“We cherish that some of the most famous people in the U.S. and Mexican political and cultural history continue to choose Mazatlan and Olas Altas as their hideaway,” said Ruiz Coppel. “From past Mexican presidents and some of the most celebrated names in Hollywood such as Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, John Wayne and Robert Mitchum to modern-day movie stars, Mazatlan will always be a quick getaway that’s not too far from home but a world away from the everyday grind.”
1930s
Today
— Tim
Tis a bit of a puzzle, as always, with dear ol’ Errol! Shari Lee and her husband Rob write to us:
Hello,
While researching Mr. Flynn I ran across your email address. I’m hoping you can provide some guidance. My husband has what we are sure is a piece of Mr. Flynn’s luggage. We are trying to find someone who can authenticate this for us. We do have pictures. Please let me know if you can help!
This piece of luggage has been to many places, it looks like it has been to japan, hawaii. Scandinavia, egypt, switzerland, france, austria, GB, pennsylvania, Ohio, Yellowstone, Argentina, Columbia, Barbados for sure. The franks and stamps are mostly in foreign language and we can’t interpret. The Japanese stamps are cuneiform. The airline stickers are Matson, Western, NPA, and a Scandinavian line that depicts an early seaplane. The luggage piece checks out as period correct. It appears to be colored hide over wood construction with gun metal brass hardware. It has very nice age patina with scuffs and handling wear and is quite nice looking. The amulet inside is fairly large and we believe is solid copper. If any more photos or info is needed let us know.
All I have is my camera on this phone. My husband researched all of the stickers and he is pretty certain they are authentic to the period. Not re-pop’s. It was acquired from an older person who had it in storage for several decades. Prior to that it was used as a stage prop in a folk group.
Here is what we see:
A label that says 1939 National Air Races, Cleveland, OH September 2,3,4
A destination label that says French Line, S.S. Champlain sailed 23 July 1939 destination Hotel – Ritz.
A destination label that says Cunard Line RMS Queen Mary First Class, deck and room A 23 sailing 6-8-1938, New York to South Hampton c/o Lady Julian (?) Windham, London England.
One with his name is Cooks Nile Service, S.S. Delta, along with another one that says Hastings Barbados Marine Hotel Ste. 22 , with a stamp that says Coral Bay-Marine. He stayed at Eastern Exchange Hotel Port Said Egypt per one label.
There are about 26 stickers and 2 postage stamps affixed to the exterior and numerous franks and custom stamps. The travel stickers are both air and sea. This is a carry-on size piece of luggage.
Thanks, Shari
Thank you, Shari & Ron!
Now, can any of you Flynn Detectives match Errol’s travels to this beautiful vintage travel bag?
— David DeWitt
PULLING NO PUNCHES: All Time Awesome Aussies
Extracts from: “DVD REVIEW: ACTOR ROD TAYLOR, FORMER BOXER AND LIFESAVER, PULLS NO PUNCHES”
By Simon Caterson January 25, 2018
As an all-purpose Australian leading man of the 1950s through to the ’70s in Hollywood, Rod Taylor was the natural screen successor to Errol Flynn. Flynn has maintained legendary status despite or because of his scandalous private life as well as his sparkling performances on screen, inspiring many biographies and biopics. Meanwhile, the impressive acting career of Taylor, who died in 2015 at the age of 84 after appearing in more than 50 feature films has been neglected.
The DVD/VOD release of Rod Taylor – Pulling No Punches is a welcome corrective as well as being a thoroughly entertaining documentary.
Flynn and Taylor belonged to different generations, though they played a range of not dissimilar big screen roles, from romantic comedy through to Westerns and war films, from pirate epics to contemporary thrillers. Taylor arguably played a wider variety of characters than Flynn, who died at 50.
Flynn’s career was constrained by working within the studio system at Warner Brothers and limited for the most part to working with certain directors and co-stars. By contrast, Taylor’s career, which commenced a few years after Flynn’s death, saw him work with a range of directors including Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford and, in his final performance he played Winston Churchill in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds.
