A new article on My Favorite Year
— Tim
Archive for the ‘The Last Years’ 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
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.
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.
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
Actin’ Like Flynn – Part 5 – The Last But Not Least
12
Feb
Highlighted by an outstanding portrayal of a late-1950s Flynn by Kevin Kline, who, many believe, should have played Flynn in a major biopic way back when he could have portrayed Errol at his physical and cinematic swashbuckling peak. Unfortunately, apparently due to screenplay and budget problems, the film itself is not nearly on par with Kline’s superlative performance. Susan Sarandon does an excellent job, as well.
— Tim
Errol’s Elephants
06
Dec
Star Wars Took Charge of Errol’s Elephants
We all know the Star Wars movies are a feast for the eyeballs, but when you think about it, they are also a special treat for the ears, too. According to Mentalfloss, legendary sound designer Ben Burtt got his star on Star Wars fresh out of the University of Southern California’s film school and “was tasked with coming up with a completely new and organic soundscape for the movie.”
Burtt created Chewbacca’s iconic voice by blending the vocalizations of a bear, a lion, a walrus and a badger. The beloved pint-sized droid R2-D2’s endearing chirps were made using loops on a synthesizer matched with beeps and boops modelled after baby coos performed by Burtt. The infamous deep breathing of the evil Darth Vader was created by putting a microphone inside the regulator on a scuba tank.
But our favourite iconic sound, the swooshing shriek of the film’s TIE fighter engines, are — brace yourselves for a shock — the sound of an elephant call mixed with the sounds of a car driving on wet pavement. According to the blog Unidentified Sound Object, Lucas had seen a documentary about the Battle of Stalingrad and told Burtt the sound of the Nazi rockets would make a great laser-gun noise.
That’s when Burtt stumbled on recordings of some stampeding elephants from an old Errol Flynn movie, which he mixed with recordings of cars speeding through puddles in a rainstorm. He slipped the sound in for a screening at the last moment, and everyone went wild. “I’d really put it in because I had no other alternative, but it got great reviews, so naturally it became the sound of the TIE fighters,” the sound legend said.
— Tim
I feel good…
08
Nov
I had somehow forgotten to include this in my article – it's another Berlinale photo. Hope you like it.
— Inga
