Dear fellow Flynn fans,
Errol`s inventor- mentor and first director Charles Chauvel launched an all out attack on Tinseltown three years after “Charge” and two before “You must remember this”.
He came up with a very watchable and highly respectable film. See for yourself, it may be deja vue all over again.
One can easily picture Errol in there, leading the Aussie avalanche, if he hadn`t made the big leagues by then.
Enjoy,
— shangheinz
Dear fellow Flynn fans,
here are three reconstructed clips from the film “Pearls and Savages” of Frank Hurley about his New Guinea adventures from 1921-1923:
Errol was merely a teenager when these silent films hit movie theaters all over Down Under.
See: www.theerrolflynnblog.com…
They sparked the imagination of a whole continent. An Aussie penny for your thoughts on what might have served as an inspiration for Young Errol.
Do you detect any recurring themes of Errol`s later life? Are there any parallels to his voyage to NG at all?
Let`s all wear a Fedora hat as thinking cap. Each entry will receive the honorary Dr. Australia Jones- Award.
Enjoy,
— shangheinz
Dear fellow Flynn fans,
who said, there is no time machine? Well, this weekend I went on a bus from Austria to the tiny state of Liechtenstein, which took me way back into the last century.
I had the great honor to get invited by a real baron to sit bedside and have a little chat. His name is Eduard Alexandrowitsch von Falz Fein, originally from Russia. He is 102 years old. “My legs are gone, but my mind is crisp. Why don`t you come and join me at my chalet? Excuse me, for not meeting you at the entrance, my staff will let you in.”
I had approached this noble gentleman, when I became aware that the best friend of Prince Igor Troubetzkoy, the fourth husband of Barbara Hutton was still alive. You remember the story, don´t you…?
Baron Eddie competed at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmish Patenkirchen (Germany) in the bobsleigh 4 men event against, amongst others, Errol`s pest pal Freddie McEvoy. “We became friendly, but not friends. One had to take Freddie with a grain of caution.” During winter season they would be together at St. Moritz. Summers were spent on the Côte d´Azur, another hunting place of Freddie. And in between seasons the Russian aristocracy resorted to the Ritz and Maxim`s in Paris.
When I asked him, why McEvoy himself wouldn`t marry Barbara , the baron had the following explanation. “What is better than a rich woman wife? Rich women without obligation, of course!”
Von Falz Fein remembered pompous parties aboard Freddie`s yacht in Cannes and Nice. At one of these he was introduced to Errol Flynn. “Well I was not so much into movies. Naturally I knew who he was, but I was not in awe. I had sat on the knee of the Czar as a little boy, I had withnessed Hitler at the `36 Summer Olympics in Berlin leaving the Stadium stone faced after Jesse Owens victory. I had hosted royalty like King Farouk- the pervert (O- tone Baron), but Flynn had a presence and elegance about him without arrogance. He was easy to talk to, when he wasn`t drinking of course. One time on a boat trip, either to Portofino or Spain, he was so smashed, he couldn`t tell starboard from portside. Apart from that he was swell, but I didn`t know him too well…”
“Now concerning the torrid affair between Barabara and Igor, which eventually led to their marriage. Ìt nearly didn`t happen. And it was all my fault. A newspaper had printed a photo I had taken from Babs and Igor. Soon St. Mo. was filling with reporters waiting for the big “Yes”. Barbara was furious and I was in the dog house. But instead of calling the whole thing off, I contrived the plan to have them married in Chur in Switzerland, an hour`s drive from my place in Vaduz. I acted as best man. When all was said and done, instead of a lavish feast, the four of us had hot chocolate at tea time. And that was about it. I truely must say that my tovarishch Troubetzkoy wasn`t in for the money.”
When the baron heard of Suicide Freddie`s death at sea, he like everybody else that kew McEvoy, his vicious vitality and competitive spirit, couldn`t believe it. “That incident may forever remain a secret.”
Another secret Eduard von Falz Fein was able to lay to rest, at least for him, was the remainder of the lost Amber Room, the 8th wonder of the world. After extensive searches and researches that he financed, he is convinced, that it was destroyed during a bomb raid in Königsberg. “Ashes to ashes and amber to amber.”
Enjoy,
— shangheinz
Dear fellow Flynn fans,
this is a post not completely unrelated to Errol. During a short trip to Stockholm, I had the great pleasure to stay on the former yacht of Barbara Hutton, the millionairess of old Woolworth wealth.