In his prime, Flynn was almost impossibly handsome, while Rod Taylor came across as more of a regular guy. Bright-eyed and with a wide smile held in place by a strong jaw, there is an open faced, slightly rough-hewn look about Taylor – a certain down to earth, can-do quality that he seemed to project. He was a good-looking bloke, on whom, it seems there were no flies.
There are actors who may not win awards or garner critical accolades but they do win the hearts of cinemagoers who just want to enjoy seeing them on the screen. That easy-going, exportable charisma was there in Paul Hogan in his heyday and you can see it in the screen presence of an actor like Hugh Jackman or the Hemsworth brothers, a combination of mildness and athleticism with an apparent absence of pretension, angst or vanity.
In Pulling No Punches, Bryan Brown equates the international acting career of Rod Taylor with a big adventure for an Australian of that era in particular. Like many of the more authentic movie stars, Taylor was not the product of a posh drama school but had done a few different different things and seen a bit of life. So too had Errol Flynn, though Taylor seems to have been more level-headed in handling the pressures of fame.
— Tim
Named and Catapulted to Fame by Flynn
Sherwood had its Merry Men, Jamaica has its Jolly Boys
Jamaica Music Museum pays tribute to the Jolly Boys
“The Jolly Boys are a mento group originally from Port Antonio, formed in 1945. First starting as part of a group that played at Errol Flynn’s parties, the band established itself as one of Jamaica’s enduring mento bands. Over seven decades they have won mento band competitions, toured across the island and around the world, and released ten albums. They also appeared in the 1989 film The Mighty Quinn, which featured Denzel Washington. With their 2010 cover of Amy Winehouse’s Rehab, the group facilitated a mento revival that has attracted music scholars and enthusiasts from around the world.”
“… Errol Flynn named this group “The Jolly Boys” after the vibe he caught from their playing. With Flynn’s imprimatur, the Jolly Boys music quickly defined mento and calypso entertainment in Port Antonio and set a high musical standard.”
” … Errol Flynn used to dock his yacht, Zaca, [at Port Antonio] back when the buccaneering Hollywood star was known as “Jamaica’s greatest tourist”. “Mr Errol Flynn, man. Yeah, baby!” twinkles [one of the Jolly Boys]. “He loved the local bars. He’d hang here and buy a bottle of white rum for the people.”
— Tim
“THE GREATEST SEA ADVENTURE OF ALL TIME GETS UNDERWAY!” (IN COLORADO)
“Off the Hook Arts celebrates film and music of the 1930’s and 40’s in their Fourth Annual WinterFest week! We’re featuring two great composers that fled Europe, settled in Hollywood and helped bring film to where it is today through their additions to film scores. Join us for the full Hollywood classic movie, The Sea Hawk, featuring Errol Flynn in his swashbuckling splendor and film score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. But first, get a brief introduction about the significance of this film and composer from our host, modern day Hollywood film score composer and Assistant Professor of Digital Media Composition and Music Theory at UNC Ludek Drizhal.”
— Tim
THE MERMAID AND MISTER CHRISTIAN
A counter-clockwise adaptation of twinarcher’s recent north-of-the-equator post, “Errol and Ann”
www.canberratimes.com…
Physicality and courage on screen were two notable attributes of Kellermann that would continue among a number of other Australian actors, including Errol Flynn, whose screen debut in Australia as Fletcher Christian in 1933’s In the Wake of the Bounty soon led to a major Hollywood career.
Plus, check out this fabulous Annie Kellerman- related, history and gallery of early bathing suits and beauties!
The Original Mermaid (G, 2003), a documentary on Kellermann, will be on January 17 at 3pm at 4pm at the National Film and Sound Archive ($10/$8).
The Evolution of the Australian Actor talk will be at the archive on January 18 at 3pm (free, bookings essential) followed at 4pm by Captain Blood (1935, G, tickets $10, $8).
The Rise of the Australian Actor in Hollywood talk will be on at the National Portrait Gallery on January 20 at 2pm (free, portrait.gov….au).
