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A Two Quid Quiz

14 Aug

What’s the Flynnian connection?

— Tim

 
14 Comments

Posted in Author Errol Flynn, Flynn and..., Gentleman Tim, Main Page, Young Errol Flynn

 

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  1. Gentleman Tim

    August 14, 2017 at 1:47 am

    This fellow here with Tiger Lil had a connection, too – from long before Errol was in the picture(s).

    [img]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8b/Lili_Damita_and_Victor_McLaglen.jpg/440px-Lili_Damita_and_Victor_McLaglen.jpg[/img]

     

  2. Tina

    August 14, 2017 at 2:38 am

    Hi Tim;
    My answer is Lili can be the only connection! It is Victor McLaglen, supporting actor Of 120 movies and staring with Lili in ‘The Cock Eyed World’
    He was a boxer too and here is the You Tube and lyrics of Jimmy Sharmans Boxers – Midnight Oil

    I can’t figure what other connection you are looking for as per the clues you are giving.

    Lyrics:
    From the red dust north of Dalmore Downs
    Sharman’s tents roll into town
    Twelve will face the auctioneer
    Sharman’s Boxers stand their ground
    Their days are darker than your nights
    But they won’t be the first to fall
    Children broken from their dreams
    But they won’t be the first to fall
    Fighting in the spotlight
    Eye’s turn blacker than their skin
    For Jimmy Sharman’s boxers
    It’s no better if you win
    Standing in the darkness
    Lined up waiting for the bell
    The days are wasted drinking
    At the first and last hotel
    Why are we fighting for this?
    Why are you paying for this?
    You pay to see me fall like shrapnel
    To the floor
    What is the reason for this?
    There is a reason for this?
    What is the reason they keep coming back for more?
    The blows now bring him to his knees
    But still the crowd calls out for more
    The drums are burning in his ears
    The man keeps counting out the score

    ,

     

    • Gentleman Tim

      August 14, 2017 at 2:57 am

      Excellent, Tina. Jimmy Sharman was a very big deal in Australia for a very long time. He once gave an interview recalling his association with Victor McLaglen after seeing The Informer, the film depicted below, for which McLaglen won the Academy Award in 1935 for Best Actor. During that same interview (and possibly others), Jimmy Sharman also recalled his brief association with Errol.

      What was it that Jimmy Sharman recalled about Errol, and what was it Errol wrote about his connection to Jimmy Sharman?

      [img]http://www.byrnerobotics.com/forum/uploads/ChadCarter/2006-09-24_111051_VictorMcLaglen2.jpg[/img]

      [img]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-60csd4DcDkw/Tq8_rJ6HBxI/AAAAAAAAFzQ/BDDlMm-rCeQ/s1600/the+informer+movie+poster+1.jpg[/img]

       

  3. Gentleman Tim

    August 14, 2017 at 7:20 pm

    It Happened in the Town of Townsville, with two or three of these Beam Ends Boys in tow. (Thus, it may be featured in Luke Flynn’s upcoming In Like Flynn!)

    [img]http://www.theerrolflynnblog.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Beam-Ends-On-the-Sirocco.jpg[/img]

    Flinders Street, circa ’30, as Errol would have found it:

    [img]https://decoboy.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/flinders-street-1930.jpg[/img]

    Toughest two quid Errol ever made.

     

    • Tina

      August 15, 2017 at 5:29 am

      Hi Tim;
      Last night I was thinking about what you wrote that Jimmy Sharman said something about Errol and Errol about him. And I then came to the conclusion it only could be BEAMS END the boxing incident in Townsville. The hardest two Quid Errol earned in that fight. The tent picture is perfect very much like Errol describes the scene. I looked for my book to make sure but I can’t put my fingers on it. Since my big Reno everything is moved to another place. But I am sure that must be the time you are referring to. I’ll be back when I find the book.

       

      • Gentleman Tim

        August 15, 2017 at 5:54 am

        Bonzer, Tina! That’s it. Errol “took a glove” for two quid in Townsville against one of Jimmy Sharman’s Boxing Troupe – “the hardest two quid” he ever earned.

        Here’s how Jimmy Sharman was quoted regarding his first seeing Errol:

        “Flynn was hobo-ing at the time. He wore a pair of old shorts, sand shoes, and singlet, and a two weeks’ ziff. If he had any glamour then, it was well hidden.”

        Jim Vine’s Sports Column – May 30, 1946:
        trove.nla.gov…

         

      • Gentleman Tim

        August 15, 2017 at 6:25 am

        Thanks, Tina. If you (or any other Flynnmate) can find and quote exactly what Errol wrote about his Townsville encounter with Jimmy Sharman’s Boxing Troupe, that would be Aussome. I do not have the book with me.

        Here’s a scene from “In Luke Flynn” which may be intended to portray a bloodied Errol exiting from his “two rounds for two pounds” with a Jimmy Sharman brawler. We see next year.

        … Looks like Nicole Kidman and Richard Dreyfuss were there too.

