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
Jimmy Starr – April 29, 1936
LA Evening Herald Express
Already ranked as one of the movie village’s tennis greats, Gilbert Roland took it upon himself to name Hollywood’s 10 best racket wielders.
On the set of Paramount’s The Last Train from Madrid, Gilbert put Garbo in the top spot among feminine tennis players, Errol Flynn equals her in the men’s division. Others are Marlene Dietrich, Cedric Gibbons, Constance Bennett, Gary Cooper, Carole Lombard, Harold Lloyd, Elizabeth Allen and Ronald Colman.
Errol Backstroking in Hollywood Circa 1935
— Tim
My brother, Chris Reid, died yesterday. He was a huge fan of Errol Flynn, so much so that he moved thousands of miles to live in Chico, where he graduated from Cal State there. He knew Bidwell Park intimately and all the other famous (and many only rarely known) Flynn sites in and surrounding Chico. I was fortunate to get a few royal tours. He also knew many of Errol’s other haunts in California and Mexico. In fact, I was with him when we climbed the hills of Hollywood in a valiant but unsuccessful attempt to penetrate Mulholland Farm. (If only we knew Jack Marino then!) Chris could and did quote Flynn fluently. He was also a very big Beatle fan, hence the ‘Let It Be’ inspired image below that will be part of a forthcoming video tribute. He was only 57, is already very dearly missed, and will be forever by his large family and many friends.
Godspeed on your new journey, Chris.
— Tim
April 25, 1938
Elizabeth Yeaman
Hollywood Citizen News
Although Warners aren’t saying anything about it yet, I understand that beginning this morning Errol Flynn is A.W.O.L Flynn was told to be on the set this morning to start work on Because of a Man, which is the new title for Sister Act, in which the Lane Sisters will be featured. The last I heard of Flynn he was in Florida waters aboard his yacht, and the studio sent out stories that he was shooting devil fish with his Robin Hood’s bow and arrow!
…
— Tim
Which was Safer?
April 25, 1939
Jimmy Starr
Evening Herald Express
It isn’t news that Errol Flynn and wifey, Lili Damtat often engage in what is any married couple’s right -yiu a slight family spat, or mild disagreement. But it is rather important when said argument saves them from possible physical injury.
The other day Errol decided to purchse a low-wing monoplane. He had just given a check for payment when the row started. Errol interrupted the verbal excitement long enough to tell his friend, Bud Ernst, to try out the plane.
While Errol and Lili were settling their differences, Bud was gracefully sailing through the air in the new plane. When he started to land, however, spectators were horrified to see him start the descent minus the landing gear.
Ernst pancaked the plane to the ground but with slight damage. Had Errol and Lili been on the plane, the “belly” landing would have been impossible without a serious crack-up. Ernst explained that the lever operating the retractable gear had jammed.
And that’s the story of a spat that was worth while.
…
In actuality, Errol may have been safer in the air with his buds than he was on the ground with Lili. Dueling with the Red Baron in the skies above France may have been less challenging than drinking Pink Champagne with Fleen’s Red Hot Dame from France in the hills above Hollywood.
— Tim
AUTOGRAPH ARMY ALWAYS ON TRAIL OF CINEMA STARS
Restaurant Employee Pays For Olivia De Havilland’s Meals For Signature
REDEEMS HER CHECKS
Player Is Now With Errol Flynn in “Adventures of Robin. Hood”
By FRANK HEACOCK Hollywood,Cal., March 3, 1938
The prophet may be without honor in his own country but the movie star certainly isn’t. One of the demonstrations of the honor in which the screen darlings are held is their pursuit by autograph hunters. And nowhere does the autograph hunter flourish more lustily than in California, country of the movies. And California signature-seekers have several times achieved new highs of ingenuity in devising methods of obtaining the coveted name scrawls of their film favorites. Most unusual of them came to light recently during the filming of “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” when the company was on location near Chico, Calif.
Signs the Checks
When a film troupe is on location, be it explained, the studio takes care of meals and accommodations for its members. And to simplify the business of paying for meals the studio arranges for members of the company to sign their checks; a company auditor paying them later. Members of the “Adventures of Robin Hood” company, in which Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland are co-starred, ran up a healthy accumulation of meal checks to be paid off. But a week after her arrival at Chico it was found no meal check signed by Miss de Havilland had turned up at the hotel where she was staying.
