Director Mike Curtiz, one of the best on the Warner lot, has a bad memory for names….He calls John Garfield “Group Theater”….Claude Rains, to Curtiz, always is “Mister Theater Guild”….Wayne Morris is “Bank Night”….Olivia de Havilland is “Baby”….In Elizabeth and Essex, Curtiz became impatient with a love scene that Errol Flynn and Bette Davis were doing, and stopped the action….”Remember always,” he explained, that this is a 17th Century love story without the highballs, jingle bells and rah-rah”….
In addition to his early and enthusiastic anti-Nazi tour of South America, his war bond tours, his appearances for the Red Cross, and his anti-Axis war films, Errol also supported the troops and country as a star on USO tours, including in 1943, at various locations in Alaska, including Amchitka, Attu, and Dutch Harbor, with Martha O’Driscoll, most notably.:
And here is a 5-minute preview of Our Man from Mulholland’s, i.e. Jack Marino’s, magnificent tribute to our Forgotten Heroes, part of which was filmed at the location of the former Mulholland Farm. Thank you, Jack!
While we’re down Mexico way on Cinco de Mayo, here’s a photo of Hedda Hopper, Errol, and Faye [future daughter-in-law of FDR and “First Lady of television”] Emerson boarding a flight to Mexico City for a Red Cross benefit premier showing of Yankee Doodle Dandy at the Palacio de Bella Artes in May of 1942. The premiere would be broadcast over WMCA Radio, with members of the cast interviewed by “The Perfect Ingenue”, Helen Twelvetrees.
Palacio del Bella Artes
The Palacio de Bellas Artes is known as the “Cathedral of Art in Mexico”. Construction began again in 1932 and was completed in 1934. The building is best known for its murals by Diego Rivera, Siqueiros and others, as well as the many exhibitions and theatrical performances its hosts, including the Ballet Folklórico de México.
In addition to its connection to Robin Hood, May Day has had a very long and very strong association with the Virgin Mary, most especially among Roman Catholics. The legend of Maid Marian may have arisen from that association, as did apparently Olivia’s costuming, as well as her physical appearance, in The Adventures of Robin Hood.
In the 1400s Catholics, as all Christians were at the time, in England celebrated May Day on the religious holiday of Whitsun featuring a quasi-religious rebel who robbed and murdered government tax collectors and wealthy landowners in plays and games. Agrarian discontent lay at the foundations of the feudal system that was built on the shoulders of toiling peasants. As time went on, the characters of Maid Marian, Friar Tuck and Alan-a-Dale entered May Day rituals as well. Robin Hood was actually shown at this time participating in Mariology, the cult of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Originally Maid Marian (or the French Marion) was a shepherdess associated with the Queen or Lady of May or May Day. Keeping this in mind, “the world’s foremost authority on Robin Hood,” author Jim Lees in The Quest for Robin Hood set forth that the hypothesis that Maid Marian may originally have been the personification of the Virgin Mary and derived from the older French tradition of a shepherdess named Marion and her shepherd lover Robin in Adam de la Halle’s Le Jeu de Robin et Marion, 1283. In fact, Marian’s association with May Day celebrations lasted long after Robin Hood’s did, as pointed out by Scottish born poet Alexander Barclay in 1500, “some merry fytte of Maid Marian or else of Robin Hood.”
“On the night of April 30, 1972, 38-year-old Scala was found dead in her Hollywood Hills home. Los Angeles County Coroner Thomas Noguchi reported her cause of death was from an “acute ethanol and barbiturate intoxication” and was later ruled accidental.”
“The circumstances surrounding Scala’s death have been questioned, with some believing it was a result of either murder or suicide rather than accidental. Her sister, movie actress Tina Scala, believed that she did not intend to take her life nor that her death was accidental. Scala had a prescription for valium and three tablets were missing from the bottle, but valium is a benzodiazepine, not a barbiturate. Also, Scala was discovered nude sprawled across her bed and bruises were found on her body and blood was on her pillow.”
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On May 23, 1956, Louella Parsons reports that “while Errol Flynn was making Istanbul in Hollywood, he saw Gia Scala at Universal-International. ‘That’s the girl I want for my picture, The Big Brodie,’ he said. So what Errol wants, Errol gets.”
In 1962, Gia and her husband, Don Burnett, starred together in The Triumph of Robin Hood. He as Robin Hood, she as Anna, much the equivalent of Maid Marian. Later that year they bought a home on Mulholland Drive.
Newcastle Morning Herald and Miner’s Advocate
New South Wales, Australia
Errol Flynn Sues Magazine
LOS ANGELES, April 27. A.A.P.
Errol Flynn, the actor, has lodged a claim for 300,000 dollars damages against the film magazine “Movie Stars Parade.”
His action followed publication in the magazine of an article entitled: “My First Screen Kiss by Errol Flynn.” Flynn’s statement of claim said he did not authorize or write the article, which was untrue and harmful to his professional standing.
The article described a scene in which Flynn and Olivia de Havilland acted. It quoted Flynn as saying of his first screen kiss: “I looked forward to that tender passage with the same placid approval a wolf lavished on a herd of spring lambs.”
Flynn also seeks an injunction against alleged unfair trade practices and invasion of privacy.
