An(other) Erben Myth
Photoplay, July, 1937
— Tim
Archive for the ‘Behind the Scenes’ Category
“The Bachelor”
02
Jul
July 2, 1937
Harrison Carroll
LA Evening Herald Express
“Never one to abide by Hollywood custom, Errol Flynn bought a small sailing yacht yesterday and announced that no women will be allowed on board.
In keeping with the policy, the star revealed he has decided to re-christen the yacht “The Bachelor.”
Which, of course, led someone to remind Flynn that he himself is no bachelor–still being married to the exotic French actress Lili Damita.
“She can’t come aboard the yacht either,” declared the Irish actor. “I never saw a woman yet who stand rough sailing without getting either sick or frightened. And I intend to have some real fun in this boat.”
The yacht, of modest size compared to most owned by Hollywood celebrities, was purchased by the star from George Arthur, the producer. It carries an auxiliary motor as well as sails.”
*******
Errol sails The Bachelor, aka Cheerio II
— Tim
Baby Talk
24
Jun
June 24, 1935
Film Flam with Sidney Skolsky
Hollywood Citizen News
Lily Damita has told intimates that the reason she got married is that she wants a baby (Flynn).
*******
June 30, 1935
Louella Parsons
Movie-Go-Round
Los Angeles Examiner
The real story behind the marriage of Lily Damita to handsome Errol Flynn is that the gay Damita has a yen to go domestic in a big way. She confided to a close friend months ago that she was tired of gadding about.
“The next time I meet a man I really like,” she said. “I am going to marry him, settle down and have babies. I believe I want a child more than anything else in the world.”
*******
She lived a gay life in Europe and Hollywood before semi-settling down with Flynn …
She seems to be showing in this photo … just about everything but a baby bump!
Press speculation on how their baby would look …
It took guile and a while …
— Tim
Wedding Dinner Like Flynn
23
Jun
June 22, 1935
Louella Parsons
Los Angeles Examiner
Lily Damita and Errol Flynn entertaining twelve of their intimates at a wedding dinner.
*******
June 24, 2019
Reine Davies
Hollywood Parade
Lily Damita and Errol Flynn’s honeymoon house atop Lookout Mountain was the “location” for high revelry last Thursday night, when the entertained at a formal dinner, not only to celebrate their marriage the previous day, but Errol’s birthday as well.
The vivacious Lili had the attractive home bounding with valley lilies, white roses and gardenias, and the party was high-spotted when the butler, with befitting fanfare, brought on a huge wedding cake, followed by another for Errol.
Those who wished the Frenchy Lili and her Irish husband great happiness were Dolores Del Rio and Cedric Gibbons, the Countess de Maigret, Peggy Fears, George Cukor, Al Kaufman, Lloyd Pantages, Rene Hubert, and those hospitable romancers, Lyda Roberti and Bud Ernst.
To carry on the celebrating, Al Kaufman later took the entire party to the Miramar Hotel, where they greeted “Colonel” Gus Arnheim, and danced to his very danceable music.
*******
Up on Lookout Mountain with newlyweds Errol and Lookout Lili Flynn
8946 Appian Way on Lookout Mountain in the Hollywood Hills
To the Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica
“Where they greeted “Colonel” Gus Arnheim, and danced to his very danceable music.”
[Look at Lookout Lil’ being used to portray “Sweet Georgia Brown in this Gus Arheim music video! What a coincidence!]
— Tim
Le Hollywood Honeymoon
23
Jun
June 21, 1935
Harrison Carroll
Evening Herald Express
Honeymooners Lily Damita and Errol Flynn showed up at the Trocadero only a few hours after their marriage in Yuma and got a royal reception from the stay-up-laters.
*******
“Cafe Trocadero was an upscale nightclub that opened on the Sunset Strip in 1934 and immediately became the place where Hollywood stars went to be seen. Photographs of the stars out on the town at the Troc one night might appear in The Hollywood Reporter the next day, as both Cafe Trocadero and THR were owned by William R. Wilkerson. A black tie French-inspired supper club, at 8610 Sunset Boulevard in the posh Sunset Plaza section of the Strip, it was one of the most famous nightclubs in the world.”