In her biography “Poor little rich girl”, author C. David Heymann describes how she nearly became the wife of Errol`s best buddy Freddie McEvoy. Despite being her constant companion during winter vacations, he passed the Barb, ah buck, when it came to tying the knot. After two marriages with very wealthy women, Suicide Freddie went on to marry a moneyless model. Mrs. Hutton meanwhile took interest in Freddie`s pal, poor prince Igor Nikolaiewitsch Troubetzkoy of Russia. Barbara compensated Freddie with a $ 100.000 check and they remained friends till his untimely death.
When Troubetzkoy finally fell from grace, it was our man Flynn, who sat down with princey and his prefered lawyer Melvin Belli to come up with a lucrative divorce strategy. Mulling over it, they spent endless nights together at a nightclub in Paris. The plot to make I.T. a millionaire though backfired, when he was offered only $ 900.000, falling short of a mill, he then vetoed, so he got nill. In the end he managed to get a monthly pension out of Barbara, when they settled things in private, renouncing the services of Errol`s advocate. Barbara subsequently fell prey to the last playboy, Porfirio Rubirosa, her fifth but not the least husband, whom she divorced after barely more than a month for a cool 3 millions and incentives.
But back to the boat. Originally built for NY magnate Mr. Billings in 1924, the then named “Vanadis” was at the time the largest diesel driven yacht in the world. She was given to Barabara Hutton by her father for her 18th birthdy. She kept her only for a year and sold her for $1 to the English Navy during WWII.
Enjoy,
— shangheinz
Dear fellow Flynn fans,
for those of you who wonder about Hedy Lamarr`s connection to Errol and why she was featured here recently on the blog:
let me just tell you that our Hollywood hero was very fond of her. In fact he starts out in his biography MWWW paying tribute to her, as if she was some sort of counterpart of his:
“It chances that I think Hedy to be one of the most underestimated actresses, one who has not been lucky enough to get the most desirable roles. I have seen her do a few brilliant things. I always though she had great talent, and as far as classical beauty is concerned, you could not then, nor perhaps even now, find anyone to top Lamarr. Probably one of the most beautiful women of our day. Naturally I wanted to meet her – and subsequently I would want her to play the female lead in my Italian fiasco, “William Tell”.
Errol got introduced to her at a party by his pencil moustached wingman David Niven and instantly got a taste of her temperament. Hefty Hedy was very a sophistcated lady much like his Tiger Lil`prior. Remember she had to escape her husband, a weapons manifacturer and one of the richest men at times of WW II, to come to Hollywood. She left their Viennese Villa with little but all of her jewellery.
“As we waited for Hedy to enter her living room, David kept prodding me to expect by far the most ravishing creature. David whispered as she glided in, “By God, she’s beautiful, even without the jewels.” “Quiet!” He wasn’t quiet. “See if she will tell you what she told me about how she had to save herself in getting out of Austria.”
Now, with Niven prodding me, I didn’t know how to get around her to ask her to tell me about her private life, but it sounded intriguing when David repeated, “See if she will talk about the night she couldn’t stand it any more and made a gateaway.”
Hedy and I talked for a while. I started leading up to it in a diplomatic way and finally got out the words, “Where is Mandel (the husband) now?” At which from this beautiful creature, came the growl, “That sonofabitch!” She spat and walked off.
Errol and Hedy developed a special liking for each other, but opted for palsyship, as Mrs. Lamarr recalled in her autobiography “Ecstasy and me”:
“I told my stand-in Sylvia who went to a crazy Flynn party with me: “Many of the bathrooms have peepholes or ceilings with squares of opaque glass though which you can’t see out but someone can see in. So be careful. Never go to a room Errol sends you to change if there is swimming”
“One time Errol, another party guest and me watched a “busty Italian star” changing into her bathing suit and laughed when she sniffed her armpits and tried to hide red clothing marks.”
The most beautiful girl in the whole wide Hollyworld went on to marry two of Errol`s closest friends, “Hollywood hussar” John Loder, to whom he refered from then on as “Mr. Lamarr” and Teddy Stauffer aka “Mr. Acapulco”.
Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler would have made a fine Mrs. William Tell too.
