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Archive for the ‘Behind the Scenes’ Category

Forty Years Ago Today

19 Aug

Aug. 19, 1979: Beverly Aadland writes to Los Angeles Times, publicly revealing that she lived in Palmdale (in the Antelope Valley, north of LA), happily married and expecting her first child!

— Tim

 

Adventure is Calling

16 Aug

August 13, 1936

Harrison Carrol
LA Evening Herald Express

Adventure is calling again to Errol Flynn.

Instead of sailing to Europe in a de luxe suite as other movie stars do on vacation, the young Irish actor is headed for the wilds of Borneo, where he and a friend will photograph background shots of The White Rajah, Flynn’s own story, in which he will star for Warner Brothers.

The unusual holiday will begin as soon as he finishes one more picture declared the actor yesterday, and will take him away from Hollywood for a period of three months.

As the expedition will penetrate into uncivilized country, the star’s wife, Lili Damita, will not accompany him.

His partner in adventure will be Dr. Hermann Erben, with whom Flynn once sailed up a savage infested river in New Guinea. At that time the thought of Hollywood never enter the actor’s mind. He was the owner of a pearling schooner that Dr. Erben chartered for the expedition.

August 17, 1936

Harrison Carrol
LA Evening Herald Express

Errol Flynn calls up to say he still has not given up hope of persuading Lili Damita to brave the wilds of Borneo with him.

— Tim

 

“The Louse That Roared”

15 Aug

August 14, 1935

Winchell’s Daily Tattle
LA Evening Herald Express

By Walter Winchell

The Lili Damita-Errol Flynn honeymoon is over. It’ll be denied, but Lili is planning a Paris divorce.

—–

Winchell, aka “The Louse That Roared” – “not noted for accuracy”, nor concern for accuracy – wrote this winchell-worded letter to Lili in ’41, after Tiger Lil’ complained to him about an article he published falsely claiming Errol had been charged with statutory rape:

“Dear Mrs. Flynn, Thank you for your letter. The item was garbled by Western Union. I wired it to New York CIty from out of town. Best Wishes, Walter Winchell”

— Tim

 

The Maestro at The Bard

13 Aug

Robin Hood and Beyond at the Bard Music Festival

This Friday: August 16, 2019

fishercenter.bard.edu…

It was through Max Reinhardt that Korngold first started writing for Hollywood, where he and his family joined the growing exodus of émigrés from Europe. Korngold believed that “music is music, whether it is for the stage, rostrum, or cinema,” and his background in concert music, opera, operetta, and musical comedy proved invaluable in writing for film. His Academy Award-winning score for The Adventures of Robin Hood – an epic Technicolor swashbuckler starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland – integrated music from both his Sursum Corda and his original material for Rosen aus Florida into a taut, genre-defining masterpiece.

www-newyorker-com.cdn.ampproject.org…

— Tim

 

Tiger Lil’ Plenty Upset

13 Aug

August 14, 1938

Louella O. Parsons

Movie-Go-Round
Los Angeles Examiner

Lili Damita, plenty upset over the press mistaking Errol Flynn’s trip to Reno as a divorce move, was talking about throwing a cocktail party for the newspaper clan to prove she and Errol are still happy. But friends talked her out of it — because Errol isn’t as strong on denials. Many times in the past when these rumors have cropped up Lili has called us and made explanations, but it is hard to hide the fact any longer that things haven’t been going so well for them the last year.

And then there was this …

— Tim

 

Lord’s Office, Flynn Calling

12 Aug

August 11, 1938

Harrison Carroll
Evening Herald Express

Best rib of the week was pulled off by producer Robert Lord on Warner Casting director Steve trilling. The day Errol Flynn was supposed to report for Dawn Patrol, Lord called Trilling and said the Irish star was on the phone from New York saying he had flown there and was taking an added week’s vacation. Then they pretended to transfer Flynn’s call to Trilling.

It was the perfect gag because Hollywood believes that Flynn would do anything.

Trilling’s blood pressure soared 20 points before the ribbers finally revealed that Flynn was sitting in Lord’s office.

— Tim

 

Shelter from the Storms

08 Aug

[The storm at sea, and the storm on Lookout Mountain.]

August 10, 1938

Harrison Carroll
Evening Herald Express

Errol Flynn flew into town yesterday from his jaunt to the Cal-Neva Lodge and Reno. His yacht, the Sirocco, docked a few hours earlier at San Pedro. It ran into a storm after leaving Cape San Lucas, losing its mainsail and had to seek shelter until the wind blew itself out. Then, 100 miles south of Ensenada, it ran out of fuel and had to make a long tack out to sea to make the Mexican port. The overhaul will cost the actor a pretty penny.

theculturetrip.com…

— Tim

 

Summer of ’41

06 Aug

August 3, Off Catalina

“In August 1941 Peter Stackpole of LIFE Magazine joined Errol Flynn (1909–1959)—the swashbuckling leading man of The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)—aboard Flynn’s yacht, the Sirocco, to photograph him for a story about his spearfishing skills. Also present were stuntman Buster Wiles, crew members, and three young women. One of them, fifteen-year-old actress Peggy Satterlee, later accused Flynn of raping her. The case, unsurprisingly, created a media storm.”

— Tim

 

A Puppy in Paris

02 Aug

August 3, 1935

Harrison Carroll
Evening Herald Express

It seems strange enough to be recorded here.

Ten years ago director Michael Curtiz was looking for a particular type of girl for a picture, Puppies in Paris. His luck was poor until chance carried him to a performance of the “Follies Bergere.” In one of the specialty dancers, a girl glamorous and young, he saw the ideal type for the role. So he hired her — and that is how Lili Damita got her start in pictures.

Today, in the Warners Brothers film, Captain Blood, Curtis is preparing to give another untried player, Errol Flynn, his first big chance at film fame. Flynn is married to Lili Damita.

And some people don’t believe in coincidence.

______

Lili in Poupee De Paris aka Red Heels aka …

— Tim

 

Cagney and Flynn Go Long

26 Jul

Jimmy and Errol during the filming of Frisco Kid and Captain Blood. No hug or smile for hubby, though!

July 25, 1935

A Little from Lots

by Ralph Wilks

Photography on two Warner special productions, Frisco Kid, starring James Cagney, and Captain Blood, co-starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, starts next Monda at the Burbank studios under the direction of Lloyd Bacon and Michael Curtiz, respectively.

____

Look for Lili in the poker scene ~ 0:47 – 1:00, and in the “star-in-every-role” end credits:

— Tim