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Archive for the ‘Friends & Family’ Category

Mail Bag! Errol Reichow, on Mr. Errol Flynn, his namesake!

18 Feb

The Mail Bag brought a real treat today, and there was more in store as I opened the subsequent emails from Mr. Errol Reichow. Here is his first email to me:

Salutations Mr. DeWitt,
If you would be so kind as to post this picture to the Errol Flynn blog along with anything else you see fit it would be appreciated. I send my favorite picture to you of my namesake because it is by the pool where I grew up and the house I still have which is my own Shangri la. Please share the post if you decide to toss it up for those who may find interest.
My father (Otto Reichow) always used to tell me why he named me Errol. Zo mit his sic german acsunt I vould hear  ” If you have half the life Flynn has had then you will have had a good life”. Errol set the bar high and left behind a blueprint as ones did before him so we follow, walk along, and continue ahead down the path we all must travel but chose to in so many different ways which make our lives truly unique. Yes, my heroes gowning up were Errol Flynn (namesake), John Wayne, Bruce Lee, and countless other icons that added a spring to my step and kept a sparkle in my eye because that’s what inspiration does.
One could easily go on for pages about the stories but we all have caught bits and pieces in the wind that fill our sails and take us down memory lane and then with the next tack we are faced with present day reality yet look unto the horizon for a better tomorrow and try to keep a true course. It is said that some people should never die and others should never be born but that just isn’t the way life is so keep the best alive in memories and forget the rest for that is the natural progression and key to perseverance. From what I have heard Errol liked to live on his terms and why not it was his life and better to live it your way than somebody else’s interpretation.
There will only be one Errol Flynn and this picture, by my father’s pool, captures it in the twilight of a supernova. Errol has his Vodka and cigarette in hand as he waves with a smile maybe thinking thanks for a great journey and happy to have done it my way sport. With all the pain one can suffer in life and endure the hardships it is good to know that a smile can always be found just around the corner. This was one of the last pictures of Errol in the land that made him and tried to break him known as Hollywood. My father took Beverly and Errol to the airport to catch a flight to Vancouver and that was the last my father and the world ever saw of Flynn, but the spirit lives on for those who wish to remember and we remember because we want to not because we have to – that is how Errol and we all should live our lives.
So long Sport and thank you for a great name.
Errol Reichow
flynn
But there was more! In the next email …
Again, the attached picture is better resolution and this card is from the final memorial service held for Errol Flynn at Forest Lawn Glendale October 19, 1959. I am sure you can crop and enlarge the quarters. If you feel it is worthy of a post please do so.
EF
And finally these wonderful images!
Mr. DeWitt,
The attached picture is better resolution. I saw some old images of Flynn on your blog inquiring where these photos where taken, I believe the response was some hotel but I assure you it was from the home of my father Otto Reichow. The house is currently empty and is located at 1599 Sunset Plaza Dr in the Hills above West Hollywood. There are newspaper shots and various photos floating about from this location as a photographer had contacted my father and asked permission to come by and take some snaps. I have various shots my father saved and then others I see from time to time but felt compelled to clarify the location and mysterious gentleman to the right, my father.
Otto was also a pall bearer at Flynn’s funeral.
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Errol, we can’t thank you enough for kindly sharing these extraordinary photos with us! It is such a rare and wonderful thing when somebody comes forward with images like this, and we all appreciate it so much! Your namesake looks like he is full of mischief, and has the expression on his face of someone looking about for the next source of a bit of fun …
Thanks again, Errol!

 

— David DeWitt

 

Arnella Roma on The Zaca

15 Feb

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— Tim

 

Steve Hayes on the Airwaves!

13 Feb

SUNDAY, February 14, 2016 at 7PM PST & 10PM EST Jack Marino Warriorfilmmaker Show on www.latalkradio.com… on Channel 2

My guest is writer Steve Hayes, the British born Ivan Hayes first arrived in Hollywood in 1949 and moved there permanently in 1950. An actor for ten years, he worked in movies at MGM, Warner Bros., Paramount, Columbia, RKO, Universal Studios and the Samuel Goldwyn Studios as well as in early network television and radio.

While he was under contract at 20th Century Fox, the studio insisted Ivan find a more American-sounding name. He chose Steve, after the name of his friend Steve Reeves, a former Mr. Universe who later became world-famous as “Hercules.”

When not acting or writing books and screenplays, Steve helped support himself by working in restaurants and parking cars at Hollywood’s glamorous Sunset Strip nightspots like the Mocambo, Ciro’s, Villa Nova, and The Players. He also did detective work for the Fred Otash Detective Agency and painted movie stars’ homes and famous places like the Garden of Allah.

