Errol Flynn Once Traded in Papua

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22468, 11 July 1936, Page 16 (Supplement)

Errol Flynn Once Traded in Papua

ACTOR'S ROMANTIC RISE BY IVAN PALMER Yet another "unknown" has won film fame in Hollywood: it was because Errol Flynn, the handsome AustralianIrishman who won the acclaim of critics the world over lor his dashing performnaco in " Captain Blood," owned a small trading cutter in Papua, that he is now one of the most popular leading men in films. His craft was chartered for a travel film by Charles Chauvel, who later gave Flynn his first chance in films as Fletcher Christian in the. Australian Broduction, "In the Wake of the ounty." Then ho was given a chance in Hollywood and "Captain Blood" was the result. It seems a long way from the wilds of Papua to tho Kleig lights of Hollywood. In tho course of a world cruise in the 32-ft. American ketch Idle Hour, we met in Port Moresby many people who knew Flynn in his adventurous Papuan days. For a day Idle Hour was berthed at tho same wharf as Fiynn's former cutter. ' Tho vessel —at ono time one of Sydney's fastest pleasure cutters—was sailed'by Flynn and a companion to Port Moresby in 1930. Flynn traded with tho vessel up and down the Papuan coast until it passed out of his hands after being on a reef. At different times afterward he was gold prospecting, recruiting labour and generally living a life of adventure far from civilisation and moving pictures. At Port Moresby, for instance, the talking picture theatre is only open on Saturday nights. It is a semi-outdoor type, built chiefly of corrugated iron. Admission is 3s a person. _ In a letter to a friend in Port Moresby Errol Flynn described his experiences in Hollywood and said he had signed a contract to three moro pictures, including "Robin Hood" and "The Charge of the Light Brigade." It will be remembered that " Robin Hood" was ono of Douglas Fairbanks' most successful silent pictures.