The New Catalina Museum Opening in June!
Avalon is an Especially Fun & Wondrous Place for Fans of Flynn.
Our Last Visit on the Blog:
— Tim
The New Catalina Museum Opening in June!
Avalon is an Especially Fun & Wondrous Place for Fans of Flynn.
Our Last Visit on the Blog:
— Tim
Errol Arrested for Being Errol at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, 1957
Pacific Palisades Country Club<
The infamous Lincoln Heights Jail, featured in many films and music videos since Errol’s involuntary visit, including in LA Confidential, where, shown below, they depicted the “Bloody Christmas” riot of 1952.
— Tim
The Mailbag brings us a great photo and story from Errol Reichow:
Greetings Mr. DeWitt,
Another contribution to your blog as I sift through the memories of my father. Flynn once quoted “We fritter our lives away in endless details but I plan to live it” and he did. My dad once said to me that Flynn had just come back from visiting a doctor, he had various ailments later in life, and the doctor said if you quit drinking you could have a few more years to which Errol said “I take the drinking and another good 6 months”. My father also mentioned that Flynn kind of burned out on live and said to him “I’ve seen everything twice so what does it matter”. We all have our highs and lows so with it goes our attitudes but better to test the ends of the spectrum then ride the middle of the fence because for many that just doesn’t get it done.
One last note, this past Friday I visited an old family friend (Gloria Zomar) and as we talked she had an interesting story. She meet Flynn, through my father, down at the Garden of Allah and Errol just had a chiropractor work on his back as my mom, dad, and Gloria waited in the other room and they could hear the groans as Errol got adjusted. Then Errol came out in a terry cloth rope and engaged in conversation and proceeded to ask Gloria out for a date. Gloria accepted and was very nervous and she let Flynn drive her old Pink Cadillac to some spread in the Valley for a party where Errol spent most of the time talking to a producer about an upcoming film. Gloria was so nervous she didn’t say two words the whole evening and when they went home Flynn invited her in for a tottie and she said no, guess he had a reputation. My dad ask Errol the next day how it went and Errol said she doesn’t like me as she didn’t talk all evening. The fact is she was so nervous she didn’t know what to do or how to act. So, I gather the moral of the story is speak up and live a little because if you don’t do it now there may never be a next time.
This picture is from the old Frascati restaurant that was on the Northwest corner of Crescent Heights and Sunset Bl, across the street from the Garden of Allah. In it is Errol ( back of head), Mickey Rooney, Nora Eddington, Beverly Aadland, and Otto Reichow (my father) – I do not know the folks in the upper right hand corner.
Hope the shot is worthy of a post on your site and if so send me the link or save it for another day but then again better to live for today then wait for tomorrow.
Thanks’ Errol!
— David DeWitt
Attributed to Olivia, 1978, in a discussion about the most legendary drinkers in film history:
“During filming of “The Swarm”, 1978, a disaster film about killer bees, starring Michael Caine, Henry Fonda, Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens and Fred MacMurray, definitely some guys who knew something about putting them down. One day they were joined for lunch at the Warner Brothers commissary by the quiet Olivia de Havilland. There were complaints that no booze was being served. “That’s because of Errol Flynn”, said de Havilland. “He used to get so drunk he couldn’t work, so Mr. Warner said no more booze.”
The men wanted to hear more about the famous swashbuckler. “Oh my God, that Errol Flynn was something. Do you know he once got so drunk he wagered a film crew $500 that he’d have his way with me.” The men could see she was a lady and the incident must have been embarrassing for her. Olivia grinned mischievously “Oh it was, it was. And you see that tree on the hill out the window. That’s where he won his bet!”
— Tim
Sweet and gorgeous Sherry Jackson is back again, with tales of Errol, almost performing as the young Olivia character in The Snake Pit, crying for Mean Mr. Michael, and being dead on the beach in Hello God!
Welcome back, Sherry!
— Tim