The Errol Flynn Blog

 

Errol Flynn Slept Here Book from Paladin Communications

 

Source: www.errolflynnslepthere.com…

Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Warner Brothers come to swashbuckling life in Paladin's Golden Age of Hollywood history books.

— David DeWitt

Please go visit the Rock-itt online magazine for a great spread about Bonny Cother's Master of Errol Flynn's Yacht Zaca book that is available from info here at the blog and as well as ordering information in the magazine. Bonny Cother has a page and our own Karl Holmberg reviews the book as well – great stuff, not to be missed!

For an article in the same magazine by Thomas McNulty about Jack & Louise's bash for Errol's 100th centenary, click the back button after reading about Bonny's book or go here…

— David DeWitt

Hallo, Chums! Andrea Kollo was kind enough to email me to let us know that her excellent Flynn site: Errol Flynn – Our Man About Town has been given special permission to showcase 34 rare candids from the behind-the-scenes workings of shooting Cuban Rebel Girls… extraordinary, to say the least! These rare photos may NOT be reproduced anywhere else in any media whatsoever… but she has been given exclusive permission to display them on her site! Go check it out…

The Cuban Rebel Girls Candids

Tip o the Hat to Andrea Kollo!

— David DeWitt

Hello All –

Just a brief note to say that Amazon has listed yet a new David Bret publication on EF due out in November 2009 entitled “Gentleman Hellraiser”. I did not bother reading his first attempt — by all accounts a massive work of fiction with little or no reliable sources. Apparently, Mr. Bret is taking a second run at the topic in order to expand upon “new material” that he did not include the first time around.

Rick

— Rick

 Read Tom McNulty's review of our Author Steve Hayes western novel “Packing Iron” online: Tom writes, in part:

“The Western is not dead. I say this with total assurance because I have just read a Western that has rekindled my faith in a genre the critics have attempted to flog to death with their incessant negativism. It’s true the Western has had its high and lows, but this is natural for a genre so fraught with the very essence of the American experience.

“The book I’m referring to is Packing Iron by Steve Hayes and it’s published by Robert Hale in London as part of their famed Black Horse Western series.”

Read the full reveiw… 

— David DeWitt

Our Author Louis Kraft has his third interview at Wild West Magazine concerning his career and Louis says, “Johnny Boggs & WILD WEST allowed me to talk about Custer, Wynkoop, Gatewood, Apaches, Cheyennes, Flynn, de Havilland, genocide, race, and humanity… “

It's a fascinating interview not to be missed in the October 2009 WILD WEST (on newsstands soon)! Louis adds, “Usually their interviews are about two pages. However, it is now online (and I think longer than the print version…)”.

Read the online version of the interview with Author-Playwright Louis Kraft

HistoryNet.com…

— David DeWitt

Karen and Graham are away at the Bregenz Opera Festival 10th – 17th August inclusive where Graham is a part of the Opera North contribution of OF THEE I SING. Karen Lynne and Graham Howes are recent New Authors on The Errol Flynn Blog and we like to keep readers updated about our Authors' doings… look for Graham as Senator Robert E Lyons!

Für dich Baby! – Of Thee I Sing 

Guest performance by Opera North, Leeds

Musical in two acts by George Gershwin
Lyrics by Ira Gershwin based on the book by
George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind

Sung in English with German

16 August 2009 – 11.00 a.m., Festival Theatre

— David DeWitt

From Scarecrow Press:

Errol Flynn: The True Adventures of a Real-Life Rogue

Lincoln Douglas Hurst

DESCRIPTION

The star of such classics as The Charge of the Light Brigade, The Sea Hawk, and The Adventures of Robin Hood, Errol Flynn garnered notoriety for wild and reckless behavior, a reputation that wasn't always warranted. In Errol Flynn: The True Adventures of a Real-Life Rogue, Lincoln Hurst masterfully sorts fact from fiction behind the famous name.

Relying upon never-before-published revelations by those closest to Flynn and by Flynn himself—including his explosive private diary during his visit to the Spanish Civil War in 1937—Hurst reveals a man and a story more extraordinary, complex, and fascinating than any role the actor ever portrayed on the silver screen. Hurst focuses on the least understood aspects of Flynn's life and exploits, such as the exact nature of his political beliefs and his largely-unknown private quest for life's meaning. The book concludes with a filmography, a collection of Flynn's unpublished letters, and personal testimony from those who knew him best.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The late Lincoln Douglas Hurst was professor emeritus at the University of California, Davis.

