Great to have you with us Laura!
— Boss Boy
Barrymore Tights Painting by John Decker!
22
Sep
“Subject of painting, John Barrymore was the kingpin of Hollywood’s Bad Boy Club, “The Bundy Drive Boys.” His legendary exploits along with cronies Errol Flynn, W. C. Fields, and Hollywood’s madcap artist, John Decker, are detailed in the book, “Hollywood’s Hellfire Club,” 2007, Feral House Publishing. This painting is by Decker who portrays Barrymore putting on his tights before a stage performance. Painting is Oil on Board, 22″X28″ housed in a non-vintage frame, with overall outer dimensions of 29 1/2″X 35 1/2″.”
— David DeWitt
Around the Horn
22
Sep
September 20, 1935
Los Angeles Times
I Cover Hollywood
By Lloyd Pantages
There is a very exclusive club on the Warner Brothers’ lot called “The Cape Horner” and to become a member you must have rounded the Cape at some time or another. So far the roster includes Errol Flynn, Lionel Atwill and Warren William. That IS exclusive.
…
Back in the days when wooden ships sailed the old trade routes, rounding Cape Horn was an infamous part of many sailors’ lives.
In 1933 a group of sea captains that had all sailed Cape Horn established the Amicale des Capitaines au Long Cours Cap Horniers (AICH). Their aims remain the same today:
“To promote and strengthen the ties of comradeship which bind together in a unique body of men and women who embody the distinction of having sailed round Cape Horn in a commercial sailing vessel, and to keep alive in various ways memories of the stout ships that regularly sailed on voyages of exceptional difficulty and peril, and of the endurance, courage and skill of the sailors who manned them.”
For those who want to join the club!
The AICH welcomes new Cape Horn sailors and honours them with a token certificate of achievement. To be eligible for this certificate one must show perseverance and actively participate in the ship’s watch system for an extended period of time on a sailing ship rounding Cape Horn by sail from 50° South in the Pacific Ocean to 50° South in the Atlantic Ocean (or vice versa). The length of the voyage should be at least 3000 miles under sail alone.
A sailor that rounds the Horn is entitled to wear a gold loop earring. Tradition has it that this should be worn in the ear that faced the Horn as it was rounded.
There are immense privileges to sailors who have rounded the horn. They include being allowed to dine with one foot on the table. If one has rounded the Cape of Good Hope as well then such a sailor would be permitted to put both feet on the table.
In terms of tattoos, one may obtain a tattoo of a fully rigged ship once a true rounding of Cape Horn has been achieved.
And finally, in order to be able to “spit into the wind” one would need to have made three true Cape Horn roundings.
One of the true Cape Horners was Captain James Cook, master of the Endeavour 1766-71 who sailed around the Horn in both directions.
A question remains, however: i.e. when exactly did Errol ’round the horn?
— Tim
San Antonio at the Now-National Historic Landmark Walker Theater
21
Sep
From the Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis – September 21, 1946
…
— Tim
The Fidler-Flynn Fiasco of ’41
20
Sep
HOLLYWOOD –
On September 20, 1941, Errol engaged in one of the most notorious nightclub fights in Hollywood history when he slapped gossip columnist Jimmie Fidler, whose wife then stabbed Errol in his ear with a fork. Below are excerpts and summaries from various accounts of :
“All the blood came from the veins of Flynn. He charged that Fidler’s wife, Bobbie, stabbed him in the ear with a fork. Movie celebrities at surrounding tables in the Club Mocambo verified his story of Mrs. Fidler’s use of her fork as a fencing foil. The Fidlers were sitting with Samuel Zagon, Hollywood attorney, and his wife, when Flynn and Bruce Cabot walked into the celebrity-jammed room. Flynn spied Fidler, called him names, and started to poke him. Tables were overturned. Fidler’s coffee was decorating his shirt front. His wife was screaming. Blood was squirting from Flynn’s ear lobe and a dozen men were grappling with the fighters. The scene resembled the riot of stunt men in the night club sequence of many a Flynn movie. The manager was about to cell the cops when Phil Ohman’s band struck up “the Star Spangled Banner” and all hands stood at attention, dribbling blood, sweat, and rose buds from the overturned vases of one of Hollywood’s most expensive drinkeries. The gladiators retired to pose for photographs and issue statements.”
