— Tim
Archive for the ‘Friends & Family’ Category
On the Fourth Day of Christmas 🎁🎁🎁🎁
28
Dec
On the fourth day of Christmas
Errol gave to us
One golden film.
The Captain Blood premiere..
A club of four-hundred frauleins…
And a visit to Sydney from a very famous singer….!
___
December 28, 1963
Sydney Morning Herald
American Singer Arrives
The American singer Dick Haymes, for years a close friend of Australian-born actor Errol Flynn, arrived in Sydney to see his friend’s birthplace. Haymes said he and Flynn had often talked about Australia, and they had planned to make a visit together before Flynn’s death. Haymes, now 45, arrived at Kingsford Smith Airport by T.A.A. from Perth. He expects to find time to see Sydney beaches during his 28-day appearance at Chequers night club.*
* Chequers was one of the hottest night clubs in the world, the Copacabana of Down Under.
___
First, he sang Errol’s song!
…
Then he married Errol’s Nora!!
Then he went to “Errol’s birthplace”...
— Tim
John Flynn – Errol’s Granddad – A Cordial Man
17
Dec
Supplied from Coraki, On the Shortest Notice, Anywhere on the Richmond River
Circa December 1883
“The Richmond River has its source on the southern slope of Mount Lindesay in the McPherson Range on the Queensland – New South Wales border. From here the river flows south-east through Kyogle, Casino, Coraki and Woodburn before turning north-east and reaching the sea at Ballina. Over its course of 237 kilometres it descends 256 metres. Twelve major creeks or rivers enter the Richmond River system along with numerous smaller watercourses. The river’s catchment area is estimated at 6,862 square kilometres.”
1889 Map including Coraki and the Richmond River
— Tim
In Memorium … Our Dear Trudy McVicker!
14
Nov
Our dear sweet soul Trudy McVicker has passed, aged 87 …
Friend to all of us on The Errol Flynn Blog, and a friend of Earl Conrad, and everybody who knew her, she was in attendance at Jack & Louise Marino’s Centennial Party for Errol Flynn in 2009 where we all had a chance to meet and be instantly charmed by this lovely woman who we now hold in our hearts in a new way … what a blessing she was to all of us!
TP McNulty Remembering our dear friend Trudy McVicker: Trudy once said to me that she wondered if people go to the place they loved the most, and see again the people they loved the most when they die. She hoped that was the way it works out, that when we die we all get to be in some wonderful place we dreamed of with our most cherished friends and family. Trudy is with a Tasmanian swashbuckler now, and of her many friends, I know of several late writer friends she held in high regard, and you can bet their conversations are fascinating. Nothing I post here does Trudy justice, and in fact, she told me not to do this type of thing, because she knew there would be enough of that “type of thing” from certain others, so this will be my only public statement (for now) at her request. She was one of a kind. Wherever she is, there are mysteries to unravel, incredible characters to observe, and laughter to be had. She once described to me the rainfall hitting the sidewalks as being like “shiny dimes tossed into the street.” She told me how once, years ago, she watched a traveling carnival set up in town; and how it changed from a parade of grimy, gasoline smelling machines into a multi-colored light show of spinning Ferris wheels with a calliope whistling and sputtering steam to the delight of crowds of dancing children, and how amazing and wonderful it all was. She viewed the world as a wonderful place to explore, and so she did. Of the photos I’ve posted here, you’ll see her glass menagerie on her windowsill. This was a work in progress. She loved the way the light changed as it came through the trees and then touched the glass, illuminating even more of this incredible world we live in. May the wind be at your back, dear Trudy, and may the road rise up to meet you. That tall man up the path looks familiar. Why, yes, I’ve seen that grin before. He’s a good fellow, well met, and he has some stories to tell. As they walk up the hillside together I can well imagine the laughter echoing into the golden afternoon, and then, quite slowly, we fade out. Peace.
Thanks for sharing Tom & Jan McNulty …
— David DeWitt
DeMarrying Mr. MacEvoy
29
Oct
Prologue
~ “In 1940, Freddie MacEvoy married Beatrice Cartwright, an heiress to the Standard Oil fortune. He and Beatrice (twice his age) had lived together at the Badrutt Palace in St. Moritz for several winters, prior to their marriage. One year, McEvoy brought a much younger model to “care for him,” explaining to Cartwright that he must have a younger lover than her. The marriage lasted two years, and in the same year they were divorced, he married Irene Wrightsman, the 18-year-old daughter of the president of Standard Oil of Kansas.”
October 29, 1942
The Daily News (Perth, Australia)
Here’s the Wiley Mr. MacEvoy with Buster Wiles, three months later…
Postscript
Four years later…
August 29, 1946
The Daily News (New York, New York)
~ “During the Forties, Freddie often stayed in Mexico City with Countess Dorothy di Frasso, one of Freddie’s most generous patrons. Di Frasso spread his fame among her friends for his bedroom performances, which she said was worth all the money she gave him.
In 1945, McEvoy began a long-running affair with the wealthy heiress, Barbara Hutton. Hutton agreed with di Frasso concerning Freddie’s skills, considering him a superb lover, and felt that he understood women better than any man she had ever met. They later lived together at a fashionable ski chalet in Franconia, New Hampshire, which Hutton bought for McEvoy. They never married but remained friends throughout his life.
