April 30, 1937
— Tim
Archive for the ‘Behind the Scenes’ Category
“A Real Homebody”? — “Poorer but Happier”?
30
Apr
April 30, 1957
Louella 0. Parsons in Hollywood
International News Service
Louella O. Parsons Motion Picture Editor
After six years abroad Errol and Mrs. Flynn (Patrice Wymore) return to Hollywood with baby Arnella.
He’s a real homebody now.
DASHING, happy-go-lucky, colorful Errol Flynn, who lost millions, is poorer today but happier than he’s ever been in his life. And he didn’t hesitate to say that Patrice Wymore (the present Mrs. Flynn) is responsible. Six months ago, Errol owed $900,000. Today, he has paid off $750,000 and sees his way clear to handing over the remainder by December. This is a changed Errol. No longer does that roving eye of his look at every pretty girl who enters a room. In the past, Errol was as wild, unpredictable and full of pranks as anyone I ever interviewed. He always talked with his tongue in cheek, and while I always liked him, I used to have the feeling that some of his nonsense was due to the fact that life was not happy. He asked me to have dinner with him and Patrice at La Rue. You can always depend upon Errol to say something different and to make an interview an occasion, and his first words to me were: “Well, what do you think of her?” pointing to the calm, gracious Patrice. A little embarrassed with such frankness, I countered with, “What do you think of her yourself?” “Well, she’s not my type, but 1 love her,” he laughed. “You know, she saved my life. I’d have run when the going was so tough, but, Pat, without a word of complaint, helped me straighten out my affairs, stuck by me and gave me encouragement. “I never thought I’d ever say I’d be lonely for any woman,” he continued, “but, do you know something? I can’t bear to be separated from her. She gives me a confidence I all but lost during those months of worry.”
The Flynns have been in Europe for six years. They left Hollywood in 1950, and Errol had considerable trouble with William Tell, the picture he was to make in Italy. He says he lost over $200,000 of his own money in it. Errol said, “To show you the kind of girl Pat is, she was expecting our bambina any hour when I got word that I had to be in New York on business. She said, ‘You go right ahead and I’ll wait until you return to have the baby.’ I got back Christmas Eve to find that she’d invited 30 people for Christmas Day egg nogs. On Christmas I rushed her to the hospital where the baby was born within a few hours. We just left all our guests at the party. “I never thought I’d want to settle down to family life,” Errol went on, “but you should see me now. You know how I never wanted domesticity. Whenever it threatened me I’d go away on my boat or take a picture assignment away from home. We now have the greatest family life you ever saw.
“Since I’ve been back in Hollywood,” he said, “we’ve had Pat’s parents from Kansas, her grandmother, and all the children with us My two little girls, Deirdre and Rory, by my marriage to Nora Haymes, spend every week end with us, and our daughter Arnella loves playing with them.” His fourteen-year-old son, Sean, by his marriage to Lili Damita, is the spittin’ image of Errol. Patrice told me Sean spent a little time with them in Europe. “He is so handsome and so intelligent,” she said. “He’s now in Florida with his mother.” A woman who can praise a previous wife’s child is all right for my money. Usually there is a feeling of resentment, but if Pat has any feeling of this sort she’s a great actress. Errol said, “At Universal-International they gave me some of rry ‘face’ back with a great part in Istanbul. I hope to come back and make another picture for them; it’s a nice studio. I’ll return in December.” “Didn’t you almost turn in at Warner Brothers studio by mistake?” I asked him. He started his career at Warners with Captain Blood [the film which made him] one of the top stars in the country.
Errol is older now and wiser. He has taken off some of the weight which so shocked me when I first saw him after his return here. But he’s still and always will be the same charm boy. When domesticity threatened in the past, he’d be off to other shores.
— Tim
Night and Site of the Fight
30
Apr
April 29, 1945
Olivia in 1946 (WOW!) – Over whom Errol and Huston fought.
Site of the Fight! David O. Selznick’s “breathtaking” home and gardens Summit Drive in Beverly Hills. The fight took place in both the the famous gardens and the then gravel driveway.
— Tim
Road to Mulholland
24
Apr
On Sunday, February 13, 1949, Flynn Flung a Party Up at the Farm on Mulholland.
See, Flynn Flings a Party on the EFB
On the list of luminaries invited to that A-list soiree was the fum and gorgeous Dorothy Lamour. Here she is that party, just her and Errol.
It’s been said that Errol and Dorothy dated. They certainly appear to have enjoyed each other’s company very much and could have been an extremely attractive couple. Circa their being together in ’49, Dorothy recorded ‘Moonlight Becomes You’, a sensational song that became an instant classic when Bing Crosby sang it to her years earlier in Road to Morocco.
Seen in a different light, the title ‘Moonlight Becomes You’ could also be interpreted as ironically applying to the rape trial turning point in Errol’s life, though I’m sure Dorothy never had that in mind. …Here she is singing the song that (rightfully) helped make her famous. (I know I’ve had a major crush on her since the day I first her in that Hope-Crosby classic.) Background vocals by the great Crew Chiefs, known mostly for singing during the War with the Glenn Miller Orchestra.
…
CONNECTIONS
Errol was going through a very difficult time in his marriage with Nora, one that sadly resulted in divorce. Nora was a beautiful and desirable woman, so much so that Dick Hames and John Ireland were both trying to win her affections in 1949. So much so that one of the world’s greatest songwriters – Jimmy Van Heusen – also fell in love with her, making his feelings known for all time in the ‘But Beautiful’ – a now-standard jazz gem which Bing also sang to Dorothy in a Road picture – the Road to Rio! – And which was also sung at Nora’s funeral ❤.
Here’s the beautiful ‘But Beautiful’, written for Nora, sang here to Dorothy Lamour:
— Tim
Cheerio Yawl!
24
Apr
A Dash of Cheer
“Cheerio II was built in 1931 by Fellows & Stewart in San Pedro, California and was designed by Edson B. Shock. The 85 year old classic sailboat was designated in 1992 as the State of California’s 66th historic vessel and landmark, a designation that only wooden boats built before 1940 can be given.”
She was the play toy of Errol Flynn, the swashbuckling actor from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Back in the day, folks would see Flynn and his friend, actor David Niven, sailing tye yawl to Catalina.”
— Tim
“FLYNN FLINGS A PARTY”
23
Apr
As reported in the April 23, 1949, issue of PIX Magazine, shown below, Errol threw a party at Mulholland full of “his filmland friends”. During this A-list event: Errol conducted “white mice races”; Shelley Winters was arrested by a bogus police officer, and a guest was caught and evicted for stealing a revolver. For the record, I find the photos captions rather stupid and insulting. Despite so, the article is valuable because its candid photos capture Flynn with other Hollywood celebrities he was rarely, if ever, photographed with before or after.
— Tim
Erben’s Myth — A Million Dollar Srory
22
Apr
By United Press
Hollywood, April 21, 1937
ACTOR DENIES SAYING STARS RAISED FUNDS
Report That $1,500,000 Given By Certain Film Players to Loyalists Claimed False
An Interview with Errol Flynn In Barcelona Spain, in which the film actor and soldier of fortune purportedly told of helping raise a $1,500,000 fund in the Hollywood film colony to aid the loyalist forces, came under the scrutiny of the Knight of Columbus today. Thomas B. Flanagan, secretary of the Los Angeles council of the Knights of Columbus, said he was sending a report on Flynn to John J. Rossborough, state deputy of the order at Oakland, California, and to the national headquarters of the organization’s newly launched “antiradical” campaign at New Haven, Conn.
The purported interview was published in the Hollywood Reporter, a film trade paper. The Reporter stated the interview was filed to them by “our regular Barcelona correspondent.” The part to which the Knights of Columbus reportedly found most objection to follows:
SAYS FUND RAISED
“Is it true that money has been collected in Hollywood to help the Spanish government?’ asked the Reporter. “‘Yes,’ said the actor, ‘Fredrick March, James Cagney and I were the initiators and $1,500,000 has been raised so far”.” Flynn, husky film leading man and husband of Lili Damita, French actress, has been in Spain as a roving correspondent He was reported wounded by a machine gun bullet in dispatches from Madrid which later developed to be erroneous.
The Hollywood Reporter’s dispatch upon his arrival at Barcelona, strong loyalist headquarters, further stated: “When Errol Flynn arrived in Barcelona he was greeted by the “commissioner of public spectacles, J. Carner Rlbalta, who introduced him to the “commissioner of propaganda” of the Catalonian government, Jaime Miravitles, and the heart of the cinema section the same department, Juan Castanyer.
While in Barcelona, Flynn was considered a guest of honor of the Catalonian government and all facilities were accorded him. “In an interview with the press, Flynn said his visit to Spain was prompted by a desire to ascertain the truth regarding conditions here. “Asked by the press boys what was the general impression in the United States about the war, he replied: “That’s it, the confusing news and the fact that all the American press is in the hands of powerful trusts made me decide to take this trip to see with my own eves what is really happening and write a series of articles for publication.”
The dispatch ended:
“Flynn was accompanied by his old friend, Dr. Hermann F. Erben, a well known member of the American Communist party.”
— Tim
