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Archive for the ‘Behind the Scenes’ Category

Governor Flynn

13 Feb

February 12, 1936

Reine Davies
Hollywood Parade
Los Angeles Examiner

The tremendous success of the Bellamy-Farrell Racquet Club at Palm Springs was bound to serve as an impetus for the creation of a local club for the tennisers of the sports-loving colony.

To be known as the West Side Tennis Club, it is to be ideally housed in the Bath and Tennis Club building in the Cheviot Hills, with Stephen Morehouse Avery, president; Elmer J. Griffin, secretary and treasurer; and completing the board of governors, Errol Flynn, Frank X. Shields, Ralph Jester, and the ace screen scribe, Edith Fitzgerald.

As a rendezvous for screen actors, artists, directors and writers, the entire place is to be remodeled and redecorated to create a truly country club atmosphere. All of which is under the direction of Adrian’s prized aide, Ruth Hawks. And to provide the only grass courts on the coast, two new tennis courts are now in the course of construction.

The new club will open on March 15 with Edith Fitzgerald as hostess to a whole day of social and tennis events, beginning with a hunt breakfast in the morning and followed by luncheon bridge, tea, cocktails, and supper.

griffinclubla.com…

(Original Caption) Hollywood’s Seeded No. 1. According to Francis X. Shields, former tennis star, who founded the West Side Tennis Club in Cheviot Hills, near Hollywood, Errol Flynn, (above), is ranked tops in a list of the film colony’s ten-best male players. Believe it or not, Greta Garbo is No. 1 among actress tennis wizards.

* Though cool artwork above depicting Errol and Lili at the West Side Tennis Club, it appears to me that the artist may have mistakenly used the Tudor-like New York West Side Tennis Club clubhouse in the background, rather than the same-named club in Cheviot Hills, which had Colonial Spanish architecture and Errol on the Board of Governors.

— Tim

 

15,000 Pictures of Errol

13 Feb

February 10, 1936

Harrison Carroll
Evening Herald Express

The Warner Brothers fan mail department is swamped by requests for pictures of Errol Flynn. More than 15,000 were sent out in the month of January.

— Tim

 

Dangerous Curves Ahead!

11 Feb

February 11, 1935

Sydney Skolsky
Cover Hollywood
Los Angeles Examiner

Lili Damita is now Trocaderomancing with Errol Flynn, a new Irish actor with Warners. It’s sizzling.

— Tim

 

Club Unique/Cap’s Place

10 Feb

“With South Florida’s constant development, there are very few remnants of old Florida in this corner of the state. Yet, in Lighthouse Point, one spot survives — Cap’s Place, a classic Florida seafood restaurant, onetime speakeasy and gambling den, draped in Florida history.”

Over the years, Cap’s Place was visited by a notable cast of characters including Vanderbilts and Rockefellers; actors Errol Flynn and Humphrey Bogart; sports figures Jack Dempsey and Joe DiMaggio; and even mobster Al Capone. Oral history suggests Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt may have dined there during a strategy meeting amid World War II.”

www-browardpalmbeach-com.cdn.ampproject.org…

Errol’s early days in SoFlo, when he gambled at Cap’s Place:

The Baron in Boca

— Tim

 

Arno Flies to Horse Country

07 Feb

February 7, 2019

Harrison Carroll
LA Evening Herald Express

After mourning for days over the absence of his master, Arno, pet dog of Errol Flynn, is on a plane today speeding to join the Irish star in Upperville, Virginia.

For four years, Arno, a schnauzer, has been an inseparable companion of Flynn’s. He has accompanied the actor on yachting trips and to motion picture sets. He is even allowed to follow Flynn into the green room of the Warner Brothers commissary.

However, the star didn’t see how it was possible to take Arno on his present trip which will include visits to Havana and Mexico City. So, for the first time, master and dog were parted.

Ever since, Arno has been inconsolable. Three days ago he refused to take any more food and has been lying for hours underneath the star’s bed.

Yesterday, in desperation, Flynn’s business manager, Vernon Wood, wired Errol at Mrs. Jock Whitney’s estate in Virginia.

Flynn didn’t lose a minute wiring back to put Arno on a plane.

And now he’ll have to figure out a way to take the dog to Cuba and Mexico.

Llangollen Farm, a polo, fox hunting, and horse breeding, landmark in the rolling hills of Upperville, VA, now valued at over $40 Million

— Tim

 

An Appendix to the Appendix Story

05 Feb

The below is an appendix to this post…

February 5, 1936

Harrison Carroll
LA Evening Herald Express

Errol Flynn is home from the hospital, eleven days after his appendicitis operation.

