Croatian-Canadian bartender who last served Errol Flynn is dead at 94

by croatiaweek
January 24, 2024
in News

Steve Cvitkovich (Photo credit: Private album/Supplied)

Vancouver, BC, 24 January 2024 – Steve Cvitkovich, who in October of 1959 was a bartender at the Sylvia Hotel in Vancouver’s west end, has died. He was 94 years old.

It was at the hotel’s lounge “The Tilting Room” where he met and served actor Errol Flynn the day before his untimely death in Vancouver on October 14, 1959.

The son of immigrants from Croatia, Steve was their first child born in Canada. His parents, Anton and Kata, were from Udbina, Lika.

His first language was Croatian. Conceived in Croatia and born in Canada, he would visit the lands of Croatia for the first time in 1969 after the death of his parents.

He grew up in Vancouver’s east end where his mother ran a boarding house. His father was an itinerant miner and was often away from home working at mines across Canada and the USA.

Steve fishing in his younger days (Photo credit: Private album/Supplied)

The depression years of the 1930’s and then the war years of the 1940’s was hardscrabble for the family who often found refuge at the movies. They loved action/adventure and swashbuckler movies. Steve’s favourite actors were Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Errol Flynn.

Cvitkovich worked many jobs during his life including commercial fisherman, dockworker, grain worker and limousine driver. But it was his work as a bartender that was the through line of his career.

Beginning as a bar porter in 1947 he would work at some of Vancouver’s most exclusive establishments including the Sylvia Hotel and the Panorama Roof at the Hotel Vancouver. But he was an equal opportunity bartender and his journey took him to an assortment of beer parlours, Legions, pubs and lower-level lounges. But it was the encounter with Flynn that would be his most memorable moment.

Steve working at the Sylvia Hotel (Photo credit: Private album/Supplied)

Flynn, the Australian-American actor, had been a screen superstar in the 1930’s and 40’s starring in classics like “The Adventures of Robin Hood” and “Captain Blood”. But by 1959 his star had dimmed considerably.

He had been plagued by personal scandals, health challenges and financial difficulties. He was in Vancouver to sell his beloved yacht Zaca when Cvitkovich served him at the Tilting Room.

Flynn was at the bar for hours where he regaled patrons with assorted stories and anecdotes. He also drank heavily but in Cvitkovich’s words “he could hold his liquor”. He was drinking gin, over ice. At one point he asked that the gin and ice be served in a Royal Doulton teapot.

The next day, planning to leave Vancouver, Flynn would experience extreme pain and would eventually succumb to a heart attack. He was 50 years old.

Errol Flynn (Photo: National Library of Australia/Public domain)

Cvitkovich was very involved in the Croatian community in Vancouver and North America. He was a 50-year member of the Croatian Fraternal Union of America and would serve a term on their international Board of Trustees; he was a founding member of the Croatian Cultural Centre in Vancouver; he was a member of the uprava of the Croatian Sports Club in Vancouver; a lifelong member of Hrvatska Seljačka Stranka and; a member of Society of Friends of Matica Hrvatska among others.

He would continue to work intermittently at bars until retiring “for good” in 2005 although he could be coaxed behind the bar at charity or family events. He died of Pulmonary failure and is survived by his wife of 67 years Joan (née Bateman), three children, nine grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren (and counting).

Later in life when asked about his encounter with Flynn he would reflect sadly that his hero had died too young. He would always finish the recollection with the advice “don’t drink gin.”