Fringe Connections

This post addresses the fringe Flynn-connections in EFB Author Rider McDowell’s highly-regarded Off-Broadway play, Fringe Deaths

www.broadwayworld.com…

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PAYTON’S PLACE

Barbara Payton’s place in Errol’s world is summarized this way in Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye by John O’Dowd:

“Few actresses in Tinseltown’s century-long history, with the possible exception of Frances Farmer, have undergone such extreme privations or suffered more extracted indignities than the beautiful, doomed Barbara Payton (1927-1967).”

“Inelegantly described by Howard Hughes associate Johnny Meyer as ‘Hollywood’s biggest trollop,’ Payton spent her early years in Minnesota and the Texan dustbowl of Odessa, before moving to Los Angeles at age 21 in search of stardom.  Upon her arrival the aspiring actress promptly entered into a string of dalliances with all manner of showbiz types, including aging Lothario Errol Flynn, Bob Hope, Batman & Robin’s Robert Lowery and Gregory Peck, as well as assorted lowlifes,  clingers-on and neophytes, though she ultimately rejected Hughes himself as ‘too strange.’  The bulk of her conquests were married, which did little to endear her to the womenfolk of Tinseltown, though as Payton’s former lover Steve Hayes puts it ‘she didn’t seem to care about anything except getting laid and having a good time.”

GEORGE REEVES

The Adventures of Superman star had at least one connection to The Adventures of Robin Hood star through Jerry Giesler, who petitioned for a reinvestigation of Reeves’ mysterious suicide as a possible homocide.

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JACK RUBY

Jacob Rubinstein’s connection to Errol was through one of Errol’s other famous legal eagles, Melvin Belli. “King of Torts” Belli represented Ruby after he was charged with killing Lee Harvey Oswald, essentially arguing that he (Ruby) was a patsy forced to murder another patsy.

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ALFALFA (STYMIE & SCOTTY)

Though Errol wasn’t a Little Rascal, he certainly was a Big Rascal. Here’s Alfalfa appearing to channel some of Errol’s charm and swag with the ladies.

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Here’s Errol with very popular child star Scotty Beckett, who Alfalfa replaced in Our Gang.

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Last but not least, Matthew “Stymie” Beard was in Captain Blood!

— Tim