Learn how Errol Flynn made an early and lasting impression on Olivia de Havilland on the set of Captain Blood.   more »

One very general question: what happens to all the props that are used in film?

 Most of them are probably kept, others sold or destroyed? So does anybody know what happened to these two pictures that were used in two of Errol's films? The first one is a cartoon from "That Forsyte Woman", I just copied it from what I saw on the screen, so it is not the original. The second is this beautiful portrait from "Essex" - are they still at the MGM resp. Warner Archives, or has somebody purchased them maybe? Who can solve the mystery?

Just a wee note to say Happy Birthday to Cowboy Guinn! He'd be 111 today.

 

 

 A Review By Thomas McNulty

The name Robin Hood immediately brings to mind an image of Errol Flynn swinging on a vine in Sherwood Forest. Robin Hood has long been a captivating, popular folk hero, and many actors besides Flynn have tackled the role, including Russell Crowe whose current take on the legendary bandit of Sherwood is destined to remain popular, if not definitive.

 

From time to time various writers have put their imaginations to work recreating Robin of Sherwood’s exploits. Recently Stephen R. Lawhead realized great success with his “King Raven Trilogy” comprised of, “Hood,” “Scarlet” and “Tuck.” Perhaps the most unusual Robin Hood story I’ve read was written by Nancy A. Collins and appeared in her collection “Avenue X and Other Dark Streets.” The story is called “The One-Eyed King” and this is truly one strange version of the Robin Hood legend, but not without merit.

 

Of course the best known book is Howard Pyle’s “The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood” which remains in print and will undoubtedly find a new audience as interest in the Ridley Scott-Russell Crowe film gathers momentum. But there is another book on the market written by a British author named I. A. Watson that I believe deserves your attention. It’s called “Robin Hood – King of Sherwood” and it’s published by Cornerstone Book Publishers in conjunction with Ron Fortier’s Airship 27 Productions.

 

The beautiful cover is by Mike Manley with interior illustrations by Rob Davis. In his superb afterword, Watson provides an historical overview of the Robin Hood legend and explains his affection for the pulp magazines of a bygone age: “In writing “King of Sherwood” I was consciously trying to tell the story as if it had been commissioned for such a publication. This is Robin Hood as if he had appeared in Argosy or the Strand Magazine.”

 

Indeed, this is adventure writing at its finest, i.e., literate, suspenseful, action-packed and genuine. Nothing further need be said except this – for further information about series editor Ron Fortier and illustrator Rob Davis simply google “Airship 27.”

 

To purchase the book simply click onto Amazon right now and order a copy. Trust me, you won’t regret it!

The kind folks at Domainmonger.com where I host this blog have kindly permanently doubled our bandwidth! We should not have any more issues with running out of bandwidth - not to say we shouldn't all take care with the size of our files, especially photos that can be resized before uploading... so the fun continues!

Hi fellow Bloggers,

have just seen youtube video of Errol Flynn and Stephen Boyd in a scene from Boyd's first film do go watch it page 9 on Errol Flynn section

A big thank you to all EF blog authors for the warm welcome I have recieved, it feels like I've ...   more »

Is seems that we have renewed interest in an accurate account of what really happened to Mulholland House - Farm of  7740 Mulholland Drive?

It looks like that most likely Robert Matzen and Michael Mazzone could have all the detailed dates to the complete scenario of WHAT really happened to the property after Errol lost the property to Lili Damita; which was apparently in 1953 or very near this time?

To whom did she sell the property?  Most likely to a developer as the property was already split into two lots or maybe three in 1958?  Errol’s property was 10.5 acres. The property was advertises in the Los Angeles Times in 1958 as a five acre land parcel and a 2.5 acre lot including the house and tennis courts.  This adding up to only 7.5 acres!   The third parcel must have been 3 acres and what happened to it and who purchased this one? 

Suzy Hamblin wife of Stuart was looking at the 2.5 acre property in 1958, which was for sale at $160.000, but Stuart, never seeing the property found it to expensive.  A year or so later in 1959 Suzy found the property still for sale and this time they purchased it, but not 2.5 acres, but 7.5 acres for $180,000, these are details out of the book “Errol Flynn Slept Here”  The Hamblins lived at Mulholland for 21 years to 1980, after which Rick Nelson comes in as the new owner.  In April 1980, the Nelsons bought Errol Flynn's 1941 Mulholland Drive estate for $750,000.

Next question - when did the property go on the market again and who purchased it? Was it Helen Hunt? It is known that she built a house right on the foundation of Errol’s house.  Was it Helen Hunt who ordered the demolition of Errol’s house?  It is known that she sold the house to Justin Timberlake who occupies it to this day.

