Errol Flynn and Beverly Aadland, 5th May 1959
Errol Flynn was purportedly to have once said: ‘I like my whisky old, and my women young’. The above photo, whilst not saying anything about his choice of whisky, although there is an impressive array of glasses in front of him, certainly says something about his taste in women, or should I say girls.
The picture of Flynn, taken in May 1959, was taken a month or so before his fiftieth birthday (it’s the 100th anniversary of his birth on 20th June this year). He’s accompanied in the photograph by his girlfriend, Beverly Aadland, who was a few months from her 16th birthday that September. According to Beverley’s mother, who wrote about Flynn and Aadland’s romance in a book called ‘The Big Love’, by the the time of this meal they had already been together for a year.
"For the last time, he's not my father...".
They are sharing a meal in The Lido Club which was situated in Swallow Street -- a little lane that runs between Piccadilly and Regent Street.
Flynn, who was born in Tasmania, went to school from the age of fourteen to fifteen in Barnes in South West London. It was a very minor public school, that has long since disappeared, called The South West London College. It was situated at numbers 99-101 Castelnau which is a road of regency villas that lead up to the Southern side of Hammersmith Bridge.
Errol Flynn at the South West London College circa 1923
99-101 Castelnau today
After a particularly unhappy time in London (imagine what it was like after living in Tasmania all his life) he left the school in 1925 and sailed back to Australia and a subsequent meteoric rise to fame and film stardom in the US. Incidentally Errol Flynn’s father, Theodore Flynn and noted zoologist, travelled the other way, from Tasmania to the UK, and became Professor of Marine Biology at Queen’s University in Belfast from 1930 until 1948.
I once read that Flynn wanted to call his autobiography ‘In Like Me’. Which would have been brilliant, unfortunately the publisher insisted on ‘My Wicked Wicked Ways’.
Errol Flynn is here on a Canadian programme called Front Page Challenge where the guests have to guess who he is. It was recorded in January 1959, a few months before his death. Incidentally one of the guests is the journalist Scott Young, Neil Young’s father.
I can’t find anything written about The Lido Club in Swallow Street. I wondered if anyone out there has heard of it, or has any information about the place?
.flynn was no chaplin.
Indeed, he was no Chaplin. Flynn was a Nazi sympathiser and a rapist. Awful, awful man. And fascinating photos. Beverley Aadland looks much older than her age.
Ha, I think the amount you can get away with is directly proportional to how great an artist you are. Undoubtedly Chaplin, at some times in his life, would have looked at Beverly Aardland as practically an OAP with a bus pass, but he was the greater artist by a long way. So that’s alright then. I think.
Time for a Chaplin post one of these days.
Surely the Lido stood on what is now the Cuckoo Club? Street’s not long enough to have more than one nightclub.
Flynn a Rapist! Phooey! Women fell all over him. And Nazi sympathizer? I don’t think so AMD. Character assasination can destroy anyones reputation and the malicious gossip that you picked up in Highams book was a load of crap. He was out to make money out of a dead Super Star, some one who was unable to defend himself. It’s easy enough to do if you have few morals. And comparing Flynn to Chaplin is a farce. Can you imagine Flynn dressed as the little Tramp and Chaplin dressed as Robin Hood. They were worlds apart and should’nt be compared. Pete
Flynn loved young girls. Two underage girls accused Flynn of stautory rape. An all-woman jury declated him not guilty. The Nazi (and gay) stories have been in more recent books, but there isn’t much evidence.
i’m 35 and no actor alive today does to me what errol does. who has that depth and intelligence and true adventurous spirit, who survived alone from age 10 and could navigate a sailboat by the celestial sky alone. i can never get over my obsession with him, tho i love him more in his later years when his youthful looks had faded and no longer distracted from his true talent for acting. i would’ve fallin in love with him at the age of 15 too, beverly was a lucky lucky girl to have had that experience. and in turn she helped him greatly. she brought him out of a depression and enabled him to love life again, for his last two years. there’s always been those who paint her as a gold digger, of course, but one who studies the facts knows better. her mother may have been a bit of one, but not beverly. she now lives in a very modest house in LA County with her contractor husband and twenty-something daughter. she still cherishes his gold cigarette case, trench coat, stopwatch and love letters, as well as jewelry and other items. if she was only with him for money, she would’ve sold those. for me it’s one of the greatest love stories of all time. thank you so much for these photos, they are treasures.
I read a book written by a physician from Vancouver, B.C. while I was working for the Liard First Nation at Watson, Lake, Canada. Interestingly, the doctor wrote about the state of Flynn’s physical condition. From an post mortem perspective…Check it out. Won’t say more.
Flynn was no Nazi sympathizer and no rapist. Honestly, do you believe that Higham garbage? Shame on you!
But she looks WAY older than what she claims. You should see her now, she hasn’t aged well at ALL.
Oh, please Jennifer, Beverley Aadland and her whole family were greedy and low-class.
Great love? I don’t think so…..she was years older than she claimed and quite frankly, took advantage of a sick man.
No, not one of the greatest loves, honey. And please, learn how to write a coherent sentence.
Beverly died two days ago (1/6/2010) in Palmdale, CA of complications related to diabetes. She was 66 years old and she was indeed fifteen when she met Errol.
Beverly and my mother are half-sisters (same mother, different fathers). My grandmother was an absolute loon (fortunately my grandfather got custody of my mother at the time of the divorce).
