Edward Winter
Olivia de Havilland and Errol
Flynn (1942; see below in a Kingpin 1998 item)
Which musical composer wrote, in consecutive years, two entirely different pieces which were both entitled The Chess Game?
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The composer was Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957). They were featured in the Errol Flynn films The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939) and The Sea Hawk (1940). Numerous recordings of the scores are available, the most complete ones apparently being from Varese Sarabande (VSD-5696 and VSD-47304 respectively).
(2986)
Some years ago (see pages 230-232 of Kings, Commoners and Knaves) we discussed chess connections involving Viveca Lindfors and Errol Flynn, who co-starred in the 1948 film Adventures of Don Juan. In passing we described Viveca Lindfors as ‘the only screen goddess lucky enough to marry a FIDE President’ (i.e. Folke Rogard). This 1946 photograph of the couple appeared in her autobiography Viveka ... Viveca (New York, 1981):
She was later married to the actor and writer George Tabori, and her book also has the following shot, ‘the first picture of the Tabori-Lindfors family in the house on 95th Street’:
A photograph of Viveca Lindfors from opposite page 63 of Viveka ... Viveca:
Errol Flynn (1909-59) is chiefly remembered for his swashbuckling films and off-screen embroilments, but he was also a vividly eloquent novelist and journalist.
He received a brief mention on page 79 of the 14 November 1937 issue of CHESS:
‘Errol Flynn is another film-star chess-ite.’
Page 61 of Errol Flynn in Northampton by Gerry Connelly (Corby, 1995) reported:
‘Flynn might not have been an Einstein or a Socrates, but he always took intelligent approaches to his film rôles, played chess well, could converse in a number of exotic languages, and worked productively as a writer.’
Flynn himself took lightly the claims made on his behalf. In an article entitled ‘My Plea for Privacy’ published in Screen Guide in 1937 he wrote:
‘As to my private life – well, there’s precious little of it left – but according to what I read in the newspapers, I am a master of such minor arts as boxing, fencing, wrestling, jiu-jitsu, horsemanship, hunting, fishing, sailing, swimming, golf, tennis, chess, trap-shooting and jacks. I get up early in the morning and after dashing through Beethoven’s Etude in B Minor I casually practise each and every one of the above sports, sometimes doing a little Indian club work with my disengaged hand.’
A photograph of Errol Flynn playing chess appeared in the book From a Life of Adventure: The Writings of Errol Flynn edited by Tony Thomas (Secaucus, 1980). Taken during the shooting of his 1942 film They Died with Their Boots On, it showed him locked in combat with Olivia de Havilland.
(Kingpin, 1998)
From our collection comes this photograph of Errol Flynn, inscribed by him in 1940:
And, as a tailpiece, an extract from page 8 of the new Gambit Publications book Secrets of Attacking Chess by Mihail Marin (London, 2005):
‘I am sure most of us have been captivated by the cape and sword movies of the 1960s, featuring such fine actors as Errol Flynn.’
Not exactly. Flynn died in 1959.
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What on earth has happened to the standards of accuracy and integrity usually applied by ChessBase.com in the past?
There is, for instance, an individual named Albert Silver who cobbles together articles by indiscriminately hoovering up images instantly available via an Internet search.
As regards the indiscriminate nature of his ‘work’, below is what appeared in (but has since been removed from) an article of his about chess and film stars which ChessBase.com posted on 23 February 2015:
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From page 14 of C.J.S. Purdy, His Life, His Games and His Writings by J. Hammond and R. Jamieson (Melbourne, 1982), in the chapter ‘C.J.S. Purdy – His Life’ by Anne Purdy, his widow:
The Hutchins School was mentioned on pages 13-15 of The Young Errol by John Hammond Moore (Sydney, 1975), which asserted that Errol Flynn (born on 20 June 1909) was a pupil there:
‘Errol began his formal education at the Franklin House School on Davey Street, but by 1918 was enrolled in the junior division of the Hutchins School, Hobart’s most prestigious private, old-tie institution for miniature bluebloods.
... Errol lasted only one more term at Hutchins. (Australian schools traditionally operate on three terms of several months each from February to December.) In April of 1920 he entered Friends’ School ...’
Different information is on pages 7 and 9 of Errol Flynn The Tasmanian Story by Don Norman (Hobart, 1981):
‘Errol first attended Franklin House School in July 1916, which was later incorporated in Hutchins Junior School in June 1917 ... Hutchins School is a prestigious establishment for boys begun in 1846 and modelled on the lines of the upper class English schools.
Errol went with the boys of Franklin House School to Hutchins Junior in June 1917, but remained there for only a short time before attending Albuera Street Model School ...
There is no explanation as to why Errol was taken away from Albuera Street School when he was ten years and ten months old and placed as a boarder at Friends School, a long established academy for girls and boys. He was nine months at Friends leaving on 20 December 1920.’
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See too C.J.S. Purdy.
Here is another photograph of Olivia de Havilland, from page 4 of Errol & Olivia by Robert Matzen (Pittsburgh, 2010):
The caption reads: ‘To escape an unhappy home life, Olivia de Havilland finds a creative outlet with the Saratoga Community Theatre. Here, at age 16, she plays Alice in Alice in Wonderland, her first acting role.’
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From Stephen Wright (Vancouver, Canada):
‘Your feature article on Alekhine v Kimura mentions the English player Mr Havilland. I do not think that it has been widely realized that this was Walter de Havilland, the father of the film stars Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine. In later life his home was in British Columbia.’
On his British Columbia Chess History website our correspondent has written an article about Walter Augustus de Havilland (1872-1968).
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From page 5B of the Sunday Sun (San Diego), 29 August 1937:
In many other newspaper paragraphs on the topic that year, Errol Flynn was called ‘Anglo-Irish’, a twofold error.
Chess and Hollywood has so many references to his reputed interest in chess that we have just produced a separate feature article, Errol Flynn and Chess.
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Football Post (Nottingham), 6 November 1937, page 13
To the Archives
for other feature articles.
Copyright Edward Winter. All rights reserved.