Is there anybody of our EFBlog authors who can fill in some or all of the questions and gaps? 

Hello everybody,

first I'd like to thank you all for the warm welcome you gave me. It feels good to be member of such a great community!

Then I would like to make a suggestion. Maybe it's crazy, but this idea has been on my mind for some time and I think it'd be quite unique...Why don't we create an "Errol Flynn Calendar" together? Meaning that we try to make a kind of "list" or overview of what Errol did every day of his life? For example, today is April 20th, and you could go to this site we'd create and have a look: Oh, today 60 years ago, Errol did this and that... He was shooting this or that film, had a party in the evening... What do you think? Possible? Crazy?

My second question for today: I read this wonderful book "Errol Flynn Slept Here" and I was wondering: who was the guy that eventually destroyed Mulholland House? His name is not mentioned, probably because he would have a hard time then? Is the name known at all?

Well, take care everybody and thanks for reading this!

As far back as I can remember Errol Flynn has fascinated me, as a small child he was the

 hero ...   more »

Here is the 1985 article on Errol Flynn's Vancouver visit. Editorial comments [by me] are in square brackets.

---------------------------------

The Vancouver Courier — Wednesday 27 February 1985, page 14

Saga of the Hollywood XI

By JACK LEONARD

We were “bowled over” by the response we received to a cricket photo published in the February 6 [1985] edition of the Courier, under the title “Those Wicket Ways”.

Donated by a local cricketer, the photograph taken [Saturday] July 4, 1936 at Brockton Point [in Stanley Park, Vancouver], showed members of the Hollywood Cricket Club posing with their Vancouver counterparts.

What made the photo all the more interesting was that Errol Flynn — who had just completed his first major motion picture”Captain Blood” — was seated in the front row. Seated in the centre of the front row was veteran English actor C. Aubrey Smith, captain of the Hollywood cricketers. [Flynn and Bruce had just finished CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE. According to the TCM website, production started 30 March and wrapped 1 July 1936.]

With just that smidgen of information, we solicited help from Courier readers in identifying other members of both teams.
We were delighted with the response from all the people who wrote, called or came to visit us and can now complete most of the faces and stories behind the photo.

We quickly learned that the large gentleman wearing the wicket keeper’s pads seated adjacent to Flynn was “Dr. Watson” — veteran actor Nigel Bruce who so ably supported Basil Rathbone in the many Sherlock Holmes films.

A local celebrity was Alan Roughton, who had a radio program on CKMO (now CFUN) for 15 years called “British Varieties” and was also on the CBC Farm Broadcast and a local series entitled “Dick and Dolly”. Roughton was also in the original Theatre Under The Stars for nine seasons and was a long-time Kerrisdale resident.

A most pleasant visitor to our offices was Reginald Burleigh, himself in the photograph, and now a resident of Crofton Manor. A sprightly and active 86 year-old, Burleigh fondly recalled memories of those days.

“The Vancouver Cricket Club originally went down to play the Hollywood team in 1935 and they reciprocated by travelling here the next year. I met Flynn — he seemed a very approachable chap. And I really got along quite famously with C. Aubrey Smith. He wired me one year, saying: ‘Reggie, we’re short of cricket bats...can you help’. Well, I got some bats together and sent them right off.”

Burleigh said Smith’s nickname was “Round-the-Corner-Smith,” for his habit of suddenly nipping out from behind the umpire and firing down his fast ball.

This fact is confirmed in the late David Niven’s book, “The Moon’s A Balloon” in which he relates the origins of the club. Niven wrote that there were as many as 22 cricket clubs in the Hollywood area in the 30’s, what with the influx of British filmdom. Smith, incidentally, named his house on Mulholland Drive “The Round Corner,” and on his roof were three cricket stumps and a bat serving as a weather vane.

Other notables on the Hollywood team were Henry Stephenson (he played Oliver Twist’s father in the movie); E.E. Clive, Eric Blore and H.B. Warner.

A very descriptive letter of the match that actual day was supplied by Geoffrey Parkinson of Vancouver:

“...My father, Cecil Parkinson, played for Vancouver in the match and I was a spectator. I vividly remember the match because of the contrast in scene from the usually drowsy spectacle at Upper Brockton of a few friends and relatives sitting around the boundary in deck chairs.

“Instead, on this occasion, the ground was packed with an enthusiastic but non-cricketing crowd consisting principally of teenage girls anxious to see and get close to Errol Flynn.”

