when guerilla commandante Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz ousted the despised dictator Fulgencio Batista on January 1st of 1959, everybody including Errol thought Cuba would turn from US backyard brothel into Paradise Island International. www.theerrolflynnblog.com…
The high hopes were fueled by the high motives of the eloquent revolutionary. Freedom and equal birth rights were the proclaimed pillars of Fidel`s philosophy. Communism seemed not a top priority. The lowest common denominator between El Maximo Lider and Karl Marx was a full beard.
Born out of wedlock under the name of Fidel Hipolito Ruz Gonzalez, Castro was the kid of a wealthy landowner and his housekeeper. Maybe the the itch of being an illegitimate child triggered the urge to become an usuper.
His birth date had to be altered by a year, in order he could attend the Jesuits` college one year earlier than allowed. At university he stood out for his crisp mind and sharp tongue at a early age too. Top baseball outings on Cuba`s canefields led to unconfirmed tryout offers by the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, but he opted for a more deceptive profession and became a lawyer.
He first brought on a law suit against Batista and when it failed to make the military leader leave his office as new Head of State, Semper Fidel organised a coup of his own with 160 men trying to take the second largest barracks with 1500 soldiers. The historic quote “History will absolve me” stems from a letter he wrote out of prison after being captured as one of few survivors.
After his release Castro fled to Mexico with his younger brother Raul, where they met perennial poster boy Ernesto “Che” Guevara, another unscrupulous idealist. The chain smoking asthmetic medic became the spark to the Castro Bros. fuze. The rest is his story: nyti.ms/2gqyc4l…
El Fidel would go on to control the fate and faithfuls of the largest Caribbean isle seeing 11 US presidents come and go, survive 638 assassination attempts acknowledged by the Guiness Book of Records and a nuclear Mexican stand-off at sea between Khrushchev and Kennedy.
El Flynn saw the Robin Hood in Fidel Castro when only the post of Sheriff of Nottingham was vacant.
Power seekers with brains, big egos and bank accounts will stop at nothing- today more than ever!
on April the 24th in 1944 at the Mocambo Nightclub Errol narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by the Mafia. But it was not his life that was in danger, but rather his fair hair.
He became involved in a ladies`wrestling match between casino society member Virginia Hill and showgirl singer Toby Tuttle. It is not entirely clear what and who started the socialte scuffle, but somehow Flynn got between the lines of fire. An egg was thrown at our Hollywood hero and hit him bullseye on the head. Later one of them ready-to-hitwomen would say that was because he wasn´t galantly stepping up for her after a crude remark from the other fighting hen. Another source stated it was for his grinning and watching appreciatively while sport commentating the scene to his pest pal Freddie McEvoy.
Now while some papers spotted Miss Tuttle as the perpetratorette, others held Miss Hill responsible. She of course was “Bugsy`s girl”. Not Bugsy Malone, mind you, but Benjamin Siegel, jewish mobster debonaire, the founder of Murder Inc. and the builder of the Las Vegas Flamingo Casino Hotel.
Born and raised like cettle in Lipscomb (Alabama) Virginia ran away to Chicago at age 17.
“Where I lived was prison. There were ten kids in the family and no money. My father worked in a livery stable as a horse and mule trader while my mother ran a boarding house. My grandmother at eighty was still chopping cotton for a living. I swore the same wouldn`t happen to me.”
Starting out as waitress, she was always looking over her shoulder for police detectives coming to drag her back home.
“I had a story all figured out in case they found me. I was going to tell them I got married and had the wedding annulled. If they wanted to know in what court all that took place, I would tell them to find out for themselves, because I was under no legal obligation to tell them. I died a million deaths before I reached 18. All my life I have been afraid, maybe that`s why I do so many crazy things, just to prove myself that I´m not scared.”
