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Archive for the ‘Flynn and…’ Category

Summer Up the Hudson

26 Feb

KORNGOLD AND HIS WORLD @ The Bard Music Festival/Summerscape, 2019.

Weekend One: August 9–11
Korngold and Vienna

Weekend Two: August 16–18
Korngold in America

The Bard Music Festival/Summerscape is “a highlight of the musical year” (Wall Street Journal) and “the most intellectually ambitious of America’s summer music festivals.” (London Literary Times)

The subject of this season is a composer who straddled the worlds of fin-de-siècle Vienna and the Golden Age of Hollywood. “Korngold and His World” comprises an illuminating series of chamber, vocal, operatic, and orchestral concerts – as well as pre-concert talks, commentaries, and panel discussions – devoted to the life and times of Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957).

Perhaps the greatest musical prodigy since Mozart, before turning twelve Korngold had already been proclaimed a genius by both Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss, while his concert and operatic works were routinely premiered and championed by the likes of Bruno Walter, Artur Schnabel, Jascha Heifetz, and Lotte Lehmann. Combining voluptuous chromaticism, soaring melodies, opulent orchestration, operatic leitmotifs, and a nostalgia for the Romanticism of his youth, Korngold’s distinctive compositional voice would revolutionize film music, winning him two Academy Awards along the way. His music was performed for European royalty and at both of Reagan’s inaugurations, while his influence continues to permeate the soundtracks of more recent films, like Star Wars, E.T., and Raiders of the Lost Ark. In light of this, he is surely “one of the most influential composers of the 20th century.”

Korngold’s first full-length score was for Michael Curtiz’s Captain Blood (1935), which not only established the template for the sound-era Hollywood swashbuckler but also marked Errol Flynn’s emergence as a major star.

www-broadwayworld-com.cdn.ampproject.org…

A TASTE OF SEA HAWK

— Tim

 

Close, But No Cigar (Yet) — Nor for Errol.

19 Feb

What do Errol and the following Hollywood heavyweights have in common with Glenn Close?

Amy Adams – Annette Benning – Johnny Depp – Robert Downey Jr. – Harrison Ford – Liam Neeson – Edward Norton – Joaquin Phoenix – Lana Turner – Sigourney Weaver

ERROL FLYNN: He was the Tom Cruise of the 1930s, a global superstar whose natural charisma and box-office power put him at the tippytop of Hollywood — and he never won an Oscar. Unlike Cruise, Flynn was never even nominated, not for “Captain Blood,” “The Charge of the Light Brigade” or 1938’s still-dazzling “The Adventures of Robin Hood.”

www-newsday-com.cdn.ampproject.org…

Will Errol ever receive any meaningful tribute from the Academy? Why no lifetime achievement awards for actors of his immortal caliber? Halls of Fame around the globe regularly commemorate posthumous greats. Why doesn’t the Academy? Or do they?

en.m.wikipedia.org…

— Tim

 

Are you ready for Suicide Freddie?

03 Feb

Dear fellow Flynn fans,

I went on a book binge this weekend.

The account of Errol`s look and live- a like Aussie friend Frederick Joseph McEvoy is a page burner. Very little is know about the Olympic medal winner, world class race car driver and wizardry whirlwind womanizer. Dubbed the International man of mystery, he is finally revealed by Australian author Frank Walker. A foreign correspondent in Germany and the United States for 40 years he penned two bestselling books “The Tiger Man of Vietnam and Ghost Platoon” and “Maralinga”. Now “The Scandalous Freddie McEvoy” makes three.

Many blind spots about Freddie Mac are blotted out with amusing anecdotes starting with his education at the Jesuit school of Stonyhurst, giving Hitler the stare carrying the British flag at the opening ceremony of the Olympian Winter Games of 1936 in Garmisch- Partenkirchen and filling in as Flynn’s wingman both at the rape trial as well as his best man at the wedding with Pat Wymore in Nice and Monaco.

Having the FBI at his frock’s tail didn’t bother him one bit. He set out marrying dollar spouting and dried up oil heiresses, gambling fastearned fortunes away at the Riviera and when asked what his profession was, cooly countered: “Pleasure is my business“. No wonder he became part of the Flynntorage in no time.

Walker managed to uncover previous classified archive files, which shed further light on how McEvoy steered clear of military service and may have served his own cause in the process. The infamous highpriest of mayhem Charles Higham is cited and again put into the right perspective.

“Higham described his book on Errol a ‘deductive biography‘ and often added up one and one and got three or four…there was no need for him to exaggerate- the story of Errol and Freddies’ lives was already larger than life.”

I can`t wait to compare notes with Frank on the still murky death of the perennial playboy when his ship sank off the coast of Morocco in 1951. Only three man survived the shipwreck of Freddie’s lavish Kangaroa yacht in a torrid storm on their way to the Bahamas, where he was supposed to meet Flynn. The dashing sportsman and deepwater diver that was called Suicide Freddie did not.

His right hand man Manfred Lentner, an Austrian ex commando wanted by Interpol for murder of a prostitute in Berlin of 1945, escaped unscathed. When I interviewed his wife, sister, nephew and brother in law the picture became a little clearer, but still simmers like an impressionist painting of Monet.

Anybody on the blog who’s up for real life intrigue, mystique and the usual flynnanigans will be a delighted customer.

