The Errol Flynn Blog

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3530941/Bed-hopping-heiress-proves-NEVER-old-kiss-tell-92-Gloria-Vanderbilt-reveals-seduced-Sinatra-Brando-Errol-Flynn-Howard-Hughes-uninhibited-memoir.html…

Hi all Gloria Vanderbilt and her son have written a book about all the men she has seduced in her life and 1 of them is our man. Great story and pictures and 1 really good 1 of Errol.

Love Genene

— tassie devil

8Our chum, Karl Holmberg sends this eBay item to us, a great photo of Shirly Hassau. I have a personal connection to her daughter Marilyn now Lynn McCormick who opened her home to an impromptu gathering on the occasion of my father Earl DeWitt suddenly passing away of a heart attack in 1977. Alone for a moment in her kitchen she told me she had only seen her father two or three times as a child. She was raised by the Salvation Army, she said. She told me how sorry she was for my loss, and said it was a huge loss for AA, too. Her husband was also a member, and so was my father who with a partner opened the first Halfway House for alcoholics in Washington State.

Thanks Karl!

— David DeWitt

Have any of you here ever read this book by professor and author Peter Valenti; Errol Flynn – A Bio-Bibliography..?

I bought this book as soon as it came out (’84) back then and found it interesting. It prods through difrent avenues in what was, could’ve been, and what other authors wrote about him, etc.; his movies – radio, interviews – personal letters, etc. etc…..; an objective evaluation of Errol’s total life.

Curious to know what anyone else thought about it?

@ David,  has Rory ever mentioned anything about this book in as far as you know? wonder what she thought of it also…

I recently found out that he and his wife, who is also a writer, live no more than a possible mile or two from me in our little NC golf mecca known as Pinehurst NC. (US Open tourneys held here)

I have been trying to get his email address and/or phone number in seeing if he would maybe get together over a cup of coffee or drinks, to further discus his book on our man Flynn.

I know he has been a professor of English at Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, NC for many years, and from what I know, still continues too. I was thinking of going that rout, but I surely don’t want him to think I am stalker or whatever since I don’t have any real professional means in this, not writing a book, etc. , just simply for my own personal knowledge. He had have to make some real hard research and maybe did not write it all down in this book – its like making a record and then some time later after its release you wished you could have added or deleted something from it – and in this I am thinking maybe he left out a little nugget!

Well merry men and woman of Sherwood, what do you think, to crazy?????

In any case tell what you think of the book anyway, that’s what I wanted in the first place. (sigh!)……….

— Sergio

Sean Leslie Flynn

— ILIKEFLYNN

I always raveled in Errol’s funny telling tales as when he young and down and out Down-Under, such as my fav;  having to take a job castrating sheep with his teeth, all the while his nose was stuck up their crusty arse’s !!! (LOL!)

I know he was down and out real bad, but they did have shears for that job, I don’t think that the owners would have demanded this from him and/or anyone else for that mater. But, it does make a fun and crazy tale in which the Flynnster himself can be believed by millions, due to knowing his adventure’s and ballsy (pun) way of life in which he lived it…

This one definitely one of my favorite funny tales only Errol can tell it;  I laugh along with him, not against…Baaaaaaa….

— Sergio

The Mail Bag brings an interesting item today.

David,

I live in NYC and have just found a cache of Dr Erben material, some of it in German, from the estate of the late Rudolf Stoiber, renowned Austrian journalist and playwright. Some of it is letters to and from Frederick Justh, in which Justh defends a Dr Miorini with whom Erben was living in China.

That part is auf Deutsch and I will translate slowly and carefully, along with other material.

A large part of it is an unpublished manuscript from Joan Erben, the wife he married by impressing that he was Errol Flynn’s best friend. It too will take time to read and digest, but already I have the opinion that she spent the rest of her life miserable seeing that her husband was a thief and a liar, and nobody’s best friend. Poor girl. The manuscript was sent to Charles Higham ca. 1979, and then copied to Stoiber. 

Both, I understand, feel that Flynn was a nazi. So far as I can see there is no proof.

I look forward to going through this in the weeks to come and meeting you here in NYC where you can take a look. Also, if you have time, you can meet a Jewish friend of mine who was an American Army officer in charge of the Berlin Autobhan ca. 1952, when he was asked to escort a visitor to the film fest, to wit, Errol Flynn. He tells me that Flynn and his wife were excellent company and that through Flynn he got a job; and that later, he worked at TRUE as an editor when TRUE ran a bio on Flynn. Hopefully he will find the photo taken of himself with Flynn and provide more details when we meet in NYC.

Regards,

Ken Gibson

These Nazi claims by Higham has been rather thoroughly debunked by researchers and scholars, and some of the Stoiber material has been translated from German before but the Joan Erben manuscript is new to me. Should be intersting to hear what Ken thinks of the material after he has has had a chance to study it.

Thanks, Ken!

— David DeWitt