Welcome to my little side project.
In the past I’ve posted about my paternal grandfather, who was a stuntman for Warner Bros. in the 30’s and 40’s, including some recognizable scenes in The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn.
Prompted by stumbling upon an IMDB entry under his name for some uncredited cavalry rider roles he’d played, I’m attempting to document his life and his work and flesh out his IMDB site as best I can.
Some family history…
My grandfather and grandmother parted ways when my father was very young, with my grandfather moving from Chicago to Southern California. My father was raised in Chicago by my grandmother and her sisters, and didn’t see his father very much during his life. Aside from a short visit now and then, if my father was willing to take a trip to California, they didn’t have a very close relationship.
My grandfather eventually married another woman whom he met during his years of working in Hollywood. She was a successful fashion and costume designer, and they spent the rest of their lives together. She had children from a previous marriage, and though my father visited and got along well with his father’s new family, my father continued to keep his distance, preferring to remain largely isolated from any of his surviving family, even on his mother’s side, for the majority of his life.
Even though they didn’t have the closest of relationships, my father was very proud of my grandfather and his work. One of the things that was passed from father to son was a love for stunt-fighting, swordfighting and fencing, riding horses, and collecting medieval weaponry and armor. My grandfather passed away when my older brother was very young, and before I was born.
While my father wasn’t much for writing things down to remember later, his was rich with oral tradition, and my brother and I were raised with stories that incorporated the few details that could be remembered about my grandfather’s stuntwork. Sadly, my father and I never did get around to documenting those details prior to his death in 2002. It is also in honor of my father’s memory that I continue my amatuer research endeavors.
Interestingly, my father’s habit of falling off the face of the planet with respect to his family, indirectly resulted in a modest inheritance going to a Southern California charity instead of to our family. The daughter of my grandfather’s second wife had left my father $200,000 out of the family estate (money that I assume was a result of the fashion and costume design company), but there was a stipulation in the will that if my father passed before his sister-in-law, that the money would go to a charity instead.
My mother found all of this out when she received a letter explaining the charity contribution. My mother never really understood my father’s desire of keeping his distance from his family, but she respected it. My father’s passing was sudden, but his health had been deteriorating for about 6 months. She is still kicking herself for not getting in touch with my father’s sister-in-law while he was sick or after his death, while his sister-in-law was still alive. My mother is convinced that she would’ve changed the will if she’d known that my father had a family.
I just think it makes for an interesting story. Easy come, easy go. Who would’ve thought I’d ever be in any way connected to Hollywood fashion money?
Getting to the point…
What I have to work with are a couple of scrapbooks full of action shots involving my grandfather in various states of falling off of rearing and bucking horses, pet trained horses, illegible scribbles of alleged film titles that don’t return IMDB results, and the (admitedly awful) collective memories of myself, my brother, and my mom.
One long-held family belief involving my grandfather’s work in The Adventures of Robin Hood experienced a bit of a reality check earlier today. My copy of the 2 disc special edition DVD arrived in this morning’s mail. I quickly skipped to the Rudy Behlmer commentary for the scenes that (I thought) included my grandfather. The first, a short view of my grandfather as a castle guard taking an arrow to the chest, went by with no direct commentary.
The second, a rather impressive stunt that involved holding onto the end of the cut castle gate rope and being lifted to the top of the castle gate, received direct commentary attributing the stunt to two stuntment, neither of which were my grandfather.
I was simultaneously saddened and encouraged. While I had spent my life up to about an hour ago believing that that was my grandfather holding onto that rope, only to discover my family was apparently mistaken, I was eager to find out exactly how Rudy Behlmer knew so much about the stunt work, and even more eager to find out if I could gain access to that information as well.
And even though some of my grandfather’s stunts might not have been as I was raised to believe, the arrow shot scene remains undeniably him. His face (the spitting image of my brother) is clearly visible, and with the wonder of DVD, I was also able to find another related scene where he is visible.
I’ve spent the day Googling, and even signed up for the IMDB Pro access, only to find that Rudy Behlmer has listed no contact information, nor does he have an agent listed. I’ve sent a couple of Hail Mary emails to publishers who are distributing some of his books, but I don’t know how successful they’re going to be at putting me in touch with him or someone who might help me.
So…Eve…I’m hoping I might tap into some of your expertise and networking skills to dig up some leads for this little personal research project of mine. I would’ve emailed you, but since you don’t have that option in your profile, I’ve opted for a long-winded public appeal instead.
