The Colonel

Hey guys:

It was brought to my attention by Karl that few know that one of Flynn's nicknames was the Colonel.  More people used the Baron of Mulholland — which though no one is sure I think came from Jack Warner originally when he said something like Flynn was living like a goddamn baron up on a mountaintop!

Colonel was an early nickname.  Alan Hale was Sarge and Big Boy Guinn Williams was Corporal.  It may have originated on “Charge”.  I can't recall offhand if Hale or Big Boy was in “Charge” but it they were, that might have started the trend.

It also may have started with Niven back in the Dawn Patrol era — or on Died WTBO.  I never asked and never remember anyone mentioning it.

I called him Colonel somewhat jokingly (derisively in a good-natured way) and he once called David Niven the Major — but Niven and he were together by 1949-50, so though I met David and was at his Pacific Palisades house (The Pink Palace) I never saw them together.  But Flynn genuinely liked him.  And Ty Power too — when the three of them chummed around together.

Anyway, that's the story behind the Colonel.

Cheers

— ivan6gold