June 4, 1938
Although not rated as singing stars, Errol Flynn, Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, Warner Baxter, Frank Morgan, will, if the occasion demands, tear off a cinematic tune or two.
…
— Tim
Archive for the ‘Behind the Scenes’ Category
A Very Gracious Olivia — June 3, 2009
03
Jun
Answering by a letter she dated June 3, 2009, questions from Nick Thomas of Tinseltown Talks:
[How many films did you and Errol Flynn appear in together?]
I worked with Errol in eight movies from 1935 to 1941. We appeared quite separately, however, in a ninth film, ‘Thank Your Lucky Stars,’ in which we had no connection whatsoever. This film’s shooting dates extended from October 1942 to early January, 1943. Our first film together, “Captain Blood,” began August 5, 1935 and ended in October, 1935.
[Your final film together was “They Died with Their Boots On.” Did you ever see Errol again?]
After ‘Boots’ was completed in September, 1941, I saw Errol only three times during all the years that followed:
1. At Harvey’s Restaurant in Washington, D.C., in the spring or early summer of 1942 when, perceiving John Huston and me dining there, Errol crossed the room, sat down at our table, and conversed for a while.
2. Very briefly at a soirée in Los Angeles in the spring of 1943.
3. In the fall of 1957 at the Beverly Hilton’s Costumers Ball. Quite unexpectedly, while I was talking to friends during the cocktail hour, Errol left his own group and asked if he could take me to dinner. He seated me on his immediate right and, soon joined by others, took on the role of gracious host with everyone on his left – all the ladies – while I did my best to entertain the gentleman on my right.
[Over the years, Errol has been sensationalized by the press and authors. Has he been mischaracterized?]
His roguish reputation was very well deserved, as he more than candidly revealed in his remarkable autobiography, ‘My Wicked, Wicked Ways.’ However, through this very same book we also know that he was a reflective person – sensitive, idealistic, vulnerable, and questing. But I think he has been incompletely represented by the press: it vulgarized his adventures with the opposite sex and seldom, if ever, touched upon or emphasized the other facets of his life.
[Errol had 4 children, a son and 3 daughters. What were his feelings about parenthood?]
I know that, as a very young man, Errol very much wanted children. Children were, in fact, an issue between Errol and Lili (his first wife) in the early years of their marriage as Lili, influenced by a common belief in those times, was afraid that carrying a child would threaten the perfect figure with which she had been blessed. Later, when the marriage was disintegrating, Lili changed her mind and Sean Flynn, that beautiful child, was born. It may well be that the only steadfast loves of Errol’s life were his love of the sea, his love of his house, and his love of his children.
[Flynn was never recognized for his acting with even an Oscar nomination. Was that an oversight?]
Unfortunately, at the time when Errol enjoyed his greatest success, the adventure film, as a genre, was not sufficiently appreciated and therefore his appearances therein were not as highly regarded as they might. ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’ is perhaps an exception: it was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Picture in 1938. The film was based on an historical legend, and this gave it a certain prestige. As to which of Errol’s performances should have merited an Academy Award, I would have to run all of Flynn’s films to give a proper reply!
However, I do feel he played his roles with unmatchable verve, conviction, and style. In doing so, he inherited the mantle of Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., who was my favorite film star at the age of 9 and whose ‘The Black Pirate’ made an indelible impression on me. No one since Errol has worn that mantle; it is buried with him.
[Olivia concluded her letter with the following post script.}
On June 20th (Flynn’s birthday), I will raise a glass of champagne to Errol, as I always do.
— Tim
The Producer(s)
01
Jun
June 1, 1939
Louella O. Parsons
Los Angeles Examiner
Hadn’t been back but a few minutes when I heard that Jack Warner plans a Westward trek serialization with Mark Hellinger, the well-know Hearst writer, making his debut as a producers, and Michael Curtiz directing. Dodge City, which brought in the shekels, gave Warners the notion. Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Ann Sheridan, will star in Tombstone, laid in 1881, starting with the line in Dodge City, let’s go to Virginia City.” That name cannot be used because of the RKO movie. After Tombstone, City of Angels, a history of early Los Angeles in 1889, will be made with same cast and director.
…
Well, as we Flynnmates know, Tombstone was never made with Flynn, Olivia, or Annie. Nor was City of Angels. Virginia City was made, but not with Mark Hellinger producing. Hellinger, an extremely popular and successful show business figure, known not only for his great writing talent but also for his loyalty and fairness, got fed up and left Warner Bros. in response to Jack Warner’s egomaniacal habit of not giving proper production credit to others. (JW infamously did the same to Hal Wallis over the Oscar for Casablanca.) Hellinger did return, however, to produce his wartime baby inspired by MGM’s first musical (and part Technicolor production,) Broadway Melody of 1929,Thank Your Lucky Stars. So, Hellinger did finally get to produce a film with Errol, Olivia, and Annie, though certainly not how he had originally envisioned. Moreover, he got to act in the film himself, as can be seen in the clip below, in full from ~ 0:50 to 1:50. That’s him with Eddie Cantor.
…
…
Here’s Mark Hellinger with Errol’s Man Friday, Alex Pavlenko, at Mulholland Farm’s legendary bar. This photo is from the Deirdre Flynn Collection. A better image of this can be seen in Robert Matsen’s Errol Flynn Slept Here. Thank you, Deirdre.
