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Zaca Cruises into San Diego

14 Aug

August 13, 1946

After Setting Sail Out of Balboa:

The Zaca cruised into San Diego to load dredges, seines, dipnets, lobster traps, gill nets, microscope, aquariums, sorting trays, jars, preservatives, and smaller paraphenalia, collected by prominent Scripps Institute Professor Carl Hubbs for the scientific explorations and studies on what later became known as “Cruise of the Zaca” Errol’s arrival was met with “a flurry of reporters” and a “feminine hubbub on the dock as girls from nearby Navy offices came to beg autographs from their hero.” The athletic actor was limping that day, having somehow sprained his ankle aboard ship on the way down from Long Beach. Errol signed autographs with a flourish while Nora watched with amusement and Professor Flynn remarked on “the depths to which humanity will fall.”

The reporters had already had a field day, by discovering from Nora that she was expecting a child and so would require a doctor on the voyage.

Zaca was manned by a crew of ten and also carried an artist (John Decker), three above-and below-water photographers, Flynn’s manager, Errol and Nora, and Flynn’s father.
…

Thanks to Betty Shor for her superb account of the Zaca’s scientific expedition from which the above info has been extracted!

These are the downton docks in San Diego, the foot of Broadway, circa the time of Zaca’s arrival. Lane Field (Home of the PCL Padres) is on the right and the Pacific Fleet’s Navy Supply Center (where the flock of Navy girls likely came from) is on the left.

— Tim

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Posted in Flynn and..., Gentleman Tim, Main Page, Prof. T.T. Flynn, Ships & the Sea, Travels, Wives, Zaca

Setting Sail Out of SoCal

13 Aug

August 12, 1946 – Errol’s Cruise of the Zaca begins in Balboa, via La Jolla to Guadalupe Island, Mexico, then, per the map below, along the Baja to Acapulco, through the Canal and the Caribbean to Flynnland in Port Antonio, Jamaica.

— Tim

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Posted in Gentleman Tim, Prof. T.T. Flynn, Ships & the Sea, Wives, Zaca

The Most Thrilled Girl in Hollywood

11 Aug

August 11, 1936

Louela O. Parsons
Los Angeles Times

Sally Eilers is the most thrilled girl in Hollywood over winning the women’s doubles title with Josephine Cruikshank in the West Side Tennis Club’s first annual tournament; club members, headed by Errol Flynn, Frank Shields and Michael Bartlett, campaigning for less eccentric court attire. We’re with them 100 percent as long as they don’t bar Nigel “Willie” Bruce’s battered felt hat and John Cromwell’s pipe.
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Here’s sexy silent and early talkies star, Sally Eilers. Her first husband was Hoot Gibson , who can be seen having a hoot in this Dodge City Premier photo featuring Errol. Her second husband was Harry Joe Brown, who produced both Captain Blood and Son of Captain Blood. In fact, Harry Joe Brown may have been the prime person responsible for Jack Warner’s selection of Errol as Captain Blood.

And here is the 1934 U. S. Tennis Team – Caroline Babcock, Alice Marble, Josephine Cruikshank, and Sarah Palfrey – as they boarded the steamship Bremen to return to the U.S. after defeating the United Kingdom team at Wimbledon. Josephine Cruikshank is third from the left. Alice Marble, another tennis friend of Errol’s (who won 18 Grand Slam Championships!) is second from the left.

Josephine Cruikshank a regular at the Los Angeles Tennis Club where the Pacific Southwest Championships as well as the Motion Picture tournaments were played. Other players at the club included Mickey Rooney, Rudy Vallee, Ozzie Nelson, Sam Yorty and Bing Crosby. Errol asked Josephine to be his partner in the Motion Picture championship final in 1937.

— Tim

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Posted in Behind the Scenes, Flynn and..., Gentleman Tim, Main Page, Newspaper & Headlines, Tennis

Errol & Patrice — Seventy Years Ago Today

11 Aug

August 10, 1950 – Los Angeles

— Tim

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Posted in Behind the Scenes, Gentleman Tim, Newspaper & Headlines, Travels, Wives

A Flynn Farm Call for Hoppers and Cockatoos

08 Aug

August 9, 1939

The Wireless Weekly

Errol Flynn Wants Australian Pets
Cockatoos and Wallabies For Hollywood Home

Hollywood, the land of milk and honey, the home of plenty. Just everything in the world can be purchased there — except a pair of wallabies and a pair of those good old Australian cockatoos.

