An Object Lesson

a “Cadet Patrol Officer, slave recruiter, dynamiter of fi sh, trapper of birds, manager of coconut and tobacco plantations, air cargo clerk, copra trader, charter boat captain, pearl diver, diamond smuggler, and correspondent for the Sydney Bulletin.” Of all these, seafaring and writing became lifelong obsessions.

Flynn said, “If you spent more than five years in New Guinea… you’d never be able to get out; your energy would be gone.” He briefly revisited Sydney, where filmmaker Charles Chauvel was planning Australia’s first full-length talkie, In the Wake of the Bounty. Chauvel glimpsed a newspaper photo of

Flynn and tracked him to a hotel bar, finding “He was the perfect Fletcher Christian, but could he act?” A grinning Flynn said, “I’ll try anything once.”

Scenes of Flynn in a comical blond wig were later cut, but he’d caught the acting bug. He sailed from Australia for England in no particular hurry. He and a newfound mate (later found to be a German spy) stopped en route in Hong Kong, Saigon, Penang, Malaya, Colombo, Madras, Djibouti, Suez, and Marseilles.

Reaching London, Flynn searched unsuccessfully for work acting. When his New Guinea gold dust ran out, he joined a repertory company in Northampton. After appearing on stage, he asked another cast member, Peter, how he’d done. Peter said he assured Errol he’d been fine and Errol gave him “that smug, selfsatisfied smile of his, a debonair tilt to his head, and said, ‘What a relief, Pete. This is the first time I’ve ever been on stage in my life!’”

In seven months of bit parts, Flynn learned stage basics and curtailed his Australian accent. His stage run ended the evening he turned up drunk and reportedly took a swing at the stage manager (the producer’s wife). Unfazed, he told a colleague, “I promise you, within a year I shall be in Hollywood and I’ll marry a film star and then I’ll be on my way.”

Reaching Hollywood, Flynn