— David DeWitt

It has indeed been a GREAT couple of years or so for the release of books on Flynn.

Two EXCELLENT books in particular have come out more recently, which are RARE glimpses into, literally, the “interiors” of Flynn's two most beloved possessions: the Mulholland Drive home (Errol Flynn Slept Here by Robert Matzen and Mike Mazzone) and his beloved boat (Master of Errol Flynn's Yacht Zaca Captain Patrick C. Cother by Bonnie Cother).

As Bonnie's book has been less spoken about I will say a few words here.

We join Bonnie as she opens up a chest of her late father's most precious items- in particular, the photographic as well as paper records of her father's 18 month tenure as Captain of the Zaca (1956-7).

As is CLEARLY evidenced, Captain Cother was a PROFESSIONAL ship's master, and he brought with him the full breadth of his lifetime of experience. I speculate that he may well have been Zaca's FINEST captain.

We look at the day to day experience, through the ship's log, letters to various suppliers, his own personal memoirs, and ESPECIALLY his letters to (and from) the owner: Errol Flynn. Flynn, at the time, was engaged in chartering (rental) of the Zaca, and in fact, Captain Cother's first assignment was just that, and his clients: the Queen of the silents, Mary Pickford, and her husband Buddy Rogers and their family.

Captain Cother's conscientiousness to ALL details is mind boggling- from the proper maintenance of sails right way down to the literally, the “nuts and bolts” that held it all together. It even went to below decks and his problems with hot water, refrigeration, carpentry, and the motors. As Captain Cother was responsible for EVERYTHING, you begin to appreciate the “behind the scenes” of keeping the boat afloat, the challenges of sailing, and the interpersonal relations of crew, suppliers, repair people, charter clients, and finally, the owners (Flynn and Patrice Wymore)  as well.

This book is the full and complete record (or as near as we could come) to just what life aboard Zaca was ALL about in the time period late in the life of Flynn.

To give something more of an idea of what Captain Cother “signed on for”- Flynn had first overhauled the interior when he bought Zaca, but apparently little had been tended to above decks ever since. And there was MUCH in need of repair. He advised Flynn as such, and convinced him that it had to be done. And one has got to realize money was in short supply for Flynn at this time, and while at first somewhat skeptical, Flynn clearly came to TRUST him. I dare say Flynn RECOGNIZED what he had in such a man as Captain Cother.

Beyond the practical matters discussed, there are the various “other” stories that are reflected in the both the correspondence and the photographs contained in the book.

In short, it is the other side of the story, beyond the viewing of a beautiful photograph or footage of Zaca sailing that is told here.

And Bonnie has lovingly put this book together, as best she could (given a certain amount of deterioration of the original records, etc), and supplementing these documents with her own transcriptions (of the same) and her commentary, so you do follow all that is going on, even if you can't always “make something out” on the original document.

WHAT AN EFFORT THIS MUST HAVE TAKEN TO PUT IT TOGETHER- especially given that she WASN'T there to witness the various events spoken of first hand. She had to make sense of it all, and THEN communicate that to the reader. No small feat!

And if all that  weren't already enough, she had to choose a book cover that might even remotely begin to reflect its contents. What to do about that?

I leave it for you to decide (see attachment).

For me, all I can say is … just looking at the book cover (both sides) transported me almost immediately out to sea- which is what Zaca was ALL ABOUT.

Best- Karl

Added by David DeWitt:

Bonny Cother states:

Any person ordering a book, must email me at

bo*********@ya***.com











, with their snail mailing address, and current email address. Paypal willl contact them, and send the transaction amount, which will include postage and packaging: $34.00 USD, USA – $44.00, USD – UK and Australia….

Paypal will convert the amount due to their currency . If they do not have paypal, they will be offered the opportunity to join. (Paypal Account is optional!)

If a USA buyer would prefer to obtain a Post Office money order for the $34.00, make it out to Veronica Cother Bentley. Send to P. O. Box 7621 Winter Haven, Florida 33883-7621

Notify me via email your preference of payment.

Once payment has been received it will take 6-10 days for the book to arrive depending on where in the world it is shipped to. Thanks so much!

— Karl