Jan lives in Spain where Errol was indeed In Like Flynn …
— David DeWitt
Archive for the ‘Mail Bag’ Category
Mail Bag! Charge of the Light Brigade and Wiggling Toes!
12
Nov
This from Joe Maletta who points out a blooper in Errol’s Charge of the Light Brigade:
Joe Maletta One of Flynn’s best! The young boy is Scottie Beckett who played Perma the son of J. Carrol Nash’s character. Puran Singh. There is a film blooper when Puran finds and holds his dead son after the massacre at Chukoti. Flynn is trying to console him and as he is doing so, the “dead” son is Wiggling his toes! A little levity aside during a sad moment.
Thanks, Joe!
Scottie Beckett with Errol
— David DeWitt
You May Have Noticed?
08
Nov
You may have noticed the NOT SECURE warning that appears in Chrome browsers in the address line of our blog? That only means that the security certificate of the site is slightly less secure (http:// … versus https:// …) and Chrome is letting us know this basically useless fact. I am told by our host PressHarbor (the wonderful John Kagan) that our blog will be moved up the list to transfer to our new home, and a free Security Certificate will be provided to us that will eliminate the Not Secure warning …
Thanks, John!
— David DeWitt
WU MING from 2006! Flynn & Erben, The Chicago Review
03
Nov
Mail Bag! Thanks to Jan van der Vliet …
The Chicago Review, 2006
— David DeWitt
The Errol Flynn Blog Migration in November!
01
Nov
Mail Bag to The Errol Flynn Blog from our hosting outfit at PressHarbor:
“Thank you for your patience, at last we are ready to begin migrations of all accounts to our new hosting platform.
“Our new platform will continue to be based on Plesk, so all of your existing accounts and passwords will migrate as-is, but this newer version of Plesk and the underlying hardware, software, and infrastructure updates will offer:
– increased security
– improved and guaranteed performance
– free SSL certificate via Let’s Encrypt
– more current versions of PHP
There’s more to come, especially for those of you with multiple sites, but the first phase will be to migrate all sites to the new platform by the end of November.”
The migrations are set to begin November 3, until the end of the month, and we do not yet know what dates our blog will move but we will get that information before it actually happens, I think. It will involve changing our dns server information for our domain name so if, one day, you cannot reach the blog, this will be why. I am told content creation might be interfered with during the the actual move, so let’s all be aware of the the situation and I will keep you as updated as possible …
— David DeWitt
Sean Flynn in FIVE ASHORE IN SINGAPORE
18
Aug
In the Mail Bag we receive this nice inquiry from French film director Raphael Millet. Unfortunately, I do not have any hi res scans or photos of this poster and am wondering if any of you can help him out? He writes:
Bonjour,
I found your contact on the Errol Flynn blog.
I am a French film director, producer and critic.
I love Errol Flynn’s movies.
I also have a passion for Sean Flynn, and great interest in the later part of his life (from 1965 onwards).
I am currently writing a long article about the movie FIVE ASHORE IN SINGAPORE for a magazine published in Singapore.
I have many images of it, including French lobby cards, posters in various languages. But I have no poster of the film in English, and I think this would be most relevant for a publication in English.
I noticed that you have a very nice poster in your collection (see image here attached).
Would it be possible to ask you for a very good high res copy or photo of it, if you have any, in order to have it reproduced in the magazine, together with my article?
It would be a nice way to celebrate Sean Flynn and to pay tribute to his Singaporean adventure.
In exchange, I’d be very happy to have a copy of the magazine being mailed to you, upon publication (around October).
Looking forward to your kind reply.
— David DeWitt
Mail Bag! A Flynn State of Mind!
26
Jul
This comes from our chum Claudia Raab and expresses a great idea:
Hi David,
Hope all is well.
A couple of days ago I had an interesting conversation with a friend who also loves to travel to the U.S. and she told me that she has succeeded in visiting all States at least once.
After this talk I started wondering how many States our man Errol might have been to, and whether this might even be a topic for the EFB.
I can think of some but I’m sure the Flynnthusiasts from the EFB know a lot more.
Alabama
Alaska – USO tour in 1943
Arizona – filming for Virginia City (Sedona, Painted Desert, visiting the Grand Canyon and probably quite a few bars in Flagstaff) and Without Incident at Old Tucson Studios
Arkansas
California – that’s a no-brainer ;-)
Colorado – premiere of Silver River in Denver
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas – premiere of Dodge City
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada – premiere of Virginia City, boating/fishing on Lake Mead with Sean
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico – filming of Rocky Mountain around Gallup, premiere of Santa Fe Trail
New York – he visited NYC quite a few times
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon – fishing on the Klamath River (although that might have been in Northern California)
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah – skiing at Alta
Vermont
Virginia/DC
Washington – stopover in Seattle on his way to Alaska (not sure about this; I think I read it somewhere but can’t find any evidence)
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
Best,
Claudia
Thanks, Claudia!
— David DeWitt
Mail Bag! More from Audie! Hollywood Censorship!
13
Jul
Audie writes back!
Thank you David,
The movie, “The Sun Also Rises” was a great addition the current the running of the bulls and we watched the provided link last night. The contribution was assuredly welcomed.