— Tim

 

Mauch Adeux About Sailing

03 Feb

February 2, 1938

Harrison Carroll
LA Evening Herald Express

A trip such as any small boy might dream of looms for the Mauch Twins if parental and studio consent can be obtained. They have been invited by Errol Flynn to go on a six weeks’ cruise of the Caribbean. It would be the boys first vacation away from their mother and there would be no women on the boat. Mrs. Mauch is torn by misgivings, but may yield.

Here are the Prince and the Pauper with their mother, Mrs. Mauch, Sir Miles Hendon, and William Keighly:

Here, a bit later, are Billy and Bobby (or is it Bobby and Billy) with a big wheel at Warners:

— Tim

 

“Between Pictures”

28 Jan

January 29, 1938

Jimmy Starr
LA Evening Herald Express

STARS FLEE BRIGHT LIGHTS FOR LONELY REST SPOTS

Hollywood is fast becoming fed up with the glitter and the glamour, the hustle and the bustle of the more prominent “between pictures” holiday spots. The trend is definitely toward smaller, more isolated hideaways. Like other people, the stars occasionally tire of the brights lights, the night clubs, the theaters, the traffic, crowded sidewalks, hotels with super-service and the necessity of properly creased trousers and correct coiffures.

Errol Flynn has found the perfect method of “losing himself” between films, on weekends or other days of leisure. The popular Warner star ducks down to Santa Monica, boards his yacht and sails away.

— Tim

 

Sirocco

27 Jan

January 27, 1938

Harrison Carroll
LA Evening Herald Express

Purchase of a 75′ ketch in Boston makes Errol Flynn the No. 1 boat owner in Hollywood.

The Warner star, who planed in yesterday from a shopping tour of eastern shipyards, reveals that he now has a collection of seven boats with still another under construction.

The prize exhibit is the ketch Avenir*, which Flynn just purchased in Boston and which he will later sail through the Panama Canal and up the Pacific Coast.

Besides the Avenir, Flynn still owns a 50-foot yacht, a yawl named the Cheerio, a 25-foot speedboat, an outboard fishing smack and two 20-foot yacht tenders.

Then, in a western shipyard, he is having a lifeboat made over into another tender for his latest acquisition.

When and if he gets a vacation, the star plans a long voyage to the South Seas.

* Errol subsequently named the yacht “Sirocco” after the yacht he owned and captained in Australia and New Guinea before he achieved world fame.

— Tim

 

Zacapulco – Welles Done

25 Jan

Adapted from American Cinematographer, August 1948

For the boating scenes in tropical Mexico, Columbia Studios chartered Errol Flynn’s luxurious yacht, The Zaca, and Flynn himself served aboard as skipper. Scenes were filmed above and below decks, at anchorages in Acapulco Harbor, at Fort San Diego in Acapulco Bay,

In order to shoot the location sequences for Lady From Shanghai, a company of 50 Hollywood actors and technicians flew to Acapulco, along with 60 Mexican extra players and technicians from Mexico City. More than 15 tons of equipment were shipped from Hollywood, one order of six tons comprising the largest single air express shipment ever undertaken by a movie location company.

Shooting aboard the yacht was, from the space standpoint very difficult, and these scenes, as they appear in the picture, are necessarily cramped in composition — but this actually works in favor of the overall effect because it produces an authentic atmosphere of crowded life aboard a small yacht. During filming aboard The Zaca, a long line of native dugout canoes anchored astern formed a bridge from the barge holding the generator so that electrical cables could be stretched for the camera and sound equipment.

In filming sequences at sea, the camera crew discovered that they could not depend upon their usual light meter readings. Reflections from the surface of the water kicked up more intensity than the meter recorded, causing over-exposure of the scene. This effect was noted in the screening of the first rushes, and a series of experimental tests was made to arrive at some sort of rule-of-thumb that could be used to compensate for the additional amount of light

(Left) On location in Mexico, Welles briefs his crew prior to filming a sequence. At his side is Charles Lawton, ASC, whose outstanding photography adds greatly to the impact of the film. (Center) Errol Flynn’s yacht The Zaca is anchored in Acapulco Harbor. Astern are a line of barges over which electrical cable was stretched between the yacht and the generator boat. (Right) For a scene shot in the jungle streams of Mexico, the camera is mounted on a dugout canoe alongside the boat in which the principle players ride.

ascmag.com…

— Tim