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Archive for the ‘Newspaper & Headlines’ Category

The New Faces

20 Jul

See the New Faces Below

July 20, 1935

The Snooper
LA Evening Herald Express

Not long after talking pictures had brought an influx of the world’s most famous actors to Hollywood, farsighted executives of the film industry began to speculate, “This is all very well, so long as we can raid the stage for talents, but where are we going to get the new faces? What will happen when the Broadway well runs dry?

Well several years have elapsed now since these gentlemen were heard muttering their dire forebodings, and subsequent developments have proved rather conclusively that Hollywood need have no fear about a dearth of fresh personalities to intrigue the admiration of moviegoers.

Seemingly, the well of new talent never runs dry.

Only the other day, audiences acclaimed a startling new personality, Louise Rainer, who flashed before them as William Powell’s leading woman in Escapade. She came from the continent.

Errol Flynn and Olivia De Havilland, who won two of the year’s sweetest acting plums –the romantic leads in the spectacular Captain Blood — were nonentities as far as Hollywood was concerned less than a year ago. Then Miss De Havilland, a seventeen-year-old high school girl from a small village in Northern California, won the big role of Hermia in Max Reinhardt’s Bowl production of “A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream,” and a new screen star was born. Flynn, a handsome, athletic, adventurous Irishman made his debut in an English film, and instantly was spotted by Irving Asher, a Warner executive, and shipped to California under contract. Now he wins the biggest male role of the year, outside of Anthony Adverse, as a swashbuckling Captain Blood.

Last But Definitely Not Least!

— Tim

 

Rough-Cut History

19 Jul

July 19, 1935

Harrison Carroll
Evening Herald Express

Filmland learned for the first time today the romantic history of the diamond that Errol Flynn, dark-haired Irish actor, put upon the finger of Lili Damita, who is now his bride.

It was five years ago that Flynn came into possession.

A young adventurer, he was working as a British agent in New Guinea to help preserve peace among the native tribes. One day, he made a gold strike in the jungle.

Trekking back to civilization, Flynn sold his discovery for $10,000 in gold. He decided to leave New Guinea, but couldn’t carry his new found riches. So he put the money into rough-cut diamonds.

It was one of these diamonds that the young actor soon to play the starring role in the Warner film, Captain Blood, had made into the engagement ring his new bride now wears.

— Tim

 

The Show Must Go On — But with Whom??

16 Jul

Which of these two terrors would you pick for Errol- Bette or Tallulah??

July 16, 1936

Louella O. Parsons
Los Angeles Examiner

The witty, inimitable Tallulah Bankhead of Broadway and points West, is being tested like mad over at Warner Brothers Studio for the leading feminine role in Another Dawn, the film in which Errol (Captain Blood) Flynn is the hero. In fact, Tallulah is probably signed at this very minute.

This is the role originally slated for Bette Davis before she decided “to take a walk.” However, there is nothing but the friendliest of feelings at the Warner Brothers Studio toward Bette, and if she chooses to return she’ll find the door wide open and a big Warner welcome on the mat. But the show must go on with or without Bette.

Bette Before Another Dawn

Tallulah Before Another Dawn

O-Kay then, at the end of the day, who was in Another Dawn?

— Tim

 

Father Flynn’s First Visit to Hollywood

16 Jul

July 15, 1939

— Tim

 

The Escape

15 Jul

July 15, 1949

Armand Archerd
Evening Herald express

Susan Hayward has turned down, she says, $150,000, a chance to co-star with Errol Flynn and an Italy location for The Escape.

The fair lady’s reason: she would be required to cut her hair a la Bergman for For Whom the Bell Tolls. She refused to cut her hair for My Foolish Heart, which she’s now making. This gal’s haircuts come high.

Gorgeous, Talented, Courageous, Susan Hayward

>>>Susan of Locksley >

— Tim

 

Dinner-Dance at the BHTC

14 Jul

July 14, 1937

May Hobart
Hollywood Citizen News

Attracting an impressive array of filmland notables, the formal opening of the Beverly Hills Tennis Club on N. Maple Dr. began Saturday night and didn’t end until Sunday evening, although the activity wasn’t quite continuous. The return from Europe of Fred Perry and Ellsworth Vines, two of the club’s directors, was celebrated at the invitational dinner-dance Saturday evening, which was held out-of-doors, with tables placed around the swimming pool.

