What is the name of this boat?

— David DeWitt

We all know Errol Loved his pets … and they Loved him! … That being the case …

With the double-digits & wonderful spirit of December now upon us, I’d like to initiate an identification of and tribute to Errol’s astonishing lifelong menagerie of pets – his dogs, his horses, his cats, his monkeys, his parrots, his goats, his pigs, his fox, his lion cub, his peacocks, his sheep, his snake(s), and all others – commencing with ‘Man (or perhaps Dog) Friday’ and whatever native pets he may have had in Tasmania and mainland Australia – including, of course, any of the very rarely kept Tasmanian Devils or Tigers, platypodes, wallabies, kangaroos, and/or any other indigenous ‘pets’ he may have ‘held’ for any length of time through his father. And, as some of us will recall, he once had some ducks.

Together, with this identification of pets, it would be wonderful to include any photos, descriptions, and stories of interest, including how Errol came to obtain his pets, how he named them, where and when they were in his life, whatever happened to them, etc.

Also, any thoughts/feelings about what Errol’s profound love of animals said about him as a person??

To start things off, here’s one of many wonderful relevant photos! Anyone know the story on this one? Perhaps at Mulholland??

All photos & stories regarding Daisy (aka Man Friday), Arno, Onyx, Moody, Bes-Mudi (aka Bes Nov, Bes Novi & Besnovitch), Chula, Greno, Cold Nose, Peewee, Jack & Mike, Guyceewee, (and all others!) are greatly welcomed and encouraged!

P.S. Isn’t it intriguing that the Flynn coat-of-arms includes an heraldic canine, as on the elegant trivet at the top of this tab!?! Errol surely knew and appreciated that, of course.

THANK YOU TO TINA FOR THE GREAT PHOTO OF ERROL ABOVE!!!

— Tim

At a banquet following the premiere of “The Drum”,(starring Sabu) producer Alexander Korda sat across from Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. and realized his next film would be a remake of “The Thief of Bagdad”. In this new tale, Sabu would play the Thief but not the love interest. Korda wanted a proven leading man and so devised a new role, that of a Prince who forges a friendship with the young Thief. But who to play the dashing role? Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. seemed obvious but turned it down, not wanting to “ape” his father. Korda soon set his eye on Fairbanks’ heir apparent, Errol Flynn. But would Jack Warner agree to loan him out? The answer, of course, was “yes”… for a price of two-hundred thousand dollars and the rights to distribute the film in the U.S. For his part, Flynn was thrilled to return to England to shoot, though he resented only receiving his normal paycheck when it was his name that Korda was paying for. The resulting film was an instant classic and became the first fantasy film (and first to star Flynn) to win the Best Picture Oscar.

— zacal

A few questions regarding the history of Errol’s regal sobriquet – “The Baron”:

Is there any definite evidence of WHO originated the name? Most often, if not always, it’s been attributed to Jack Warner. Is that certain and, if so, WHEN did he first use that in reference to Errol? And WHY? Is the name an allusion to Baron Munchhausen, known for his telling of impossibly fantastic tales? Or is the name a reference to what could be seen as Errol’s Baronial manner? Or possibly his being a “land baron” with the acquisition of Mulholland Estate?

There appear to be POSSIBLE origins with The Olympiads, maybe even with Raoul Walsh or Ida Lupino. Certainly – though it’s been written that only Jack Warner contemporaneously called him Baron – that’s not true; both Walsh & “Scout” (Errol’s name for Ida) did, also, among others, I believe.

So, what’s the true history of “The Baron”?? Was it Warner’s creation, or adoption?

— Tim

The Seafarers’ Festival presents a special focus on

‘Errol Flynn the Seafarer’

The annual Seafarers’ Festival will celebrate the swashbuckling career of Errol Flynn in a jammed packed day on Sunday 27 October at the Bellerive Boardwalk.

Errol Flynn is much loved by Tasmanians for his work on the silver screen but he is not often recognised for his achievements as a seafarer. In his youth Errol Flynn was an avid sea goer with his father Theodore and in his early adult life he sailed to New Guinea aboard his beautiful yacht Sirocco. There he managed a tobacco plantation and a copper mine amongst other things before forging his career as an actor of wide renown.

The Sirocco, which has hosted many famous names in the heyday of Hollywood and has been a regular sight at top Mediterranean venues for decades, will be a centrepiece at this year’s Seafarers’ Festival. To read more about the Sirocco click here.

Supporting the glittering Hollywood theme, MC Ryk Goddard will bring all the elements of stage and water activities together with the panache of a Hollywood movie star. The cast from Big Monkey will present extracts from their performance of Robin Hood, there will be roving crusty pirates, and the University of Tasmania Fencing Society will present swashbuckling demonstrations.

There’s also a new water-sideshow-alley with the popular ‘dunk the pirate’, Fishcare fishing, ‘Fling a Fish’ and for the first time you can walk on water inside a fabulous water ball.

With over 40 stalls around the site you’ll find maritime and historic information intermingles with fine food stalls, a Moo Brew bar and a great stage program of music, dance and theatre.  The Bellerive Yacht Club will hold a Bosuns Locker Sale and the promenade will be buzzing with a range of fine arts and craft stalls.

This year the popular Betta Milk Raft Challenge will be judged by special guests and Frank and Nikki and there will be great opportunities for Festival goers to get out on the water aboard the Lady Nelson or the Huon Paddle Boats.

A full program will be available at the Clarence City Council website soon so please check www.cc….au/seafarers for more information over coming days!

