The majority of the archive lies in its assortment of letters, handwritten notes, and telegrams that Welles sent to Tasca di Cutò concerning the day-to-day working needs of the filmmaker. The collection is divided into four series: Correspondence, Projects, Photographs, and Miscellaneous.
In the Correspondence series, the bulk of the letters are written from 1960-1964. Alessandro is usually referred to as Sandro by Orson Welles. The majority of letters are from Welles to Tasca di Cutò mainly discussing film production details. Welles signs many of his letters with just “O”. There is also a letter from Welles to Joseph Marks head of MAfilm in Hungary from 1985. The correspondence contains several references related to Orson Welles’s death in 1985, including a photocopy of a telegram of condolence from France’s President Francois Mitterand to Tasca di Cutò, and from Ann Rogers, Welles’s one-time secretary in London. In the Various to Tasca section letters include correspondence from Paola Mori and Rebecca Welles Manning along with business contacts. The letters are a combination of typed and handwritten letters and some letters are photocopies of originals.
The Projects series includes information on films Orson Welles acted and directed. Included in this series are scripts, production documents such as budgets and filming schedules, and photographs. The films include: "Black Magic", "Nella terra di Don Chisciotte" (In the Land of Don Quixote) a documentary, "Chimes at Midnight", "The Other Side of the Wind", "The Big Brass Ring", "The Dreamers", "King Lear", "The Cradle Will Rock", "Mercedes", "It’s All True", "The Unseen", "Don Quixote", and "Saladino". The "Chimes at Midnight" documents include 22 costume sketches that are attributed to Orson Welles, but are left unsigned. In "Don Quixote" there are eleven drawings and paintings by several different artists depicting scenes from "Don Quixote" based on stills from some early footage. The drawings are from different artists but all are in the style of Gustave Dore. The drawings were to show Don Quixote “reading his book and getting his Big Idea.” The unfinished projects include: "It’s All True", "The Other Side of the Wind", "The Big Brass Ring", "King Lear", "The Cradle Will Rock", "Saladino" and "Don Quixote".
Photographs are included in each project, but the Photographs series contains photographs of Alessandro Tasca di Cutò on set and in some of his acting roles.
Miscellaneous contains material such as stationary, and programs from many Orson Welles tributes. Included is a photocopy of a legal document that is a confirmation of ownership rights to Oja Kodar for some of Orson Welles’s material. The Clippings and Articles contains general clippings from several publications from 1943-1985 documenting Orson Welles’s career with some in French and Spanish.
Alessandro Tasca di Cutò was born in 1906 to a titled Sicilian family and cousin of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, author of "The Leopard". Tasca’s father, Alessandro Tasca Filangeri di Cutò, was known in Italy as ‘The Red Prince’ due to his socialist ideals. Alessandro Tasca Filangeri di Cutò lost most of the family inheritance, and as a result, his son Alessandro emigrated to the United States and worked a variety of menial jobs while living in New York.
During World War II, Alessandro Tasca di Cutò returned to Rome and was assigned to the Ministry of Propaganda and later interned in an English-run POW camp in Padula in Southern Italy. After the war, due to his language ability he was hired to work in the film industry to ease Anglo-American productions through the complexity of the Italian bureaucracy.
In 1946, he met Orson Welles while they were both working on the film "Black Magic" (also known as "Cagliostro", 1949) directed by Gregory Ratoff. Over the next forty years, he worked on several of Welles’s films both in Europe and later on in America. During the last few years of Welles’s life, Tasca di Cutò worked with him again on projects including "The Dreamers", "The Big Brass Ring", and "The Cradle Will Rock". In 1984-85 they worked together on a film version of "King Lear", in which Welles would act and direct, with Tasca di Cutò as executive producer.