The Errol Flynn Blog

Dear fellow Flynn fans,

here are three reconstructed clips from the film “Pearls and Savages” of Frank Hurley about his New Guinea adventures from 1921-1923:

aso.gov…

Errol was merely a teenager when these silent films hit movie theaters all over Down Under.

See: www.theerrolflynnblog.com…

They sparked the imagination of a whole continent. An Aussie penny for your thoughts on what might have served as an inspiration for Young Errol.

Do you detect any recurring themes of Errol`s later life? Are there any parallels to his voyage to NG at all?

Let`s all wear a Fedora hat as thinking cap. Each entry will receive the honorary Dr. Australia Jones- Award.

Enjoy,

— shangheinz

Dear fellow Flynn fans,

who said, there is no time machine?  Well, this weekend I went on a bus from Austria to the tiny state of Liechtenstein, which took me way back into the last century.

I had the great honor to get invited by a real baron to sit bedside and have a little chat. His name is Eduard Alexandrowitsch von Falz Fein, originally from Russia. He is 102 years old. “My  legs are gone, but my mind is crisp. Why don`t you come and join me at my chalet? Excuse me, for not meeting you at the entrance, my staff will let you in.”

I had approached this noble gentleman, when I became aware that the best friend of Prince Igor Troubetzkoy, the fourth husband of Barbara Hutton was still alive. You remember the story, don´t you…?

Greets from Bab`s birthday boat

Baron Eddie competed at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmish Patenkirchen (Germany) in the bobsleigh 4 men event against, amongst others, Errol`s pest pal Freddie McEvoy. “We became friendly, but not friends. One had to take Freddie with a grain of caution.” During winter season they would be together at St. Moritz. Summers were spent on the Côte d´Azur, another hunting place of Freddie. And in between seasons the Russian aristocracy resorted to the Ritz and Maxim`s in Paris.

When I asked him, why McEvoy himself wouldn`t marry Barbara , the baron had the following explanation. “What is better than a rich woman wife? Rich women without obligation, of course!”

Von Falz Fein remembered pompous parties aboard Freddie`s yacht in Cannes and Nice. At one of these he was introduced to Errol Flynn. “Well I was not so much into movies. Naturally I knew who he was, but I was not in awe. I had sat on the knee of the Czar as a little boy, I had withnessed Hitler at the `36 Summer Olympics in Berlin leaving the Stadium stone faced after Jesse Owens victory. I had hosted royalty like King Farouk- the pervert (O- tone Baron), but Flynn had a presence and elegance about him without arrogance. He was easy to talk to, when he wasn`t drinking of course. One time on a boat trip, either to Portofino or Spain, he was so smashed, he couldn`t tell starboard from portside. Apart from that he was swell, but I didn`t know him too well…”

“Now concerning the torrid affair between Barabara and Igor, which eventually led to their marriage. Ìt nearly didn`t happen. And it was all my fault. A newspaper had printed a photo I had taken from Babs and Igor. Soon St. Mo. was filling with reporters waiting for the big “Yes”. Barbara was furious and I was in the dog house. But instead of calling the whole thing off, I contrived the plan to have them married in Chur in Switzerland, an hour`s drive from my place in Vaduz. I acted as best man. When all was said and done, instead of a lavish feast, the four of us had hot chocolate at tea time. And that was about it. I truely must say that my tovarishch Troubetzkoy wasn`t in for the money.”

When the baron heard of Suicide Freddie`s death at sea, he like everybody else that kew McEvoy, his vicious vitality and competitive spirit, couldn`t believe it. “That incident may forever remain a secret.”

Another secret Eduard von Falz Fein was able to lay to rest, at least for him, was the remainder of the lost Amber Room, the 8th wonder of the world. After extensive searches and researches that he financed, he is convinced, that it was destroyed during a bomb raid in Königsberg. “Ashes to ashes and amber to amber.”

Enjoy,

— shangheinz

Dear fellow Flynn fans,

this is a post not completely unrelated to Errol. During a short trip to Stockholm, I had the great pleasure to stay on the former yacht of Barbara Hutton, the millionairess of old Woolworth wealth.

In her biography “Poor little rich girl”, author C. David Heymann describes how she nearly became the wife of Errol`s best buddy Freddie McEvoy. Despite being her constant companion during winter vacations, he passed the Barb, ah buck, when it came to tying the knot. After two marriages with very wealthy women, Suicide Freddie went on to marry a moneyless model. Mrs. Hutton meanwhile took interest in Freddie`s pal, poor prince Igor Nikolaiewitsch Troubetzkoy of Russia. Barbara compensated Freddie with a $ 100.000 check and they remained friends till his untimely death.

