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Archive for the ‘Friends & Family’ Category

Flynn Family Reunion — Happy 30th Errol

08 Jun

June 8, 1939

Harrison Carroll
Evening Herald Express

For the first time since Hollywood gave stardom and world-wide fame to Errol Flynn, the Irish actor and his family are to have a reunion.

It will take place here, revealed Flynn today, with the arrival of his mother and heis sister, Rosemary, in about two weeks. The star’s father, Theodore Thompson Flynn, who is the dean of science at Queen’s University in Belfast, also is expected on the coast after a brief stay in New York.

According to the actor, it is more than three years since he has seen his parents.

This family reunion coincided with Errol’s 30th Birthday on June 20, 1939.

Errol Greets His Dad

United with his sister Rosemary

On Catalina with His Mom and Dad

— Tim

 

In Father’s Footsteps — May 27, 1961

27 May

Sean Flynn Chip Off Old Block

— Tim

 

Errol’s Royal Geek

19 May

70 YEARS AGO TODAY – GHICA FINDS ERROL IRRESISTIBLE

New Orleans, May 18, 1950– Errol Flynn is irresistible to Rumanian Princess Irene Ghica
“because he keeps his mouth shut when I want quiet,” she said.

Forty-year-old Flynn
and the 19-year-old princess will probably marry in September – he for the third time.

He brought her to the United States from Bermuda so that he could finish a film based
on Rudyard Kipling’s “Kim.”

Flynn explained that the princess’ nickname, “Geek,” was the first syllable of Ghica.
She commented: “When I found out that a ‘geek’ is a person who, bites off chickens’ heads
at a carnival, I threw a pan at Errol.”

Flynn, who earns about £A89,286 a year, complained that he was going deeper into debt every day.

“There seems to be a lot of people I owe money to, he said. “You would think I had paid enough to one of the
ladies to whom I’ve been paying alimony for 10 years. Those payments are a terrible drain on a man’s income.”

He was referring to his first wife, Lili Damita. He recently asked the court for alimony relief, saying he was
paying £10,357 a year to support her and their nine year-old son, Sean.

Here are the Nearlyweds in November of 1949.

— Tim

 

Sean Flynn Monument Update! David Rocco, Mail Bag!

04 May

David,
The replacement Sean Flynn Memorial Tree has been planted and the memorial monument has been relocated so that it now faces the entrance to the Trail of Honor.
Next step now is to obtain a memorial monument for Dana Stone and place it at a tree that is across from the Sean Flynn monument.  I am in negotiations with the Friends of Lasdon Park organization to reach an agreement on how we can honor Dana Stone.

David Rocco

Thanks so much, David!

— David DeWitt

 

April 29 — 1957 — — Errol Settles Down

30 Apr

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 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

 

April 29 — 1945 — — Errol Peps Up Hollywood Party

29 Apr

Huston was a very skilled boxer, with a very long reach. Both went to the hospital, were complimentary of each others fighting skills and etiquette, and subsequently became friendly. The fight is thought to have been over OdH, with whom both Errol and JH had been in love.

— Tim

 

Errol’ s Last (?) Will and Testament filed April 27, 1954

27 Apr

Flynn Will Omits Bev

NEW YORK (UPI)

— A fight brewed today over the estate of actor Errol Flynn, whose will was filed for probate here Wednesday. The will, dated April 27, 1954, left most of his estate to his widow, Mrs. Patrice Wymore Flynn, with specific bequests to his children and parents. In Hollywood, his former wife, Mrs. Nora Haymes, said Flynn had told her there was another will dated sometime in 1957 in which he left everything to his children and parents. She said she planned to consult an attorney to protect the interests of her two daughters by Flynn.

Melvin Belli, San Francisco attorney representing Beverly Aadland, Flynn’s 17-year-old companion for the past year, said he was amazed that no provision had been made for his client He said he knew Flynn wanted to provide for Beverly and Belli said he would do something about it. Flynn and his widow had been separated for some time while he travelled to Europe and the Caribbean with Beverly.

— Tim

 

In Memoriam: Bud Ernst — Flynn’s First Buddy in Hollywood

14 Apr

He Died 70 Years Ago This Week

From My Wicked, Wicked Ways:

“It was the beginning of 1935. I bought a little car. Often I went for a spin with a big fellow named Bud Ernst.
He was six foot five, weighed about two hundred and fifty pounds. He was a flier, a fun guy.”

“He was my first and long-time friend in Hollywood. … We certainly had memorable times together in my early days behind the fog, smog, and grog curtain of Hollywood. How many words would you like on the shock a man gets when his dear friend, a roistering, Falstaffian ruffian, suddenly goes out, buys himself a 16-gauge double-barrel shotgun, some cartridges, and blows the top of his head off.”

Report in the New York Times, April 11, 1950

On June 20, 1935 – a date that will live in Flynnfamy – Bud flew Errol and Lili to Yuma to tie the knot. Five days following, he flew himself and Lyda Roberti to do the same.

One of Errol and Ernst’s “memorable times together in the early days”:Adventure at Asuncion Bay

Bud’s father, Hugh C. Ernst, was the brilliant business manager for the phenomenally successful bandleader Paul Whiteman, who had a major role in the 1924 first performance (by George Gershwin and the Paul Whiteman Orchestra at Aeolian Hall in New York) and subsequent popularizing of what many believe to be America’s most important musical composition, Rhapsody in Blue. After managing Paul Whiteman, he became a major executive with NBC. Through his father, Bud grew up “knowing everybody” in the world of music and radio.

Bud was director of the pioneering and hugely popular radio show “Queen for a Day”. Here’s one of the the show’s broadcasts, from February 1950, less than two months before Bud’s death:

Queen for a Day

— Tim

 

Raphael Millet’s New Article Five Ashore at Singapore Film, Sean Flynn!

13 Apr

A very detailed piece, great reading!


Thanks so much Raphael!

Raphaël Millet is a film director, producer and critic with a passion for early cinema. He has published two books, “Le Cinéma de Singapour” (2004) and “Singapore Cinema” (2006), as well as directed documentaries such as “Gaston Méliès and His Wandering Star Film Company” (2015), screened as part of the 2015 Singapore International Film Festival, and “Chaplin in Bali” (2017), which opened the Bali International Film Festival in 2017.

— David DeWitt

 

Honeymoon, Yes — Marriage, No

27 Mar

www.todayifoundout.com…

Honeymoon Over Miami Way

March 28, 1938

Jimmy Starr

Although maritime laws permit a captain to perform a perfectly legal marriage ceremony, it isn’t as easy as it might sound. There are certain official papers that a seaworthy captain must have.

Of course, Errol Flynn is the captain of his yacht, but that doesn’t alone give him the right to tie the holy bonds of matrimony, as he was informed by local maritime officials.

And that revelation somewhat changes the marital plans of Gertrude Hemmer and Ralph Cobley, Miami friends of Errol’s, who planned to have the Warner star perform the wedding ceremony for them aboard his new yacht, which stops over at the southern city en route to Hollywood. The couple will be married on shore and will spend a brief honeymoon aboard Flynn’s boat.

Miami Beach 1938

Miami 1938

— Tim