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Mail Bag! Thomas McNulty: Remembrance of Heroes Errol Flynn

07 Oct

 

Hello David,
Here is some off-track trivia and random thoughts. All of these years later and Errol Flynn comes back to me in bits and pieces; rising from the depths of our cultural swamp with startling clarity. All of sudden there he is staring back at me from a stack of old Life magazines in some faraway antique shop; or grinning mischievously from some faded old movie magazine along with Roy Rogers and Trigger. I believe I own at least four copies of the famous Life magazine issue, last purchased at a flea market in June for five dollars and in perfect condition. I think of these images as “Lost America” which I’ve written about celebrating our remembrance of heroes and icons from yesteryear. I shouldn’t be surprised by this, although I am. A thousand years from now this image of Errol Flynn on horseback from Rocky Mountainwill no doubt find itself under scrutiny in some digital time-stream, lost in the nebulas of a galaxy swallowed by a black hole, perused by alien eyes, celebrated in song by the civilizations of our intergalactic future. This image has come to represent the iconic personification of the ideal Western hero. Of these images, my personal favorite is the Norman A. Fox paperback reprint by Dell in 1973, a fine novel that Fox reportedly wrote after meeting Audie Murphy on the set of Night Passage with James Stewart, based on Fox’s novel. Fox dedicated Rope the Wind to Audie Murphy who had encouraged Fox to write a novel that involved horses. Rope the Wind is a pretty damn good Western, too. They Called Him Calhoonis from the catalogue of Cleveland Westerns out of Australia, which strikes me as appropriate. Cleveland Westerns are the last pulp fiction Western digest magazines worldwide. The author, Brett McKinley, is a pseudonym for Paul Wheelahan, a prolific Australian author credited for writing hundreds of westerns for both Cleveland Publishing and Hale’s Black Horse Western imprint. There are more, but the Rocky Mountain image shows up constantly. I recently showed this still from Rocky Mountain to a young lass who shall remain nameless, and I asked her if she knew who this was and what did she think of the image? She squinted and pursed her lips, and finally said, “I don’t know who he is, but I wish there were men like him around today.” Need we say more?
Best wishes,
Tom

— David DeWitt

 

Paris or The Paris?

07 Oct

Lust at First Sight, no doubt – But where did that first sighting occur?

Where did Errol first see Lili?

Was it here, in Paris?

www.youtube.com…

Or was it here, on the SS Paris?

— Tim

 

“The Universe Itself”

06 Oct

“One look at Flynn and you know he’s a star, and you know he’s the perfect choice for a daring rogue character. His charisma is what sustains the film, you immediately understand why Blood can manage to lead an exceptionally loyal crew and can somehow manage to get power in Port Royal even as he’s a slave. Flynn is a magnetic actor, and even when the plot falls into handy coincidences – which it does often, including having the Spanish fleet salvage a foiled plan – one feels as though the universe itself is charmed by Flynn.”

www.yorktonthisweek.com…

— Tim

 

Last Letter to Tasmania?

04 Oct

books.google.com…

It’s doubtful Errol attended this Christian Brothers “College”, but, if he did, it would not have been for long!

“St Patrick’s College was built towards the end of the First World War and dedicated in 1918. It opened for boys in 1919. The architect for the building was Mr A Harold Masters and the builders were Hinman, Wright and Manser. The style is typical of the Federation era and is known as ‘blood and bandages’ (note the bands of bricks and ‘plastered’ bands flowing from the windows). The cost was a little over £10,000 pounds.

The Christian Brothers taught boys from Grade 3 through to Leaving and Matriculation class. (Now Grade 12).”

— Tim

 

Better Than All of Errol’s!?! — Put Together!?!

01 Oct

“This story has more drama and twists and hair raising adventures than all of Errol Flynn’s movies put together.”

m.filmfare.com…

We shall see about that!

— Tim

 

Who was Jack Warner’s Favorite WB Star?

01 Oct

He or she was:

Born in Europe

Made no films in Europe

Did not win an Academy Award

Has a star on Hollywood Boulevard

No other star had his or her first or last name

Was one of Warner Brothers’ most important and beloved stars

— Tim

 

Writer Louis Kraft Weighs in on Errol Flynn!

29 Sep

Louis Kraft sent some information to us regarding Steve & Genene’s 2018 trip to the United States and it is filled with such great information and links that I just had to turn his comments into a stand alone post!

You know Louis Kraft as a writer and lecturer with three books in the works regarding Errol Flynn. Read about Louis Kraft on his website WriterLouisKraft.com….

Check out his books at Amazon.com….

                                                                                                                                   © Pailin Subanna-Kraft

Hi David,

I hope that the following may be of interest to you and others interested in Errol Flynn (and Olivia de Havilland).