When Troubetzkoy finally fell from grace, it was our man Flynn, who sat down with princey and his prefered lawyer Melvin Belli to come up with a lucrative divorce strategy. Mulling over it, they spent endless nights together at a nightclub in Paris. The plot to make I.T. a millionaire though backfired, when he was offered only $ 900.000, falling short of a mill, he then vetoed, so he got nill. In the end he managed to get a monthly pension out of Barbara, when they settled things in private, renouncing the services of Errol`s advocate. Barbara subsequently fell prey to the last playboy, Porfirio Rubirosa, her fifth but not the least husband, whom she divorced after barely more than a month for a cool 3 millions and incentives.

But back to the boat. Originally built for NY magnate Mr. Billings in 1924, the then named “Vanadis” was at the time the largest diesel driven yacht in the world. She was given to Barabara Hutton by her father for her 18th birthdy. She kept her only for a year and sold her for $1 to the English Navy during WWII.

Enjoy,

— shangheinz

Dear fellow Flynn fans,

for those of you who wonder about Hedy Lamarr`s connection to Errol and why she was featured here recently on the blog:

The ashes of Lady Hedy

let me just tell you that our Hollywood hero was very fond of her. In fact he starts out in his biography MWWW paying tribute to her, as if she was some sort of counterpart of his:

“It chances that I think Hedy to be one of the most underestimated actresses, one who has not been lucky enough to get the most desirable roles. I have seen her do a few brilliant things. I always though she had great talent, and as far as classical beauty is concerned, you could not then, nor perhaps even now, find anyone to top Lamarr. Probably one of the most beautiful women of our day. Naturally I wanted to meet her – and subsequently I would want her to play the female lead in my Italian fiasco, “William Tell”.

Errol got introduced to her at a party by his pencil moustached wingman David Niven and instantly got a taste of her temperament. Hefty Hedy was very a sophistcated lady much like his Tiger Lil`prior. Remember she had to escape her husband, a weapons manifacturer and one of the richest men at times of WW II, to come to Hollywood. She left their Viennese Villa with little but all of her jewellery.

“As we waited for Hedy to enter her living room, David kept prodding me to expect by far the most ravishing creature. David whispered as she glided in, “By God, she’s beautiful, even without the jewels.” “Quiet!” He wasn’t quiet. “See if she will tell you what she told me about how she had to save herself in getting out of Austria.”

Now, with Niven prodding me, I didn’t know how to get around her to ask her to tell me about her private life, but it sounded intriguing when David repeated, “See if she will talk about the night she couldn’t stand it any more and made a gateaway.”

Hedy and I talked for a while. I started leading up to it in a diplomatic way and finally got out the words, “Where is Mandel (the husband) now?” At which from this beautiful creature, came the growl, “That sonofabitch!” She spat and walked off.

Errol and Hedy developed a special liking for each other, but opted for palsyship, as Mrs. Lamarr recalled in her autobiography “Ecstasy and me”:

“I told my stand-in Sylvia who went to a crazy Flynn party with me: “Many of the bathrooms have peepholes or ceilings with squares of opaque glass though which you can’t see out but someone can see in. So be careful. Never go to a room Errol sends you to change if there is swimming” 

“One time  Errol, another party guest and me watched a “busty Italian star” changing into her bathing suit and laughed when she sniffed her armpits and tried to hide red clothing marks.”

The most beautiful girl in the whole wide Hollyworld went on to marry two of Errol`s closest friends, “Hollywood hussar” John Loder, to whom he refered from then on as “Mr. Lamarr” and Teddy Stauffer aka “Mr. Acapulco”.

Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler would have made a fine Mrs. William Tell too.

Enjoy,

— shangheinz

Dear fellow Flynn fans,

here is the likely source that started Errol`s travel bug.

On October 6th of 1922, the highly innovative film maker- photograher Frank Hurley arrived at New Guinea via waterplane. The “Seagull” had departed from Port Moresby and arrived at the banks of coastal town Kaimari after a misty 400 mile flight. Meanwhile the 50 ton two mastered motor schooner “Eureka” had brought the equipment for Hurley`s projected documentation of tribal wild life deep within the jungles of the world`s second largest island. Entering at the Gulf of Papua their route took them up the Fly River admidst seaming mongroves and luxuriant rainforests.

The Australian adventurer had already participated at an Antarktis expedition in 1911 and was a member of the meticulously assembled crew on the “Endurence”- expedition of Ernest Shackleton.

