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Errol Flynn’s Room on the Queen Mary Mystery Continues!

06 Mar

Like many things with Flynn there is yet another mystery and more questions …

To whit: In about 2011 I contacted the Queen Mary concerning the cabin that Errol stayed in during his trip to Spain to cover the Spanish Civil War and he was aboard ship with the erstwhile sinister Hermann F. Erben. Erben kept notes about his travels in a notebook and some of these notes were published in Josef Fegerl’s red covered book.

In the book, Erben notes that Errol stayed in M 38.

So I wrote to the QM and asked them if the room was still there. They replied that M38 was changed to M012 and still existed. When I visited the ship I went to look for the cabin and found it. I did not knock on the door, fearing somebody would be disturbed. Later, I found evidence that M38 was indeed changed to M012. 

So what is the mystery?

Well, if you look closely you will see in that Erben wrote: M 38 not M38 … When I asked about the cabin location I asked in my email about M 38, too. With that space between the M and the 38 …

But the answer I got I think now was about cabin M38 and not as I have discovered in a different map: M038 … see in yellow on the left side of this map of M Deck.

Then I found this old map: if you look at the far right side below, you see that what is listed as M2 in yellow above was M038 (below) …

So, was Erben referring to M038 and leaving out the 0 when he wrote “Errol in M 38” ??? Did he put in a space between M and 38 to denote the number M038?

Here is where M038 is located now listed as M2 …

In 1997:

And M2 is up against the wall of the Mauritania Room on the Queen Mary. But, hold on … there is more! I found a video tour on YouTube of M Deck by Lake Nipissing and it showed the hallway leading to the M2 cabin in my maps. I left a comment explaining the mystery I was trying to solve and in a short time, Lake replied to my comment!

Whoa! Not only did Lake go check things out, but created a short video showing the room as it is today (3-6-30) and there was a surprise.

youtu.be/r494DY87mE0…

Lake says: Since the door ventilation grille is covered over, this room was remodeled in 1999 and will have a drywall vs. original wood ceiling, the punkah louvers will not be functional, and the bathtub surround will now be tiled instead of the gray/white marble pattern Formica on wood. There is a conversion list on a Queen Mary website which can help: www.sterling.rmplc.co.uk/webdrive/mcabins.html…
Correct: Cunard M2 = Long Beach M038 . . . Cunard M38 = Long Beach M012
Both of these rooms are active, with the card reader door locks. They are facing the parking lot, though, and not the harbor.

Do we know for sure which room Errol was in? M38 or M 38 (M038) ???

Tis a mystery still …

Thanks, Lake … you are the best!

— David DeWitt

 

Morning After

05 Mar

March 4, 1939

Erskine Johnson
Behind the Makeup
Los Angeles Examiner

Morning after the Academy Awards banquet, Donald Crisp sent a telegram to Errol Flynn, vacationing in the South. “Dear Errol,” it read. “Last night the Academy Awards banquet was held. Your name was not mentioned.”

Deplorable that Flynn was not even nominated for his immortal portrayal of Robin Hood.

The nominees were:

Spencer Tracy, for Boys Town

Charles Boyer, for Algiers

James Cagney, for Angels with Dirty Faces

Robert Donat, for The Citadel

Leslie Howard, for Pygmalion

And the winner was:

Spencer Tracy, for Boys Town

www.oscars.org…

Proper Evaluations of Flynn’s Greatness

The model of an action hero in 1938’s The Adventures of Robin Hood, the dashing star made the swordplay and wooing look so effortless that it’s easy to ignore the craft behind his derring-do. – Entertainment Weekly

 

He was the Tom Cruise of the 1930s, a global superstar whose natural charisma and box-office power put him at the tippytop of Hollywood — and he never won an Oscar. Unlike Cruise, Flynn was never even nominated, not for “Captain Blood,” “The Charge of the Light Brigade” or 1938’s still-dazzling “The Adventures of Robin Hood.” – Boston Herald

 

Unfortunately, at the time when Errol enjoyed his greatest success, the adventure film, as a genre, was not sufficiently appreciated and therefore [Errol’s] appearances therein were not as highly regarded as they [are now.] … [He] played his roles with unmatchable verve, conviction, and style. In doing so, he inherited the mantle of Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., who was my favorite film star at the age of 9 and whose ‘The Black Pirate’ left an indelible impression on me. No one since Errol has worn that mantle; it is buried with him. – Lady Marian Fitzwater

 

— Tim

 

Uncommonly Quiet

03 Mar

March 2, 1942

Harrison Carroll
Evening Herald Express

Are Warners trying to keep Errol Flynn under wraps these days? His set is usually closed to newspaper people and the studio publicity department is uncommonly quiet about the star.

