— Tim
Travelin to Avalon and Fishin Like Flynn
02
Jun
June 1, 2020: Fishin Like Flynn – on the Ranger
History of the Tuna Club of Avalon
Here’s a wonderful 1938 Catalina Travelogue, featuring fishing as Flynn would have fished. (~ Fishing segment is from ~ 15:20 to 18:20)
— Tim
The Producer(s)
01
Jun
June 1, 1939
Louella O. Parsons
Los Angeles Examiner
Hadn’t been back but a few minutes when I heard that Jack Warner plans a Westward trek serialization with Mark Hellinger, the well-know Hearst writer, making his debut as a producers, and Michael Curtiz directing. Dodge City, which brought in the shekels, gave Warners the notion. Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Ann Sheridan, will star in Tombstone, laid in 1881, starting with the line in Dodge City, let’s go to Virginia City.” That name cannot be used because of the RKO movie. After Tombstone, City of Angels, a history of early Los Angeles in 1889, will be made with same cast and director.
…
Well, as we Flynnmates know, Tombstone was never made with Flynn, Olivia, or Annie. Nor was City of Angels. Virginia City was made, but not with Mark Hellinger producing. Hellinger, an extremely popular and successful show business figure, known not only for his great writing talent but also for his loyalty and fairness, got fed up and left Warner Bros. in response to Jack Warner’s egomaniacal habit of not giving proper production credit to others. (JW infamously did the same to Hal Wallis over the Oscar for Casablanca.) Hellinger did return, however, to produce his wartime baby inspired by MGM’s first musical (and part Technicolor production,) Broadway Melody of 1929,Thank Your Lucky Stars. So, Hellinger did finally get to produce a film with Errol, Olivia, and Annie, though certainly not how he had originally envisioned. Moreover, he got to act in the film himself, as can be seen in the clip below, in full from ~ 0:50 to 1:50. That’s him with Eddie Cantor.
…
…
Here’s Mark Hellinger with Errol’s Man Friday, Alex Pavlenko, at Mulholland Farm’s legendary bar. This photo is from the Deirdre Flynn Collection. A better image of this can be seen in Robert Matsen’s Errol Flynn Slept Here. Thank you, Deirdre.
— Tim
T minus 22 /// \\\ T minus 33
31
May
T minus 22
Today is 22 days till the Errol Flynn Global Toast on June 20, 2020, the 111th Anniversary of Errol’s birth.
For all those lookin’ to drink like Flynn for this event, here is a post that details dozens of liquid refreshments Errol is known to have enjoyed at various locations throughout his life, around the globe.
T minus 33
Please remember that we are also toasting Olivia d’s birthday on July 1st, her number 104! Olivia herself toasts Errol every year on his birthday with champagne at her home in Paris. So, you may find champagne or French wine apropos on her birthday. But, again, please toast with anything you wish – from Tang to Tangueray – or even, perhaps, some Sake from her birthplace in Tokyo!
— Tim
Friday, May 29 Quiz — What was It? Who was It?
30
May
He was in love with a famous swinger …
There was a lot of drinking and skullduggery involved …
And some weekend fun up at the Farm …
Alas, but not least, you know him well
— Tim
Flynn Floats an Idea
29
May
People:
Ideas
Errol Flynn, well-known Hollywood yachtsman, had a new idea about boats, considered converting a sloop into a floating aquarium.
— Tim
Errol Leaves India for Africa — May 28, 1933
29
May
After a side-splitting incident with a rickshaw boy on the island of Ceylon, Errol left with Erben for the mainland French Colony of Pondicherry. From Pondicherry they traveled an intolerably slow and hot five days on a train “jammed” with “Untouchables”, up the east coast of India to Calcutta, where they witnessed a ~ “dizzying spectacle of temples, beggary, dung in the street, wispy Indian girls in their white wrappings, and whorehouses.” Leaving Calcutta for Africa on the French ship La Stella Errol brawled with a spitting-mad “huge Black Sengalese soldier who bunked above him in steerage. Erben had a good laugh at how decisively Errol lost that dispute.
Finally, on May 28, 1933, Errol left India on the French paquebot Compiegne, through the Gulf of Mannar, then through Arabian Sea to Djibouti, in what was then the French colony of Somaliland.
As depicted below, this route was part of an ancient maritime portion of the old “Silk Road” between China and Europe. Sounds sensible to call it the “Silk Seaway”.
— Tim