Another lesser-known Hollywood actor in the photo (right of C. Aubrey Smith) was Frank Lawton, who appeared in Noel Coward’s film “Cavalcade” and married British songstress Evelyn Laye.

Seated directly centre in the front row was J. Fyfe Smith, who arrived from Australia here in 1904. He opened the J. Fyfe Smith Co. Ltd. Hardwood Lumber Distribution yard on Seymour Street where the Hudson Bay parking lot is present!y located.

He was also involved in rugby and was instrumental in both rugby and cricket trips to Japan and China.

Others identified on the Vancouver team were Dr. Harry Warren, Professor Emeritus of UBC; Bunny Hobday, Meredith Berridge, Judge Stan Remnant, Fergie Ward, E.H. Grubbe, R.P. Woodward, Cecil Parkinson, Gerry O’Hara and David Seaton.

The Courier would like to thank George Hutchinson, W.B. MacWilliam, Pat Waldron, E. Sheppard, Vic Gowan, Robert Berridge, Reg Burleigh, Geoff Parkinson, Lyall Bell, G.F. Pearson and Doug Sturrock for their informative letters.

P.S. While Flynn went on to greater fame, ironically he died in Vancouver at the age of 50 while in the company of a young starlet named Beverly Aadland, the year was 1959...as Reg Burleigh aptly put it...”he left us at age 50 . . . not out.”

[The club house at Brockton oval still stands, and the photo may be hanging yet on a wall. It was still on display a few years ago. I don't know about now.]

We are pleased to announce our newest Author Leslie Martin to The Errol Flynn Blog! We look forward to your comments and posts, Leslie! Welcome aboard!

Fitting with Inga Klein's Welcome Article by David, she is talking about Errol's visit to Berlin, Germany in 1957 to the "Berlinale" and I added a picture to the one Inga posted for the same event it shows his arrival with Patrice and it is posted in the comments.
I thought it is quite appropriate at this time to post also Errol's Bambi Award in 1951, which was awarded for Best Foreign Actor. Errol was quite often in Germany between 1951 and 1957.  The Bambi Award is in Germany the equal to the Oscar it is the highest Award just like the Oscar is for the USA.  Errol was and still is adored and respected in Germany and Austria.  My German YouTube videos are living proof.
 

This is an essential part of any good Flynn library, and hard to find. Abebooks has just sent me the following notice (I already have a copy); probably it will sell quick, so if you want it...

-----------------------------------

Great news - we've found the book you're looking for.

Your Want: # A500871141
Author: Don Norman;
Title: Errol Flynn The Tasmanian Story;
ISBN: 0959414606;

The lowest and highest priced listings that match your want are displayed below.

1. ERROL FLYNN: THE TASMANIAN STORY.,
NORMAN, Don.
W. N. Hurst And E. L. Metcalf, Hobart, Tasmania, 1981 First Edition. Wraps., 1981, 9780959414608, 8vo. Colour illustrated wraps/paperback. pp 57. 33 illustrations. Biography of Errol Flynn and his upbringing in Tasmania. ISBN: 0959414606 Very good indeed.
Bookseller: Any Amount of Books ABA, LONDON (56 Charing Cross Road), .
Price: £ 50.00 (US$ 79.17)

View or Order this Book:
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/ListingDetails?bi=2470996201&cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want&cm_ite=viewbook

------------------------------------
4:48 PM PDT
Wednesday 14 April 2010

Good luck and happy reading!

Lou Lumenick reports:

"The long-awaited fourth Errol Flynn box set has been announced for an Aug. 4 debut by Warner Home Video. Going out under the TCM Spotlight label, "Errol Flynn Adventures'' includes four World War II flicks making their DVD debuts: Raoul Walsh's "Desperate Journey,'' "Northern Pursuit'' and "Uncertain Glory,'' plus Lewis Milestone's "Edge of Darkness,'' and Walsh's previously released "Objective, Burma!''"

Here's the link to Mr. Lumenick's blog, where one can also see the cover of this new set from Warners.

http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/movies/dvd_extra_flynn_world_war_ii_adventures_ZiKL2mPSt8NpAOUiEIwseL

I am pleased to announce New Author Inga Klein to The Errol Flynn Blog! Inga provides her own picture for this announcement and asks a few questions:

"Does anybody know when this photo was taken?" It shows Austrian born Romy Schneider kissing Errol's cheek at the Berlin Film Festival in 1957, she believes. She says, "I'd also like to ask if there's anybody out there who knows something about errol's visit to berlin in 1957?

"...strange someone from near berlin should ask this, but so far i havent's been very successful in my research. All i found out was that he is supposed to have kissed another woman in front of his wife. Patrice was with him, that's all i know. Maybe somebody out there knows something more?"

Inga, I have some photos of a very surprised Flynn being kissed by a fan at the event and yes, Pat appeared with him at the festival. These photos may already be here somewhere on the blog but I will dig them out for you, too!

Welcome, Inga, to the blog; we look forward to your thoughts and posts about our man Flynn...

Here's a 1982 photo showing the penthouse where Mr. Flynn departed this realm, Wednesday 14 October 1959. I have no ...   more »

Here's another pic of the lads in costume for a jousting sequence that was not filmed.

Chris Driscoll writes to me:

Hi David,

What is the title of the movie in which Errol is dressed like this? 

"New York's Museum of Modern Art commemorates David Niven's 100th birthday with a film festival that runs from April 12-23 and includes movies rarely seen on the big screen..." reports Cinema Retro Magazine. 

The films being shown:

The Way Ahead 

1944. Great Britain. Directed by Carol Reed. With David Niven, James Donald, John Laurie, Peter Ustinov, Trevor Howard.

Separate Tables 

1958. USA. Directed by Delbert Mann. Screenplay by Terence Rattigan, John Gay, adapted from two of Gay’s plays. With David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Burt Lancaster, Rita Hayworth, Wendy Hiller. Niven's Best Actor Oscar win.

The Moon Is Blue 

1953. USA. Directed by Otto Preminger. Screenplay by F. Hugh Herbert, based on his play. With David Niven, William Holden, Maggie McNamara, Dawn Addams.

Dawn Patrol 

1938. USA. Directed by Edmund Goulding. With Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone, David Niven, Donald Crisp, Barry Fitzgerald.

The Silken Affair 

1956. Great Britain. Directed by Roy Kellino. With David Niven, Geneviève Page, Ronald Squire, Beatrice Straight, Wilfrid Hyde White.

Bonjour Tristesse 

1958. Great Britain. Directed by Otto Preminger. With David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Jean Seberg.

Around the World in 80 Days 

1956. USA. Directed by Michael Anderson. Produced by Michael Todd. Music by Victor Young. With David Niven, Cantinflas, Shirley MacLaine, Robert Newton, Buster Keaton.

A Matter of Life and Death (Stairway to Heaven) 

1946. Great Britain. Written and directed by Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger. Cinematography by Jack Cardiff.

Before Winter Comes 

1969. Great Britain. Directed by J. Lee Thompson. With David Niven, Topol, Anna Karina, John Hurt, Anthony Quayle.

Read More...

It was my pleasure to correspond twice with David Niven shortly before he died in 1983 on the subjects of his defense of Errol Flynn and his finely tuned writing skills as a biographer and storyteller.

It is my pleasant memory to have handed Niv a huge laugh, he said, when I wrote that it might be nice if Flynn's children "could sue the pants off Charles Higham so that the world could see what sort of asshole he is... "

...and to Tina Nyary! Her correspondence with Lee (Editor in Chief) at CINEMA RETRO has resulted in a promo for The Errol Flynn Blog in the magazine and it is much appreciated!

Cinema Retro Magazine

We've added Cinema Retro to our Flynn's Favorite links!

Errol's - South - West London College found!

`BARNES' LOST HOLLYWOOD CONNECTION UNCOVERED  (Barnes is a district of London)

A handful of sparkling stardust from the glamor of old Hollywood fell on an obscure corner of South West London this week with the solution of an enduring mystery of the film actor Errol Flynn`s early life in this district.

Flynn was the biggest star in Hollywood in the late 1930s and early 1940s, achieving fame through films such as The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Charge of the Light Brigade and The Sea Hawk, which made him the heroic swashbuckling buccaneer of Hollywood`s golden age. However 10 years before his arrival in Hollywood he had been Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn, a wayward 14 year old from the other side of the world in Australia who had shipped over to London with his father dragging him along to the capital on some business that he had to conduct there, wondering what he was to do with the boy who found himself being transported from the exotic surroundings of his childhood years on the shore of Tasmania, with the roar of the sea where the Indian and Pacific Oceans meet coming off of the South Pole, to board in a small shambolic boys` private school in the Putney district, which he described as drab, grey and grim looking. It has been known for a number of years since the publication of his autobiography My Wicked Wicked Ways, shortly before his early death from exhaustion in 1959, that the silver screen star had spent a part of his youth in a school in the locality which he called ‘South-West London College’, but its actual location was obscured by his siting it ‘off Putney Common`, with the vague location as ‘somewhere between Putney & Hammersmith.’

