Photo by Amanda Taylor

Author John Hammond Moore is still baffled that an Australian documentary group tracked him down in Columbia to consult on an international movie project. His biography, The Young Errol Flynn before Hollywood , has been out of print for decades.

"They interviewed me on the phone from Australia a number of times, then flew me out to LA for the actual filming."

Moore, whose most recent book will be out next month from USC Press, said his on-camera interview for the documentary, which lasted about an hour and a half, dealt primarily with the dashing movie star's early years.

"My book was slim, only 150 pages or so," said a modest Moore, but his 1975 release by Angus and Robertson Publishers covers a time in Flynn's life other biographers didn't tap comprehensively. Moore's in-depth coverage of those early years made him invaluable to the documentary project.

Moore was teaching history at Macquarie University in Sydney from 1968-1972 when he first became intrigued with Flynn, especially the future icon's early years.

"I was actually attending a historical conference in Port Morsby, and some of us were on a tour of the Highlands of New Guinea when the talk drifted to Flynn."

Moore recounted that, even as a young man, the handsome actor's reputation was legend. In fact, the phrase "in like Flynn" is generally acknowledged as a reference to the bon vivant's success with women.

As Moore learned and chronicled in this early title, the young Flynn and his exploits left a lot of bewildered friends in his wake.

Respected as an intrepid researcher, Moore was able to track down and validate bits of lore others missed including the sister of Flynn's one-time fiance. "She was very helpful," the prolific author said.

The puzzle pieces of the actor's intriguing although checkered youth were laid bare in the Moore biography released 16 years after Flynn's death. The hard-to-find title recently brought $2,000 on eBay.

Errol Flynn as Fletcher Christian from Charles Chauvel's In the Wake of the Bounty, a small book published in Sydney, Australia, in 1933 to promote the movie by the same name. Photos taken from The Young Errol Flynn before Hollywood by John Hammond Moore Moore got a little taste of the star treatment once lavished on Flynn when he was flown to Los Angeles for the filming of the documentary in March.

"Although our arrival schedules got mixed up a bit, I was met at the airport by a driver holding up a sign with my name on it. They put me up in a Sunset Strip hotel where we all had dinner. And the filming was at Warner Brothers Studios, the same studio that produced most of Flynn's films," said Moore. He later found out the man, Jack Marino, who picked him up at the airport also hosts one of the most frequently visited websites on Flynn.

In addition to the trip to LA and the experience of meeting the documentary's producers, an additional perk for Moore's consulting will be a personal copy. Producers told Moore they expect the finished product will be out around the end of the year.

Errol, age 20, in Sydney, Australia, after two years in the islands in 1929. Photo by local society photographer. Photos taken from The Young Errol Flynn before Hollywood by John Hammond Moore Meanwhile, Moore will bide his time promoting his book, Carnival of Blood: Dueling, Lynching and Murder in South Carolina 1880 - 1920 which is due out in May. Ironically, Flynn's swashbuckler scenes often depicted him with a dueling sword in hand.