— Tim
T minus 22 /// \\\ T minus 33
31
May
T minus 22
Today is 22 days till the Errol Flynn Global Toast on June 20, 2020, the 111th Anniversary of Errol’s birth.
For all those lookin’ to drink like Flynn for this event, here is a post that details dozens of liquid refreshments Errol is known to have enjoyed at various locations throughout his life, around the globe.
T minus 33
Please remember that we are also toasting Olivia d’s birthday on July 1st, her number 104! Olivia herself toasts Errol every year on his birthday with champagne at her home in Paris. So, you may find champagne or French wine apropos on her birthday. But, again, please toast with anything you wish – from Tang to Tangueray – or even, perhaps, some Sake from her birthplace in Tokyo!
— Tim
Friday, May 29 Quiz — What was It? Who was It?
30
May
He was in love with a famous swinger …
There was a lot of drinking and skullduggery involved …
And some weekend fun up at the Farm …
Alas, but not least, you know him well
— Tim
Errol Leaves India for Africa — May 28, 1933
29
May
After a side-splitting incident with a rickshaw boy on the island of Ceylon, Errol left with Erben for the mainland French Colony of Pondicherry. From Pondicherry they traveled an intolerably slow and hot five days on a train “jammed” with “Untouchables”, up the east coast of India to Calcutta, where they witnessed a ~ “dizzying spectacle of temples, beggary, dung in the street, wispy Indian girls in their white wrappings, and whorehouses.” Leaving Calcutta for Africa on the French ship La Stella Errol brawled with a spitting-mad “huge Black Sengalese soldier who bunked above him in steerage. Erben had a good laugh at how decisively Errol lost that dispute.
Finally, on May 28, 1933, Errol left India on the French paquebot Compiegne, through the Gulf of Mannar, then through Arabian Sea to Djibouti, in what was then the French colony of Somaliland.
As depicted below, this route was part of an ancient maritime portion of the old “Silk Road” between China and Europe. Sounds sensible to call it the “Silk Seaway”.
— Tim
“Voyage of Discovery” — Asia to Ceylon
28
May
According to My Wicked, Wicked Ways …
Following their escapades in Asia, Errol and Erben sailed on the French ship D’Artagnon*, through the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal, toward India. On this “voyage of discovery”, as he later described it to his father, Errol became enamored with a beautiful half-Swiss, half Japanese, young woman name named Myako. She was from a Swiss Colony in Kobe**. Unfortunately for Errol, Myako had a Swiss husband onboard, one who soon made his own discovery, i.e. Errol below decks with Myako.
“Nuts, screeching, and out of control”, Myako’s extraordinarily-strong and irate Swiss husband discovered Errol with his wife in the couple’s first-class cabin, both half-undressed. First, seized Errol’s throat and attempted to choke him to death. Then, when Errol finally managed to pry himself free, he pulled a revolver threatened again to kill Errol, this time pointing his revolver at one of Errol’s most prized possessions.
Errol was not able to talk his way out of danger with this insanely-jealous husband, but he was able to dodge the shot fired at him and take the gun from him. To Errol’s dismay, however, the noise of the shot and its ” zinging from wall to wall” “in the steel cabin” “through the first-class cabin” “like a blowfly over a piece of cheese” summoning the ship’s French officers, who promptly ordered Errol to permanently leave the ship, in Colombo, on the British island colony of Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka. Errol attributed his being booted from the D’Artagnon‘, but not the first-class couple, to “economics” and French practicality.
* The D’Artagnan later became a Vichy French warship (renamed the Teiko Maru and manned by Japanese) and was sunk by the USS Puffer, in the South China Sea, near Borneo.
** The Swiss had very extensive enterprises in Japan prior to WWII. In fact, they were responsible for more than a third of all raw silk exportation from Japan. They also exported – predominantly via French and German ports and ships- weaving machinery, wool, muslin, aniline dyes, drugs, perfumes, and watches. In fact, over 90% of all watches exported into Japan were imported from Switzerland.
— Tim
Memorial Day 2020, 3 PM
25
May
In addition to his early and enthusiastic anti-Nazi tour of South America, his war bond tours, his appearances for the Red Cross, and his anti-Axis war films, Errol also supported the troops and country as a star on USO tours, including in 1943, at various locations in Alaska, including Amchitka, Attu, and Dutch Harbor, with Martha O’Driscoll, most notably.:
And here is a 5-minute preview of Our Man from Mulholland’s, i.e. Jack Marino’s, magnificent tribute to our Forgotten Heroes, part of which was filmed at the location of the former Mulholland Farm. Thank you, Jack!
— Tim
Talk is …
24
May
May 24, 1938
Louella O. Parsons
Los Angeles Times
Talk is that Errol Flynn will start a winter sports colony in Colorado …
— Tim
Flynn and Coop Bought Coupes – Rode Bikes, Too
20
May
May 20, 1953 – What Errol Flynn knows Gary Cooper already knows a very long time!: And therefore Gary Cooper did not buy only one but three Mercedes cars of the type 300 and 300S in the Mercedes works in Stuttgart-Untertuerkheim. He took just with himself a sedan car, the 300S cabriolet is to belong to his wife and the third Mercedes 300 is for a movie picture society.
— Tim
