Dear fellow Flynn fans,
for those of you who wonder about Hedy Lamarr`s connection to Errol and why she was featured here recently on the blog:
let me just tell you that our Hollywood hero was very fond of her. In fact he starts out in his biography MWWW paying tribute to her, as if she was some sort of counterpart of his:
“It chances that I think Hedy to be one of the most underestimated actresses, one who has not been lucky enough to get the most desirable roles. I have seen her do a few brilliant things. I always though she had great talent, and as far as classical beauty is concerned, you could not then, nor perhaps even now, find anyone to top Lamarr. Probably one of the most beautiful women of our day. Naturally I wanted to meet her – and subsequently I would want her to play the female lead in my Italian fiasco, “William Tell”.
Errol got introduced to her at a party by his pencil moustached wingman David Niven and instantly got a taste of her temperament. Hefty Hedy was very a sophistcated lady much like his Tiger Lil`prior. Remember she had to escape her husband, a weapons manifacturer and one of the richest men at times of WW II, to come to Hollywood. She left their Viennese Villa with little but all of her jewellery.
“As we waited for Hedy to enter her living room, David kept prodding me to expect by far the most ravishing creature. David whispered as she glided in, “By God, she’s beautiful, even without the jewels.” “Quiet!” He wasn’t quiet. “See if she will tell you what she told me about how she had to save herself in getting out of Austria.”
Now, with Niven prodding me, I didn’t know how to get around her to ask her to tell me about her private life, but it sounded intriguing when David repeated, “See if she will talk about the night she couldn’t stand it any more and made a gateaway.”
Hedy and I talked for a while. I started leading up to it in a diplomatic way and finally got out the words, “Where is Mandel (the husband) now?” At which from this beautiful creature, came the growl, “That sonofabitch!” She spat and walked off.
Errol and Hedy developed a special liking for each other, but opted for palsyship, as Mrs. Lamarr recalled in her autobiography “Ecstasy and me”:
“I told my stand-in Sylvia who went to a crazy Flynn party with me: “Many of the bathrooms have peepholes or ceilings with squares of opaque glass though which you can’t see out but someone can see in. So be careful. Never go to a room Errol sends you to change if there is swimming”
“One time Errol, another party guest and me watched a “busty Italian star” changing into her bathing suit and laughed when she sniffed her armpits and tried to hide red clothing marks.”
The most beautiful girl in the whole wide Hollyworld went on to marry two of Errol`s closest friends, “Hollywood hussar” John Loder, to whom he refered from then on as “Mr. Lamarr” and Teddy Stauffer aka “Mr. Acapulco”.
Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler would have made a fine Mrs. William Tell too.
Enjoy,
— shangheinz
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