        [img]http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/0513cc7bf6710fbb0c8dd879f2ef09d3?width=650[/img]

         

  4. Gentleman Tim

    August 14, 2017 at 8:44 pm

    Jimmy recalled Errol wearing “old shorts, sand shoes, a singlet and a two weeks ziff.”

    The Mighty Flynn may have seen or even met one or two of these fellows too:

    [img]http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/92a0c76f04f952bd48ee4ba623715b13?width=316[/img]

     

  5. Gentleman Tim

    August 14, 2017 at 9:14 pm

    Cold Chisel sculpted this tribute to Sharman’s troupe:

    Sharman saw Errol circa ’30, likely is a scene and setting much like this. That’s Jimmy refereeing in the makeshift ring below. As he used to say in Errol’s day: “A round or two, for a pound or two.”

    [img]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/JimmySharmanRefereeBoxing1910s.jpg[/img]

     

    • Gentleman Tim

      August 14, 2017 at 9:21 pm

      Perhaps even in a scene like this:

      [img]http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/4e72fbe4da1598033ea1a5a57d85a9ef[/img]

       

  6. Tina

    September 12, 2017 at 2:34 am

    Hi Tim;
    I said I’ll come back as soon as I find my Beam Ends book, I foud it!
    I think I have read somewhere, way in the past about “Errol’s hardest $2.00 earned” but now I am not sure about that, because one thing I was sure about was the boxing fight in Beam Ends and I found the book now and the boxing challenge was for five dollars.
    Furthermore, the town was not Townsville it was Bundaberg and the show owner was not Jimmy Sharman it was Curly Bell.

    Here is the excerpt out of Beam Ends in Errol’s words:
    Errol left with his crew Brisbane and arrives in Bundaberg. It just so happened that at this time the annual “Bundaberg Show Week” was in town. Errol and his crew investigated the show as large posters advertised the carnival. Amongst the advertising a boxing competition was also listed.
    Curly Bell , the owner of the show was quite a dashingly dressed character and of stimulating repartee.
    When it came to the boxing competition Curly introduced Jack Cowper, Heavyweight Champion of the Western District and announced that he is willing to pay five pounds to any competitors who could stay in the ring with Jack for three rounds.
    Rex nudged Errol in the ribs. “it’s s cinch!” He whispered: “Tale him on, Skipper”. Think what we could do with five pounds!”
    Errol stared at him. “You’re mad, take him on yourself.”
    Rex not giving up, “Think of the cash and you are a boxer, I’ll tell you what I’ll do – “I’ll second you!”
    Errol began to think that five pounds was wealth at that time. So he climbed in the ring.
    “Time” was called and Errol’s opponent advanced, Errol thinking for the usual handshake, instead he knocked Errol flat to the ground, in the corner Rex flung a wet towel into Errol’s face that he hardly could breath. Encouraged by the boos of the crowd, Errol was lusting for revenge.
    “Time”, Cowper jumped right across the ring. Errol missed him, but the lacing of the glove tore a gash over his eye that bled copiously. When you feel the crowd is with you, it helps!
    Errol tore into him with everything but the kitchen stove.
    (Ha, ha in those days was the stove not the sink)
    Cowper must have decided that it looked like that I am going to last so he retired at the end of the second round to attend to his eye.
    Rex collected the five pounds on my behalf and stood fingering them and said: “Nice work, didn’t I tell you it was a cinch? I suppose you wouldn’t mind lending me a couple of pounds out of this?” I said that, by God, I would mind. “I shed blood for that money. All you did was try to smother me. Hand it over. I might let it you look at it later from a distance.”

    The question is now who was said between Errol and Jimmy Sharman? Did they ever meet? New investigation!

     

    • Gentleman Tim

      September 12, 2017 at 12:00 pm

      Thank you for all that great reseach and info, Tina! I can’t explain the disparities between the two accounts. I wonder if the two quid account evolved out of somewhere different than Beams End? Since the Jimmie Sharman news story above was published in 1946, also the year Showdown was published, maybe the two quid remembrance sprung from soemthinf to do with Showdown and its surrounding publicity, rather than Beams End?

      [img]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n03lZpICTz0/Vgv2pE1w1FI/AAAAAAAADSk/sAXcW0-3SeE/s1600/200px-ShowdownNovel.jpg[/img]

       

      • Tina

        September 12, 2017 at 4:09 pm

        This is possible Tim, as I am sure I read somewhere about the $2.00. I will look in Showdown!!
        I have every book that was published about Errol and his books. Maybe it could be in another book not written by Errol?!?
        Now a Mystery indeed!

         

      • Tina

        September 12, 2017 at 4:40 pm

        Tim, look what I found. I am glad I am not crazy I did read it somewhere, I just don’t know where!
        Here is the link:

        trove.nla.gov…

        I just googled: Jimmy Sharman 1946 and Errol Flynn
        and viola up it came!
        In the article it says that he bought the book, so it has to be Showdown!
        I will look!