Readers of Sydney based newspaper “Sun” were holding their breaths and hoping for pictures of headshrinking cannibals. They were not denied, even though most pictures of ritualstic ramblings had to be staged. Missionaries, that had been dispatched to this former British colony half a centuary earlier, already were a big influence wherever Hurley went.

His drum accompanied dia shows of blended & coloured pictures came to film theaters all over Down Under. In 1923 the boisterious bushman Frank Hurly presented his documentaries “Pearls and Savages” and “With the Headhunters in Papua”and became all the rage amoung youngsters. A 14 year old Flynn may subconsciously have set sails right there and then.

Hurley tried to up the ante with a film called “The Lost Tribe” in order to take his tour to the US and take Americans by storm. Full of antisemitic clichés (the churlish chief…) he fantasized about the Sambio clan from Lake Murray being an ancient israelite people. While a disaster in the States it became a success in Germany. It may have triggered the interest to visit New Guinea of a certain Dr. Hermann Erben, he himself a passionate globetrotter and phanatic photographer.

See: www.theerrolflynnblog.com…

And it could very well have influenced another famous film maker in Hollywood. Obviously for the sake of showmanship Hurly`s first encounter with the tribesmen is shown in his film as a human hunt ducking slings and arrows from left and right. Sounds a lot like the opening scene of “Raiders of the lost Ark” if you ask me.

Infinite more info can be achieved in Alasdair McGregor`s book “Frank Hurly: A Photographer`s Life”.

Enjoy,

— shangheinz

Dear fellow Flynn fans,

here a quick follow up on: www.theerrolflynnblog.com…

www.anothermag.com…

Enjoy,

— shangheinz

Dear fellow Flynn fans,

here is a nice little piece on Patrice and what living and loving must been like back in the good Ol`Errol days.

Jamaica?

Enjoy,

— shangheinz

Dear fellow Flynn fans,

Gentleman Tim has come up, yet again, with a major find:  https: //freelibs.org/movies/ColgateComedyHourWithAbbottAndCostelloAndErrolFlynn.html

As you can see in the pictures above, Errol and archer enemy Bruce Cabot appeared on the same show. Seems to me that our scolars skipped school on that one. To my understanding the two former buddies avoided meeting each other. In his MWWW memoir Errol stated their relationship as follows:

Cabot went up and down Rome`s Via Veneto boasting about what he had done. No real man strikes at another through his helpless family, especially after being friends for twenty years.

My assistant said: “Why don`t you go and see him?”

“No, I am afraid.”

”What, you afraid of Cabot?”

“ Yes, I am afraid…..of what I might do to him if I saw him.”

I had to watch myself.

“This is no time for a murder charge.”

Cabot defended his Brutus demeanor in public in 1970:

“Errol Flynn- I shared his house, his fights, his liquor and his girls. He was a real man with terrific looks. What happened to him, of course, was that he took to the dope – in fact, he was registered over here in England as an addict – and that destroyed him.”

So, did they make up at Bruce`s Bar or have a wild west showdown that TV night?

Who knows more!?

— shangheinz

Dear fellow Flynn fans,

here is what Vienna authorities and libraries have to offer on Dr. med. Hermann Friedrich Karl Theodor Erben aka. Dr.Gerrit H. Koets, Errol Flynn`s travel companion on his wicked, wicked ways.

Born on November 15th of 1897 in Vienna to Dr. jur. Hermann Erben Sr., General Manager of one of the largest steele factories in the K & K monarchy and Jeanine Reichel, daughter of a rich cotton manifacturer in Prag. His mother was of Jewish descent, she had her son circumcized, otherwise the whole family was baptized into the evangelical faith. His sister Grete(l), was 10 years his minor.

He served in WWI as lieutenant along the Italian frontline. Soon after the war was lost, his father was let go from his post in the once weapon producing factory. Erben Sr. died from tuberculosis in 1919 leaving his family national state bonds 400.000 Kronen, the equivalent of four loaves of bread.

Like his uncle Fritz he joined a duelling student fraternity- the Corps Symposion, “earning” himself a gash wound on his left cheek he would parade proudly for the rest of his life.

Erben was one of the first members in Austria of the DNSAP- the German worker`s Party and pre- NSDAP, the political wing of the Nationalsocialists. Back in 1922 the agenda was to reunite Austria with Germany for the better good of both countries.

In June of 1920 he married his first wife, Klara, who was from Leipzig in Germany. Four days later she gave birth to their son, Kurt.

