Dear Flynnstones,
socialite Countess Dorothy DiFrasso (here strolling with another millionaire heiress, a fox fur wearing Barbara Hutton) lent her Bel Air estate to Freddie McEvoy. Take a peak at the mansion, where Errol Flynn mingled with Betty Hansen and see the blue room, which caused much gloom.
Enjoy,
— shangheinz
Dear Flynnstones,
the Mummy Man is back again. Brendan Fraser won the Academy Award for best actor yesterday at the Oscars. He gave a “Whale” of a performance in the namesake movie. Back in 2008 his then name in lights was attached to a project Errol failed to finish: William Tell .
Are some movies doomed from the start? Flynn`s “The Story of William Tell” and Orson Welles`”Don Quijote” were persued for years, but never materialized, due to mostly monetary problems. Terry Gilliam picked up the mule where OW had left off and got lost in la Mancha. Erstwhile.
The adventures of Swiss hero William Tell had already hit the movie screen in the 1930s starring Conrad Veit. Then in 1948 again, this time in Italy, Gino Cervi known from the “Don Camillo & Peppone” series took aim at the apple. In 1960 Switzerland took it up on themselves to immoviealize Will Tell on the big screen- Wilhelm Tell/Burgen in Flammen (“Castles in flammes”) was released.
In 2011 finally William Tell: The Legend 3D (alternate: Crossbow) was announced to be filmed in Altdorf and Romania. Alongside Fraser we would see Anne Paquin (“The Piano”) as his wife Hedwig, Dakota Goyo (“Real Steel”) as his son Walter and German actor Til Schweiger would become Gessler the Hat, the Austrian baddie. Nick Hurran (“Sherlock”) was to direct at first, then Eric Brevig (“Journey to the Center of the Earth”) took over the helm-et. The script came from Scott Reynolds. Tagline of the movie: Farmer. Family Man. Hero. Outlaw.
When in 2013 no arrow had been fired, Brendan sued the producer and saw himself stripped of the lead in favor of another avid archer, Hawkeye Avenger-actor Jeremy Renner. “Hunger Games” director Gary Ross wanted to end the head splitting and start splitting apples. Audiences were left hungry. Again.
Maybe with the new found pouch, ahm punch, B. Fraser will get to do W. Tell at last. A golden statue will get you things prior not available.
Even the appleshot Robin Hood missed.
Enjoy,
— shangheinz
Dear Flynnstones,
Christian’s Hut opened on Catalina Island in 1935, as a bar for the crew working on the film “Mutiny on the Bounty” The bar was located right under Clark Gable’s room and was named after Clark Gable’s character in the film.
After filming was completed, owners Art LaShelle and Joe Guido moved the operation (in name only) to to Balboa Island in Newport Beach in a building that was the old Southern Seas Club. They draped the building with netting, added a dock, and introduced the Tahitian-style restaurant Christian’s Hut. The sand-floored ground-level bar was frequented by the likes of Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart and Fred MacMurray. Their bouncer, Don Vaughn invented a new concept in throwing out unruly customers; he carried them out to the end of the pier and threw them into the bay.
Read more here: tikicentral.com…
The mascot for Christian’s Hut was “the Goof,” whose genesis is not known; it was basically just a funny-looking head that topped the building. The Goof can now be seen atop Bali Hai (www.balihairestaurant.com…) in San Diego.
There were a handful of other locations that were never as popular as the original on Balboa Island. Unfortunately, Christian’s Hut burned down in 1963 and the site is now home to the Newport Towers condominiums.
Here is Errol at the hut. He lingers on in tour guide Mang’s memories.
Balboa Island Museum’s “Golden Age of Newport Harbor” Movie Premieres at Balboa Yacht Club
Enjoy,
— shangheinz
The Mail Bag brings an interesting question from Mike Harwood. Whst is the 4 letter word Errol Flynn and Frank Sinatra were obsessed with?
Hi there,
— David DeWitt
Our great friend Jan van der Vliet shows us his bookshelf today and asks What Errol Flynn books have you read?
Thanks, Jan …
— David DeWitt
Before Errol Flynn owned the Zaca the ship had an adventurous life. All recorded here in ZACA VENTURE …
The Zaca is a two masted black diesel schooner, one hundred and eighteen feet over all, with a gross tonnage of eighty four; Templeton Crocker is her owner, tanned a pleasant ochraceous tawny, five feet ten over all, with a refined tonnage of about twelve stone. The two, in juxtaposition, with a hand-picked captain and crew, set themselves to aid and abet a scientific expedition. The Invitation was to spend two months on the Zaca in the Gulf of California; the Acceptance materialized as the Twenty-fourth Expedition of the Department of Tropical Research of the New York Zoological Society; the Route included Cedros Island, Cape San Lucas, Guaymas, Inez Bay, the Banks of Punta Arena and Gorda, Mazatlan, and Clarion Island; the Chronology was the year nineteen hundred and thirty six from March twenty fifth to May twenty fifth, San Diego to San Diego; the Personnel included Templeton Crocker, Master and Owner, Alfred Pedersen, Captain, three members of my Staff, John Tee Van, General Associate, Jocelyn Crane, Technical Associate, George Swanson, Artist, myself, and a crew of fifteen, French, Norwegian, Latvian, Irish, Swedish, German, and Samoan. And there was also Toshio Asaeda, Japanese artist, photographer, preparateur; a walking, sleepless incarnation of the word Work. Our trip took on the character of the spoor of a drop of water meandering down a dusty windowpane, in that we made decisions suddenly as to the details of the exact route, and adapted our plans to contingencies and the incidence of favorable locations. From our basic plan we never swerved, which was to spend as little time as possible in disconnected and uncorrelated dredging, seining, and diving, but to concentrate our researches in two or three zoologically interesting places. These proved to be the Inez Bay region, Cape San Lucas and the adjoining Banks, and Clarion Island. Whatever of value may accrue to our published scientific results will be due to this course of action. (From the Preface)
— David DeWitt
Dear Flynnstones,
Anthony Loder, the son of Hedy Lamarr, revealed during his recent stay in Vienna that in 2024 the new KaDeWe-department store will open here and bear Hedy‘s Hollywood stage name.
It will also host a café highlighting her career and a rooftop garden in her honor. The whole estate will be prominently on display on all levels of the building.
Enjoy,
— shangheinz
Dear Flynnstones,
when the Australian photo model George Lazenby got the call up to follow Sean Connery as 007, he expressed an interesting take on acting in an early interview.
“What about your Australian accent- do you think there‘ll be any problems as far as international filmgoers are concerned?“
“No, I don‘t think so. I saw a film recently with Errol Flynn, and he still had traces of an Australian accent, and he was accepted. I think if you do what you feel and be natural, people accept you as a person. If you try and be an actor, which I am not trying to be, they may not accept me, because I am not an actor, if you know what I mean…“
Enjoy,
— shangheinz