Errol Flynn, dashing Australian star, lately seen here in “Dodge City,” has been rushing round lately building and furnishing his new home, which now seems to be complete — but still not to the satisfaction of Errol.

In a letter to Sydney, Errol states that, while his home is all that could be desired, it misses out on just two things, and those things – shades of Australia! — are wallabies and cockatoos.

One would expect Mr. Flynn to favor perhaps a lion cub or a polar bear. But no; a pair of hoppers are his prime interest, with a pair of old yellow crests as second favorite.

Last week, Dorothy Flukes, of the Warner Bros.’ Australian office, told country listeners of the interest the Flynns are taking in their lovely new home, and she went on to give a few highlights of Errol’s life since reaching Hollywood.

Can Anybody Oblige?

Pearl fishing, prospecting, island trading, and even a little black-birding all supplied the earlier background for this colorful character.

If anybody has a pair of wallabies or cockatoos, or even one of these animals or birds that they would like to send to Mr. and Mrs. Flynn as a present for their new home, then a line to Miss Flukes, care of Warner Bros. Pictures, Sydney, will take care of everything.

Miss Flukes will arrange for cartage, transport, customs, feeding, etc., and at the same time arrange for Errol Flynn and his beautiful wife (Lili Damita) to send to the giver a personal letter of thanks and a photograph of the pets in their new home.

— Tim

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Posted in Animals, Behind the Scenes, Gentleman Tim, New Guinea, Newspaper & Headlines, Tasmania, Wives

What the Picture Did for Me

07 Aug

“August 7, 1937

MPH

What the Picture Did for Me

The Green Light, Errol Flynn, Anita Louise – Just a natural for any spot. This was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Too bad we could not get more productions like this. Good cast and excellent story. Running time: nine reels. July 15 – A. L. Dove, Bengough Theatre, Bengough, Saskatchewan, Can. Rural and Small Town Patronage.”
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Bengough, with a population of about 337, is known as the “Gateway to the Big Muddy (Valley and Badlands)”. Before Errol was seen by the populace in and around Bengough, the gentlemen in the photo below used to show up in the area to escape U.S. legal authorities. Their names were Butch and Sundance.

…

“August 7, 1937

MPH

What the Picture Did for Me

The Prince and the Pauper: Big time stuff in any man’s town. Box office all the way. Running time, 115 minutes – W. E. McPhee, Strand Theater, Old Town, Maine. General Patronage.”
…

In 1936, the Strand featured Bing Crosby in Rhythm on the Range. The theater was upgraded and modernized as depicted below to accommodate Old Town’s mid-1930s population of approximately 7500.
…

— Tim

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Posted in Behind the Scenes, Film Reviews, Gentleman Tim, Main Page, Newspaper & Headlines

A Field Day for Flynn

06 Aug

August 6, 1953

H.H.T.
New York Times
Master of Ballantrae at the Paramount

With plenty of good, old-fashioned muscularity crowding a highly pictorial Technicolor frame, at least three-fourths of “The Master of Ballantrae” makes a rousing, spectacular outlet for a pair of estimable adventurers, Errol Flynn and the master himself, Robert Louis Stevenson. In the new Warner Brothers arrival at the Paramount yesterday, Mr. Flynn is leading a fine, predominantly British cast through one of the liveliest, handsomest and most absurd screen free-for alls ever to leave the Victorian talespinner’s pen. If the excessive length and staggeringly heroic exploits can be pinned on Warners and Mr. Stevenson, respectively, no one, assuredly, should question the lavish elasticity of the proceedings. It is played well by the entire cast, and seasoned throughout with some brazen drollery. The film was gleamingly authenticized in such locales as Scotland, England and Sicily. Herb Meadow’s adaptation fittingly charts a cluttered, tumultuous odyssey for the indefatigable protagonist, leader of the fiery Durisdeer clan and fugitive champion of the Stuart Restoration, as he engineers a magnificent career in high-seas piracy and returns home, a wiser, if no less boisterous, rebel. The direction of William Keighley is equally alert and scenic, whether scouring the craggy, heather-strewn battlegrounds of the clansmen or capturing the lusty barbarism of the pirates’ island sanctuary. And since the dialogue is more often pungent than standard, the motivations and characterizations retain a surprising air of conviction, for all the flying kilts, sabers and sails. Mr. Flynn is, in turn, bold, roguish and forgiveably self-satisfied in his best swashbuckler since “The Sea Hawk,” thirteen long years ago. The featured players, a spanking round-up, are crisp, restrained and forceful, one and all, particularly Roger Livesey and and Anthony Steel, and the ladies in the case, Beatrice Campbell and Yvonne Furneaux. Last but not least, the truly stunning color photography of that British ace, Jack Cardiff, provides a canvas that stands as a model of its kind and fully rates the classic archive reserved for Mr. Stevenson, long, perhaps, after Mr. Flynn and company are forgotten. Meanwhile, Mr. Flynn is having himself, as well he might, a field day.

