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Hi-Tailing It to Texas

30 Dec

Fleeing Hollywood for the Mexican border

December 29, 1939

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Jimmie Fidler

Errol Flynn will vacation on Big Boy Williams’ paternal ranch near Del Rio, Texas.

Del Rio – The Friendliest Little Border Town in Texas – An Oasis in the Desert”
amp-southernliving-com.cdn.ampproject.org…

“Travelers have long been drawn to this oasis on the Rio Grande. The American Indians who inhabited the area more than 4,000 years ago left detailed pictographs on cave walls, now a sort of primitive history book etched in stone. Spanish missionaries planted a church here in 1635 and christened the spot San Felipe del Rio. It was named not for the Rio Grande but in honor of San Felipe Springs, which still offers up to 90 million gallons of spring water every minute.”

“Queen City of the Rio Grande”
www-mysanantonio-com.cdn.ampproject.org…

“The heyday of Del Rio, the “Queen City of the Rio Grande,” as year-round tourist destination, along with nearby Villa Acuña, Coahuila, appears to have been in the 1930s.

During that era, the two sister cities straddling the Texas-Mexico border enchanted businessmen and the leisure class with mix of oasis relaxation and unregulated foreign intrigue.”

— Tim

 

On the second day of Christmas …

26 Dec

DECEMBER 26, 1939

SIDNEY SKOLSKY PRESENTS

Errol Flynn and Guinn Williams sent Orson Welles a Christmas gift – a ham with a beard on it.

— Tim

 

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood!

24 Dec

Was The Adventures of Robin Hood a Christmas movie?

Read this and tune in Christmas on Sky to see!

t2m.io/pR7dgXzy…

“A film does not have to have to take place at Christmas to qualify as a Christmas film. It takes something more. And to this list I would add The Adventures Of Robin Hood (1938), starring Errol Flynn, the template for every ‘Robin’ that came after him.

This movie, for me, was like a big Christmas bauble itself. Shot in glorious colour, with lots of green and red, like a Christmas tree itself, it featured the forest, a place to be free. It had a jolly man at the centre who delivered the gifts of his own presence and joy.

It had a dreamer (Maid Marian) waiting for the promise of her life to be fulfilled. And that score. That glorious score, like the feeling of the carols in church, voices sweeping to the ceiling and through the nave, giving us one more moment of the promise of the year to come and a good feeling about the year gone by.”

——-

One can also watch on Little Christmas – in Cincinnati, with Flynn on the Big Screen:

www.mariemonttheatre.com…

— Tim

 

A Gift of a Christmas Quiz

23 Dec

In what major motion picture did Errol not kiss, chase, or flirt with a leading lady or any other woman?

Clues:

Included one of Errol’s greatest co-stars, as well as one of his greatest friends, too.

Released for the Christmas season.

The Baron vs. The Baron

Set in France

——-

Images below added Christmas Eve morning (at dawn):

On the second day of Christmas
For on those it has not dawned

— Tim

 

Dear Prudence

22 Dec

Dear Prudence,

A “more skillful swordsman” than Errol? I think not. Though you sure we’re one talented and rediantly-beautiful swashbucklerette, in both B&W and Technicolor.

“Against All Flags, 1952. This was one of the last Hollywood swashbucklers starring Errol Flynn. Maureen O’Hara proves his equal with her swordplay as Prudence “Spitfire” Stevens. In fact, O’Hara swore she was the more skillful swordsman, which might be true, as Flynn was slowing down. Usually he did his own stunts, but he declined the Douglas Fairbanks-style broad-sail-riding stunt here, having already broken an ankle and delaying production two months.

Fortunately for Universal Pictures, they had Russell Metty as cinematographer. He was the fastest Technicolor ace around, and he shot a second pirate movie, Yankee Buccaneer with Jeff Chandler, while Flynn recuperated. Co-star Anthony Quinn competes with Flynn in all sorts of skullduggery, supposedly on the island of Madagascar. The film’s secret weapon? Jokes that were purportedly inspired by Flynn’s randy sex life.”

www.santafenewmexican.com…

— Tim

 

Doggone, Arno’s Gone!

21 Dec

December 22, 1939

ERROL FLYNN’S DOG IS TAKEN BY KIDNAPPER

Police and humane society officers, as well as Tailwagger Foundation officials, today we’re investigating the latest case of “dognapping” in Hollywood.