Auditor Stumped
Now Miss de Havilland, by her own admission, is a girl who likes her victuals. She wasn’t on a diet and she certainly wasn’t paying for for own meals. The auditor couldn’t figure it out.
Sold Autographs
Investigation disclosed that a kitchen employee had been removing her “autographed” meal checKs from the daily collection and dropping into the cash register an amount equivalent to the price of her meals. The hotel employee then proceeded to sell the “autographs” to a Hollywood autograph broker of whom there are dozens. The broker, according in the avid autograph collector, was paying him fifty cents more for each signature than the check bearing it cost him. Considering that there was nothing intrinsically dishonest in his actions, the hotel contented itself with a reprimand and a proposal that he denote his profits to a local charity. But by that time eighteen Olivia de Havilland autographs had found their ‘way to market’.
Tribute to California’s ingenious autograph hunters. Tribute, too, to the healthy appetite Miss de Havilland worked up during the making of “The Adventures of Robin Hood” in Chico’s bracing atmosphere.
…
— Tim
DENIES ACCUSATIONS
NEW YORK, April 21, 1937
Errol Flynn, film player, denied today in a telegram to the Knights of Columbus that he had engaged In activities in behalf of loyalist Spain. The telegram, addressed to John L. Rossborough, state deputy in Oakland, California, and Thomas B. Flanagan, secretary of the Los Angeles council, was made public here by Warner Brothers.
…
Catholic Opposition to Communism in Spain
“Catholics believed that communism was the antithesis to Christianity and thus the only way to save the soul of the country was to side with those opposing it. The archbishop of Toledo wrote to the American bishops in 1937 asking for support, stating that “the National army is defending the essential foundation of society.” The final straw that pushed Catholics to side with the Nationalists was the persecution of the Church religious. In total 12 bishops, 4184 priests, 2365 male religious, and 283 female religious were killed by the Republicans during the war.”
…
…
ACTOR DENIES SAYING STARS RAISED FUNDS
Report That $1,500,000 Given By Certain Film Players to Loyalists Claimed False
By United Press
HOLLYWOOD, April 21, 1937
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.”
Per the San Bernadino Daily Sun, April 22, 1937
— Tim
Drunk or Not So Drunk – That was the Question
_______
LIFE Magazine – April 1, 1939
“Last fortnight [Virginia City’s] population totaled 500, most of whom got so drunk that Warner Bros. curtailed its visit and hustled its valuable stars back to Reno’s safer streets.”
Famed Ghost Town of the Comstock Lode Awakens for the Premier of “Virginia City” – See page 32
_______
LIFE Magazine – April 15, 1939
No Black Eye for Errol
Drunks in Virginia City
SIRS:
THE UNDERSIGNED REPRESENTING THE PEOPLE OF VIRGINIA CITY DEMAND THAT YOU RETRACT AND APOLOGIZE IN YOUR NEXT ISSUE THE FOLLOWING ISSUE PUBLISHED IN IN APRIL FIRST ISSUE, PAGE 32: “LAST FORTNIGHT ITS POPULATION TOTALED 500, MOST OF WHOM GOT SO DRUNK THAT WARNER BROS CURTAILED ITS VISIT AND HUSTLED ITS VALUABLE STARS BACK TO RENO’S SAFER STREETS.” THE STATEMENT IS FALSE AND AN INSULT TO THE PEOPLE OF VIRGINIA.
WILL COBB, STATE SENATOR – THOMAS LYNCH, ASSEMBLY MAN
VIRGINIA CITY, NEV.
Editor’s Response: Thousands of visitors poured into Virginia City that day. Probably they were the ones that raised most of the commotion. The fact remains that what made the movie stars hustle back was the conduct of the patrons of the Virginia Theater where the stars were scheduled to make personal appearances. Said a U.P. dispatch to the New York Times: “So gala was the occasion that Manager Hart installed a bar in his lobby and served free whiskey and champagne to all ticket holders…. Manager Hart rushed new relays of case goods from the Bucket of Blood across the street.” When the Warner Bros. executives reached the theater, they decided the patrons were drunk, that the situation was too dangerous for them to risk their valuable stars. If Errol Flynn, for instance, had received a black eye from a flying bottle, it would have cost them $20,000 a day. So they took everybody back to Reno.