He tricked himself into a passage to Brazil in 1921, securing a construction worker`s job in Rio de Janeiro (where the World Fair of the year thereafter was prepared) even though he knew nothing about any hand craft.

This trip triggered his travel bug, a neurosis as he later claimed himself. Since he couldn`t back up on his working claim, he was forced to return a stowaway. The stage was set for more impostering to come.

Upon his return, he learned that Klara had given birth to another son. He consulted his diary in which Brazilian city he had been on the day of his second son`s birth and announced that his name therefore should be “Santos”. The marriage ended in a divorce on grounds of “incompatibilty”. To spare alimony payments, he let Klara and the boys live on in his apartment while away on his trips. Whenever he was home he consumed their in court dissolved marriage, washing, cooking and else, as if nothing had happened.

He claimed to have been an extra (then again who had not, given the monumental mass scenes) like many other Viennese University students on the Michael Kertesz film “Sodom and Gomorrah”.

See: www.theerrolflynnblog.com…

In 1923 he worked at a medical facility, studying on diabetes, in the United States. His announcement, that he was off to “Jew York” got him the laughs of his Corps Bros. He instantly applied for American citizenship, but managed only to get a sailor`s ID, while befriending dock workers.

His promotion to medical doctor at the Vienna University was on the 23rd of July in 1926. The original certificate shows his name in latin: Arminium Erben.

Two years prior there were first hints of substance abuse. When questioned by police, then and later he will always claim that the amount of morphium in his possession was for medical purposes only and strictly within the official limits. This is like being stopped for exceeding city limit speed restrictions, but pleading innocence for having stayed within the tachometer.

He went back to the US almost immediately after his promotion, fibbing he had a job lined up for him, but managed only to get a 20 day visa. He was advised to respect this timelimit, otherwise he would be warranted and deported. He stayed for two years, taking the Medical Board exam in Tulane and Seattle and passing twice with impressing results (>90%). He was employed at various hospitals, for example the Medical Lake Hospital in Spokane, Washington. He was fired once for misbehavin´ with a nurse on duty, other times he just wandered on.

After illegally alienating everybody, he requested an application form for reentry to the United States. He stated to the Office of Immigration and Naturalization that he intended to go on a one year world trip. He produced the passport he had shown when coming to the US the first time and not his second one where the short term visa would have had him ousted immediately. Reentry after a longer absence was granted. A pattern had been established. Erben-Koets had beaten the system and was off to Hongkong, Shanghai, the Philippines and Australia. His scientific achievements as a missionary doc were featured also in American newspapers. This may have contributed to reaching his primary goal: to settle in the US of A.

When he reentered North America in San Francisco, he at last got his first American passport (No. 9486) on grounds that a local medical doctor, Dr. Emil Otto Jelinek, originally from Austria and a friend of his father vouched for him. Erben claimed to have left the United States only twice in the last five years, both times to visit his ill mother. He would lose the American Citizenship after being blacklisted for drug distribution and when his lies about his residental periods in the US backfired on him.

In the years to come, he would work as a ship doctor, encounter, infatuate and influence Errol Flynn. In Shanghai though the circle of exiled Germans regarded him as oddball and instigator. Pastor Prof. Dr. Fritz Maass will remember him coming uninvited to bible rounds and clearing the buffet. “Wherever he went he caused a commotion. With Communists he bashed Nazis, and with Nationalsocialists he blasted the Reds.” That way in official hearings later on he could always claim that back in the days he was regarded anti- this AND anti- that.

He provided himself with an additional income for documenting naval activites everywhere he went for the German Abwehr (the defence ministry). He may, just may have worked for Stalin too, keeping a photo lense on Trotzky, while in Mexico at the time of the assassination of the Comrade of the first hour.

He stood trial for treason after war was over, awaiting a sentence on death row, thrived on matching minds with the prosecution, got pardoned for naming Nazi names, reunited and rebonded with these names in a US detention camp in Ludwigsburg. Somehow this charismatic, highly intellectual and multicoloured turncoat managed to return to his hometown of Vienna and opened a doctor`s office.

He received the golden merit award by the Austrian Republic in 1974 for his 40 plus years of international scientific research. A year later he would stand accused for the death of a patient due to negligence on his behalf. Nothing could be proven and nothing came of it. Koets me if you can, gentlemen… He would practice medicine for ten more years.

On January 16th of 1985, Dr. Hermann F. Erben was found dead on the kitchen floor of his unheated apartment. No port, no partner, no prison had managed to hold this uninhibited free and fraudulent spirit for long. Cardiac arrest had finally put him to rest.

Enjoy,

— shangheinz