July 15, 1949
Armand Archerd
Evening Herald express
Susan Hayward has turned down, she says, $150,000, a chance to co-star with Errol Flynn and an Italy location for The Escape.
The fair lady’s reason: she would be required to cut her hair a la Bergman for For Whom the Bell Tolls. She refused to cut her hair for My Foolish Heart, which she’s now making. This gal’s haircuts come high.
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Gorgeous, Talented, Courageous, Susan Hayward
— Tim
July 14, 1937
May Hobart
Hollywood Citizen News
Attracting an impressive array of filmland notables, the formal opening of the Beverly Hills Tennis Club on N. Maple Dr. began Saturday night and didn’t end until Sunday evening, although the activity wasn’t quite continuous. The return from Europe of Fred Perry and Ellsworth Vines, two of the club’s directors, was celebrated at the invitational dinner-dance Saturday evening, which was held out-of-doors, with tables placed around the swimming pool.
In addition to the orchestra which played for dancing, Benny Goodman, with a trio, was present to entertain the throng. Impromptu entertainment was offered by Groucho Marx, Charles Lederer, Oscar Levant and others.
Those who dined and danced included Mssrs. and Mmes. Harpo Marx, Arthur Sheekman (Gloria Stuart), Basil Rathbone, John McCormack, Zeppo Marx, Robert Riskin, Donald Woods, Gordon Jones; Misses Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Bennett, Eleanore Whitney, Paula Stone, Paulette Goddard, Mary Brian; Messrs. Robert Taylor, Richard Rodgers, Johnny Downs, Charlie Chaplin, Eddie Buzzell, Ernest Pascal, Walter Kane, Arnold Kunody, William Wyler and Charles Butterworth.
The membership returned Sunday afternoon to pack the gallery for the official opening matches.
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Beverly Hills Tennis Club 1938
Errol at the Beverly Hills Tennis Club, 1945
Fred Perry, Charlie Chaplin, Groucho Marx and Ellsworth Vines at the Beverly Hills Tennis Club, 1937
And here’s how astonishingly hot Benny Goodman was in 1937, the very year he and Gene Krupa soared with Sing, Sing, Sing in Hollywood Hotel!
— Tim
July 13, 1937
Harriet Parsons
Los Angeles Examiner
Errol Flynn off production for a couple of days because of a fractured rib acquired during a boxing workout over the weekend
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May 11, 1937
Elizabeth Yeaman
Hollywood Citizen News
Errol Flynn will lay aside his rapier and don boxing gloves for his next picture, The Perfect Specimen, for in this story he will portray a gent who is handy with his dukes. Furthermore, he is going modern in more ways than one. He is to have a smart-cracking leading lady in the person of Joan Blondell. Joan, however, should not be classified as a leading lady, but as a co-star. Incidentally, the Flynn physique can now be bared for the entertainment of feminine fans. The age of chivalry and its uniforms will be tossed out completely.
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Sparring for The Perfect Specimen
— Tim
July 12, 1935
Jimmy Starr
Evening Herald Express
Nearly a dozen years ago, 150 carpenters and laborers reported to work at the old Vitagraph studio on Talmadge Street. They started construction of ancient man of war vessels for the rapidly-declining film firm’s last lavish venture, Captain Blood.
Today the Warner studio now owns the Vitagraph plant, and nearly 300 carpenters and laborers are starting the construction of three Seventeenth Century war vessels for Captain Blood, to be one of the most costly of the Warner specials this year. Something near $100,000 will be spent for the ships and reproduction of the village of Port Royal on the Spanish Main.
Odd, isn’t it, that 12 years later the Vitagraph studio is again the setting for this adventuresome tale of the sea?
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Vitagraph’s Captain Blood
— Tim
“VIRUS” X STRIKES BING CROSBY AND ERROL FLYNN!
In late 1947 or early 1948, Errol and Bing Crosby were stricken by a very serious and mysterious disease the Los Angeles Health Department of Health called “Virus X”. Ultimately, a ‘Virux X’ epidemic spread through California, Oregon, and Washington. In Greater LA alone, there were hundreds of thousands of cases. It contributed to the early death (at 53 years old) of Hollywood star Warren Williams.
It’s not known how Errol got the virus. Perhaps kissing the wrong person?
— Tim
July 8, 1938
Louella O. Parsons
Los Angeles Examiner
Talked with both Errol Flynn and Lili Damita together and both deny that Lili is planning to take a holiday in Europe. These two kids have been married four years now and while occasionally they may have a little spat as do all married people, they both tell me there has never been any thought of divorce between them. Errol is bringing his boat to California, the very one which caused Warners so much worry while the adventurous Errol was sailing the Bounding Main and couldn’t be located and he and Lili will probably take their vacation together. Lili probably has the right idea. When Errol wants to go away with his men friends fishing or on a holiday, she gives him her blessing.
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Sailing along circa the Spring ’38
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July 8, 1938
Harrison Carroll
Evening Herald Express
Lili Damita and Errol Flynn are touring the late spots together again, so their troubles must be patched up.
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Speeding along a year or so later
— Tim
July 8, 1935
Reine Davies
Hollywood Parade
The Vogue Theater will be the bright spot on the Boulevard tomorrow night, when Winnie Sheehan’s brother, Howard, opens the ultra-modernistic theater with Ladies Crave Excitement and the thriller, The Phantom Fiend.
Howard opened his first theater in 1916 in San Francisco, has since been vice president of Fox West Coast Theaters, and there is little he doesn’t know about “packing ’em in.”
Felicitating friends who will be on hand tomorrow night are Winnie Sheehan, Jesse Lasky, Sam Briskin, Louis B. Mayer, Carl Laemmle, Norman Foster, Evelyn Knapp, H.B. Warner, Thelma Todd, Hardie Albright and Martha Sleeper, Esther Ralston, Jack Oakie, Jack La Rure, Charles Ray, I. Wolfe Gilbedrt, Bill Robinson, Bert Wheeler, Monte Blue, Patricia Ellis, Alice Faye Lily Damita and Errol Flynn, and loads of others.
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Images from the excellent Los Angeles Theatres website.
Original Architectural Drawings for the Ultra-Modern Facade
Fifty-two or so years later with another famous Hollywood American Australian
— Tim
“You’ve done it, Newell, you’ve found a vaccine.”
Before Covid-19, there was Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.
Before Dr. Anthony Fauci, there was Dr. Errol, I mean Newell, Paige.
“In the 1937 movie Green Light, Hollywood heartthrob Errol Flynn plays a doctor investigating a devastating new ailment plaguing a remote town in Montana. The story of a heroic doctor infecting himself with the disease to find a cure is fictional, but it’s based in truth. In the early 1900s, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, a deadly tick-borne disease, was erupting. No one knew exactly what caused it or how to cure it.”
— Tim
July 4, 1936
Louella O. Parsons
Los Angeles Examiner
Errol Flynn away on a three-day holiday, destination unknown, just for a rest before he starts that new picture.
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Where did Errol go? and What “new picture’ was Louella referring to??
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Added @ 5:15 PM EST
— Tim
Only two days after their “Slight Misunderstanding”, Errol was out on the town at the Cubanola, a nightclub that opened that very month, at the height of Hollywood’s conga craze.*
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June 30, 1938
Harrison Carroll
Evening Herald Express
Errol Flynn, sans Lili Damita, was having a fine time at the Cubanola…
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* Here’s Senor Fleen two years later getting his kicks at the La Conga Club in Manhattan with model Patricia Byrnes in a conga line led by a young Desi Arnaz.
— Tim