Latest victim of the racket that has spread on so widely is Arno, a German Schnauzer belonging to Errol Flynn, film star.

Arno was lured into a black sedan just outside the gates of Warner Brothers Burbank studio yesterday.
Eldon Crowninshield, an electrician, saw the dog, which is well known on the movie lot, enter the car, but thought nothing more of it until Flynn reported to studio police that his dog was missing.

The Swashbuckler’s “Heart Dog”

The Swashbuckler’s Dog

— Tim

 

Gary Anderson It,s a wonderful life.

21 Dec

www.timesrecord.com… Not a lot about Errol but a real good read about yester year to today’s films. Genene

— tassie devil

 
 

Hit Him Like You Hit Roark

16 Dec

Eighty Years Ago

Third Week of December, 1938

LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
By Erskine Johnson

Headlines that told of a short but terrific fight between Errol Flynn and Aiden Roark, polo player and studio executive, are scarcely dry when Flynn returns to work on his new picture, Dodge City. And oddly enough, his first scene requires him to leap out of a barber’s chair and slug Douglas Fowley. Several times director Michael Curtiz films the scene but Flynn makes his pulled punches look bad. Finally Curtiz becomes exasperated. “Hit him like the newspapers said you hit Roark, ” he demands. Flynn grins and in the next “take” he makes his pulled punch look like the real thing, and Fowley sails back on a pile of mattresses laid out to break his fall.

* Douglas Fowley was a long-time movie and tv bad guy, as well as the father of hyper-wacko Kim “Alley Oop” Fowley.

— Tim

 

MGM’s Eye Out for Flynn

16 Dec

Third Week of December, 1934

Los Angeles Examiner
Cover Hollywood

The MGMers should be happy to know that Errol Flynn, whom they have talent scouts looking for in England and Australia, to say nothing of New Zealand, is right here in the Hollywood’s at the moment. Because they saw him in an English version of Mutiny on the Bounty, they now want him for their own version of the same picture. So, seeing as how the Gent is actually under contract to Warner Brothers, they will have to do some borrowing if they really want him.

thumbs.gfycat.com…

— Tim

 

No Pink Tea was This Battle

15 Dec

Eighty Years Ago

Excerpts and Summaries of News Reports from Around the Globe …

An eyewitness to the brawl between Errol Flynn and Aiden Roark says that Roark called Flynn a North Ireland so-and-so.

No pink tea was this latest battle, eyewitnesses said. No fists this time swished through the air past their intended target. This one, ringsiders aver, was a knock-down, drag-our affair.

Flynn was a valiant defender of his birthplace, the north of Ireland, against celebrated polo-player (and executive assistant to Darryl Zanuck) from South Ireland.

Flynn was the victor by a knockout.

All afternoon, Roark had been passing sly remarks about Flynn’s heritage and acting. The star of Robin Hood objected and, according to elite rungsiders, told Roark to “shut up.” When he didn’t, Flynn let him have it.

Late in the day, when fifty or more film celebrities gathered to prepare for dinner, Roark continued his heckling of Flynn. He didn’t think much of Flynn’s Thespian ability, and less of North Ireland, and gave voice to these dislikes several times, punctuating his feelings by grabbing Flynn’s collar.

Flynn countered with a beautifully timed right hook.

Roark went down. He staggered to his feet and went down again under Flynn’s crashing right fist.

Bud Ernst, Hollywood radio man and friend of Flynn, grabbed the actor and Bruce Cabot seized Roark. At this point, one of Roark’s socialite, polo playing friends rushed forward and struck Flynn a hard blow on the mouth.

With a roar of rage, Flynn shook loose, knocked down his second antagonist and turned to meet Roark, who had shaken free. The actor then again landed a looping right hand on Roark’s jaw and Roark topped over – for good this time. He was unconscious for 20 minutes.

The hostess, Mrs. Jock Whitney, then dined with Flynn, Ernst, and Cabot, at
a Beverly Hills nightclub.

This is the first time that Flynn has hit the Hollywood headlines with a fight, although he, and Lili Damita, were mixed up in a fracas in Havana.

A philosophic attitude of Warner Bros. was due to two things: (1) Their he-man star won by a knockout. (2) The story broke a few hours before the preview of Flynn’s war picture, The Dawn Patrol.

Reticent to discuss the incident, Flynn said: “I’m sorry it happened; it’s just one of those unfortunate affairs. But some of the remarks were too pointed, and I had to defend myself.”

— Tim