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Then, in 1954, he became night manager of Googie’s, a popular coffee shop next to Schwab’s Drugstore that was made famous by James Dean, John Saxon, Natalie Wood, Rod Steiger, James Garner, Jayne Mansfield and other celebrities like western writer Louis L’Amour and Hollywood gossip columnist Sidney Skolsky.

During that time Steve befriended numerous movie stars like Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power, Marilyn Monroe, Ava Gardner, Clark Gable, Alan Ladd, Lana Turner, Sterling Hayden and Robert Middleton, all of whom influenced his life and gave him material for his recently published two-volume memoirs, Googie’s: Coffee Shop to the Stars.

A world traveler, Steve has explored the Amazon river by small boat, dug for gold in Alaska, climbed Kilimanjaro, ridden elephants at India’s Tiger Tops game preserve, photographed the Mountain Gorillas in Uganda, been on safaris in Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa and trekked in Tibet and the Himalayas. In 1958 he went to Cuba, where he met Ernest Hemingway before joining the Cuban Revolution, led by Fidel Castro, Raul Castro, Che Guevara and the American Army deserter, William Morgan.

An adventurous, oft-married raconteur, Steve still writes novels and screenplays and presently lives at the beach in Huntington Beach, California, with his lovely wife of twenty-five years, Robbin.

stevehayes.org…

Steve just turned 85 on Jan 31, 2016

******
Show call in number: 1-818-602-4929
Jack Marino’s Warriorfilmmakers Show

if you missed the LIVE show you can always go back to the archive and hear it then

www.latalkradio.com…

Jack Marino’s Warriorfilmmakers Show
Show call in number: 1-818-602-4929

THANKS
Jack Marino

— David DeWitt

 

”ESCAPE ME NEVER” (1947)

05 Feb
Remembering IDA LUPINO (4 February 1918 – 3 August 1995) on her birthday.  She starred with Errol Flynn in the Warner Bros film,  ''ESCAPE ME NEVER'' Released in 1947.  They became good friends during the making of the film. Here is a rare Color photo.

Remembering IDA LUPINO (4 February 1918 – 3 August 1995) on her birthday. She starred with Errol Flynn in the Warner Bros film, ”ESCAPE ME NEVER” Released in 1947. They became good friends during the making of the film. Here is a rare Color photo.

— Kevin Wedman

 

Sure He’s Married, And He Likes It

04 Feb

February 4, 1945

news.google.com…

Errol and NoraErrol and nora toasting

Errol and Nora Married

— Tim

 

Deirdre in “Hail Hero!”

04 Feb

Great article and photos of Deirdre, stand-in for Michael Douglas, in his first starring role,
“Hail Hero!”, published on one of the most significant days in the history of mankind.

archives.chicagotribune.com…

Deirdre and Michael

— Tim

 

January 27, 1943 – Wiles & McEvoy

26 Jan

Wiles and McEvoy

news.google.com…

— Tim

 

Rory & Sean in Coronado!

19 Jan

Rory & Sean have been a Very Big Hit in Coronado this Weekend, at all the VIP Ceremonies, Rory’s sensational Show about Errol, Dive Bomber, introduced by Sean, and a “The Baron of Mulholland” Meet & Greet/Book Signing.

Chris Lemmon and Leonard Maltin were around. Legendary Flynn-Fan Richard Dreyfuss met with Rory & Sean before the show.

Several festival guests had great stories about Errol. One was a little girl at her aunt’s home in Holmby Hills when Errol came by and read all the kids Peter and the Wolf. One fellow’s father used to watch Errol play tennis at the Hotel Del and said he was incredible, one day nearly beating the top ranked player in California/one of best players in the world. Also heard about Errol socializing with Naval officers at North Island Officers Club, at the Hotel Del bar, and at their homes on Coronado.

P.S. Dive Bomber is extraordinary on the big screen.

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— Tim

 

Who Wrote This?

17 Jan

Today and tomorrow will be the Flynn place to be, Flynncluding at the Coronado Library, which is hosting some of the many great events at the Coronado Island Film Festival.

As did Errol himself, numerous Flynn Crowd celebrities used to visit Coronado. One notable Flynnsider who lived on the island wrote the following tribute to the Coronado Library. Who was she or he?

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Here are some displays now in the library:

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— Tim

 

Marilyn Monroe Music Videos

16 Jan

This being the inaugural weekend of the Coronado Island Film Festival, here a couple of timely music video tributes to Errol’s friend, Marilyn:

Now and Then from the Hotel Del Coronado, Errol’s old stomping grounds:

Marilyn!

— Tim