RSS
 

Archive for the ‘Animals’ Category

San Fermin Like Flynn

07 Jul

There are more than 400 events scheduled for the San Fermin Festival in Pamplona, Spain, including most famously the Running of the Bulls. This year’s festival began today (July 6), running to July 14.

www.runningofthebulls.com…

See Senor Fleen at the San Fermin Festival, including in the Running with the Bulls, from about 1:01 to 1:10:

youtu.be/reEZWbn74Sc…

— Tim

 

Fox Like Flynn

10 May

“The Robin Hood archetype is a classic of both literature and cinema, with Errol Flynn’s depiction being one of the golden age of Hollywood’s most iconic heroes. The concept is simple: a roguish hero who’s an expert with the bow and arrow steals from the rich to give to the poor. Who could resist a handsome archer who’s ardently dedicated to the woman he loves and the concept of redistribution of wealth?”

“…Not only is he charming, but he’s impeccably chivalrous, a great supporter of the beleaguered underdog, an enemy of undemocratic power, and a hopeless romantic. … [t]he most potent embodiment of that heroic archetype you’ve ever seen …”

Anthropomorphically speaking, that is.

www-syfy-com.cdn.ampproject.org…

— Tim

 

Errol’s Days at the Derbys

05 May

Kentucky Derby 1954: Where Errol is believed to have betted on King O’ Swords*

www.britishpathe.com…

The 1956 Epsom Derby: Where Errol attended (with Never Say Die “The Horse That Birthed The Beatles”!)

*See input from twinarchers (from last year);

Errol at the Derby?

— Tim

 

And now for something completely differerent …

03 May

Errol Flynn, the Canine Caruso

No pirates were (seriously) harmed in the making of this post.

— Tim

 

Are You Going to Scarborough?

28 Apr

The Tunny are Back!

“Strange but true: in the 1930s Atlantic bluefin tuna (also known as tunny) started to follow the herring shoals into the North Sea, and Yorkshire became the hub of an American-style big-game fishery. Professional hunter Lorenzo Mitchell-Henry set the record for a rod-caught fish in British waters when he landed a 386kg monster in 1933, and Scarborough was soon home to the Tunny Club of Great Britain. Visiting millionaires and movie stars – including John Wayne, Errol Flynn and David Niven – chartered local boats and vied with each other to smash the record.”

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/one-that-got-away-giant-bluefin-tuna-makes-return-to-british-seas-gm8xzz7b2…

www.lonelyplanet.com…

Video history of Scarborough Tunny Fishing
[Beginning at 7:14, where Errol is prominently mentioned.]

— Tim

 

CHARGE!

24 Apr

At the TCM Classic Movie Festival

Friday, April 27, 2018

THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE(1936)

Of the eight films co-starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, this romantic epic is one of the least seen, mainly due to complaints about the mistreatment of horses in the thrilling climactic charge inspired by Alfred Tennyson’s poem. In their second film together, Flynn is a British officer in India engaged to de Havilland only to learn she is in love with his brother (Patric Knowles). Departing liberally from history, the film suggests that the love triangle, as well as an act of betrayal by an Indian sultan, are inspiration for the famous charge that took place in 1854. The picture was also inspired by the success of Paramount’s The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935), which forced the production to add The Crimean War scenes at the end in order to avoid charges that they were just aping the earlier film. The picture was shot on a grand scale, with the construction of an entire British garrison in the California desert where the cast worked in severe weather conditions during the massive battle scenes. The use of trip wires led to the deaths of 25 horses, causing a fistfight between the passionate horseman Flynn and director Michael Curtiz. The result of the deaths kept Warner Bros. from reissuing the film and brought about stricter control from the U.S. government over animal use in filmmaking. (d. Michael Curtiz, 115m, 35mm)

filmfestival.tcm.com…

— Tim

 

Beginning with Bettongs

29 Nov

From very early on, Errol exhibited an intense interest and unique talent for entrepreneurial adventure. Inspired by his father, this often involved scientific exploration and experimentation. Cruise of the Zaca is an eminent example.

But when and where did young Errol first profitably demonstrate this profound talent and interest? Evidence indicates it was in connection to Professor Flynn’s research into the reproductive biology of Tasmanian bettings. In fact, Errol essentially states so in My Wicked, Wicked Ways:

“When school finished, I raced home to be at his side, to hurry out into the back yard, where we had cages of specimens of rare animals… Through Father’s activity I made my first venture into commerce. He bought all the kangaroo rats [bettongs] he could get hold of for Hobart University. I learned to set box traps in the hills of near-by Mount Wellington. He paid a shilling a head.”

Putting Errol’s bettongs to exceptionally good use, Professor Flynn published a landmark paper in 1930 on the reproduction of the Tasmanian bettong.

Here is a rare nocturnal photo of the hard-to-catch, truffle-hunting Tasmanian bettong in the act of night-jumping.

And here is a spectacular view from Mt. Wellingon of the hills of Hobart where pre-teen Errol trapped bettongs for his father’s pioneering research into marsupials.

— Tim

 

Seventy Years Ago Safari

24 Nov

Seventy years ago – during, prior to, and following the Thanksgiving holidays of 1947 – Errol was planning a major hunting expedition.

With what other person did Errol plan this safari, and in what country was it to take place??

¤ They planned to include about thirty (30) people.

¤ It was planned to last for about two months.

¤ They planned to record, ship, and broadcast clips of the expedition.

¤ It would involve big game hunting.

¤ The safari was to begin immediately after completion of The Adventures of Don Juan.

¤ It never happened.

— Tim

 

The History of Scripps

02 Sep

www.sandiegouniontribune.com…

“[Carl] Hubbs arrived in La Jolla in 1944, when Scripps was a ghost town because so many people had left to help with the war effort. There wasn’t a lot of money to collect or study fish.

But opportunities arose, and one of them came from an unexpected source: Actor Errol Flynn.

In 1946, Flynn notified Scripps that he planned to sail his schooner from San Diego to Acapulco and that he was willing to take a scientist with him. Hubbs quickly stepped forward and ended up collecting a great number of specimens.”

ucsdmag.ucsd.edu…

— Tim

 

A Question! Who is that Dog with Errol Flynn?

26 Jul

 

Going over stuff for 1943, and looking over a shoot at Mulholland with Errol and his artwork during the week of July 20th, before Errol left for Mexico. In a few of the pix Flynn is outside with a doberman pinscher.

My question: Is that Errol’s dog? … or was it Buster’s dog? … and regardless, what was the dog’s name?

Even Matzen’s book, which has a couple of pix of the dog, never mentions his name …

— David DeWitt