WHAT:           Seafarers’ Festival

WHEN:          Sunday 27 October from 10.30am to 4pm

WHO:        The glamorous Ryk Goddard

                      The alluring Big Monkey theatre troupe

                      The daring Frank and Nikki

                      The simply stunning Sirocco

For further information contact the events team on 6245 8638 or ar***********@*********ov.au

— tassie devil

You can now login to The Errol Flynn Blog on your iPhone or iPad after some work on the part of our blog host Pressharbor! I am making this posting via an iPhone. The extra WordPress security username has been set to errolflynn with password efb – this allows the single pop up on an iPhone or iPad to allow access to the normal WordPress login page without compromising security messures now added to all WordPress blogs.

Now, you can login to the EFB from anywhere!

— David DeWitt

My review of “The Last of Robin Hood”

I saw the movie on Friday 13, 2013 at its world premier at the Toronto International Film Festival – TIFF.

It is a great movie and very, very tastefully done and I had a ball! One has to appreciate that this is not a high budget film, we all knew that anyway but for me it was done extremely well. Most likely the directors said afterwards maybe we could have done it this or that way. Hindsight is always 20/20 vision, we all do it and most likely I will do the same with my review. Oh, I forgot to say this and that!

The credits were enormous, I would say more than hundred names came up and of course our very own Robert Florczak was amongst them! Congratulation Robert, a job well done!

The actors are really well chosen!

Kevin Kline portrays Errol extremely well. What a great actor to duplicate Errol so well, which I would say – a most difficult task indeed! Kevin Kline has his gestures, how he applied his charm in various situations and or how he bewilders Florence, his haughtiness or flamboyancy at times or his fun loving nature, Kevin Kline shows it all.
The make-up artists did a great job as he looked quite a lot like Errol.
What a superb acting in his malaria attack and in particular the dying scene just gripping, totally outstanding. Tears came to my eyes!

Susan Sarandon plays Florence very well. Of course, not knowing Florence it is hard to tell how authentic Susan Sarandon was – but she made me believe – yes – this most likely was Florence. As a matter of fact one could feel how disappointed Florence was with her life and her dreams not materializing and as she tries to live her life through her daughter by trying to make her a star. Susan Sarandon reveals in her portrayal, right or wrong, that she tried her best to make a dream come true, if not for herself at least for Beverly. Florence not a well educated woman and therefore thought that Errol is the answer to her prayers. Susan Sarandon’s performance is so genuine of a stage struck mother who would walk on hot coals to get what she wants.

Dakota Fanning plays a very lovely Beverly and again as Beverly is not known to us at that time in her life the judgment of performance how the real Beverly was is very hard. In the movie she plays an obedient daughter and lives her mother’s dream until she meets Errol. She then is much more interested in Errol than in a stage carrier. At least that’s how it comes across in the movie. She plays a passive very nice Beverly not at all like described in Earl Conrad’s “A Memoir”. As a matter of fact, I did not really believe Earl Conrad’s description of Beverly as coarse, ill-mouthed teenager. Maybe he was out for sensational writing to sell his book. It is very sad that in our society writings have to have tainted, grimy and/or scandalous content in order to appeal to the public. And of course anybody who was in the writing business took advantage of Errol making his escapades 10 times worse than they really were. When ever there was a possibility they were over him like vulgers.

Dakota Fanning fits the role very well. She gives Beverly warmth and sensitivity. She had to have some of these qualities as Errol himself was always very well mannered. He would have not put up with bad, ill mannered and swearing behavior.
Dakota Fanning is a very good actress and gives a great performance in portraying Beverly!

The Film shows that Errol and Beverly had a very nice believable relationship. We must here consider what is written by authors that Errol never outlived his youth, judging by his often immature mischievous behavior.  Maybe Beverly gave him a kind of reliving youth or fulfilled a yearning of his soul; we don’t know – only Errol and Beverly know what was what!  I think their love for each other was genuine.

Who are we or anybody for that matter to judge this relationship or any relationship?  Are we Judge and Jury like those scandalous News Mongers who are able to make out of a fly an elephant?  It was the media who blew everything out of context, adding and weaving nasty vicious connotations into this relationship or into anything and with it brainwashing the public to believe these distortions.  In my opinion it is a crime what these reporters and or critics are allowed to do with their vicious reporting and often destroy lives in their quest of sensationalizing news by twisting and turning the truth.

My mother always used to say and very wisely so “Sweep the dirt in front of your own door you will have no time to sweep at somebody else’s door”!

The movie does not show any actual places and leaves out Jamaica altogether. It does not say anything about the writing of MWWW.
But to show it all, most likely the movie would need to be five hours long. Yet it does touch on many of the places they were and it is very well done, considering the budget.
Beverly is seen in a shot on a yacht, representing the Zaca, so maybe there is truth in it that Errol and Beverly visited the Zaca on their way home from Africa. Or when they made a trip to England and went from there to see the Zaca. The trip to England is not mentioned in the movie either but like I said, it is impossible to show it all.

A very nice touch at the end was that they showed a picture of Errol and another one from Beverly.
I think it is a very good movie and everybody should see it. If I have a chance and find it playing some place I most definitely see it again or if a DVD is produced – I buy it.
I am so happy to have had the chance to see it! Maybe not so bad to live in Toronto after all!

I had a great time and I wish you the same when you will see it!

— Tina

We tip our hat to Tim Reid for discovering this!

Northampton, England

— David DeWitt