'BOY PROMOTER'
from THE PROVINCE Newspaper – Friday, October 16, 1959
George Caldough, 30, host to Errol Flynn during the last days of his life is a self-styled “boy promoter.”
“Just call me an entrepreneur,” said the dapper, likeable West Vancouver resident who has a penchant for continental suits and bowler hats.
A resident of West Vancouver for the past three years, he lives in a sprawling ranch home on Eyremount Drive in the British Properties. His parents are Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Caldough, 3751 Cypress.
“No, I'm definitely not a millionaire. In fact I'm far from it.
“I'm in the promotional business—in mining and oil. I have an interest in some companies in the Yukon.”
His Vancouver interests include real estate. He is sales manager of Mt. Baker Investments and is associated with Derek M. Gunderson in Centennial Holdings Ltd., a firm that bought nearly 100 acres of Crown land near Whytecliff at $95 an acre.
His biggest interest just now is taking over Flynn's yacht and hiring it out for charter. He signed a contract with Flynn a few days before the actor died.
The yacht, now moored at Majorca, near Gibraltar, is to be offered for charter in the West Indies. Flynn sold the 116-foot craft reportedly because he needed the money.
Newspaper company logos and mastheads are under copyright. Article text published without a copyright symbol is within the Public Domain.
— David DeWitt
John Hardman
February 4, 2017 at 1:45 am
George Caldough is described as ’30 years old’ in one of the news reports of his meeting Errol at Vancouver airport. Who,then, is the middle-aged looking man who is seen shaking hands with Errol: is it Caldough’s father?
Other Canadian newspaper reports tell of Caldough’s being little more than a ‘boiler room’ crook who ripped-off investors before and after Errol’s visit in 1959: he went to prison in 1961,yet is said in the papers to have been close friends with a judge. How would this “30 year old” have got to be friends with the 50-year-old Flynn? It’s puzzling that the shady Caldough’s ‘doctor-friend’ couldn’t have seen how sick Errol really was and didn’t drive him to a hospital instead of shooting him up with demerol.
The Real Person!
February 5, 2017 at 10:29 am
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Dear John, you are bringing up an essential aspect on Flynn`s last voyage. Caldough was a schemer and proposing a publicly financed treasure hunt on the Zaca. Errol, who took the bait hook, line and sinker. I think he knew he was going and there may have been an advance payment to the project, but I don`t buy a possible selling of the Zaca. As far as I`m concerned, this was never a topic in courts after EF`s demise.
John Hardman
February 6, 2017 at 12:47 am
Did the ‘signed contract’ for a sale or lease of the ‘Zaca’ ever deliver any money to Flynn’s estate? Was Caldough ever in a position to lease the yacht as he’d reportedly planned, or did the whole thing come to nothing?
Gentleman Tim
February 6, 2017 at 9:35 am
I don’t believe so, John. It wasn’t long before Caldough ended up in Oakaala, convicted of huge international fraud schemes. He had stock promoting business associates in England, who may or may not have been his original connection to Errol. I don’t know.
After he heard that significant money had been raised to conduct a treasure hunt off the coast of Spain, he had the quite brilliant brainstorm that Errol and The Zaca should be involved to make it more notable and lucrative. So he flew down to LA to see Flynn, who apparently loved the idea – perhaps most particularly the lucrative part of the idea, but probably the glamor of the treasure hunt, too. Alas, however, it never happened. Errol left for the eternal hereafter, and Caldough was soon thereafter off for six-year stint at Oakaala – minus his trademark glove, cane and bowler hat, but not without his trademark swagger.
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