_______
LIFE Magazine – May 6, 1940
I read your issue of April 15 that Warner Bros.could not risk taking Errol Flynn et al into the Virginia City Theater because they decided “the patrons were drunk” and there was some danger Mr. Flynn’s being hit by a flying bottle.
I do not know who your informant is, but he or she s – to put it mildly – a liar. I was in that theater. My family was there. great many people I know were also there. There was no drunkenness and no disorderly conduct. Mr. Flynn would have been very much safer than he was in Reno.
True, Mr. Hart did dispense free champagne, but those who drank it were on the streets and not in the theater.
_______
Errol the Auctioneer, on the same stage used by Gentleman Jim Corbett, Mark Twain, Lillie Langtry, John Philip Souza, and Edwin Booth, among many other legendary greats
“Piper’s Opera House is a historic performing arts venue in Virginia City. It served as a training facility in 1897 for heavyweight boxing champion Gentleman Jim Corbett, in preparation for his title bout with Bob Fitzsimmons. The current structure was built by entrepreneur John Piper in 1885 to replace his 1878 opera house that had burned down. The 1878 venue, in turn, had been to replace Piper’s 1863 venue which was destroyed by the 1875 Great Fire in Virginia City. Mark Twain spoke from the original Piper’s stage in 1866, and again a century later in the third venue, as portrayed by Hal Holbrook in his one-man play Mark Twain Tonight! A lynch mob hung a victim from the first venue’s rafters in 1871. American theatrical producer David Belasco was stage manager at the second opera house before moving to New York City. Piper’s opera houses played host to Shakespearean thespians such as Edwin Booth. Musical performers Lilly Langtry, Al Jolson and John Philip Sousa once performed here. In 1940, Errol Flynn auctioned off historic Piper memorabilia from the opera house stage, during a live NBC broadcast that coincided with the premiere of Flynn’s new movie Virginia City.”
— Tim
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:
— Tim
After introducing live-action formats to classics such as ‘The Lion King’, ‘Aladdin’ and the latest ‘Mulan’, Disney is working on remaking the 1973’s classic animated film ‘Roin Hood’ for its streaming platform Disney Plus.
The remake version of ‘Robin Hood’ will be helmed by Carlos Lopez Estrada, who is known for working on ‘Bindspotting’. According to Hollywood Reporter, the new film is to be a musical and will include anthropomorphic characters in a live-action/CG hybrid format.
The deal was reportedly sealed before the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic and the project is in its early development, according to reports.
However, the news regarding the remix of the classic hasn’t been well received by fans, who are asking Disney to “reconsider” its options as there can never be a “good live-action ‘Robin Hood’ movie.”
And some, terming it disrespectful to the original, wrote, “This is particularly insulting because we already have a perfect ‘Robin Hood’ movie with Errol Flynn. No one’s been able to top that. I’m assuming that this will be a mocap movie with real sets and locations. What else could Disney do to justify calling it ‘live-action’?”
One fan, who is of an opinion that Disney always takes good classic movies and turns it bad, said, “Bad idea. ‘Robin Hood’ has been remade COUNTLESS times. Why can’t corporations just leave the classics alone? I know it’s for a generation but more often than not, they find a way to screw the classics up.”
Meanwhile, another agitated fan added, “Unpopular opinion but Disney’s ‘Robin Hood’ is a masterpiece all on its own, and shouldn’t be tampered or remade. Disney, please consider your options.”
Similar to the original, the remake version is said to portray the Sherwood Forest warrior as a fox and Little John as a black bear, Friar Tuck as a badger, the wolf as the sheriff of Nottingham and Maid Marian as a vixen.
However, fans have expressed disappointment in Disney for not coming up with something new.
“What is wrong with Disney? No one likes the remakes- spoils the original. I’d be sacking my story writers – just come up with something new already. ‘Robin Hood’ is one of my all-time faves, I can still recite it word for word,” lamented one Twitter user.
Robin Hood as Fox
— tassie devil
