Hedda you Hearst?

Dear Flynnstones,

back in the day Tinseltown gossip was never heard through the grapevine. It was put in dark ink by the top two society columnists Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper. They played a decades long heads-up game for the scoops, scandals and skirmishes of the Hollywood elite. With their clout they could make or break a career. Fortunately for Flynn, both liked his boyish charm and his mannish mischief. H. Hopper, besides her poisonous pen best known for her flamboyant headdresses, remembers him fondly in her autobiography “The truth and nothing but.”

At San Simon, Hearst`s $40.000.000 Shangri-La in San Luis Obisco County Louella mingeled with a stream of visiting celebrities, stars and producers that poured every weekend into the fabulous, twin-towered castle or the surrounding marble “bungalows” at the summons of W.R (Hearst) and Marion (Davies). So did I. At the fifty-four foot table in the Renaissance dining hall, you`d see Garbo, John Gilbert, Errol Flynn, Norma Shearer, Nick Schenk, Beatrice Lilly, Cissy Patterson, Frank Knox, Bernard Baruch. Name the biggest and they`d be there, including on one occasion, Mr. and Mrs. Cal Coolidge and Bernard Shaw. San Simeon, two hundred miles from Culver City, was too far for daily travels to Metro, (so) Hearst built a new castle for his princess on the gold coast of Santa Monica. This new ninety-nine room Georgian mansion, with two swimming pools, three drawing rooms and a private movie theatre was called the “Beach House”.

Errol was a shoo-in there. Orson Welles was not. His monumental mockumentary movie CITIZEN KANE  exposing the real relationship between married man William Randolph Hearst and his protegé Marion Davies put him on the black list of the newspaper tycoon. They would never become Rosebuddies again.

Errol used to live directly across the street from me during his marriage to Lili Damita. All I had to do to pick up an item or two for the column, was sit by the bedroom and listen to them shrieking at each other. I got the lowdown on their separation by just lying in bed and listening. It was a screaming, juicy bout. I was all set to put it on the wire the next morning, when Errol came over in dressing gown and slippers at 7 a.m, got me out of bed and begged me not to print it, saying they hadn´t even talked about a property settlement. Like a fool, I promised to keep silent until he gave me a cue. But he couldn`t keep his own secret and told Louella, who scooped me with my own story. I could have throttled him…

Hedda`s tactful taciturnity (completely out of character) secured her a spot on the flynntourage together with NY collegue Mark Hellinger, who later became a producer for Warner Bros. Once a reporter always a reporter, he often called Hopper from a private booth and drove Jack Warner mad wondering where all the inside information about the lot came from.

He (Flynn) worshiped John Barymore and deliberately started the rumor that he was John`s illegitimate offspring. They came to parting ways however, when he invited “Father” up to Mulholland drive. John, who was incontinent toward the end, forgot himself as he sat on the beautiful settee in the lavishly furnished living room that was Errol`s pride. That was the last time John was invited.

Playing mother alongside Father, Hopper gave our Hollywood hero some good advice. One he really should have taken. H.H. implored him not to spend all his money on parties, but to buy a girl a box of candy in the process or send her some flowers once in a while. She said a single rose each time, could have spared him five lawsuits.

“For one revel at his Mulholland Drive home, Errol Flynn imported a transvestite fairy dressed so skillfully as a girl that nobody guessed the secret. Errol had his swimming pool lit from below and brought on a team of divers to brighten the evening. When his guests went on chattering, taking not a blind bit of notice of the performance, he (himself) dived headlong into the water in protest…

One day he was sun-bathing mother-naked on a sailboat in the Mediterranean, when a sight seeing craft loaded with American schoolteachers came by. He chose the moment to stand up and stretch. One gasping teacher fell overboard, covered in blushes, and he promptly plunged in to retrieve her.

As relentless as the Walt Disney friend Hedda Hopper waged war on unamerican activities in Hollywood during the McCarthy era, she always held a soft spot for Errol Flynn, despite his bouts with alcohol and else.

The last time I saw Errol was in Paris, when he was making ROOTS OF HEAVEN. He wanted his teen-age popsie to stay in the room, while I intervied him. She wouldn`t go, so I did, interview or no interview.

Once more she kept mum and not too long Flynn was gone.

Enjoy,

 

 

— shangheinz