Out now! Get yours here July 1, 2008
Posted by fred in : Books, Early days, Errol Flynn , 1 comment so far
Errol Flynn and the Sword of Fate is now available. At more than 130 pages with more than 130 illustrations — and a special Errol Flynn tour of Hobart, his home town — it’s the brightest book yet published about Tasmania’s most famous son.
Read about his mysterious ancestry, his colourful parents and his mischievous youth before he embarked on a life that became a legend both on and off the screen — and a family connection with the dramatic mutiny on the Bounty.
At just $A25 (plus $6.00 postage anywhere in Australia) it’s a bargain no Flynn fan will want to miss.
USA & Canada addresses: Errol Flynn and the Sword of Fate is $A25.00 plus $A15.00 for postage & packing.
UK & Europe addresses: Errol Flynn and the Sword of Fate is $A25.00 plus $A18.00 for postage & packing.
Following the ghost of Flynn May 24, 2008
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Perhaps the spirit of Errol Flynn still haunts Hollywood — but those who know about such things say his presence is strongest in his home town, Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, Australia’s island state.
Errol Flynn and the Sword of Fate tells about his mischievous boyhood and his often turbulent early life — and he is still a controversial figure in the city.
There was a hot dispute, sparked by narrow-minded residents, between the Tasmanian government and Hobart City Council over the naming of a beachside park after him which ended with the council defying the government; now the park, a dog exercising area, is known as the Errol Flynn Reserve.
This is just one of more than thirty locations described and illustrated in the book’s Errol Flynn Tour of Hobart, which comes complete with a map specially drawn by one of Hobart’s most experienced taxi drivers, who still occasionally conducts Flynn tours for enthusiasts who want to gain a sense of the star’s origins.
The tour starts with his birthplace in quaint Battery Point and ends with Drifters Internet Café, where there is a large collection of Errol Flynn memorabilia.
Errol Flynn and the Sword of Fate is due for release in June.
Coming soon: Errol Flynn and the Sword of Fate April 25, 2008
Posted by admin in : Books, Errol Flynn , 7comments
This new book by Bob Casey, a founder of the Errol Flynn Society of Tasmania, puts paid to many scandalous myths about history’s greatest Hollywood swashbuckler — and raises some interesting questions about his ancestry.
Casey says ‘Earl Conrad’s book Errol Flynn: A Memoir (1978) gives some valuable insights into the actor’s life but like Flynn’s autobiography, My Wicked, Wicked Ways it is not always reliable.
‘It is not surprising that Flynn’s recollections were clouded. By 1959, his memory was notoriously bad—not helped by years of hard drinking. Many believe he was a compulsive liar; at the very least, he firmly believed the truth should never get in the way of a good story.’
So was Flynn a direct descendant of Midshipman Edward Young of HMS Bounty, as he and many others have claimed?
One possible bloodline involves one of Midshipman Young’s sons faking his death and spending time with the sexy young Queen of Tahiti. It’s a fascinating story, worthy of an Errol Flynn movie.
Due for release in June to mark the 99th anniversary of Flynn’s birth, the full-colour book has plenty of entertaining asides about Flynn’s turbulent life and times.
Romance in Tahiti April 25, 2008
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Errol Flynn’s first film, In the Wake of the Bounty, contained documentary footage of erotic dancing by bare-breasted Tahitian women, which caused major problems with the Australian censors.
Director Charles Chauvel objected strenuously when the film was seized and several cuts were ordered; he even made threats to the Minister for Customs.
After all this fuss, most of the dancing sequences were restored and the film premiered in Sydney in March, 1933. Little was said about Errol Flynn’s performance as Fletcher Christian, but many raved about the Tahitian scenes.
Hollywood Bound April 25, 2008
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There are several different versions of how the unknown and totally inexperienced Errol Flynn was chosen to play Fletcher Christian in In the Wake of the Bounty (1933). Writer and director Charles Chauvel supposedly saw a photo of Flynn after his yacht was wrecked off the Queensland coast and thought he had the necessary charisma.
According to John Hammond Moore in The Young Errol: Flynn Before Hollywood, a photo of Flynn and his mates on board Sirocco was published in a Sydney newspaper. However, that was more than two years earlier and it’s unlikely that Chauvel kept the photo “on the mere chance that he might make a movie and perhaps require the services of a completely unknown individual”.
Moore claims the budding film star was actually spotted on Sydney’s Bondi Beach by actor and casting agent, John Warwick, who arranged a meeting between Flynn and Chauvel in the Long Bar of the Hotel Australia.
Chauvel then chose Warwick to play Midshipman Young, and the three of them must surely have chatted about Flynn’s ancestry. Flynn’s scenes, including a re-enactment of the mutiny, were shot at the Cinesound studios in Sydney. Elsa Chauvel remembered the novice actor as a male butterfly who “breezed into our lives, caused trouble with the girls in the studio, and left”.
In like Flynn April 25, 2008
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Flynn had a cavalier attitude towards sex throughout his adult life, but especially after his statutory rape trial. He frequented brothels and had a one-way mirror in his Hollywood home so he could observe his guests making love.
But his biggest weakness was young girls. David Niven remembered driving to Hollywood High School where Flynn described the girls as jailbait or ‘San Quentin quail’.
Flynn should have learned his lesson after his statutory rape trial in 1943 but continued having sex with young girls, including fifteen-year-old Beverly Aadland.
They met in 1957 when he was playing John Barrymore in Too Much, Too Soon and she was filming dance sequences for Marjorie Morningstar.
Errol called Beverly ‘Woodsie’, because she reminded him of a wood nymph, and she was the ‘small companion’ to whom he dedicated My Wicked, Wicked Ways.