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills might be of interest (www.oscars.org…). They also have a link for their new museum that hasn’t been completed yet: (www.oscars.org…). Unfortunately I can’t find a link to the small research library the Academy had hidden away upstairs. I had visited it a number of times during the 1980s or early 1990s before I officially began researching a book on Flynn. Perhaps the Herrick Museum has replaced what I saw decades ago (www.oscars.org…). I haven’t been to the Herrick Museum yet, but it is on my to do list when I finally get to Flynn full time (as is returning to the USC Warner Bros. Archive; I have probably another decade of research there for two additional books on Flynn (see below).

The Television Academy on Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood is less than two miles from my house (www.emmys.com…). I have never visited it or looked at their website, so I don’t know what is there.

I highly recommend the USC Warner Bros. Archive, which is just off the campus to the east side of the CA 110 Freeway (libraries.us…). I don’t if you can get in as I think that the archive only has room for six people on any given day (back when I was still researching there they were open four days/week from 10 to 4:30 by appointment only). Worse, I believe they only accept visitors that are university students researching projects, professional writers researching projects, and film and music staff researching for their companies (but I’m certain that this is not set in stone). Research there is time consuming. For example: It took me two months to get through The Adventures of Robin Hood file (two boxes) as I look at everything and read most of it. Reservations are required, and they fill up quickly. Also, the researcher to state exactly what he or she is researching (and for what project).

The Doheny Library (libraries.us…) is on the USC campus. I don’t know exactly what is there, but there is more cinema archival material, and from what I’ve heard this includes Jack Warner’s papers.

Oh, if you have time you might consider the Autry Museum of the American West (formerly the Autry National Center) in Griffith Park (I-5 and CA-134 Freeways and just a few miles east of where Errol and Pat are buried at Forrest Lawn) and about eight miles from my house (theautry.org… and theautry.org…). A number of years back the great Southwest Museum merged with the Autry. I had researched the two 1880s Charles Gatewood, Geronimo, and Apache wars & the Ned Wynkoop 1860s Cheyenne wars books (I compared Wynkoop to Flynn in the book); and my current project on the1864 Sand Creek Massacre, which also deals with the Cheyennes and Wynkoop at the Braun History Library. This library as well as the then Autry National Center’s research library both closed forever in 2014 (at least for me; and I had done research at the Autry’s library also). Both will soon reopen as one new research facility currently called the Resources Center of the Autry (it will be between 100,000 and 111,000 square feet), which is about six miles from my house (theautry.org…). The last time I checked the opening was scheduled for 2019. (They now between them house a lot of my Indian wars work and at least two Flynn articles.) Not sure how much Flynn the Autry has, but it began as basically a film and TV museum for Gene A., which honored himself and western film and TV.

I don’t know if you’ve seen all of the blogs below, … but they may be of interest to Flynn and de Havilland fans:

13aug2013: www.louiskraftwriter.com…

30nov2013: www.louiskraftwriter.com…

28mar2014: www.louiskraftwriter.com…

31jan2015: www.louiskraftwriter.com…

25oct2015: www.louiskraftwriter.com…

8jul2016: www.louiskraftwriter.com…

3jul2017: www.louiskraftwriter.com…

31aug2017: www.louiskraftwriter.com…

From Amazon:
Kraft is currently working to complete SAND CREEK AND THE TRAGIC END OF A LIFEWAY for OU Press. His book on Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland during their working time together during the Golden Age of Cinema (ERROL & OLIVIA) also moves toward conclusion.

Thanks, Louis!

— David DeWitt

 
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Where it all began!

27 Sep

No sooner Captain Blood hit the cinemas Errol dabbled already in Texas Gold! Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea!
January 22. 1936

Hurray, I did it! Finally!

— Tina

 
 

“Errol’s Claim to Fame”?

26 Sep

Lot’s of Fun on Cresta Run … But did “Fanatical Flynn” “Never Finish”?

www.bbc.com…

Or did he finish once?

www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/ski/articles/Skiing-in-St-Moritz-head-first-down-the-Cresta-Run/…

With the slowest time in history, after a stop for champagne?

www.palmbeachdailynews.com…

The Infamous “Horseshoe Curve”:

— Tim

 

In An Ascot at Alta

25 Sep

“Only Errol Flynn could pull off wearing a short-sleeve shirt and ascot while skiing at Alta”

books.google.com…

“The coolest ski lodge in the US is a 78 year old building in Utah that resembles a 1940s prep-school dorm with a few added Bauhaus touches. Imagine cement-block walls, mid-century industrial Bertoia chairs, and floor-to-ceiling windows with eye-popping views of the slopes. Then imagine that it’s booked solid for much of the ski season with Park Avenue families and well-heeled West Coasters who’ve been coming for generations.”

“It’s called the Alta Lodge, and it has the catbird seat at Alta Ski Area, famed for the 500 plus inches of champagne powder that falls from the skies above the Wasatch every winter.”

“Errol Flynn and Claudette Colbert used to visit back in the day, and Alfred Hitchcock used the lodge as a location in his film Spellbound.”

www.forbes.com…

www.altahistory.org…

— Tim