Fact1: Thompson sets out to interview Kane 's friends and associates, Fact2: Kane 's childhood began in poverty in Colorado, Fact3: Kane 's father be violent towards son, Fact4: Kane plays with sled in snow outside parents boarding-house and protests being sent to live with Thatcher, Fact5: Furious at prospect of exile from own family to live with man
Output: In a mansion in Xanadu, a vast palatial estate in Florida, the elderly Charles Foster Kane is on his deathbed. Holding a snow globe, he utters a word, Rosebud, and dies; the globe slips from his hand and smashes on the floor. A newsreel obituary tells the life story of Kane, an enormously wealthy newspaper publisher. Kanes death becomes sensational news around the world, and the newsreels producer tasks reporter Jerry Thompson with discovering the meaning of Rosebud. Thompson sets out to interview Kanes friends and associates. He approaches Kanes second wife, Susan Alexander Kane, now an alcoholic who runs her own nightclub, but she refuses to talk to him. Thompson goes to the private archive of the late banker Walter Parks Thatcher. Through Thatchers written memoirs, Thompson learns that Kanes childhood began in poverty in Colorado. In 1871, after a gold mine is discovered on her property, Kanes mother Mary Kane sends Charles away to live with Thatcher so that he would be properly educated. It is also implied that Kanes father could be violent towards his son and that is another reason she would like to send him away. While Thatcher and Charles parents discuss arrangements inside, the young Kane plays happily with a sled in the snow outside his parents boardinghouse and protests being sent to live with Thatcher. Furious at the prospect of exile from his own family to live with a man he does not know, the boy strikes Thatcher with his sled and attempts to run away. Years later, after gaining full control over his trust fund at the age of 25, Kane enters the newspaper business and embarks on a career of yellow journalism. He takes control of the New York Inquirer and starts publishing scandalous articles that attack Thatchers business interests. After the stock market crash in 1929, Kane is forced to sell controlling interest of his newspaper empire to Thatcher. Back in the present, Thompson interviews Kanes personal business manager, Mr. Bernstein. Bernstein recalls how Kane hired the best journalists available to build the Inquirers circulation. Kane rose to power by successfully manipulating public opinion regarding the Spanish–American War and marrying Emily Norton, the niece of a President of the United States. Thompson interviews Kanes estranged best friend, Jedediah Leland, in a retirement home. Leland recalls how Kanes marriage to Emily disintegrates more and more over the years, and he begins an affair with amateur singer Susan Alexander while he is running for Governor of New York. Both his wife and his political opponent discover the affair and the public scandal ends his political career. Kane marries Susan and forces her into a humiliating operatic career for which she has neither the talent nor the ambition. Back in the present, Susan now consents to an interview with Thompson, and recalls her failed opera career. Kane finally allows her to abandon her singing career after she attempts suicide. After years spent dominated by Kane and living in isolation at Xanadu, Susan leaves Kane. Kanes butler Raymond recounts that, after Susan leaves him, Kane begins violently destroying the contents of her bedroom. He suddenly calms down when he sees a snow globe and says, Rosebud. Back at Xanadu, Kanes belongings are being cataloged or discarded. Thompson concludes that he is unable to solve the mystery and that the meaning of Kanes last word will forever remain an enigma. As the film ends, the camera reveals that Rosebud is the trade name of the sled on which the eightyearold Kane was playing on the day that he was taken from his home in Colorado. Thought to be junk by Xanadus staff, the sled is burned in a furnace.