Fatherfigure Joe Epstein made her a figurehead for his bookie joint. Soon the resolute redhead made so much money, she had trouble to account for her incredible income. She`d always claim her good fortunes resulted from the horse track. Her cross-my-heart-hope-to-die-tongue-in-cheek reference promptly got her summoned to Senator Kefauver`s crime- investigating comittee.
“Winning bets does only account for $15.000. Where does the rest of your money come from?”
“Men give it to me.”
“Why should they give you such large sums of money?”
“I`d rather not say.”
“You`ve got to answer or face up to three years imprisonment for contempt of court.”
“Alright, then, if you must know, it`s because I am the best goddamn lay in the country!”
She was a two time divorcée before settling in California, where she threw lavish parties for the Hollywood Community. The road to the Bug lead via Joey Adonis and over George Raft, who got introduced to her by Pat DiCicco. Her stalksy legs lent the Flamingo Club its name. The most modern and ornate gambling house opened on Dec. 26th, 1946. Night after night it came out $20000 in the red. Local townsfolk boycotted the temple of doom. Bugsy swore he would bury them all before he got out. It never came to that. Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel got shot and killed in Virginia`s monumental mansion at 810 Linden Drive in Beverly Hills on Errol`s birthday, June 20th of 1947. When Virgina got the news in Paris, her statements somehow varied.
“Please get that straight. People are saying I was his mistress and such stuff. That`s nonsense. I never spent much time with him.”
“The death of my friend Benjamin Siegel has caused me immense chagrin and I am seeking solitude because of my suffering.”
“Ben was the only man I loved. I could kill myself.”
She indeed attempted suicide at least four times with sleeping pills but walked away unfazed every time. That is what being used to downing 15 sundowners before noon will do for you. When she met the Austrian world class skier Hans Hauser (instructor of Ernest Hemingway amongst others) at Sun Valley, she knew time had come to get away from Inc. all. Using marriage as an exit strategy they settled near Salzburg, where she penned her 600 page boudoir memoir. In 1966 she finally succeeded with another suicide attempt. Her husband hanged himself years later. Their son Peter, a Vietnam veteran, died in a crazy car crash in France. Rumors in Europe never seized that the long strongarm of organized crime had gotten to all of them at last.
Virgie for sure was no vigilante, but “let (s)he who is without sin cast the first egg…”
the 14th of october 2016 marks the 950th anniversary of the bloody Battle of Hastings.
When Edward the Confessor died without a successor in early 1066, three other noble horsemen claimed the throne of England.
At first Harald Goodwinson proclaimed himself Harald II. His brother Tostig challenged him instantly for the crown with the help of a Norwegian army (the Danes and Norwegians had held larg parts of the British Isle since the 9th century). Harald II. preveiled in the Battle at Stamford Bridge on the 25h September.
Meanwhile William the Conqueror entered the South of England from Normandy. Harald II. marched his weary men all the way down from the North and erected a wall on a knoll, which at first held firm against the furious attacks from the Normans. They were fighting the proverbial uphill battle. When TC William seemed to retreat, the Anglo Saxons left their forification to deliver the death blow. But the Normans suddenly turned and responded with a surprising onslaught. 7000 was the final deathcount at a time when towns averaged 2500 people.
Harald II. got ambushed and lost life, kingdom and ocular globe on the spot. The historic scene is depicted on a famous tapestry, showing him being hit by an arrow into the eye.
Wicked Will became King William I. on Christmas day of that year and abolished landownership immediately. His Normans` Earls and Counts were lent the lands seized from the Saxon aristocracy.
Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall’s novel was serialized in The Saturday Evening Post (28 December 1935-1 February 1936). A December 5, 1935 Hollywood Reporter news item reported that producer Samuel Goldwyn purchased the film rights to their novel for $60,000, and various news items in the spring of 1936 noted that he originally intended to produce the film in Technicolor, but was prevented from doing so because of the cost involved. The film’s pressbook stated that Goldwyn had hoped to shoot the entire picture on location in the South Seas, but the expense and difficulty of transporting the equipment, combined with the possible adverse weather conditions, necessitated that the picture be shot in Hollywood. A great deal of background footage was shot in the village of Pago Pago, on the Tutuila Island in American Samoa, however, where the camera crew received the cooperation of the U.S. Navy. A November 22, 1937 Life article reported that the location crew shot “140,000 feet of scenic shots in Samoa, enough to make 14 movies.” Among those who went to the South Seas for location scouting in the winter of 1936 and filming during the following spring were: director John Ford, associate director Stuart Heisler, unit location manager Percy Ikerd, art director Richard Day, photographers Archie Stout and Paul Eagler and an eighteen-member technical crew. Although a November 1, 1936 New York Times news item stated that Gregg Toland would be leaving in a week to film exteriors in Samoa, his participation in the completed film has not been confirmed.
Among the actresses listed by contemporary sources as being considered for the role of “Marama” were Merle Oberon and Movita Castenada, the latter of whom appeared in the picture as “Arai.” According to Hollywood Reporter news items, Goldwyn first signed Margo for the part of Marama, then borrowed Dorothy Lamour from Paramount after Margo asked to be relieved of the role. “Moon of Manakoora” became Lamour’s signature song, and the role of Marama helped establish her career identification with a sarong, which was begun with the 1936 film Jungle Princess. A Hollywood Reporter news item reported that Charita Alden was being tested for an uspecified role, and a Hollywood Reporter production chart includes Barbara O’Neil in the cast, but their participation in the completed film has not been confirmed. Basil Rathbone was originally considered for the part of “Eugene DeLaage,” which, according to a September 25, 1938 New York Times article, he turned down. Photographer Bert Glennon and actor C. Aubrey Smith were borrowed from Selznick International for this production.
A November 19, 1936 Hollywood Reporter news item reported that Goldwyn would star Mala as “Terangi” if Errol Flynn were unavailable for the part, while a November 21, 1936 Film Daily news item stated that Goldwyn contract players John Payne and Frank Shields were being tested for the role. In early February 1937, Goldwyn announced that Joel McCrea would be playing “Terangi,” although by late Mar, he was removed from the cast and placed into another Goldwyn film, Dead End. After much publicity announcing that he was looking for and casting an “unknown” as “Terangi,” Goldwyn finally revealed that he had placed Jon Hall in the role. Although Goldwyn’s publicity, contemporary news items and reviews variously asserted that Hall was an “unknown,” a “newcomer,” or that he had “never appeared in a picture” before, Hall had made numerous films in the mid-1930s under the names Charles Locher and Lloyd Crane. Contemporary and modern sources variously state that Hall was the cousin, second cousin or nephew of author James Norman Hall, and that he was a next-door neighbor of Ford, all of which contributed to his being cast as “Terangi.” Hall, who was born in Fresno, CA, was reared in Tahiti, although some sources incorrectly state that he was born in Tahiti as well.
According to Hollywood Reporter news items, William Wyler directed tests of the actors while Ford was finishing direction on Wee Willie Winkie at Fox, and location shooting was also done on Santa Catalina Island, CA. A March 24, 1937 Hollywood Reporter news item announced that Goldwyn was going to produce a 1,000 foot short about the filming of The Hurricane in Samoa. The news item stated: “The short titled ‘Samoa for the Samoans’ will be released to theatres in advance of the feature’s distribution and will show the manner in which a picture company works on location.” No other information about the short has been found. Although Frank Loesser and Alfred Newman’s song is entitled “Moon of Manakoora,” contemporary sources refer to the island on which the film’s action takes place as “Manukura.”
