The Carolina Theatre, 1938 advertising Errol Flynn staring in “The Dawn Patrol.” You can see this photograph at the Regional History Museum downtown Spartanburg! #spartanburghistory #southcarolinahistory #errolflynn #theatrehistory The Regional History Museum is open Tuesday – Friday 10am-5pm and Saturday 11am-4pm.
— David DeWitt
Dear Flynnmates,
brace yourselves, we may not have seen the last of Errol Flynn.
When I embarked via Berchtesgaden to the Italian town of Courmayeur, where in 1953 our Hollywood hero sadly missed the apple shot, I was determined to add at least one more chapter to that half full filled dream movie called “The Story of William Tell”.
Lying at the foot of the Mont Blanc massif, Courmayeur greeted me with sunshine (a rarity, even in summer).
Weather also had been a factor back in the day, when first time director Jack Cardiff constantly had to cleanse his lense for a clear shot at the “Dente del Gigante” as seen above.
Courmayeur after and most of all is a skiing resort.
And a splendid one at that with its historic houses, clear air and the innate Italian art of fine wining and dining.
One can easily see through the decision to make it a film location.
Even as a stand-in for a Swiss town in an ancient epic of a heroic father-archer battling an Austrian army almost all by himself.
Walking about you can spot the buildings Academy winning art director Nino Novarese very probably used as an inspiration for that village he built from scratch.
It was this construction made with real stones, that consumed the lion share of production costs.
Above is the exact spot where Little Altdorf once stood complete with church.
And below is the river where Errol battled his buddy-turned-real-life-nemesis Bruce Cabot in one of the few finished scenes.
Stunt man Jock Easton, who could pack a punch, had to take the plunge.
I figured this nearby mountain side would have been the perfect place for the avalanche that was to be set off for the grand finale:
The Monte Bianco Hotel, once shelter for cast and crew, now is an apartment complex.
It was there where Mrs. Waltraut Haas and the wife of actor Dave Crowely, Pat, rescued their stuff over the balcony when bailiffs were seizing all private belongings for back payment.
Finally it was time to sit down for a chat with Signor Leo, a former race car driver, who as a kid witnessed the filming of Flynn in person.
He told me a typical Errol-like episode, how the horses for a big battle scene in the streets were fed sparkling wine to keep going.
And then he really popped the corks- metaphorically speaking.
Some of the missing Tell reels still lie dormant in an attic of a local alpine hut and wait for restoration; if they can be processed, they will be released at a future special event for all the world to see.
Enjoy,
— shangheinz
Rory Flynn received an email from Kirk Doke and he has kindly allowed us to publish it here on the blog:
Dear Rory,
I read on the EF blog today that the Decker portrait of Errol Flynn was recently restored. That is great news and I hope you enjoy the work very much. Your father’s interest in art has always fascinated me.
Please find attached images of Errol Flynn that I have painted. I am contacting you via a secure educational email system and this is not a solicitation.
For the last 35 years I have taught and exhibited art. Before academia called, I was fortunate to work for a year in a movie memorabilia store in Greenwich Village. It was there that I started collecting Errol Flynn items.
Five years ago, I retired from full time teaching and transitioned to part time, which now allows me more time to paint. My goal is to produce a couple EF paintings per year, with ten now being close to exhibition form. I enjoy touching them up now and then.
The main focus has been the swashbuckling movies and I am moving into the war and westerns next. The works are painted in acrylic on canvas and all paintings are 30″ x 48.”
I wish to keep the series intact, and they will not be offered commercially.
In a few years I will be contacting regional art centers and museums to exhibit a retrospective of my career and I plan to exhibit them at that time.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you enjoy my work.
Very Best,
Mt. Pleasant, MI
— David DeWitt
Rory Flynn, daughter of Errol Flynn announces on the blog today that she has fully restored the famous John Decker portrait of her father:
During my childhood this portrait always hung at Mulholland Farm in my father’s den … the artist was John Decker most famous for his portraits and characterizations of Hollywood celebrities Katherine Hepburn, Buster Keaton, John Barrymore, Jimmy Durante and others as historical figures.
He was quite well-known, and a friend of my father who invested in an art gallery with him in Hollywood, and I think he painted this in 1947… many years later, another wife later, the portrait was taken to Jamaica where it remained for about 25 years when it was almost completely destroyed in a hurricane.
The water damage was horrible.
My stepmother relocated it to the basement where it sat all these years until I was able to retrieve it after her death. I handed it over to the art curator John Short and John Hamm who run the North Carolina Gallery of Fine Art where it was beautifully and miraculously restored to its former condition with almost exactly the same frame that my father had made for it.
I am thrilled and excited to have this hanging in my home and I can’t thank these gentlemen enough for the year that it took for them to restore it …
Rory Flynn with Curator John Short
Click image to enlarge
… thanks, Rory!
“North Carolina Gallery of Fine Art specializes in 19th, 20th and 21st century museum quality art. Our special exhibit is the “Face of Lincoln” bronze sculpture by Robert Merrell Gage (American 1892-1981). The gallery also provides art restoration services for paintings and frames, art appraisals and the professional curation of small private and business art collections”
— David DeWitt
Read this! What we all ready know about the film
— tassie devil
In the current issue of the outstanding quarterly magazine Films Of The Golden Age, issue number 105 Summer 2021, is an extensive article with actor, dancer, choreographer Christopher Riordan, who happily is still with us. He worked with many of Hollywood’s top stars in films, television, and behind the camera including Barbara Stanwyck, Fred Astaire, Elvis Pressley, Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift, Audrey Hepburn, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra and many others. Christopher Riordan said, “I did, at one point, I found myself working as a funeral consultant at Forest Lawn Cemetery! I was involved in several celebrity funerals. The first star I “buried” was Humphrey Bogart in 1957. He is interred in the “Garden Of Memory”, which is not open to the public. I also handled Franklin Pangborn’s funeral in 1958 and Errol Flynn’s in 1959. As for Errol’s funeral, I distinctly remember Patrice Wymore, Errol’s long estranged wife, coming up to me and requesting that Errol’s teenage girlfriend, Beverly Aadland, be barred!”
— Ralph Schiller
This week we are seeing the beginning of the end of Castro’s commie paradise. Castro betrayed Errol Flynn, Steve Hayes, the Cuban people and the entire world when he fought for freedom for his people and than after Errol passed away he went into the arms of the mother of all commie paradises the USSR.
If Errol was alive today he would be marching with the Cuban people in Cuba and his name would be validation for the people there to demand freedom after 60 years of total misery. A good friend of ours is in Little Havana and made me aware of all this history making events. This is an incredible event for all of us that love freedom.
Errol Flynn went to Cuba for the Hearst papers to tell the world what Castro was doing to overthrow a military dictator backed up by the American Mafia and our own CIA. After 60 years of Castros dictatorship of total communism. The people of Cuba are fed up and now have taken to the streets.
A lot of Cuban Americans like Andy Garcia are calling for the complete fall of the Castro government and the establishment of Republic style freedom. If Errol Flynn was alive he would be standing with Andy Garcia demanding the same thing, I believe Errol would find a way to get to Cuba and be with the Cuban people in person.
Viva Errol, Cuban Freedom!
— Jack Marino
