperson and that person will tell me or the director, but it can't be all of you at once!" Orson loved how I handled them. Shillingford notes that during the infamous drunken out-take, "The agency men were furious. They were talking about suing him, talking about firing him. They hated him anyway." However, he went on to describe how the adverts usually proceeded: Normally, the shoots went great. We'd film them at various mansions in Hollywood. We'd get ready, and Orson's double-sized piano stool would be put front-and-center. He would arrive on time in a limo, I'd greet him and he'd remove his cloak and his hat and a makeup girl would dust him down. He'd have a seat and a dozen well-dressed extras would file into the room with all eyes on Orson. The glasses would be filled, then I'd walk in with the clapper and Orson would do a take. Inevitably, the agency guys would crowd around the camera and get in Orson's eyeline. He hated them, so he'd shoo them away but they normally didn't listen until I'd move them further back. We'd get a few more takes like that, and that would be it. Crew Producer: John Annarino Director: Jim Hallowes Production Supervisor, assistant director and Clapperboard Assistant: Peter Shillingford (first five adverts only) Cinematographer: Mike Chevalier First assistant camera: Randall Robinson Ad synopses 1978: Original ad—Beethoven, Emerald Dry The first Paul Masson ad had Welles listening to the opening of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony on a record player, and remarking: It took Beethoven four years to write that symphony. Some things can't be rushed: good music, and good wine. Paul Masson's Emerald Dry, a delicious white wine. Paul Masson's wines taste so good because they're made w.... Discover the Jim Masson popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Jim Masson books.