…
“I put my left fist up against his chin and gave him a slap with my right hand on the side of the head. I said ‘You’re not worth a fist.’” But then “his wife became angered and I tried to hold her to one side, still gripping Fidler, but finally she jabbed at me with a fork, which would have stuck me in the eye had I not turned my head. Instead it pierced my ear. I must say that I admire Mrs. Fidler, God bless her. She has the courage to try to defend her husband — much more courage than he himself has.”
…
“I slapped him. In Ireland that’s tantamount to the worst insult a man can give another man … I want to add, however, that [Mrs. Fidler] showed bad etiquette and used the wrong fork — she should have used the entree fork.”
…
“Fidler claimed Flynn had come over to the table, ran his mouth, tried to punch him, lost his diamond cuff links in the process, accused Fidler of stealing said cufflinks, gone back to drinking, taken a lady to the dance floor, passed his seat on the way there, and up and tried to punch him again.”
“And when things were just about to get real, the band leader started into “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
“Like the Cafe Trocadero and Ciro’s, the Mocambo was a world-famous nightclub on the Sunset Strip catering to celebrities. Located at 8588 Sunset Blvd. [map], it opened on January 3, 1941, featuring Mexican-themed decor said to have cost over $100,000 (about $1.6 million today) and dominated by glass-walled aviaries that housed live macaws, cockatoos, parrots and other birds.
During its 17-year run, the Mocambo was the scene of a number of celebrity brawls. In 1941, a movie agent named William Burnside cold-cocked restaurateur Michael Romanoff there, for reasons now forgotten. “I wish they had let me go just for a minute and I would have annihilated him,” Romanoff said later. In October that year, Errol Flynn punched Los Angeles Times columnist Jimmy Fidler at Mocambo in retaliation for purported derogatory comments Fidler had made in his column.
…
Phil Olman was a premier pianist, first in New York performing and recording with George Gershwin, Irving Berlin and Paul Whiteman, et al. Then he left for the left coast, where he specialized in teaching actors and pianists how to play piano in Hollywood films, in addition to recording and playing the top celebrity nightclubs. He is known for songs like “I Love a Parade”, “Penthouse Serenade”, “Funny Face”, “Each Time You Say Goodbye [I Die a Little]”, and many, many more. Unfortunately, I could not find any recordings of him playing the Star-Spangled Banner!
— Tim
A Hamilton Quiz
19
Sep
What movie starring Errol includes a scene from a play about Alexander Hamilton?
Added Saturday, September 19 @ 11AM:
Glimpses of the the following Hollywood hotspots were also shown in this major black-and-white feature film.
Added Saturday, September 19 @ 7:30 PM:
A scene was filmed here:
— Tim
Robin in Oregon
17
Sep
This Weekend, Friday and Saturday, 6PM, September 18 and 19, 2020.
It’s yesteryear once more out in Oregon! See Errol swashbuckle his way to victory over the Sheriff of Nottingham at the historic Granada Theater in The Dalles, 84 miles east of Portland. The theater is showing old movies in a new way: as dinner theater with food matching the themes of the movies. It’s a cinematic and dining time machine!
www.granadatheatrethedalles.com…
— Tim
At the TTFF Today
15
Sep
September 15, 2020
Errol Flynn’s Ghost: Hollywood in Havana, in Trinidad + Tabago
— Tim
He Collapsed with His Shoes On
12
Sep
…
Very notably, this incident occurred nearly three months prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, serving to support, along with other medical ailments and injuries, the U.S. Armed Forces’ rejections of Errol’s applications for active duty during WW II.
P.S. Errol appears to me as though he may be ill, possibly anemic, in the Boots publicity photo above. What do you think?
— Tim
