Hollywood Citizen News
Elizabeth Yeaman
April 13, 1937
Errol Flynn cables Warners that he will sail aboard the Queen Mary Friday,
and will report as soon as possible
for his picture, The Perfect Specimen, with Miriam Hopkins.
Then he may exhibit his battle scars, if any, to back up his tales about seeing action on the Spanish front.
— Tim
A new AFL stadium in Tasmania? – Maybe an “Errol Flynn Stadium”?
Will fans travel the yellow tint road?
— Tim
“Urban”/Livvie at its finest.
Los Angeles Evening Herald Express – Harrison Carroll – April 6, 1937
At the time of the Madrid incident–when a machine gun bullet creased his
forehead–Errol Flynn is supposed to have been accompanied by Dr. Harmine
F. Urban (sic), expert in tropical diseases. If so, it was not the first time
the two had been in a tight spot together. They were once ambushed by natives
on the Sepia (sic) River in New Guinea and it was motion pictures taken of Flynn
in this fight that won him his first screen test and role in the British picture,
In the Wake of the Bounty.
Olivia De Havilland, who was Flynn’s screen sweetheart in Captain Blood and The Charge
of the Light Brigade was driving down Hollywood Boulevard when she saw headlines about
his being shot.
She told me yesterday: “I nearly ran into a street car.”
— Tim
Los Angeles Evening Herald Express – April 5, 1937
FLYNN, WITH FACE CREASED BY BULLET, ON WAY TO VALENCIA
It was a close shave, but Errol Flynn today survived his first taste of off-the-screen warfare
with his swoon-provoking features enhanced, if possible, by the crease of a machine-gun bullet.
The Captain of Captain Blood and the leader of the Charge of the Light Brigade was wounded
on the left side of his face while on a tour of the University City front in Northwestern Madrid, the
only point where the rebels have a foothold within the capital.
Friends say the bullet passed dangerously close to Flynn’s left eye. He was given first aid at the
hospital, and left for Valencia yesterday morning.
ACTOR WARNING TO KEEP OUT OF SPAIN RECALLED BY STUDIO
Officials at Warner Brothers Studios hated to say “I told you so” – but they recalled today a stern warning
given to adventurous Errol Flynn before he left here Feb 22 last.
The 27-year-old actor was warned not to go into revolt-torn Spain, studio executives said. Furthermore, they
said, when they heard he was bound for Spain, they cabled him in Paris to return here at once and start work
on a picture.
Today the studio received with consternation reports that the young favorite had been wounded while watching
a battle near Madrid.
— Tim
Los Angeles Evening Herald Express – April 5, 1937
LILI DAMITA MAY FLY TO WOUNDED ERROL FLYNN
All Lili Damita is sure of today is that she must get post-haste to the side
of her wounded husband, Errol Flynn — by airplane if possible.
After a night of frantic worry over the fate of the handsome actor-adventurer
as the result of an alarmist telephone call from a London friend saying Flynn
had been killed near Madrid, Miss Damita planned to ask the foreign office for
a special permit to fly to Spain.
The actress poured out her thanks in a torrent of emotional words when she was
informed that latest information said that Flynn had been only slightly wounded
and had left Madrid for Valencia.
(Madrid advisers said Flynn was grazed on the head by a machine gun bullet
when he was visiting the University City front.)
In the meantime Miss Damita made frantic efforts to get in touch with Flynn,
planning to defer her departure until she gets direct word from her husband.
Her only worry as she prepared from Leeds Castle in Kent to the foreign office
here was whether the reported injury to Flynn’s handsome Irish face will mar his
film career.
— Tim
Le retour du Zaca, le célèbre bateau d’Errol Flynn, à Villefranche
www.darse.fr/index.php/souvenirs-du-20eme-siecle/42-le-zaca-ombres-et-lumieres…
— Tim
By all accounts, Errol was a consummate, and very prolific prankster. World class, I’m sure. Being that this is April Fools Day, it seems like a perfect time to document and discuss some of Errol’s practical jokes, and alleged practical jokes. Surely there were hundreds, maybe thousands, most now lost forever. There are enough accounts existing, however, for us to get a good flavor of his sensational sense of humor.