For bookings and more information visit nfa.gov….au.
— Tim
Down Mexico Way
“One of my friends in Mexico writes that when Errol Flynn was there he was attentive to the most beautiful, dark-eyed Mexican girl she had ever seen.” – Louella Parsons, January 6, 1943
“In 1943, Errol Flynn flew down to Acapulco – then nothing more than a clutch of buildings surrounded by jungle” – The Guardian: April 15, 2006″
Acapulco in the 1940s
Acapulco 2017
— Tim
“ILLEGAL PASSAGE”
“ERROL FLYNN NAMES PALS IN HIS ORIGINAL PLAY WRITTEN FOR FILM”
Errol Flynn has drawn from his own private circle of cronies for many of the characters of his new original screen play entitled Illegal Passage, intimates of the Warner star have disclosed.
One, for example, is named “Big” Thompson. He is a former Texas cowboy, rough and tough, but with a heart as big as his frame. He’s the principle character’s best friend. Another of Flynn’s closest friend’s is Guinn (Big Boy) Williams, former Texas cowhand turned motion picture actor. And the description fits like a glove.
Another character bears the name of Bud Ernest. Friends pointed out that Flynn’s flying companion and his close friend for many years is Bud Ernst, former stunt flyer and now a radio promotion executive.
Several other characters of the story – the nature of which is being kept a close secret – bear striking resemblance to other members of Flynn’s intimate circle. There is even a comic, friends say, by the name of John Byer, who might be John Meyer, Flynn’s demon promoter pal.
Flynn’s story is now being read by Warners.
— Tim
Kingston, Jamaica
“FILM FANS MOB ERROL FLYNN AT MYRTLE BANK”
Errol Flynn came ashore from his yacht at the Myrtle Bank Hotel at noon yesterday – and nearly created a riot. As the handsome, dashing screen star entered the lobby., a waiting army of female hotel fans, who had impatiently been waiting his coming ashore, mobbed him in traditional style.
Since news of his arrival spread through Kingston and St. Andrew yesterday, local cinemaddicts have been concentrating on the Myrtle Bank in an effort to secure autographs, snapshots, or just look at the daring he-man lover of the screen in the flesh.
Gathering yesterday morning a battery of woman fans filled the lobby and verandahs of the hotel. “Bobby-soxers” were in the majority, but there were lots of grownups, too. Impatiently they looked out across the hotel lawn to the pier, and beyond it, where the Zaca rode at anchor on the quiet Caribbean.
Came 12 o’clock and still no sign of the tall hero of Captain Blood, Elizabeth and Essex and other screen successes which have thrilled local audiences. The now-retired movie actor, who arrived here on Wednesday, stayed aboard his yacht this afternoon, along with members of his party.
THE WORD GOES UP
Suddenly there was a sensation. The word went up that he was coming. Large as life, and as handsome as he appears on screen, Errol Flynn walked into the lobby. Something like a cross between a scream and a sigh issued from a hundred lips. The actor smiled at the demonstration.
When they crowded around him, however, he decide it was too much of a good thing. Quickly getting into a waiting motorcar, he left the hotel and did not return until during the evening. The fans, torn between partial satisfaction and partial disappointment, went away.
Presence of the popular actor, whose exploits, on and off the screen, have won him wide mention, has made Myrtle Bank the focus of local attention. Busiest switchboard in town is the PBX at Myrtle Bank, where the telephone operator spent half a day yesterday saying, “Yes, he is here. No, he hasn’t come ashore yet.”
CLERKS KEEP BUSY
No less busy has been the desk, where the clerks have been equally engaged in answering queries as to the whereabouts of Mr. Flynn. Autograph books and baby cameras have been greatly in evidence, while the staff have been kept on their toes coping with the extra demand on their time as a result of the increased number of visitors to the hotel.
— Tim
CECIL B. DEMILLE AND LUX RADIO THEATER PRESENT
ERROL FLYNN AND JOAN BLONDELL IN
THE PERFECT SPECIMEN
— Tim