In addition to the orchestra which played for dancing, Benny Goodman, with a trio, was present to entertain the throng. Impromptu entertainment was offered by Groucho Marx, Charles Lederer, Oscar Levant and others.

Those who dined and danced included Mssrs. and Mmes. Harpo Marx, Arthur Sheekman (Gloria Stuart), Basil Rathbone, John McCormack, Zeppo Marx, Robert Riskin, Donald Woods, Gordon Jones; Misses Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Bennett, Eleanore Whitney, Paula Stone, Paulette Goddard, Mary Brian; Messrs. Robert Taylor, Richard Rodgers, Johnny Downs, Charlie Chaplin, Eddie Buzzell, Ernest Pascal, Walter Kane, Arnold Kunody, William Wyler and Charles Butterworth.

The membership returned Sunday afternoon to pack the gallery for the official opening matches.

Beverly Hills Tennis Club 1938

Errol at the Beverly Hills Tennis Club, 1945

Fred Perry, Charlie Chaplin, Groucho Marx and Ellsworth Vines at the Beverly Hills Tennis Club, 1937

And here’s how astonishingly hot Benny Goodman was in 1937, the very year he and Gene Krupa soared with Sing, Sing, Sing in Hollywood Hotel!

— Tim

 

A Slightly Imperfect Specimen

13 Jul

July 13, 1937

Harriet Parsons
Los Angeles Examiner

Errol Flynn off production for a couple of days because of a fractured rib acquired during a boxing workout over the weekend

May 11, 1937

Elizabeth Yeaman
Hollywood Citizen News

Errol Flynn will lay aside his rapier and don boxing gloves for his next picture, The Perfect Specimen, for in this story he will portray a gent who is handy with his dukes. Furthermore, he is going modern in more ways than one. He is to have a smart-cracking leading lady in the person of Joan Blondell. Joan, however, should not be classified as a leading lady, but as a co-star. Incidentally, the Flynn physique can now be bared for the entertainment of feminine fans. The age of chivalry and its uniforms will be tossed out completely.



Sparring for The Perfect Specimen

— Tim

 

Eighty Five Years Ago Today — Captain Blood Gets Ready to Sail Again

12 Jul

July 12, 1935

Jimmy Starr
Evening Herald Express

Nearly a dozen years ago, 150 carpenters and laborers reported to work at the old Vitagraph studio on Talmadge Street. They started construction of ancient man of war vessels for the rapidly-declining film firm’s last lavish venture, Captain Blood.

Today the Warner studio now owns the Vitagraph plant, and nearly 300 carpenters and laborers are starting the construction of three Seventeenth Century war vessels for Captain Blood, to be one of the most costly of the Warner specials this year. Something near $100,000 will be spent for the ships and reproduction of the village of Port Royal on the Spanish Main.

Odd, isn’t it, that 12 years later the Vitagraph studio is again the setting for this adventuresome tale of the sea?

Vitagraph’s Captain Blood

— Tim

 

“An Unscrupulous Writer”

12 Jul

On July 11, 1981, UPI reported that Rory and Deirdre sued low-life Chuck Higham, correctly describing him as:

“An unscrupulous writer with gross imagination given to extravagant charges, deceit and defamation of deceased persons as his modus operandi of authorship.”

“A skilled and practiced character assassin who used the law preventing libel suits of relatives of a deceased person to defame the family without any threat of legal action.”

UPI News Report

Our Man Flynn by Tony Thomas
Tony Thomas cites another outrageously unscrupulous writer and notorious fraud in his “Our Man Flynn” article -Falseman Capote.

Brava Rory & Deirdre!!

— Tim

 

VIRUS X!

11 Jul

“VIRUS” X STRIKES BING CROSBY AND ERROL FLYNN!

In late 1947 or early 1948, Errol and Bing Crosby were stricken by a very serious and mysterious disease the Los Angeles Health Department of Health called “Virus X”. Ultimately, a ‘Virux X’ epidemic spread through California, Oregon, and Washington. In Greater LA alone, there were hundreds of thousands of cases. It contributed to the early death (at 53 years old) of Hollywood star Warren Williams.

It’s not known how Errol got the virus. Perhaps kissing the wrong person?

— Tim