Enjoy,

 

— shangheinz

 

A Really Big Show

27 Jan

Ed Sullivan proving Errol wasn’t alone in his admiration of early Castro …

A string of other gushing interviews would quickly follow Sullivan’s, conducted by everyone from the revered CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow to the Hollywood actor Errol Flynn. A few months later, in April 1959, Fidel even traveled on a victory lap of the northeastern United States: he was mobbed by admirers as he ate hot dogs in New York City, spoke at Princeton, and made dutiful visits to hallowed shrines of democracy such as Mount Vernon and the Lincoln Memorial.

www.smithsonianmag.com…

“Errol Flynn’s Ghost: Thomas McNulty on Flynn Meeting Fidel Castro” on Vimeo:

Errol Flynn's Ghost: Thomas McNulty on Flynn Meeting Fidel Castro from Hammer and Nail Productions on Vimeo.

— Tim

 

Get Giesler!

21 Jan

LIFE MAGAZINE – MAY 1, 1944

books.google.com…

— Tim

 

Ok lahoma!

07 Jan

Oklahoma U.S.A.

All life we work but work is bore,
If life’s for livin’ what’s livin’ for,
She lives in a house that’s near decay,
Built for the industrial revolution,
But in her dreams she is far away,
In Oklahoma U.S.A.
With Shirley Jones and Gordon McRea,
As she buys her paper at the corner shop,
She’s walkin’ on the surrey with the fringe on top,
Cos in her dreams she is far away,
In Oklahoma U.S.A.,
She walks to work but she’s still in a daze,
She’s Rita Hayworth or Doris Day,
And Errol Flynn‘s gonna take her away,
To Oklahoma U.S.A.,
All life we work but work is a bore,
If life’s for livin’ then what’s livin’ for
Enjoy,

— shangheinz

 

For Auld Lang Syne

01 Jan

Eighty Years Ago

Featuring Errol and a host of Hollywood stars in the 7 minute short For Auld Lang Syne,

James Cagney introduced himself and proceeded to identify the attending guests as they arrived at this benefit function, most of whom stepped up to a microphone to be interviewed on the radio by George Jessel, although the only voice heard during the “arrival” sequence is that of Cagney’s.

Cagney introduced Rudy Vallee as the M.C., and Valle presented the Benny Goodman Orchestra in a swing number and then introduced Dick Powell who sang “Ride, Tenderfoot, Ride” from 1938’s “Cowboy from Brooklyn.” Donald Crisp comes on and introduces himself as the co-M.C. and then he introduces Paul Muni, who makes the appeal to the theatre audience to make donations to the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital.

In order of appearance on-screen was: Cagney, Hugh Herbert, Glenda Farrell, George Jessel, Humphrey Bogart, John Barrymore, Bette Davis, Harmon Nelson, Hal Wallis, Louise Fazenda, Basil Rathbone, Marie Wilson, Freddie Bartholomew, Paul Muni, Errol Flynn, Lili Damita, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Gene Krupa, Dick Powell, Donald Crisp and Muni again.

m.imdb.com…

To Fans of Flynn Around the Globe:

— Tim

 

Hi-Tailing It to Texas

30 Dec

Fleeing Hollywood for the Mexican border

December 29, 1939

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Jimmie Fidler

Errol Flynn will vacation on Big Boy Williams’ paternal ranch near Del Rio, Texas.

Del Rio – The Friendliest Little Border Town in Texas – An Oasis in the Desert”
amp-southernliving-com.cdn.ampproject.org…

“Travelers have long been drawn to this oasis on the Rio Grande. The American Indians who inhabited the area more than 4,000 years ago left detailed pictographs on cave walls, now a sort of primitive history book etched in stone. Spanish missionaries planted a church here in 1635 and christened the spot San Felipe del Rio. It was named not for the Rio Grande but in honor of San Felipe Springs, which still offers up to 90 million gallons of spring water every minute.”

“Queen City of the Rio Grande”
www-mysanantonio-com.cdn.ampproject.org…

“The heyday of Del Rio, the “Queen City of the Rio Grande,” as year-round tourist destination, along with nearby Villa Acuña, Coahuila, appears to have been in the 1930s.

During that era, the two sister cities straddling the Texas-Mexico border enchanted businessmen and the leisure class with mix of oasis relaxation and unregulated foreign intrigue.”

— Tim

 

On the second day of Christmas …

26 Dec

DECEMBER 26, 1939

SIDNEY SKOLSKY PRESENTS

Errol Flynn and Guinn Williams sent Orson Welles a Christmas gift – a ham with a beard on it.

— Tim

 

Dear Prudence

22 Dec

Dear Prudence,

A “more skillful swordsman” than Errol? I think not. Though you sure we’re one talented and rediantly-beautiful swashbucklerette, in both B&W and Technicolor.

“Against All Flags, 1952. This was one of the last Hollywood swashbucklers starring Errol Flynn. Maureen O’Hara proves his equal with her swordplay as Prudence “Spitfire” Stevens. In fact, O’Hara swore she was the more skillful swordsman, which might be true, as Flynn was slowing down. Usually he did his own stunts, but he declined the Douglas Fairbanks-style broad-sail-riding stunt here, having already broken an ankle and delaying production two months.

Fortunately for Universal Pictures, they had Russell Metty as cinematographer. He was the fastest Technicolor ace around, and he shot a second pirate movie, Yankee Buccaneer with Jeff Chandler, while Flynn recuperated. Co-star Anthony Quinn competes with Flynn in all sorts of skullduggery, supposedly on the island of Madagascar. The film’s secret weapon? Jokes that were purportedly inspired by Flynn’s randy sex life.”

www.santafenewmexican.com…

— Tim