recently on The Stu Show, talking about their (Gary and Ralph’s) book recently highlighted here, and Mike’s documentary on the subject and… of their collective passion for it all!
The appearance has been preserved and is available via audio or video download for a nominal fee.
The palpable ENTHUSIASM of all assembled will positively bowl you over… 4 (host included) not so youthful kids rediscovering those roots!
Here’s an announcement for the program.
— Karl
The book entitled “Death Valley Superstars” by author Duke Haney has an excellent chapter on the life and death of Sean Flynn. It is also one of the saddest to read in a great book filled with many sad chapters. Has anyone else here read it? Ralph Schiller
— Ralph Schiller
January 29, 1938
Jimmy Starr
LA Evening Herald Express
STARS FLEE BRIGHT LIGHTS FOR LONELY REST SPOTS
Hollywood is fast becoming fed up with the glitter and the glamour, the hustle and the bustle of the more prominent “between pictures” holiday spots. The trend is definitely toward smaller, more isolated hideaways. Like other people, the stars occasionally tire of the brights lights, the night clubs, the theaters, the traffic, crowded sidewalks, hotels with super-service and the necessity of properly creased trousers and correct coiffures.
Errol Flynn has found the perfect method of “losing himself” between films, on weekends or other days of leisure. The popular Warner star ducks down to Santa Monica, boards his yacht and sails away.
— Tim
January 27, 1938
Harrison Carroll
LA Evening Herald Express
Purchase of a 75′ ketch in Boston makes Errol Flynn the No. 1 boat owner in Hollywood.
The Warner star, who planed in yesterday from a shopping tour of eastern shipyards, reveals that he now has a collection of seven boats with still another under construction.
The prize exhibit is the ketch Avenir*, which Flynn just purchased in Boston and which he will later sail through the Panama Canal and up the Pacific Coast.
Besides the Avenir, Flynn still owns a 50-foot yacht, a yawl named the Cheerio, a 25-foot speedboat, an outboard fishing smack and two 20-foot yacht tenders.
Then, in a western shipyard, he is having a lifeboat made over into another tender for his latest acquisition.
When and if he gets a vacation, the star plans a long voyage to the South Seas.
…
* Errol subsequently named the yacht “Sirocco” after the yacht he owned and captained in Australia and New Guinea before he achieved world fame.
— Tim
Farewell to John LaGrassa – world class sailor, fan of Flynn, and friend of Errol Flynn Blog fans – John LaGrassa who, from his home in Manly, Sydney, made the following posts possible on the Errol Flynn Blog. Manly is the spectacular area of Sydney where young Errol lived off and on with his grandmother, Edith Young.
All photos above taken by Donna during a trip with her husband to Manley a couple of years ago. Her husband is a lifelong close friend of the LaGrassa Family.
Per news reports, John was killed earlier this month by a powerboat while snorkeling off Guana Island in the British Virgin Islands.
Among many other very distinguished accomplishments, he was Vice-Commodore of the Manhattan Yacht Club and Captain of the majestic 157-ft Arabella, built for Kelly McGinnis (named after Arabella from Captain Blood perhaps?)
Captain LaGrassa can be seen in the following video, especially beginning at 4:27.
www.christuckerphotography.com…
Fair Winds and Following Seas, John!
— Tim
Adapted from American Cinematographer, August 1948
For the boating scenes in tropical Mexico, Columbia Studios chartered Errol Flynn’s luxurious yacht, The Zaca, and Flynn himself served aboard as skipper. Scenes were filmed above and below decks, at anchorages in Acapulco Harbor, at Fort San Diego in Acapulco Bay,
In order to shoot the location sequences for Lady From Shanghai, a company of 50 Hollywood actors and technicians flew to Acapulco, along with 60 Mexican extra players and technicians from Mexico City. More than 15 tons of equipment were shipped from Hollywood, one order of six tons comprising the largest single air express shipment ever undertaken by a movie location company.
Shooting aboard the yacht was, from the space standpoint very difficult, and these scenes, as they appear in the picture, are necessarily cramped in composition — but this actually works in favor of the overall effect because it produces an authentic atmosphere of crowded life aboard a small yacht. During filming aboard The Zaca, a long line of native dugout canoes anchored astern formed a bridge from the barge holding the generator so that electrical cables could be stretched for the camera and sound equipment.
In filming sequences at sea, the camera crew discovered that they could not depend upon their usual light meter readings. Reflections from the surface of the water kicked up more intensity than the meter recorded, causing over-exposure of the scene. This effect was noted in the screening of the first rushes, and a series of experimental tests was made to arrive at some sort of rule-of-thumb that could be used to compensate for the additional amount of light
(Left) On location in Mexico, Welles briefs his crew prior to filming a sequence. At his side is Charles Lawton, ASC, whose outstanding photography adds greatly to the impact of the film. (Center) Errol Flynn’s yacht The Zaca is anchored in Acapulco Harbor. Astern are a line of barges over which electrical cable was stretched between the yacht and the generator boat. (Right) For a scene shot in the jungle streams of Mexico, the camera is mounted on a dugout canoe alongside the boat in which the principle players ride.
— Tim
I am back on the blog again and wish to thank our host David Dewitt and Rory Flynn for sharing these rare treasured photos of Errol Flynn. I’ll be back later with a book that has an entire chapter on Sean Flynn. Ralph Schiller
— Ralph Schiller
January 23, 1936
FLYNN OPERATED ON “FOR ART”
For the sake of art, Errol Flynn, Warner Brothers film star, yesterday underwent a surgeon’s knife.
Flynn was stricken at his home Tuesday with an attack of appendicitis and was taken to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital. An examination made by Dr. Harley Gunderson revealed an operation was not immediately necessary.
Flynn, however, declared he would like to undergo the operation at once rather than be bothered by the offending appendix.
“I want to play in a picture entitled The Charge of the Light Brigade in April,” Flynn declared, “So let’s have the operation and I’ll be fit by that time.”
So, yesterday the appendectomy was performed. Flynn was reported as “resting comfortably.”
…
Might this be Errol, too? (Doubtful, but intriguing)
— Tim
