We are happy to welcome our newest Author William Russo to The Errol Flynn Blog! Thanks for becoming part of our l ship’s crew, Wiliam! We look forward to your posts and comments!
— David DeWitt
Mail Bag! Contemporaries of Flynn?
10
Jul
William Russo send me another interesting email, and I think it is worth publishing!
Dear David,
Amazing what turned up from just a few references to MWWW. And thanks for the tip on the Earl Conrad book; I was able to order a copy from Amazon.
There is another topic I would like to throw open. As a long time student of history (I detest the term “history buff”) I take particular interest in discovering what things or personages were contemporaneous within a given context. That is, when we study certain regions in a linear fashion, we fail to realize the full context of the surrounding world at that time. For example, long ago I knew a few things about Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana purchase. I also knew a few things about the French revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte. But when I realized that Jefferson negotiated the purchase from Napoleon, I was stunned. I had never even considered them as contemporaries!
So, I started to wonder a few years ago, who might Erroll Flynn have crossed paths with? Some Googling came up with a few surprises. FDR and Eleanor, for one. Not surprising in the time frame, but interesting that Flynn merited such status. One connection that for some forgotten reason intrigued me, was, did Flynn know Hemingway? What little I found turned out to be even more intriguing. Based solely on comments from Hemingway; Hemingway, early on anyway, without having ever met him, seemed to have a low opinion of Flynn, considering him something like a dilettante and a clown. As time passed, I got the impression that Hemingway resented Fynn’s fame as an adventurer, didn’t want to acknowledge it, and may have been jealous that Flynn was living the life that he, Earnest Hemingway should be noted for. I think Hemingway wanted to be the model for the prototypical, honest, down to earth, man’s man adventurer, without promoting himself as such; except that was exactly what he was doing; promoting himself, which of course contradicts the image. He had the habit of overstating the importance of understatement as a demeanor. In any case he may or may not have met Flynn in Spain during the Spanish civil war. Though he walked out of a screening of The Sun Also Rises in disgust, after a few minutes, he later commented that he heard Flynn had been pretty good. I did find a picture of the two, presumably from the mid 1950s, both old and grizzled, possibly taken in Cuba. I do not know the occasion or their dispositions.
I was happy to discover that Erroll and Orson Wells, had a cordial relationship, including as drinking buddies; and that Flynn, the older of the two, regarded Wells as a somewhat wayward youth! I do know that Wells persuaded Flynn to let him use the Zaca as the yacht in Lady from
Shanghi. I know also that Flynn spent a short time with Fidel Castro in 1958 or 59 and I’m sure Castro thought that pretty cool, as did Flynn, in that it re-affirmed his belief that he was a legitimate journalist.
So who other unlikely or notable personages crossed paths with our man Flynn?
Thanks, William! As I replied to you, it is more a question of Who did Flynn not meet?
— David DeWitt
In Like Flynn Will Soon Be Out
08
Jul
“In Like Flynn will be released later this year through Umbrella (Films)”
“[It] will be in cinemas by October 2018 in Australia.”
“It’s a different film and kinda unlike anything that’s come out of Australia.”
— Tim
San Fermin Like Flynn
07
Jul
There are more than 400 events scheduled for the San Fermin Festival in Pamplona, Spain, including most famously the Running of the Bulls. This year’s festival began today (July 6), running to July 14.
See Senor Fleen at the San Fermin Festival, including in the Running with the Bulls, from about 1:01 to 1:10:
— Tim
Mail Bag! Errol, Audie and the Bird Man!
05
Jul
Received a great email from Audie in Portugal who has a question and an interesting story about how Errol reaches so many people even today!
I read MWWW in the late 70’s/early 80’s in paperback edition, borrowed from a friend and was hooked!
It wasn’t until much later while at a St. Simons Island, GA, USA library I found a book about his son and himself and was hooked all over again.
My future (and now) husband (living as expats in Portugal) attended a Flynn celebration in St Augustine, Florida when Rory was supposed to be there at a “Sea Hawk” film in 2015.
Even tho she was not there, my future husband and myself enjoyed the festivities. We will always remember that time as “young” oldsters.
I have followed (lurked) this blog since a bit before then and have collected many books about ELTF.
My all time wish about MWWW’s is to know about the first edition copy, printed in England in which “Tiger Lil’s” comments were deleted for the USA edition. If anyone knows, I would be very much interested in what she had to say about him.
Does anyone know?
I have several first edition books about our favorite playboy and also have several first edition books by David Niven, who has several amusing (or not, in David’s case) anecdotes about his Hollywood friend.
From a somewhat long time lurker (only about 4 years, now), I very much like the daily edition of this great blog.
Keep up the good work David!
Warm regards,
Audie
And an addendum:
About giving books to interested Flynn fans, here is another personal Flynn story.
There happens to be a bird loving gentleman who frequents the park next to the pier on St. Simons Island, GA. He arrives in the morning with his lawn chair and several bags of day old bread. Once settled in, he tosses up bread tidbits and watches the starlings (and now sea gulls) play their swoop and grab game in mid air. The amazing thing is that the birds respect him and never leave their “calling cards” anywhere near where he is sitting. They light upon his head and his arm, when extended, for the treat. He can individually identify them and one he calls Niki because of the recognizable white brand on its wing. The locals call him “Bird Man” and he has been the focus of a couple of news worthy articles.