THE MASTER OF BALLANTRAE, screen play by Herb Meadow, based upon the Robert Louis Stevenson story directed by William Keighley and presented by Warner Brothers. Jamie Durisdeer . . . . . Errol Flynn, Col. Francis Burke . . . . . Roger Livesey, Henry Durisdeer . . . . . Anthony Steel, Lady Alison . . . . . Beatrice Campbell, Jessie Brown . . . . . Yvonne Furneaux, Lord Durisdeer . . . . . Felix Aylmer, MacKellar . . . . . Mervyn Johns, Arnaud . . . . . Jack Berthier, Mendoza . . . . . Charles Goldner, Maj. Clarendon . . . . . Ralph Truman
…

…

— Tim

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Posted in Film Anniversaries, Film Reviews, Gentleman Tim, Newspaper & Headlines

In the Beginning

05 Aug

August 5, 1935 – 85 Years Ago Today – Begins on Captain Blood

— Tim

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Posted in Behind the Scenes, Film Anniversaries, Gentleman Tim, Main Page

Darlings

04 Aug

From Errol to Rory and Deirdre

August 4, 1959:

Darlings,

It hurts so much and I am so disappointed that we won’t be able to see each other this summer … I must go to Spain to try to make some money and besides the Jamaica house is not yet finished …

But whatever happens I am definitely going to pick you up and take you to Jamaica for the Christmas vacation. And you can help me get this new house fixed up and all feminine and stuff. All the things I don’t know anything about … and we’ll have horses and boats and maybe I can even fix you up with some dates, although I guess I’m going to be a little jealous when all those nice looking guys come around …

I love you so very, very much.

Your Baron
…

— Tim

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Posted in Behind the Scenes, Collectibles, Deirdre Flynn, Gentleman Tim, Rory Flynn, Travels

A Deep Dive

03 Aug

Into the Pioneering Photography of Peter Stackpole on August 1 and 2, 1941

Photographer Peter Stackpole (1913-1997), was the son of artists, Ralph Stackpole and Adele Barnes Stackpole. Educated in the San Francisco Bay area and Paris, Peter Stackpole grew up under the influence of his parent’s friends and peers, Dorthea Lange, Edward Weston and Diego Rivera. Maturing in this supportive artist community, Stackpole began developing his photographic style at a young age. Stackpole’s appreciation for the hand-held camera and his developing technical expertise found a perfect subject in the construction of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

In 1935, twenty-five of Stackpole’s bridge photographs were exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Art. This led to several freelance projects and in 1936, when Henry Luce established his ground-breaking “picture” magazine LIFE, Stackpole was hired as one of the four staff photographers. Stackpole worked for LIFE from its founding until 1961, moving gracefully between photographing the glamorous and young in Hollywood, and the more routine lives of the laboring class, always endeavoring to present his subjects authentically.

“Stackpole’s portraiture of Hollywood stars created approachable and endearing characters, and is recognized as a pioneering contribution to “media culture,” solidifying Hollywood icons as a subject of fascination within popular culture.”

“Stackpole’s most dramatic moment happened in 1941, when he was assigned to rendezvous with Errol Flynn’s yacht Sirocco to take underwater pictures of Flynn spearing fish.”

“I used to be a kind of beach bum between assignments, but it never occurred to me to take underwater pictures,” Stackpole said. “I’d never seen an underwater camera. Fins weren’t invented yet, and face masks were few. I had a friend make up a plastic box to hold my oldest, most expendable Leica.”

“Aboard the yacht, Flynn fitted him with a pair of hand-carved wooden goggles to use underwater. Stackpole got 15 decent shots before his camera flooded [including] one shot of Flynn climbing the mast of the Sirocco.”

The photos from this shoot were not only technically and artistically masterful, they were also taken during what later proved to be the most tragically pivotal times in Errol’s career – a time he came to perpetually rue because of Miss Peggy LaRue.