McEvoy eventually married French fashion model Claude Stephanie Filatre. On November 7, 1951 they were sailing on his 104-ton schooner, Kangaroo, near Cap Cantin off the coast of Morocco when a storm hit. The ship went down, but Freddie lashed his wife and maid to the mast, and then swam to shore seeking help. But he was unable to find any assistance and swam back out to the mast. He and Claude Stephanie then began swimming to shore, but she was unable to make it. He attempted to tow her to shore, but the waves pulled them to sea, they crashed against the rocks, and were not seen alive again. Their bodies were recovered the next day.
Earlier in ’51, Vincent Van Spartacus was making a play for Irene…
— Tim
Tribute to T. T. Flynn, Ph.D.
24
Oct
October 11, 1883 – October 24, 1968
Tasmania’s First Professor of Biology
Thank you very much to Philip for his previous posting of the audio above on the EFB.
— Tim
Errol’s Femmes Carry On
16
Oct
Errol Flynn Day 2015 — Featuring Rory
23
Sep
September 23. 2015
THE NEWS LEADER
THEATER
BRIDGEWATER— Bridgewater College presents Errol Flynn Day in a two-part discussion and film screening program at 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sept. 25. During the day at 3:30 p.m., Chad Trevitte shares his “Swashbuckling on Screen” discussion with the audience, followed by a screening of the film, “The Sea Hawk.” Starting at 7:30 p.m., Errol Flynn’s daughter, Rory Flynn, will be the evening’s guest speaker and share her program, “Stories of My Father,” followed by a screening of “Captain Blood.”
Charles Culbertson, director of media relations, and Stanley Galloway, professor of English and director of the film retrospective program, got together to bat around ideas for interesting guests. “Since I knew Rory Flynn,” says Culbertson, “I said, ‘Hey, how about Errol Flynn’s daughter and it kind of took off from there. I met her on- line several years ago. I was selling something on eBay related to her father and she bought it, and I emailed her to ask if she was Errol Flynn’s daughter and when she said yes, I said, ‘I’m not going to sell this to you. You can have it,’ and from that correspondence we just kept up via email. This will be the first time I will actually physically meet her so its exciting to meet the daughter of one of my childhood heroes.”
Rory Flynn prepared the program, “Memories of My Father” to keep her father’s memory alive. “The public Errol Flynn is very well known, but the public doesn’t know very much of him as a father — away from the cameras and the press,” says Culbertson. “He was famous not only as a movie star but as an adventurer, a ladies’ man. His exploits rivaled anything he did on the screen. What he’s not so much famous for is what he was like away from those movie cameras, away from the press, and those are some of things Rory will touch upon when she gives her presentation.” “From what I have read, he was highly intelligent and well read. He could talk on a huge variety of topics. And this was a man who was kicked out of every school he attended as a boy. He taught himself. He was charming and urbane, and he had that ability to charm the birds out of trees. At the same time, he was a man’s man — an adventurer, loved danger, loved sailing the world in his yacht; he sought adventure and experiences he never had — a true adventurer.”
According to Culbertson, this is what the real Errol Flynn was like and that is part of what her daughter will share during the film retrospective. “Flynn himself was such a fascinating character that I thought the human connection with him would be interesting to those people who do remember him, and also it would be a good introduction to our students about a man and an era of filmmaking,” Culbertson says.
This year also marks the 80th anniversary of “Captain Blood” which made Errol Flynn a star.
What:: Errol Flynn Day at Bridgewater College, Flynn’s daughter to be keynote speaker.
What: Errol Flynn Day
When; 3:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Sept. 25 3:30 p.m. Chad Trevitte’s “ Swashbuckling on Screen,” followed by “The Sea Hawk” 7:30 p.m. Rory Flynn’s “Stories of My Father,” followed by “Captain Blood”
Where: Cole Hall, Bridgewater College, Bridgewater Cost
Both events are free and open to the public.
More info www.bridgewater.edu…
PHOTO COURTESY OF CHARLES CULBERTSON. Errol Flynn (right) duels to the death with Basil Rathbone in the 1938 classic “The Adventures of Robin Hood.”
— Tim
Storm at Sea
23
Sep
September 22, 1946
LOS ANGELES
SPECIAL TO THE MINNEAPOLIS TRIBUNE
Men, Women and Yachts Don’t Mix
Errol Flynn is reported by some quarters to be a direct descendant of Fletcher Christian, the man who started the mutiny on the Bounty. Mrs. Nora Eddington Flynn, his youthful bride, is believed in other quarters to be a direct descendant of Capt. Bligh, the commander of the Bounty. The other quarter in the case of Mrs. Flynn is John Decker, artist, who comes to this conclusion in explaining the “mutiny” on Flynn’s yacht Zaca while cruising the Pacific off Mexico. Decker and three others of the ship’s personnel left the Zaca at Acapulco, Mexico, because, Decker asserts, Nora had taken on some of the characteristics of a bucko mate in the old days when the clippers sailed around the Horn.