Bev was a lot of things. Golddigger was not one of them.
Funeral arrangements are pending. The memorial service will be conducted by the Reverent Joy Eilers at the Eilers family ranch in the San Fernando Valley. Joy’s parents fostered Bev after my grandmother was jailed for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Errol died before Bev’s eighteenth birthday.
I hope that Beverly is happy now. Perhaps Errol and her at reunited someplace. I have read most of all the Flynn’s books. And one thing for sue, he was NO Nazi or Gay or anything else. He never had to “rape” anyone, women were falling all over themselves trying to be with him. Just like Elvis and others.. He became an American Citizen and very happy about that. Beverly was a young girl, this is true, and for sure, Flynn would not have gotten away with that relationship now. He would be in jail for all sorts of things.
He was a very fine actor, who was limited to what the studios wanted him to do for money. But, still, a great actor who should be approved for an Academy Awared…
OMG. Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. Errol was a God among mortal actors. Suave and sexy. Rape? My @$$. Women wanted him… he didn’t have to force any woman. NAZI??? Are you kidding me? He was proud to become a US citizen. If you really think he was gay… that must have been some big closet to fit all the women he wanted to, did and could have had. Do some research folks… not blogs and sites… but honest research.. You will find this albeit party hardy and not always the pillar of moral society man to be fun, exciting and damn gorgeous. Thank you Errol for all the joy you have brought my movie collection and fantasies.
hell,i’d have LOVED to have been errol flynn!
gay? nazi sympathiser? rapist? mmmm…sounds like a load of sour grapes from women who never got their fantasy of sleeping with him (if there WAS any sleeping) and from guys totally jealous of a great actor and a handsome guy who could (and did) have the pick of any chick in any room.
jennifer is so right in all she says.
as for beverly being underage,well i just bet she was eighteen by the time she was 12 years old.
Hmmm, some folks are clearly buying into the myth, and misinformation.
Beverly was 17 in this pic if it was taken in May 1959; she was born 9/16/42. Underage? Yes, but not 15 (although there are allegations that her sexual relationship with Errol Flynn began when she was only 15).
While Errol Flynn may have been anti-Semitic (there are documented anti-Semitic comments from him) it is arguable that he was a product of his times; anti-Semitism was rife throughout the world at that time, and anti-Semitic comments were commonplace. There is no evidence that he was a Nazi sympathizer; that seems to have stemmed from the fact that he did not serve in the military during WWII. However, he tried to enlist in every branch of service and was rejected for health reasons. (TB, Malaria, cardiac problems). It is unlikely he would have tried so hard to join the war effort if he was rooting for the other side.
Bottom line is that Errol Flynn, like everyone else, was human, with flaws and weaknesses as well as strengths and talents. In his case, in my opinion, he was a brilliant, talented man whom I would have been glad to know. His flaws, for the most part, hurt him more than anyone else.
I have been an authority on Errol Flynn for many years, and this talk about him being; Rapist – Gay – Nazi – etc. amazes me how people still talk about it first in any mention of Errol Flynn after so many years it has been disproved. Not only has it been disproved by the ones who loved and knew him personally, but also those such as myself, who have done extensive research and studied this wonderful actor.
What we should be talking about and bringing to the forefront are things that mater now; Why does the Academy Awards Comity after many request continue to refuse to give Errol Flynn a special academy, of which millions feel he deserves.
These are the things people should be writing about and demanding, not the same old mess about him being a rapist, etc.. For if we look back at many of Actors and Actress from that same era, they would find many to have done many of the same things Flynn was accused of, Yet they are still regarded as good actors..
It should be said that most of whom in the biz that tried to hurt Flynn’s reputation, because of either; jealousy or lack of control from the studio systems, are mostly all gone now. Those that did not like Flynn, or the reality was that it was because they Envied him, for being who he was, as the same in life itself.
This was second nature for him; The adventurer a mans-man ( Swashbuckler ) – The great lover ( Don Juan ) – The debonair brawler ( Gentlemen Jim ). Flynn was really all those same Colorful characters, he was just playing himself… And there really was no other star in Hollywood that could be all those as he was, as mentioned, in real life as he was..
Errol as we all know was no angel, but He himself admitted to that many times. Whenever encountering actors, and/or others who have worked, partied, etc. w/Flynn, would say that Flynn often said that since he was to live it once, he was going to live it to its fullest, and that’s the way it was, as he wanted, and he did.! Do we all not have that right? As long as we stay within certain boundaries of course, we should…
In concerning Beverly (Aadland) I personally feel that in many times, age is not always relevant. I have known many younger females whom look and act a lot older than that of others who are older, and with that said, they should be treated as such; as I’m sure there are some woman who would say the same for some younger males. We just have to be honest about it and stop trying to hide behind this facade of certain rules/laws we have built that should not applicable to everyone.. It is as if one pair of pants fits all, as we all know this cant be, so I believe anyone with any mature mind would understand what I’m implying here…
Look if we loved this man for the joy he continues to give us through his movies, and his life, then lets it go as that, and keep enjoying them, stop bringing him to trial and continue to prosecute him on the same things he has already been acquitted for. We do lived in a country that once you have been tried and found not guilty for those crimes, you could not be tried again for the same?
You want to write something negative, write about how the Academy Awards Committee has not given Errol Flynn his deserved place on the mantle. Or better yet, make a positive one and write to them (AAC) personally and let them know how you feel about it. That should rattle a few sprits up from the grave..