— Tim
Captain Cary
19
Jun
June 19, 1935
Lloyd Pantages
I Cover Hollywood
Los Angeles Examiner
Cary Grant is being tested for the lead in Captain Blood at Warners. If he gets it, it will be the second time he has been loaned from his home lot, Paramount, since his advent into the cinema. His only other loan was to Twentieth Century for Born to be Bad. Incidently, Captain Blood was originally slated for Robert Donat until the English courts decided that his contract with Warners was invalid and that he should remain in England with another company.
— Tim
Damita Flim Flams Flynn
18
Jun
Marriage Makes News Around the Globe
U.S.A.
June 17, 1935
Evening Herald Express
Flim Flam with Sidney Skolsky
Lili Damita and Errol Flynn have made plans to elope to Yuma this week.
June 19, 1935
Evening Herald Express
Lili Damita, Errol Flynn Flying to Yuma to Wed
It took a handsome Irish actor, Errol Flynn, to lead the elusive Lili Damita, vivacious French film actress to the altar.
At least the couple took off at a Los Angeles airport in a black and yellow “monoplane of romance” and headed in the general direction of Yuma, Ariz., with the announcement that they would be married at a civil ceremony there.
“I’ve been engaged four times, but this is my first marriage,” the actress said. “But our honeymoon will have to wait. Errol has to take some film tests and so do I.”
The plane was piloted by Ted Brown. Bud Ernst, friend of the couple, who had planned to take Lyda Roberti to Yuma also for a double wedding, accompanied them, although his fiance had to stay behind. An unromantic studio called her to work and sent her out on location.*
AUSTRALIA
ROMANIA
* Ernst & Roberti & took the flight and tied the knot a few days later:
— Tim
‘Stage Door Jimmy’
16
Jun
A Jimmy Starr Quiz
According to Hollywood writer Jimmy Starr – aka ‘Stage Door Jimmy’ – he personally witnessed that Errol particularly liked which category of women:
. Heiresses
. Actresses
. Waitresses
. Singers
. Orientals
. Tennis players
. Burlesque dancers
— Tim
Who May Olivia have Meant by This?
08
Jun
June 9, 1936
Harrison Carroll
Evening Herald Express
Now, who may Olivia de Havilland mean by this?
In an interview yesterday the youthful Warners star that she ‘could fall in love’ with one of the leading men she has had in pictures.
She insisted it was all theoretical, but Hollywood immediately began to count the lads over the fingers.
They consist of 5. The first was Dick Powell in A Midsummer’s Night Dream. The rest have been James Cagney in The Irish in Us, Joe E. Brown in Alibi Ike, Errol Flynn in Captain Blood and The Charge of the Light Brigade, and Frederic March in Anthony Adverse.
Even if she is just theorizing, Hollywood would like to know which is Olivia’s ‘type.’
***
Lysanda & Hermia
Danny & Lucille
Frank & Dolly
Peter & Arabella
Geoffrey & Elsa
Anthony & Angela
— Tim
A Memory of D-Day
06
Jun
I’d Like to Volunteer, Sir’
Just before parachuting into Nazi-occupied Europe, Fayette Richardson asked himself an existential question: “My God Most Powerful, what am I doing here?”
The thought had to be on the minds of myriad soldiers on June 6, 1944. It was D-Day, the launch of a long-awaited campaign by the U.S. and British armies to free the nations of Western Europe that Hitler had conquered.
Mounted from airfields and ports in Great Britain, it was the largest amphibious assault in history. Code-named Operation Overlord, it dramatically changed the course of World War II.
Seventy-five years later, the ranks have thinned of those who braved machine gun fire on French beaches that were marked on their maps with American names — Utah and Omaha. Richardson died in 2010. But fortunately for us and for future generations, he and other veterans kept diaries, wrote memoirs or recorded their recollections.
As a boy in Machias, N.Y., Richardson was fascinated by airplanes and war movies. At 17, he enlisted but didn’t qualify for pilot training. Instead, he was asked to join a parachute regiment’s Pathfinder team: those who jump first and guide those who follow. It was strictly voluntary, his commanding officer said.
“I think of Errol Flynn and how he and David Niven volunteered to do things in ‘Dawn Patrol,’ ” Richardson recalled. He told his commanding officer: “I’d like to volunteer, sir.”
www-chicagotribune-com.cdn.ampproject.org…
— Tim