The widely praised hurricane sequence was created by special effects expert James Basevi and his assistant, Robert Layton. Basevi and Layton, who had been with M-G-M for fourteen years, left the studio in September 1936 after creating the earthquake special effects for San Francisco (see below). According to Life, Goldwyn gave Basevi a budget of $400,000 to achieve his effects, and “of this amount, $150,000 was spent to build a native village, fronted by a lagoon 200 yards long. The other $250,000 was spent in destroying it.” A pressbook for the film notes that the native village set occupied two-and-a-half acres of the United Artists studio backlot. With the aid of numerous twelve-cylinder Liberty motor wind machines, large wave machines, firehoses and an elaborate system of pipes, chutes and holding tanks, thousands of gallons of water were sent crashing down onto the sets to create the winds of the hurricane and the subsequent tidal waves. Contemporary sources note that doubles were not used for the actors during the storm sequences, and as an article in New York Times related: “Dorothy Lamour and Mary Astor were really lashed to that tree and buffeted about like chips.” According to another New York Times article, the rigors of shooting resulted in Hall losing thirty pounds by the time the picture was completed. In her autobiography, Astor describes the shooting: “Huge propellers kept us fighting for every step, with sand and water whipping our faces, sometimes leaving little pinpricks of blood on our cheeks from the stinging sand.”
According to a remark by Goldwyn printed in a New York Times article, the film cost $2,000,00 to produce. The article relates that Goldwyn spent another $35,000 on the picture’s premiere at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles. The film was named one of ten best pictures of 1938 by the Film Daily annual critics poll, and a modern source notes that it was “one of United Artists’ most successful releases in years.” Thomas Mitchell was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and Alfred Newman was nominated for Best Score. The Hurricane won an Academy Award for Best Sound Recording. Information in the MPAA/PCA Collection at the AMPAS Library reveals that the picture was the object of much criticism by the French government. French officials in Washington, D.C. demanded cuts of the scenes in which prisoners were flogged and tortured by French guards. The eliminations were made, but the film still encountered difficulty in Paris, where censors refused to pass a dubbed version. According to a letter from Harold L. Smith, who apparently was a PCA foreign staff member, “there was a unanimous decision of the censors not to pass the film for two reasons: first, the original version was considered anti-French in accord with reports received from the French Embassy in Washington and second, the local office of United Artists presented to the censors a revised version of the film whereas the regulations require that the original version be presented.” Correspondence in the file indicates that the French representative of United Artists was fearful that the original verison would not pass and so instead submitted a revised version. The correspondence does not specifically state which version was exhibited in Paris, but apparently the censors did agree to review both the original and dubbed versions.
According to modern sources, Goldwyn originally wanted Howard Hawks to direct the picture, for which Ben Hecht was hired to do an uncredited rewrite just before going into production. A 1974 New York Times news item noted that Paul Stader was Hall’s stuntman for a jump off a cliff. The picture was remade in 1979 as Hurricane, which was produced by Dino De Laurentiis, directed by January Troell and starred Jason Robards, Mia Farrow and Dayton Ka’ne. According to a 1978 New York Times article, De Laurentiis “reportedly paid $500,000 for the rights to the original film.” The remake, which was filmed on location in Bora Bora, cost eleven times more to produce than the original. The Variety review of the later film incorrectly states that Glen Robinson created the hurricane special effects for the 1937 picture.
I came acoss a curious statement in the obituary (www.smh.com…) of nazitorious biographer Charles Higham.
“Higham had a delight in the macabre and the absurd, exemplified by his invitation to the English widow of Hermann Erben for dinner in Los Angeles with a Flynn double, Chuck Pilleau. Higham coaxed from her a bizarre revelation: SS agent Erben was circumcised.”
Now more interesting than Dr. Erben`s anatomy is that another little known stuntman, stand- in or stooge of Errol is brought into play, a certain Charles Pilleau.
