![]() “Flynn worshiped Barrymore, and he created this wacky corpse-swiping saga to give his idol a resurrection of shorts, temporary though it was.” “It was Errol Flynn, I believe, who originally made up this morbid tall tale, and Raoul Walsh was all too happy to support it (after all, it’s a hell of a story),” Mank tells Mental Floss. Fields, Errol Flynn and the Bundy Drive Boys, finds Fowler's claim “far more credible” than Flynn’s or Walsh’s. Gregory William Mank, author of Hollywood’s Hellfire Club: The Misadventures of John Barrymore, W.C. The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images Gene Fowler practicing for his next all-night vigil. In a 1977 biography of Barrymore, author John Kobler alleged that the only visitor was a prostitute who “knelt and prayed and continued on her way in silence.” But according to Gene Fowler’s son Will, he and his father sat vigil beside Barrymore’s body for the entire night, and at no point was it whisked off by Walsh or anyone else. The similarities between the two stories would suggest that Barrymore’s corpse did briefly leave the morgue the night after he died. When Walsh told the undertaker that Barrymore had been to visit Flynn, he replied, “Why, if I’d known you were going to take him up there, I would have put a better suit on him.” The Bundy Drive Fabulists “Looks like he might be dead!” Flynn, after seeing the body, ran out and retreated behind a bush, shouting that they’d all end up in San Quentin State Prison for the prank. ![]() ![]() According to his 1974 memoir, Walsh enlisted Flynn’s inebriated butler to help him jockey the corpse onto a corner of the couch. Walsh recounted his side of the story throughout the 1970s. FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty Images “It was no way to remember the passing of John Barrymore,” he wrote.Įrrol Flynn in The Dawn Patrol (1938). I let out a delirious scream.”įlynn got as far as the front porch before Walsh and the others caught up, explaining that it was “only a gag.” They returned Barrymore to the funeral parlor, while Flynn spent a sleepless night “shaken and sobered” by the prank. “The lights went on and my God-I stared into the face of Barrymore!” Flynn remembered. In Flynn’s version of the story, director Raoul Walsh and two friends persuaded the caretaker to let them borrow the body for an hour by spinning a sob story about Barrymore’s housebound old aunt who wanted “a final look at her beloved nephew.” After sealing the deal with a $200 bribe, the body-snatchers brought Barrymore to Flynn’s house, arranged him in Flynn’s favorite chair, and waited for the unsuspecting actor to return from the bar. The earliest written reference to the tale is from Errol Flynn’s memoir My Wicked, Wicked Ways, penned by ghostwriter Earl Conrad and published just months after Flynn’s death in 1959. And even if it did, the occasion probably wasn’t a spirited, booze-filled fête to rival Weekend at Bernie’s. While Drew’s corroboration would seem to settle the matter, it’s still possible that her grandfather’s body never left the morgue at all. Evans followed up by asking Drew if her grandfather’s postmortem festivities had also inspired the 1989 black comedy Weekend at Bernie’s, to which she replied, “I’ve heard things, but I can’t know ever if that’s even true.” that’s just brilliant and fun to watch.” In the 1981 film, the deceased protagonist-a film producer played by Richard Mulligan-is spirited away from the funeral home and buried at sea. “Not only yes,” Drew answered, “but there have been cinematic interpretations of that. Fields, Errol Flynn, and Sadakichi Hartmann so that they could prop him up against a poker table and throw one last party with the guy?” host Sean Evans asked. “Is it true that your grandfather’s body was stolen from the morgue by W.C.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |