# Citizen Kane Rosebud, huh? (spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 1, 2002, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/citizen-kane-rosebud-huh-spoilers/101157 "2002-04-01T02:47:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2002, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/citizen-kane-rosebud-huh-spoilers/101157/1 "2002-04-01T02:47:19Z")
I hate to admit it, but I need to have this one spelled out for me. I don’t get it. What the heck was Rosebud? Was there some hidden purpose to this movie that I don’t get? Classics are usually classic for a reason. The cinematography was brilliant, but as far as the plot goes I just don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2002, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/citizen-kane-rosebud-huh-spoilers/101157/2 "2002-04-01T03:04:42Z")
Rosebud was “just another piece of the puzzle.” That’s stated explicitly. Structurally, it’s the McGuffin – the item that drives the plot, which is an exploration of the character of Kane. Making it the sled indicates that it’s also a symbol of what he lost by becoming rich (watch it again and you’ll notice he rams the sled into Thatcher when Kane is told he’s going away). The sled is also left behind when he does go. The symbol is a strong one, but ultimately it does not explain Kane entirely. ---
**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2002, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/citizen-kane-rosebud-huh-spoilers/101157/3 "2002-04-01T03:07:50Z")
William R. Hearst (the fascist) had a mistress, Miriam Davies/Davis (not certain). She lived in the small house near the gate at San Simeon. Rumor is that ‘Rosebud’ was WRH’s pet nicname for for Miriam’s ‘most private part’. This would explain why WHR took such offense at the film. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2002, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/citizen-kane-rosebud-huh-spoilers/101157/4 "2002-04-01T03:08:23Z")
[qoute]According to an essay written for the New York Review of Books by Gore Vidal (a close friend of Hearst’s) “Rosebud” was Hearst’s name for long-time mistress Marion Davies’ clitoris. [/quote] [http://us.imdb.com/Trivia?0033467](http://us.imdb.com/Trivia?0033467) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2002, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/citizen-kane-rosebud-huh-spoilers/101157/5 "2002-04-01T03:17:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by happyheathen \* > This would explain why WHR took such offense at the film. \*\* Actually, Hearst took offense not because of that (who beside him would know – even if it were true), but because he feared what the film would do to the reputation of Marion Davies. He believed people were so dumb that they’d actully believe that Susan Alexander Kane represented Davies. Ultimately he was right. Though Susan was specifically created to be as unlike Davies as possible, most people somehow get the idea that Davies was a no-talent actress. In truth, she was a talented comediene, whose career was hurt more by her involvement with Hearst than it was helped. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2002, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/citizen-kane-rosebud-huh-spoilers/101157/6 "2002-04-02T00:11:18Z")
previous threads: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=46940](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=46940) [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=84302](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=84302) from [this page](http://www.homevideo.net/FIRM/outsider.htm): > [@](#): > > " . . . Welles has admitted that the final scene, with Welles himself playing Charles Foster Kane, is a ‘gimmick.’ … Welles described it as ‘rather dollar-book Freud.’" … > > “…Mankiewicz came up with the concept of ‘Rosebud’”… Film critic Roger Ebert reports that some sources in Hollywood indicate that " . . . Mankiewicz, used ‘rosebud’ as an inside joke, because as a friend of Hearst’s mistress, Marion Davies, he knew ‘rosebud’ was the old man’s pet name for the most intimate part of her anatomy." Welles biographer Frank Brady, also reports “… It was claimed that Hearst’s pet name for Marion Davies’ pudenda (external genital organs) was ‘rosebud.’” Again, this entire episode really represents an example of an old-time Hollywood writer who had been around, taking advantage of a young first-time director and trying to use the young director’s first film as a vicious and revengeful attack on William Randolph Hearst. Mankiewicz succeeded in that regard. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2002, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/citizen-kane-rosebud-huh-spoilers/101157/7 "2002-04-02T00:57:29Z")
Pop culture level: Ok, do you remember the Simpson’s episode where Monty Burns is cranky becasue he misses his boyhood teddy bear, Bo-bo? It’s like that. Glad to help. Just went to Hearst Castle a couple of weeks ago. Hoo-boy! Wrong guy to have all that money. A conservator’s nightmare.