Interestingly enough, my husband and myself have become fans of Portuguese bull “fighting” or rather harassing the bull rather than killing the beast. The main characters in the ring is not the bull but rather the magnificence Lusitania horses that are Haute Ecole trained and seemingly love their faire. The “Suicide squad” is something you don’t see in Spanish bull fighting and dangerous but quite entertaining.
I found this on Open Culture with a blurb about our Boy:
“Another speech, however, passed without a murmur. After Errol Flynn’s character discovers the bodies of his friends, mutilated after hideous tortures by the Japanese, a newspaper correspondent spits out, “They’re degenerate, immoral idiots. Stinking little savages. Wipe them out, I say. Wipe them off the face of the earth.” Flynn says nothing in response.*
*Screenwriter Alvah Bessie, of later Hollywood Ten fame, had written a reply for Flynn’s character that said the violence was fascist, not inherently Japanese. But producer Jerry Wald cut it.
For reference, it can be found here:
and below: then click the link “wrote a letter to a Jesuit priest”
Please use this of Open Culture information whatever you wish that might seem noteworthy to other Flynn fans (my very small contribution), if not already posted.
Enjoy,
Audie
— David DeWitt
Mail Bag! Errol Flynn Fan Since Age 11!
12
Jul
Received this wonderful mail bag item from Claudia Raab this morning and am sharing it with everybody!
Thanks, Claudia!
Hello David,
As an Errol Flynn fan since my 11th birthday when I saw „The Adventures of Robin Hood“ for the first time, I’ve been following your blog for quite a while now. I still can’t get over how much information and interesting tidbits you and the other authors have gathered and presented there.
I’m nowhere close to being a “Flynn scientist” like you guys, but I’ve managed to visit some locations connected to him in one way or the other, mainly during my trips to the Southwest and the West coast (my favorite places to go on vacation).
I visited the El Rancho Hotel in Gallup last year which was mentioned in your blog two weeks ago, and took a picture of the sign at the door of the Errol Flynn room. Feel free to add it to your blog if you think it’s interesting enough! What I really liked is that the room next to Errol’s is named after his friend Ida Lupino.
I also visited Lone Pine with the beautiful Alabama Hills where parts of “The Charge of the Light Brigade” and “Kim” were filmed. The small movie museum there has several posters of Flynn movies as well as a coat that he wore in “Kim”. Thought you might like the photos (although you’ve probably seen it yourself).
Keep up the great work!
Best regards
Claudia Raab
(Munich, Germany)
— David DeWitt
Mail Bag! Contemporaries of Flynn?
10
Jul
William Russo send me another interesting email, and I think it is worth publishing!
Dear David,
Amazing what turned up from just a few references to MWWW. And thanks for the tip on the Earl Conrad book; I was able to order a copy from Amazon.
There is another topic I would like to throw open. As a long time student of history (I detest the term “history buff”) I take particular interest in discovering what things or personages were contemporaneous within a given context. That is, when we study certain regions in a linear fashion, we fail to realize the full context of the surrounding world at that time. For example, long ago I knew a few things about Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana purchase. I also knew a few things about the French revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte. But when I realized that Jefferson negotiated the purchase from Napoleon, I was stunned. I had never even considered them as contemporaries!
So, I started to wonder a few years ago, who might Erroll Flynn have crossed paths with? Some Googling came up with a few surprises. FDR and Eleanor, for one. Not surprising in the time frame, but interesting that Flynn merited such status. One connection that for some forgotten reason intrigued me, was, did Flynn know Hemingway? What little I found turned out to be even more intriguing. Based solely on comments from Hemingway; Hemingway, early on anyway, without having ever met him, seemed to have a low opinion of Flynn, considering him something like a dilettante and a clown. As time passed, I got the impression that Hemingway resented Fynn’s fame as an adventurer, didn’t want to acknowledge it, and may have been jealous that Flynn was living the life that he, Earnest Hemingway should be noted for. I think Hemingway wanted to be the model for the prototypical, honest, down to earth, man’s man adventurer, without promoting himself as such; except that was exactly what he was doing; promoting himself, which of course contradicts the image. He had the habit of overstating the importance of understatement as a demeanor. In any case he may or may not have met Flynn in Spain during the Spanish civil war. Though he walked out of a screening of The Sun Also Rises in disgust, after a few minutes, he later commented that he heard Flynn had been pretty good. I did find a picture of the two, presumably from the mid 1950s, both old and grizzled, possibly taken in Cuba. I do not know the occasion or their dispositions.
I was happy to discover that Erroll and Orson Wells, had a cordial relationship, including as drinking buddies; and that Flynn, the older of the two, regarded Wells as a somewhat wayward youth! I do know that Wells persuaded Flynn to let him use the Zaca as the yacht in Lady from
Shanghi. I know also that Flynn spent a short time with Fidel Castro in 1958 or 59 and I’m sure Castro thought that pretty cool, as did Flynn, in that it re-affirmed his belief that he was a legitimate journalist.
So who other unlikely or notable personages crossed paths with our man Flynn?
Thanks, William! As I replied to you, it is more a question of Who did Flynn not meet?
— David DeWitt