Enjoy,
— shangheinz
Dear fellow Flynn fans,
the ashes of Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, also known as Hedy Lamarr, have finally been buried in their homesoil two days prior of the 100th birthday anniversary. Half of them had been scattered in the Viennese Forest some 8 years ago by her children. Austrian documentary “Calling Hedy Lamarr” shows in part the odyssey of the remains of the actress once deemed “The most beautiful woman of Hollywood”.
The city of Vienna sponsored an honorary grave at the Wiener Zentralfriedhof, burial ground of Ludwig van Beethoven, Johann Strauss and Franz Schubert. The grave lies in the proximity of another actor great “the devil`s general” Curd Jürgens. Anthony Loder, author of his mother`s biography “Hedy Darling” attended the rites. It has yet to receive a tombstone.
RIP,
— shangheinz
Dear fellow Flynn fans,
here is the likely source that started Errol`s travel bug.
On October 6th of 1922, the highly innovative film maker- photograher Frank Hurley arrived at New Guinea via waterplane. The “Seagull” had departed from Port Moresby and arrived at the banks of coastal town Kaimari after a misty 400 mile flight. Meanwhile the 50 ton two mastered motor schooner “Eureka” had brought the equipment for Hurley`s projected documentation of tribal wild life deep within the jungles of the world`s second largest island. Entering at the Gulf of Papua their route took them up the Fly River admidst seaming mongroves and luxuriant rainforests.
The Australian adventurer had already participated at an Antarktis expedition in 1911 and was a member of the meticulously assembled crew on the “Endurence”- expedition of Ernest Shackleton.
Readers of Sydney based newspaper “Sun” were holding their breaths and hoping for pictures of headshrinking cannibals. They were not denied, even though most pictures of ritualstic ramblings had to be staged. Missionaries, that had been dispatched to this former British colony half a centuary earlier, already were a big influence wherever Hurley went.
His drum accompanied dia shows of blended & coloured pictures came to film theaters all over Down Under. In 1923 the boisterious bushman Frank Hurly presented his documentaries “Pearls and Savages” and “With the Headhunters in Papua”and became all the rage amoung youngsters. A 14 year old Flynn may subconsciously have set sails right there and then.
Hurley tried to up the ante with a film called “The Lost Tribe” in order to take his tour to the US and take Americans by storm. Full of antisemitic clichés (the churlish chief…) he fantasized about the Sambio clan from Lake Murray being an ancient israelite people. While a disaster in the States it became a success in Germany. It may have triggered the interest to visit New Guinea of a certain Dr. Hermann Erben, he himself a passionate globetrotter and phanatic photographer.
See: www.theerrolflynnblog.com…
And it could very well have influenced another famous film maker in Hollywood. Obviously for the sake of showmanship Hurly`s first encounter with the tribesmen is shown in his film as a human hunt ducking slings and arrows from left and right. Sounds a lot like the opening scene of “Raiders of the lost Ark” if you ask me.
Infinite more info can be achieved in Alasdair McGregor`s book “Frank Hurly: A Photographer`s Life”.
Enjoy,
— shangheinz
Dear fellow Flynn fans,
here is a nice little piece on Patrice and what living and loving must been like back in the good Ol`Errol days.
Enjoy,
— shangheinz
Dear fellow Flynn fans,
Gentleman Tim has come up, yet again, with a major find: https: //freelibs.org/movies/ColgateComedyHourWithAbbottAndCostelloAndErrolFlynn.html
As you can see in the pictures above, Errol and archer enemy Bruce Cabot appeared on the same show. Seems to me that our scolars skipped school on that one. To my understanding the two former buddies avoided meeting each other. In his MWWW memoir Errol stated their relationship as follows:
Cabot went up and down Rome`s Via Veneto boasting about what he had done. No real man strikes at another through his helpless family, especially after being friends for twenty years.
My assistant said: “Why don`t you go and see him?”
“No, I am afraid.”
”What, you afraid of Cabot?”
“ Yes, I am afraid…..of what I might do to him if I saw him.”
I had to watch myself.
“This is no time for a murder charge.”
Cabot defended his Brutus demeanor in public in 1970:
“Errol Flynn- I shared his house, his fights, his liquor and his girls. He was a real man with terrific looks. What happened to him, of course, was that he took to the dope – in fact, he was registered over here in England as an addict – and that destroyed him.”
So, did they make up at Bruce`s Bar or have a wild west showdown that TV night?
Who knows more!?
— shangheinz