AMONG TILE SHIP’S COMPANY WHEN THE ZACA SAILED. This junket was a combination pleasure-science-professional affair. Flynn wanted to get away from Hollywood. He bought the Zaca last October, as a successor to the Sirocco, where there had been many gay parties which, perhaps, Flynn wanted to forget. To make it all serious, he was going to collect marine specimens. There were 17 aboard when the yacht sailed, and a representative group they were, indeed. There was Dr. Theodore Thomson-Flynn, Errol’s father, who is a zoologist and dean of the school of science at Queens college in Belfast, Ireland. And there was Prof. Carl Hubbs of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at La Jolla, Calif., a noted ichthyologist. Tanks, torch lights, tackle arid enough formaldehyde to pickle half the fish in the ocean. Prof. Hubbs could be dropped blindfold into any part of any sea and tell at once where he was by examining the local fish.
Ted Stauffer, a Swiss composer and erstwhile night club operator in Mexico City, was also aboard. Stauffer took along a camera, planning to make magazine pictures. Howard Hill, the famed toxologist, and Jerry Courmoyay also were present. They planned a color picture of the trip, featuring Hill s archery and the various flora and fauna encountered on the way. Chris Duke and Kurt Hartzog, two Hollywood bit players, were included in this part of the project.
DECKER CAN PAINT. And then there was Decker, really a great painter, who figured on getting a lot of marine life into color. Decker has painted some pretty queer fish in his time and this wouldn’t be a novelty. He hit on a highly-appreciated medium some years ago when he began copying the old masters and putting actors’ faces on them. Two of his most famous in this line are Queen Victoria with the face of W. C. Fields and the famed Blue Boy of Gainsborough with Harpo Marx’ pan. In serious vein, Decker has taken numerous prizes at exhibitions. There were also a professional captain and two working sailors, named Wally Beery (not the actor) and John Vincent. And, in addition, Nora.
NORA GETS HER SEA LEGS. They had been gone nearly a month when the ketch-rigged schooner hove-to at Acapulco, where almost at once it became apparent that there had been a clash of personalities aboard. The main narrative from now on is that of Decker.
THE CRISIS NEARS. It was while they were hanging around Socorro that Decker detected the growth of a quarterdeck manner in Nora. Once, he said, she directed the guests if you could call them guests to pick up their coffee cups after a meal on deck and carry them back to the galley. Another time, life went on, several of the ship’s company were sitting in the saloon and Nora said: ‘Everybody get up on deck.” Anyway, things came to a 5- head right there in Socorro lagoon. Seaman Berry dived into the water “with a spring harpoon gun. He was going after a shark. But instead of harpooning the shark he harpooned his own ankle. The harpoon has a nasty barb and the wound was serious. Dr. Thomson-Flynn and Prof. Hubbs operated on the leg and removed the weapon. However, there seemed to be some danger of infection and Decker finally persuaded Flynn, over Nora’s protests, to proceed to Acapulco, 1,000 miles away and the nearest spot for competent medical aid. So, once in Acapulco, Decker marched ashore with the wounded man, and stayed ashore. Duke and Hartzog, the film players, left with him. He emphasized that his relations with Flynn remained friendly.
FOUR-LETTER WORDS Nora’s comment on all this was that the amateur sailors expected to be treated as guests [rather than working crew.] This was very unsatisfactory, she remarked in a phone conversation with her father.
NORA AND ERROL, ABOARD HIS YACHT. Actor Flynn has always had a yen for the sea. “Women, men and yachts don’t mix,” he said. “Just as soon as Nora got her sea legs she took over command of the boat and started shoving everybody around. I’ve known her ever since she married Flynn but I never really had any conversation with her. The talks I had with Flynn were man talks, and she couldn’t enter into them, so I never really knew her until I went on this boat. “It’s too bad this little mosquito has come between Flynn and me. I can’t really lay my finger on anything important she did. It was a constant pin-pricking process calculated to wear me down. “She greeted me with lhe remark when I went aboard at Santa Monica: ‘You’re not serious about going on this trip? You must be kidding.’ I told her I was serious and I wasn’t kidding and her face fell a mile. “She began at once to make things disagreeable for me, blaming me for everything that went wrong, always yelling around the boat when anything was out of the way: ‘Oh, that’s Decker.’ ” The yacht stopped at Cedros Island, off the coast of Lower California, and then proceeded to the Revilla Gigedo Islands, southeast of the tip of Lower California and pretty well out in the Pacific. The serious fishing began at Socorro Island in that group. Dr. Thomson-Flynn and Prof. Hubbs are dedicated scientists. They have loaded the boat with dredges.
Decker insisted he was right in using four-letter words. Nora has won this time, anyway, if it was her aim to get Decker off the boat. Flynn plans to continue through the canal and to Europe. At present he is trying to assemble a crew of experienced hands for the trip across the Atlantic. All the fuss could be, of course, a vagary such as is often attributed to expectant mothers, who are known to ask for things like strawberries out of season and the like. Nora is expecting another child next March. And, anyway, her influence will soon be gone. She expects to leave the yacht in the West Indies and fly back to Hollywood.
— Tim
