The Errol Flynn Blog

NEW DATE and TIME – SUNDAY, February 23, 2014 at 7PM PST & 10PM EST Jack Marino Warriorfilmmaker Show on www.latalkradio.com… on Channel 2

TONIGHT – My guest is Steve Hayes, writer, actor, producer. Steve first came to Hollywood in 1949, stayed a brief time, then went back to Canada and returned in 1950 to stay.

Errol Flynn had promised to sponsor me, he says, but didn’t (typically) so it took me a little while to find one. I then began acting and got my first part at 20th century Fox (where I later was put under contract) in the movie: Bells on Their Toes.

Steve will talk about about Ava Gardner, whom he met at Errol Flynn’s house with her ex-husband, Mickey Rooney. He is pretty sure that was the first time he met her–though he did know Lana Turner well, and he says she also introduced me to Ava–but he says, that was when Ava said we’d already met at Flynn’s.

He will talk about various other movie stars who were in some way attached to her or that he met through her like Lana Turner, Sinatra, and Robert Taylor.

Steve has often told me he has never quite gotten fully over Ava, which is understandable. Sinatra never did either. But she was hard to love. She swore like few women he’d ever known–especially in an era when normal girls rarely swore.

Steve not only knew Lana Turner but worked on a film called Diana or that co-starred a young Roger Moore.

I met Rita Hayworth when I painted her house with my pal and house-painter, Dick Morris, he says. Later, he saw her again and they briefly talked About Hollywood, including about her being being a neighbor of Glenn Ford.

At Errol Flynn’s house he became friends with Ann Sheridan, the Ooomph Girl, who was one of Flynn’s buddies and romantic interests years prior. Steve actually punched out actor Bruce Cabot at a party at Flynn’s.

Ida Lupino was a close pal of Errol’s–I think they cared for one another, he says–and years later, she became a director (Thriller or Chiller) of a weekly TV show. Bob Middleton, Steve’s mentor, starred in one of these shows and Steve visited several days of shooting and talked at great lengths with Ida.

Steve’s birth name was Ivan Hayes, which He says “I soon changed to Steve Hayes because Ivan is Russian for John and the McCarthy/pinko, commie era was in full bloom and Fox insisted I change my name to something more American. I stole the name of Steve from my buddy, Mr. America Steve Reeves, who starred in European films like Hercules.”

Steve has kept a lot of notes for a book entitled:
“Once in Love With Ava.”

YOU CAN GO TO STEVE’S WEBSITE
www.stevehayes.org…

Show call in number: 1-818-602-4929

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Thank you, Jack Marino

Steve “Ivan’ Hayes today and he is holding his 1949 acting head shot when he came to Hollywood.

— David DeWitt