LEGENDS ON MALLORCA

 

Errol Flynn... A Talent for Living

Among the legion of illustrious travelers who have visited this Island in the past and continue to do so in the present, are people of all sorts, the rich, bohemians, opportunists, go setters, adventurers and swindlers and many others. But if we were to select just one of them it would, for many reasons, have to be Errol Flynn.

Policeman, planter, ship captain and gold prospector, Errol Flynn arrived in Palma aboard his yacht "Zaca" on fine morning in 1953. He was 42 years old and was reaching the end of his career. An alcoholic, he was accompanied by his third wife, Patricia Wyman as well a crew of many colors. He moored his splendid twin masted sailing ship, painted entirely in black, in the Yacht Club and, almost immediately, set out to explore Palma. And this he certainly did!

While Pat was performing, unsuccessfully as a singer in the Teatro Principal, Errol was devouring eels in the Cellar Catalán. After-wards he caught a taxi to Gomilla. Don José de Joe´s served him his first martinis and from there he started a round that seemed unlikely to end.

A tremendously attractive personality, Flynn got on well with many people, although not with the rich and famous like himself, but with people like Rudy from the Tirol or Pomar of El Patio. His stay at the Hotel Maricel coincided with Ava Gardner, each in their own suite; she with her "chinchon" and he with his vodka. They never spoke. One night Rita Hayworth arrived asking for him.He refused to see her. With no further ado. Such was the man who ended his autobiography with these somewhat fateful words, "My second half century has begun but still do not feel that the night is closing around me". He was to die a few days later. Errol Flynn was born in 1909, in Hobart, Tasmania, south of Australia.

Of his innumerable film, only one was in any way memorable . "The Sun also Rose", based on a novel by Romain Gary who, incidentally, lived in Puerto Andrax with his wife Jean Seberg until he committed suicide.

During the time that Errol Flynn lived in Mallorca he changed residences many times. He lived on the "Zaca" which later painted white, sank at Nice, in the Hotel Maricel and the Golf in Puerto de Alcudia. He even bought a chalet in Illetas which has long since gone.

 

Ava Gardner... A "lovely" legend in Mallorca

Ava crossed the tarmac at Son Bonet Airport, in Palma, and ran to our meeting; she looked like a startled deer; pursued by a wolf of hungry aspect. "With these words , Robert Graves described in his book the - The Cry and Other Stories - the arrival in Mallorca on 9th March 1956 of the famous actress Ava Gardner, also known as " the most beautiful animal in the world. The star of "Mogambo" resident in Madrid since 1953, had chosen our Island as a place to relax, on the recommendation of her close friend Betty Sicre who was also a friend of the Graves, and she remained here for several days, which she spend studying English poetry and sampling our cuisine and our wines - she bought for cases of Binisalem wine - and in fleeing from the press and her admirers to such an extent that she had to change her hotel four times in five days, having begun her stay at the Hotel Maricel.

The lovely actress from North Carolina who was rumored to have romanced the bullfighters Luis Migúel Dominguin and Mario Cabré, returned to Mallorca in August 1956 and again in March 1960 and all these visits gave rise to various anecdotes concerning the actress such as the story that Errol Flynn did not even want to speak to here, in spite of the fact they were both staying in the Maricel Hotel or those which had as their background the long nights of whisky and flamenco in various tablaos in Palma, or the one that told how when the actress was flirting with sergeant officer in the "Guardia Civil", he replied with every courtesy, "Señora, I am sorry, I am on duty".

In his book "The Cry and Other Stories", Robert Graves described in his masterly prose the scene on Camp de Mar beach. one March morning, when the lovely actress removed her robe and plunged her statuesque body into the the cold waters of that Mallorcan winter surrounded by a crowd of admirers.

Ava Gardner "the most beautiful animal in the world" left her imprint in Mallorca in the fifties. Here the memory remains of a woman, that almost a legend, who came in search of friendship, culture and peace and a few nights of wine and guitars.

 

 

 

 

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