I found an entry on this virtually unrecorde go- to gent, posted by a friend of his, a one time actor and passionate golfer:
“All I know is that I found a picture on the web of a suppossedly Errol swinging a golf club. And it was a lefty swing? I wish I knew how to post it here. I was given an old “Brassie, driver” by my old friend that I used to rent an apartment from in Hollywierd in the early 80’s ( N Franklin & Hollywood Blvd ). I was studying acting, rasing hell around town and just enjoying my youth (srtaight). His name was Chuck “Sir Charles Pilleau”. What a charachter and friend. He was long in the tooth with some great stories. He took a liking to me cause I’m a Texas boy. I as well enjoyed his company as I used to help him around town to get his tasks done since he only had one eye and a lung left. Don’t feel sorry. I saw some of the gals that old Chuck had over from time to time. He had the charm. Another of our friends eventually aided old Chuck in finding his way back to Australia where I heard he passed a few years later. I know that he was FLynns buddy cause he had all the pictures hangin on the walls and the stories were abundant and in line with everything that I had heard about Flynn. Except there were no gay stories from Chuck. The gay stories according to him were an attempt to ruin him. I believe my friend Chuck Pilleau………Still Puzzled About This Old Brassie Driver……….Was Errol right handed or not? I haven’t answered it yet. Pardon…..distracted with memmories of my pal Chuck. He seemed almost “life like” to Errols immage and mannerisims…..John Horton el************@ao*.com. ”
Unfortunately when I tried to contact Mr. Horton to putt him the photo pictured above as answer to his question, I came across another obituary: dfw.cbslocal.com…
Picking up Gentlebard Tim`s thread on errolyric: www.theerrolflynnblog.com…
I challenge you now to enter your very own limerick on our Hollywood hero, his friends and woes.
According to Wikipedia, the standard form of a limerick is a stanza of five lines, with the first, second and fifth rhyming with one another and having three feet of three syllables each; and the shorter third and fourth lines also rhyming with each other, but having only two feet of three syllables. The defining “foot” of a limerick’s meter is usually the anapaest, (ta-ta-TUM), but catalexis (missing a weak syllable at the beginning of a line) and extra-syllable rhyme (which adds an extra unstressed syllable) can make limericks appear amphibrachic (ta-TUM-ta).
The first line traditionally introduces a person and a place, with the place appearing at the end of the first line and establishing the rhyme scheme for the second and fifth lines. In early limericks, the last line was often essentially a repeat of the first line, although this is no longer customary.
The form appeared in England in the early years of the 18th century. It was popularized by Edward Lear in the 19th century, although he did not use the term. Gershon Legman, who compiled the largest and most scholarly anthology, held that the true limerick as a folk form is always obscene, and cites similar opinions by Arnold Bennett and George Bernard Shaw, describing the clean limerick as a “periodic fad and object of magazine contests, rarely rising above mediocrity”. From a folkloric point of view, the form is essentially transgressive; violation of taboo is part of its function. Lear is unusual in his creative use of the form, satirising without overt violation:
There was a young lady of Niger
who smiled as she rode on a tiger;
They returned from the ride
with the lady inside,
and the smile on the face of the tiger.
Here`s another good instruction on how to put your words into play: www.webexhibits.org…
Like the old saying goes: creativity is 10% Inspiration and 90% transpiration. So let`s transpire y`all.
The author of the most inventive errolimerick get`s an exclusive copy of a still from my private collection of Errol Flynn`s unfinished “The Story of William Tell” film.
here is another monumental movie that Errol didn`t get his armour on for.
Based loosely on the novel “The Talisman” by Sir Walter Scott, Warner Bros. clearly wanted to jump on the Ivanhoe bandwagon with this vehicle. The tableround was decked, but Flynn was kept in check. He played “The dark Avenger” in England instead and narrowly missed appearing in one of “The fifty worst films of all time”: en.wikipedia.org…
His probaly was the role of Sir Kenneth of Huntington, a noble scotsman, siding with King Richard the Lionheart in the 3rd Crusade against the Saracens. The chivalric love interest would`ve been Virginia Mayo, while the musical score was composed by flynntimate Max Steiner and errolpal Otto (von) Reichow makes an uncredited appearance as Austrian soldier.
Brush up your Germlish, Laddies and Gentlewomen, for here it is in its entire cinemascopic splendor:
