Aloha from Hawaii, everyone! Last night, while websurfing, I happened across a website that you might find interesting. It features about 30 vintage movie mags, all digitally uploaded and available to read. Such publications as The Hollywood Reporter, Film Daily, Photoplay, and many others. The issues go back to around 1914, and up to recent times. They don’t have every issue for every mag, but what is there is very extensive, and will keep you busy for hours. Each issue is complete and in color, so you can see vintage covers and film ads in color. It is like looking at the original magazines, with original photos, etc. In the January 1938 issue of Photoplay, there is an article written by Errol about yachting up and down the California coast, with his characteristically humorous and trenchant observations about the whole scene. He mentions fellow Hollywood sailors, such as James Cagney, John Ford, and others, too. I’ve read a lot of his writings, but never seen this one. I think there must be other articles by him on this site, as well as contemporary reviews for his films, and original ads for them.
Anyway, the website address is: lantern.mediahist.org…
Edit: I just corrected the link above, from my original post– see zacal’s link below for the fan mag page. Thanks, zacal, your link is the best one, I think! The above link takes you to a page with numerous film mag covers, including Photoplay, with Clark Gable on its cover. You can then pick and choose. You don’t have to download the articles– though you can– as it’s possible just to view them on the site.
I messaged David about this, and he has looked at the site and likes it, and suggested I post the address here. It’s an excellent site, and I think there are plenty of articles to keep you very busy! Aloha! Tom
— Tom Webb
zacal
September 7, 2014 at 11:01 pm
Thanks Tom, this sounds fantastic. I tried to use the link you provided but nothing came up. I did some searching and found this similar link. Perhaps this is it?
mediahistoryproject.org…
Tom Webb
September 7, 2014 at 11:02 pm
If you use the thumbnail function on the site, you can get 12 pages from each issue at once. I’ve just been skimming through the Film Daily and Photoplay issues, for various years, and there are some great covers, color ads, photos, etc. Some good ads for “Robin Hood,” I’m sure for other films, too.
Tom Webb
September 7, 2014 at 11:04 pm
Yes, zacal, that’s it. I just edited the link I originally posted for this site. Thanks for posting this one– I just clicked on your link, and I think it is the best way to connect to the site. You can see the various magazine categories– fan mags, trade mags, etc. Using the thumbnail, you can see it all at once! Here’s the link again to the page with some of the magazine covers: lantern.mediahist.org…
zacal
September 7, 2014 at 11:18 pm
I found this scan on the site. One of the greatest portraits ever taken of Errol. [img]http://ia600809.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/12/items/photoplay119phot/photoplay119phot_jp2.zip&file=photoplay119phot_jp2/photoplay119phot_0169.jp2[/img]
Tom Webb
September 7, 2014 at 11:24 pm
Such a great photo! I didn’t realize it dated to the time of “Dive Bomber.” Though I’m guessing the photo is a bit older than that film.
zacal
September 7, 2014 at 11:27 pm
Wow, this site is fantastic! You can easily scroll through entire magazines. I just found a page on “The Adventures of Robin Hood” followed by an article on “Rounders’ Guide to Hollywood” that includes a mention of “Sugie’s place” in Beverly Hills, saying “It is here that Georgie Jessel and Errol Flynn occasionally go; and sometimes Johnny Weismuller and Howard Hughes.” Perhaps this link will take you to this example. Excellent site, thank you Tom.
archive.org…
Tom Webb
September 7, 2014 at 11:40 pm
I love the description of Errol’s Robin in the Robin Hood article: “He leaps up stairs with the agility of a panther.” It’s interesting that the writer links the movie to a need by the audience for less sophistication and decadence, and a return to more natural movie fare. That argument is still going on today! The article on the opposite page, on Norma Shearer’s “Marie Antoinette,” is also worth reading. I love the one you mention on movie stars’ hangouts– also fascinating. Thanks, zacal!
Gentleman Tim
September 8, 2014 at 4:25 am
Looked up some things on ‘Sugie’s Place’, zacal. Really fascinating. And the A-listers really did hang out there, trusting Sugie Sugarman to honor his motto, to “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” – hence his three monkey emblem in the link below!!! (Only one in the image here, though!)
www.tikiroom.com…
[img]http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0131/3352/products/sugies_tropics_cover_formatted_web.jpg?v=1402770188[/img]
zacal
September 8, 2014 at 4:40 am
That is the BEST!!! Great find!!! Complete with menu! A bottle of Sonoma Zinfandel 1936 for $1.50!!! What about us common folk??? I would have LIVED at this place!
Gentleman Tim
September 8, 2014 at 10:00 am
Sipping on that ’36 Zinfindel certainly sounds very satisfying, zacal. Before doing so, however, we may want to take a sail on a “Paulette Goddard’s Captain Blood” & “Errol Flynn’s Virginian”!!
www.tikiroom.com…
[img]http://www.tikiroom.com/img/8169x4d534b06.jpg[/img]
Tom Webb
September 8, 2014 at 10:10 am
That’s a great website, thanks! I thought I knew the names of most vintage Hollywood watering holes, but I’ve never heard of this place. This drinks menu is classic. So evocative of Old Hollywood! “Dorothy Lamour’s “Sarong!” “Lana Turner’s “Untamed.” One drink and you’re tighter– than one of Lana Turner”s sweaters!” Some great tropical artwork there, too!
David DeWitt
September 8, 2014 at 12:22 am
Excellent discovery, Tom, thanks so much for posting a real gem. You can scroll pages, increase the page view, and dig around to your hearts content. The references in these stories are quite amazing, and lead to other search ideas. Love it, kudos to you!
Tom Webb
September 8, 2014 at 12:29 am
Plenty to keep us busy nights, David! As if we’re not all busy enough in our lives! There is some fascinating stuff in these mags. I notice that they have been uploaded by various organizations– the Library of Congress, etc.
Maria
September 8, 2014 at 1:08 am
Great read! Thanks so much.
zacal
September 8, 2014 at 4:20 am
Ha! Talk about “snobs”! Ever hear of “Crime School”? Me neither. But I kept reading through the Photoplay linked above and found an article by a Ruth Waterbury. It begins, “As I came out of the preview of “Crime School” one of the executives of Warner Brothers fell into step with me. “Like it?” he asked. “Like it?” I raved. “I think it’s terrific. I like it much better than Robin Hood.’ ”
“You and me both,” said the executive.
A little later I happen to be talking to one of the studio’s office boys. “Robin Hood” is a swell show, isn’t it?” he said. “But did you see ‘Crime School?’ That’s the killer.”
“I liked it better than ‘Robin Hood’,” I repeated.
“Oh sure,” the boy said. ” ‘Robin Hood’ is a darn but this–well, this is about us, you know, just folks.”
Tom Webb
September 8, 2014 at 10:02 am
Believe it or not, “Crime School” is on YouTube. It stars Humphrey Bogart and the Dead End Kids. One of Bogie’s “B” pictures on his climb to the top. Definitely not better than “Robin Hood!” No way!
zacal
September 10, 2014 at 1:50 am
Wait a second. You mean “Crime School” is another title for “Dead End”? That WAS a very good picture. Bogie was fantastic in it.
Tom Webb
September 10, 2014 at 4:30 am
I know that after “Dead End,” made by Goldwyn in 1937, Warners brought the gang of young actors, now known as the “Dead End Kids,” over to the studio to make “Angels With Dirty Faces,” 1938, with them, Cagney, and Bogart. After the great success of that film, Warners made a whole number of “B” pictures starring the “Dead End Kids”– Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Billy Halop, etc. Such as “Crime School,” with Bogie; “Angels Wash Their Faces,” with Ronald Reagan; “They Made Me a Criminal,” with John Garfield, and others. The young actors later moved to other studios, and ended up at Monogram Pictures, where they became known first as the East Side Kids, then as the Bowery Boys. A long way from the “A” movies. And no way was “Crime School” better than “Robin Hood!”
Gentleman Tim
September 10, 2014 at 5:10 am
And somehow The Beatles forgot to put Errol on the Sgt. Pepper cover. He would have been perfect. Leo Gorcy made it, however … until he had it taken off! See him on the upper right of this eventually edited cover. Captain Blood or Robin Hood should have been in there, too!
[img]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_0FaQ7TxM2U0/Ss3EIYJo_FI/AAAAAAAABdY/poD0LtAbSFo/s1600-h/okejposterfoto.jpg[/img]
Gentleman Tim
September 8, 2014 at 4:21 am
This is SO Awesome, Tom! A real treasure trove!!THANKS!!!
Tom Webb
September 8, 2014 at 9:52 am
Glad you’re enjoying the site! I came across it just by chance last night. I can’t quite remember how I came to it. It makes you wonder what other unknown websites are out there!
zacal
September 8, 2014 at 6:56 am
This is the first Photoplay that Errol is heavily featured in.(Well, it’s actually “Captain Blood” but they’re building Errol.) There was a promo picture of he and Olivia de Havilland in the previous issue but this is the one. In the later pages, there is this promotional picture of Errol with his wife Lily Damita, looking more attractive than I’ve ever seen her. (Maybe it’s the hair.) It’s a picture I’ve never seen before so worth a look.
www.archive.org…
Tom Webb
September 8, 2014 at 9:59 am
That’s quite a hairdo Lily has! It’s interesting seeing Errol with Ross Alexander and his wife. I wonder when that photo was taken, as, according to imdb.com…, Alexander’s wife Aleta committed suicide in December, 1935. Sadly, he was to kill himself in January, 1937. A talented and handsome guy. He did marry again, to actress Anne Nagel, who later acted in Universal horror movies of the 1940s.
Gentleman Tim
September 8, 2014 at 12:37 pm
Lili sure was a looker. No doubt about it. Apparently went through a lot of hair dos, and shoes, too!! Got some Hon i f Arc action going on in this one! Fleur de lis’s, menage a tois, she parlez voused with the best of them. What a movie could be made of her life!!!!!
[img]http://acertaincinema.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Lili-Damita-Brewster-Millions.jpg[/img]
Tina
September 8, 2014 at 8:09 pm
A looker o.k. but? A movie – yeah – as long they show what a real peach she was – in not so may words. She even topped the other Lily what called herself a mother who at least didn’t ruin him financially. He should have stayed away from Lilies and known that Lilies are funeral flowers.
Gentleman Tim
September 8, 2014 at 12:47 pm
Well, zacal, it did have Huntz Hall & Leo Gorcy!!
[img]http://www.lornebair.com/pictures/16826.jpg[/img]
zacal
September 8, 2014 at 7:19 am
HERE’S THE FIRST BIG PUSH.
www.archive.org…
Tom Webb
September 8, 2014 at 10:05 am
Wow, what an article, with some rare photos. It’s interesting that they’re in that period when they were passing Errol off as Northern Irish. I think his parents were living in Belfast then, when his father was teachiing at Queen’s University, so that was easy to do, I guess.
Lollie
September 8, 2014 at 10:48 am
What an incredible website! Thanks Tom! :)
Inga
September 8, 2014 at 12:29 pm
GREAT find, Tom! Something useful at last!
Tina
September 8, 2014 at 7:51 pm
Hi Tom;
Thank you so much for this most valuable site it sure will give a lot of very pleasurable reading! No monotony on those pages!
Tina
September 8, 2014 at 8:16 pm
We all know a lot of great quotations Errol made in his life time and thanks to Tom and the website link I found the most profound one he made to Ida Lupino after the trial was over: “When you have hit rock bottom all the scenery on the way up looks beautiful”
zacal
September 10, 2014 at 1:53 am
GREAT quote, thank you.
Tom Webb
September 10, 2014 at 5:45 am
I was just reading through the August 1937 issue of “Photoplay.” There is a very entertaining article in that issue about the West Side Tennis Club in Los Angeles, written by their special reporter, Errol Flynn. It is one of the most amusing things I’ve read by Errol. He was of course one of the best tennis players in Hollywood, and he starts this piece off by mentioning playing with tennis ace Frank Shields, grandfather of actress Brooke Shields. He also mentions his then bachelor pad roommate David Niven, and some funny Niven comments. He segues into a hilarious story about his dog Arno, and Arno’s war with some birds on the tennis court. He also has many humorous observations about the many movie stars hanging out at the club on that Sunday– Myrna Loy, Kay Francis, Frank Morgan, Humphrey Bogart, many others. He mentions having lunch with Gary Cooper and Bing Crosby, and has a funny Crosby story. It’s an excellent article, and shows what a GREAT writer Flynn was. His humorous comments on other stars are on the mark, and capture their personalities perfectly. I bet if he were at that age and position now, he could have a funny blog or website about his adventures in Hollywood. What a talented guy!. Check out this article!
Tom Webb
September 10, 2014 at 8:33 pm
Oops– sorry, folks. I left off the year of the Photoplay above. I have corrected my post– it’s 1937.