This article was written during filming of Desperate Journey, at a time which Errol was said to be suffering from tuberculosis, dropping to 165-pounds at one point.

— Tim

 

Tid Bits, March 18, 1955 & Avenita Hotel, Barcelona …

02 Mar

Special Thanks to Karl Holmberg …

 

— David DeWitt

 

Stuntmen, stand-ins and stooges VII

02 Mar

Dear fellow Flynn fans,

the most gentlemanly stuntman of Errol was Patrick “Paddy” Crean. He doubled him in “The Master of Ballantrae” and “Against all flags”. An accomplished actor in his own right later in life with roles in “War and Peace” alongside Henry Fonda and Audrey Hepburn and  in “The naked Maya” with Ava Gardner, he is mostly remembered for his superb swordmanship. Until today a flagship workshop called “the Paddy Crean” is held in his honour in Canada. He reminisced about about Flynn fondly in his hard to find autobiography “More Champagne Darling” and gives quite an insight into the ill fated adventure (film) “The Story of William Tell”, where he was to appear as partisan pesant. The song in the end of the clip is most pleasant  for this class act choreographer naming both our Hollywood hero as well as this class act irish paesano.

Enjoy,

 

— shangheinz

 

In a State of Chaos

02 Mar

As quoted in My Wicked, Wicked Ways

March 1, 1949

Sheila Graham
New York Journal-American

Errol Flynn is far from being the happiest man in the world at this point. Not only is his domestic life in a state of chaos, but he has to make a western as his next movie. Errol is tired of shooting it up in the saddle. He doesn’t want to be a rich man’s Roy Rogers.

1949 – In the State of Chaos

1950 – In the State of Montana

— Tim

 

Leap Day 1940 – Part 2

01 Mar

February 29, 1940

Sidney Skolsky
Watching Them Make Pictures

If you wait long enough on a Michael Curtiz set, you’re bound to hear a Curtizism. The other afternoon on the set of The Sea Hawk I had a long wait. In fact for the first time I thought reliable Mike was going to fail me. Director Curtiz had Errol play a scene over and over. And everytime he gave an order I expected him to pull a gem. But he didn’t.

Finally, Errol did the scene the way Curtiz and reliable Mike came through. He said: “Errol, you worked hard. But it’s alright. You can’t get anything for nothing unless you pay for it.”

— Tim

 

Leap Day 1940 – Part 1

29 Feb

The day the Oscar leaped by Olivia: books.google.com…books.google.com…

— Tim

 

Gone Fishin’ – On the Sirocco – With Bow & Arrow

27 Feb

February 28, 1939

Harrison Carroll
Evening Herald Express

It was a hectic weekend the old Pacific dealt out to Hollywood sailors.

Errol Flynn’s yacht, the Sirocco, with Howard Hill, the archer, and two camermen among those aboard, limped into port at Mazatlan with sails and mast torn away by a gal encountered 300 miles at sea.

Flynn’s boat, according to reports reaching Hollywood, was badly crippled and will be in dry dock for some time. The Sirocco has been in Mexican waters for Archer Hill to film a short subject about fishing with bow and arrow. Flynn was not with the party but is expected to join them at Mazatlan.

Howard Hill’s Hunting the Hard Way: Marlin Fishing with Errol, Bow, and Arrow

youtu.be/0bcV9sa5lZA…

— Tim

 

The Adventures of Don Flynn: 1939

27 Feb

February 27, 1939

Louella Parsons
Los Angeles Examiner

How would you like to see the dashing Errol Flynn play the equally dashing Don Juan? Academy Award winning producer Hal Wallis is plotting such a story as a follow-up to Robin Hood. He will not use the Lord Byron material, but will base The Adventures of Don Juan on a story by Bess Meredyth wrote when she was a Warner scenarist. Bess, who retired from active work to enjoy her ranch, will do a rewrite job with Roland Leigh. Of course it will be a Michael Curtiz picture.

….

Though rarely remembered today, Bess Meredyth was a brilliant talent, maybe even a greater talent than Michael Curtiz, her husband from 1929 to his death in 1962. She often helped Curtiz on his projects, particularly with writing and rewriting, explaining, I suspect, why a man so infamously challenged by the English language could turn out such masterfully scripted films. Bess was behind the scenes. She was a very accomplished vaudevillian, film actress, musician, comedienne, business women, and screenwriter. Her many friends and colleagues in the industry included Bundy Drive Boys Gene Fowler and John Barrymore. She was reportedly a big help to Barrymore during his Hollywood years. (Notably, she also wrote the screenplay for Barrymore’s Don Juan, released in 1926 and featuring more kisses than any other film in history, 127 at last count.)

Bess Meredyth

Here’s looking at you, Bess:

— Tim