The first time I met him, somehow within the first 10 minutes of conversation settled on Flynn. Not a usual topic for a first meeting. He told me that his middle name was Errol and it seems as though he was conceived one night after his parents watched an amorous Flynn movie.
While making plans to visit the Flynn blowout at St. Augustine Florida with my future husband on our first date… I had noticed a duplicate first edition copy of MWWW in my library and gave it to him. He was very grateful and hesitated to take it but after knowing of the duplicate, he accepted the book, smiling.
I didn’t have a chance before we left to let “Bird Man” know that the man I introduced to him (and also this blog) is now my husband and we moved to Portugal a year ago. Maybe he will reading this and I am raising my hand from far away, wishing him well. I will call him by the name he wished his parents had used, “Ian Errol”.
I love this blog and it is the only one I read faithfully every day. Thank you everyone for your contributions.
Audie in PT
— David DeWitt
The Fourth of July Cove
04
Jul
In, Over, Under, and Over, One of Flynn’s Favorite Hideaways: Fourth of July Cove
Fourth of July Fireworks over The Fourth of July Cove, to the music of John Philip Sousa, plus a musical tribute to the Armed Forces.
— Tim
More Wicked, Wicked Ways Paperback Covers!
04
Jul
The Dead Ringer article was fun.
Here are a few more examples of his book from different years and places.
Just for fun,
Ada
Enjoy your 4th!
[flagallery gid=32]
— Topper
Mail Bag! Dead Ringer for Flynn, The Sons of Flynn!
03
Jul
The mailbag brings us a wonderful email from William Russo:
I’ve been reading your stuff I guess for a couple years now. Truly enjoy it. Takes me into a world I truly love. Though it was the world of my parent’s generation, I feel a nostalgia for it I cannot explain. Though I grew up on Flynn’s movies, I did not come to become immersed into his life and personality until late hippie years. One of my best friends then was a guy named Steve Gilbert. He was a dead ringer for Flynn. Amazingly he had gone to Hollywood High, knew and even dated, I think, Rory! I introduced him to “My Wicked, Wicked Ways”. We each had a copy and would quote from it regularly. We both thought of it as kind of a Bible. I started a club; called it “The Sons of Flynn”. I always kept a couple copies of the book and whenever I met someone who reminded me of Flynn in some significant way, I’d give them a copy. There were only about four additional that I deemed worthy. Most recently, a couple years ago, I met a twenty something attractive blonde from South Africa by way of Canada, at a Cannabis farm in Humboldt county. Not only was she into Flynn, but astonishingly, knew that Vivica Linford played the Queen of Spain, in Don Juan ! She wanted a copy of the book (I didn’t have one at the time), and demanded to become a member of the club! Unfortunately, we lost touch before she could be initiated. This was never a club in anything more than a name, and in my own imagination. One “member” lives in Honolulu, a good look-a- like, the most like Flynn athletically, an ex Army Ranger. Another lives in western Massachusetts. The other is the guy who owned the cannabis farm; eerily reminiscent of the Robin Hood persona. As for Steve, sadly he died about the same age as Erroll, from drug and alcohol abuse. I think Rory’s book, the Baron of Mulhollandis a treasure. It’s like being there, feeling it all. I am going to be traveling in Europe soon (doing some sword fighting!) and living my own version of The Sun Also Rises. Though most of my reading material will on kindle on my tablet, I will be taking only one book, my original paperback copy of My Wicked, Wicked Ways.
Cisco Bill
Thanks so much for the note! and what a read MWWW’s is … I envy anybody who is reading it for the first time, and understand why we keep going back it! Here is the first paperback I read of it:
And two others I read later on:
— David DeWitt
Memories of Gillian Lynne
03
Jul
REMEMBERING GILLIAN
www.dancemagazine.com…
ERROL AND GILLIAN
Dame Gillian travelled to Sicily in 1953 to film The Master Of Ballantrae. In the credits Gillian Lynne’s part is listed as “Marianne, a dancer favoured by Captain Mendoza” but it wasn’t long before it became clear that she was favoured by the Hollywood legend who had the leading role, one Errol Flynn.
Asked how their affair came about, she says: “It was very difficult for it not to come about! He was a gorgeous man and he was very witty, very funny and well educated actually. It wasn’t all about sex, it was all about fun. We liked each other.
“I would never have been chosen for the role if he hadn’t liked me because they were looking for a blonde woman with big boobs and then they saw me dancing at the Palladium. I was thin with tiny boobs and dark hair but I was sexy. I’m a sexy dancer. Most dancers are sexy. We had a lot of quite steamy scenes, nothing in the bedroom, thank God. All out in the sun.”
Their on-set fling lasted for two months, with the couple enjoying drinks in the bar of Palermo’s exclusive Villa Igiea and taking boat trips up and down the Sicilian coast. In the decades that followed, Dame Gillian went on to become one of the country’s most successful choreographers (Cats, Phantom Of The Opera) and has directed more than 50 shows in the West End and on Broadway as well as a number of TV productions
— Tim
Anyone Know What This Is?
02
Jul
A Picture Quiz
… Below photo added after winning answer by Tassie Devil
— Tim