My favorite may be one I heard on Hollywood Boulevard from a tour guide a few years back when my son and I attended a TCM Classic Movie Festival. It’s vintage Flynn, something only he could have pulled off with such magnificent flair and humor. … I will post it up later, but, first:
Here’s an untoppable, top tier EFB post by Flynnmaestro King Karl Holmberg. Awesome, Karl. Thanks!
PLEASE POST ALL YOUR FAVORITES!
Here’s an alphabetical list of phrases that may help searches and recollections:
A Parrot in Panama
A Rice Bowl for Stockwell
Arno was a Real Pisser
David Invites a Date for Dinner
Hugh Jorgen
Mickey Visits the Farm
Niven Goes Skiing
Olivia’s Panties
Paul’s Passport
Taxi Driver
The World’s First Living Bracelet
Weekend at Errol’s
— Tim
March 30, 1937
Hollywood Citizen News – Elizabeth Yeaman
The Warner Bros. are sincerely worried over their failure to locate Errol Flynn,
who was hastily summoned back to Hollywood when it was learned that he was
planning to penetrate war-torn Spain. Errol was in Paris, and last Friday he told
his wife, Lili Damita, he was leaving for Spain. He left, while Lili remained in Paris.
He didn’t tell her where he was going in Spain, and apparently Lili didn’t bother to inquire.
Robert Schless, head of the Warner Paris office, has not been able to locate him. Errol,
when he left, was determined to do some war corresponding in Spain. He started to make
arrangements with the United States for some special articles, but the studio jumped in
and soured the deal. Errol threatened that he would make arrangements with an English syndicate.
This he may have done.
Warners cabled him to be back here by April 15, to start the The Perfect Specimen.
I doubt if they actually had a picture ready for him, but hoped to get him back on the plea of urgency.
Miriam Hopkins has been announced for the co-starring spot in The Perfect Specimen, but that
announcement is quite premature, for she has not been signed for the role.
— Tim
A Question, Not a Quiz.
Flynnvestigating other matters, I came across claims and suggestions implying that Errol may have owned a lake and cabin/hunting lodge at the long now gone “TWIN LAKES PARK”, “Twenty-five miles from Hollywood”, aka “Southern California’s Garden of the Gods”. One site suggests, too, that he even built a dam at near his alleged lodge.
Quoting a comment on the great Iverson Movie Ranch post linked below:
“One of the “Twin Lakes” was reputed to belong to Errol Flynn and the dam can still be seen from DeSoto Ave. (North of the 118) Flynn had a cabin (The old Dave Rhodes Ranch) and he used to hunt in the area.”
iversonmovieranch.blogspot.com…
Quoting a site on local (Chatsworth) history:
“Errol Flynn once owned a hunting lodge in Chatsworth and built a dam that still remains just north of the 118 freeway near Browns Canyon Road?”
Does anyone have any information or thoughts on these claims? Should we be hunting for this lakeside lodge of Errol Flynn? – Or are these claims of Flynn’s lakeside lodge a dam mistake?
Here are front and back looks of a now long gone entrance to Twin Lakes Park:
Here’s a glimpse of the Twin Lakes gate in White Heat, filmed by Raoul Walsh:
— Tim
Given the Green Light by shangheinz on “Errorol”:
WHAT PROMINENT ENGLISH DOCTOR HELPED ERROL TREAT HIS SINUSES?
He was a “Harley Street” practitioner.
Early in his career, he pioneered and advocated the use of “truth drugs”.
He famously advocated one such drug in a French murder case.
Mid-career he was involved as an expert witness in a Hong Kong medical malpractice case.
He was later involved in a notorious British abortion/killing-of the-mother case.
He communicated from England to Errol elsewhere in Europe.
He had an indirect connection to the Profumo Affair.
Late in his career, he was quoted in Sports Illustrated concerning the abilities of women drivers.
He looked like this, but usually wore glasses during the years he treated Errol:
— Tim
