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"Heaven
Knows, Mr. Allison" is one of the great film classics made in
Tobago. The 1956 production is about a rough marine soldier (Robert
Mitchum) and a pretty nun (Deborah Kerr) who are shipwrecked on a
Pacific island threatened by the Japanese in World War II.
Then
there was "Fire Down Below" (1957), again featuring Robert
Mitchum but this time co-starring Rita Hayworth and Jack Lemmon as his
rival.
The
Walt Disney production "Swiss Family Robinson", for which even
lions, elephants and giraffes were flown in, became famous around the
world.
Hollywood’s
headquarters in Tobago was the Blue Haven Hotel. That’s where
chauffeur Lyons picked the stars up to take them to the film sets, and
to the parties after work.
This
man in his late sixties has quite a few anecdotes to tell about his days
of driving the celebrities.
"Robert
Mitchum in particular got himself involved in lots of scandals," he
remembers. "I had to drive him from bar to bar where he drank like
a fish, flirted with the girls and loved to have a fight with the boys."
Once the famous dare-devil chased two British marines right across the
entrance hall of the noble Blue Haven, making heavy use of his fists.
They’d been chatting up an actress.
Lyons:
"Mitchum ended up throwing the two over the pool deck balustrade
and straight into the sea…"
The
Blue Haven Hotel, which looks back on a long tradition, was left to fall
into disrepair before Austrian hotelier Karl Pilstl (43) renovated it
with great care.
"One
of our first guests after the reopening was Bill Hill, production
manager of "Swiss Family Robinson," reports Pilstl. "He
had tears in his eyes when he saw the hotel restored to its old
splendour."
Now
the Blue Haven once again is used to shoot movies: films for Playboy-TV,
for example… |
