Seventy Years Ago —— Silver River/Sheila Graham

SHEILA GRAHAM – Hollywood Citizen News – May 8, 1947

I was on the set when Errol Flynn knocked out Barton MacLane
for a scene in Silver River. I’ve often been told the
story of the star who punched too soon, and the guy who forgot
to duck, and never believed it. But this I saw. Poor Errol.
It really hurt him more than MacLane. “It was the first time in
12 years,” he assured me, “that a punch of mine ever connected.”
Barton, of course, is used to movie risks because he’s usually
cast as a heavy. In the old days when a punch connected with his
jaw, he’d fight back, when he came to. Now he writes it off as an
occupational hazard.

Here’s what is reportedly the only known photo of the literary Garden of Allah gal,
Sheila Graham, and her over-the-hill beau, F. Scott Fitzgerald – on Revolution Boulevard in Tijuana!
Fitzgerald used to get angry and drunk at the thought Errol might possibly flirt with Sheila,
by far the best looking of what she called the “unholy trio” of Hollywood gossip columnists-
her, Hedda and Louella.

Below is Flynn vs. MacLane, preceding Errol’s knock out punch.

— Tim