The puzzle as to its location has defied writers and historians studying the screen actor`s origins before he tore a blaze across the Hollywood firmament, leading some to speculate as to whether it existed at all as Flynn described it, but it has now been solved by a dusty half-forgotten old trade directory from the mid 1920s stored at the Wandsworth Borough Archive on Lavender Hill during research into the star`s early years. In the frail pages of an obscure small business circular called the ‘Wandsworth Directory 1925’, listed in between ‘Sanitary Engineers’ and ‘Servants` Registry Offices’ under ‘Scholastic’ was found an entry for ‘South West London College (Mr. E.H. Burbidge, Principal), No. 99-101 Castelnau’, confirming the veracity of Flynn`s account and locating the long gone school amidst a line of regency villas on the road leading up on to Hammersmith Bridge.

I made a Map Quest on the address and it is all there!  Errol was not fibbing!  He most likely spoke the truth much, much more often than he received credit for!  

Driving directions to Putney Common, London SW15, UK

1.4 mi – about 4 mins

Suggested routes

101 Castlnau

London SW 13

9EL,UK

1.	Head south on A306/Castelnau toward Washington Rd Continue to follow A306				0.9 mi
2.	Turn left at B349/Mill Hill Rd Continue to follow B349			0.4 mi
3.	Turn right at Putney Common Destination will be on the left			174 ft
Putney Common London SW15, UK

 

 

This is the school on  99 - 101 Castelnau

Although expressing no other feelings in retrospect than the misery of his time at the school which he said were two of the most dismal years of his life, he devoted several pages of his autobiography to provide a carefully drawn portrait of it, describing how its cheerlessness was indicated by window-ledges lined with empty flowerpots and matched by the meager fare at meal times, and how the boys were crammed into the dormitories for want of space. He also left vivid portraits of the staff such as the Headmaster, Mr. Burbidge: … old, fat and terrifying and glaring at you like a toad; and another teacher who had: sloppy clothes and a kipper-footed gait and spent most of his time stalking the school`s better looking boys (who were in turn anxious to stay one step ahead of him) with an ominous intent and a lecherous smile, who would leave the school`s employment under a cloud after having shown an unhealthy interest in the boys in the school`s cricket team for reasons other than cricket. Flynn further described parading from Barnes across the bleak wasteland of Barnes Common into Putney and through its streets as the boys went off to church each Sunday in a 2 by 2 column, creating a colorful sight in their uniforms of striped trousers and blazer, with straw boaters for the Summer months being replaced with top hats in the Winter; and also the subsequent loneliness that he experienced in a strange place far from home when finding himself discarded by his parents and left in the school alone with all of the other boys having departed for the holidays, and he found himself with nothing to do but wander around its empty class-rooms; and how this abandonment and the resentment that it caused would mark his character in his future passage through the world.

He left the school after 2 years in 1925, and headed back to Australia and a subsequent meteoric future that awaited him of fame and wealth at the summit of Hollywood before he would burn out in a self-destructive pursuance of sensual excess; but the building, which today makes two private houses, that encompassed South West London College remains with its own memory of its role in the life of one of cinema`s icons.

Ajax Bardrick,
London, 14.Oct.2008

Discovered this Live Journal page which has some "diary" entries dated from 1936-1937.  I don't know if these are really Errol's writing or not.  Sure looks like it.  Maybe this link has been posted here before.  Some of the entries are very interesting, especially since I just finished reading My Wicked Wicked Ways again.  Last time was 25 years ago.  These journal entries are not from the book.

http://errol-flynn.livejournal.com/

Russ

The April 2010 Doclines is here! This is the Newsletter of the Errol Flynn Marina...

The ONLINE issue of April Rock-itt is out now and HARD COPIES are being printed and delivered as you read this... www.therockittmagazine.com.au Another installment of Peter Johnson's Errol Flynn series is live!

Dr. Koets was certainly one of Errol's most beloved friends.  I was wondering if anyone has ever seen a photo of him.

Russ

Zebra striped upholstery?
I have seen this Zebra striped upholstery in many other celebrity pictures, does anybody know what is the name of this place?  It must have been one of the celebrity "Hang-Outs"!

Porfirio Rubirosa and wife Doris Duke

Errol looks quite sad, I wonder what he is thinking? What is on the table "G  DEPT: "? Who is the EFBlog author who knows everything?

And while we are at questions, who knows where the Lido Club on Swallow Street is or was?  Hollywood? New York?  The picture below was taken on May 5th, 1959 at the Lido Club

Thanks to Rory Flynn who sent this link to us...

The Shawn Flynn I Knew...