THE BARON OF MULHOLLAND: A Daughter Remembers Errol Flynn

The delightful Ava B -- yes, that's her legal name -- called me a few years ago and told me that she'd informed her friend Rory that she needed to collaborate with me on a memoir about life with her father.

"Who's her father?" was, of course, the first question to ask.

"Errol Flynn."

"When can we meet?"

Flynn, eminent swashbuckler and bon vivant, film idol and under-appreciated classical actor, whose devil-may-care attitude and lust for life made him an easy target for contemporary morality boards, not to mention J. Edgar Hoover, has been the subject of more books than just about any other Hollywood personality.

And for good reason. While these days the announcement of each year's Number One Box Office personality usually means that an actor was lucky enough to be cast in that year's blockbuster hit, Flynn was Number One Box Office worldwide every year for nearly a decade. He presented a rather large target, especially to those looking to fling a handful of mud that might just stick long enough for their books to make the bestseller list.

When I learned that Rory had a large private collection of her father's writings along with numerous family photographs, I could hardly wait to help her mine the trove for treasure.

Rory I found to be intelligent and sophisticated, and with a great sense of humor -- well, we laughed at each other's jokes, at least -- and very much her father's strong-minded daughter. Rory made it clear that she wanted to write the book she wanted to write. When talks with publishers revealed that they were only interested in what as-yet-untold scandals Rory could share, those talks were short indeed.

"No one knows the story of my father as a family man," she said. "But he put a lot of energy and a great sense of adventure into that, too. That's the story I want to tell."

I proposed that we begin by meeting once a week for 3 or 4 hours and just sharing stories. Eventually, I assured Rory, the structure of the book would reveal itself.

Rory decided to give it a try and thus began several weeks of me sharing very personal, behind-the-scenes stories about the greatest film legend of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Not bad. In the end, she convinced me that I would have really enjoyed knowing her father -- though I am also pretty sure it would've been hard for me to keep up with him.

Rory also spent time debunking many of the scurrilous yarns that have been circulated about her dad over the years, the sorts of things that have always prevented his recognition by leading industry groups like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, even long after they were proven to be complete fabrications.

"For one thing, they all said he chased every skirt in Hollywood -- Not so!" exclaimed Rory with a laugh, pulling out a close-up of the beatific Errol gazing off dreamily into the distance. "Look at that face. The truth was, my father never had to chase anyone. He had to beat them off with a stick!"

In my next post I'll share an excerpt about the advantages of living in the house that Flynn designed after a typical Australian ranch. More information on the book can be found on Rory's web site at http://www.inlikeflynn.com.