Three weeks or so after the birth of Sean on May 31 …
June 18, 1941
Hollywood Citizens News
Father’s Day Inspire Family Dinner Party
Father’s Day found Julie Bishop, Warner Brothers actress, entertaining her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Will Brown, for the evening st Bill Jordan’s Bar of Music.
Other notables glimpsed were Vaughn Paul and his bride, Deanna Durbin. Mr. and Mrs. Bob Howard (Andrea Leeds), Wayne Morris and Patricia Stewart, Carole Landis and Kenny Morgan, Wynn Rocamora, Ida Koverman, and Nils Asther, Joe Pasternak and Johnny Hyde. Mr. and Mrs. Milton Bren, Mitzi Green and Whitney Wear, Errol Flynn and Hardie Albright.
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Julie Bishop
Bill Jordan’s Bar of Music, Home of Dueling Pianos
Custard pies, Keystone Kops, and a carefree spirit reigned Sunday when Milton Berle played host to 400 picture friends at his Mack Sennett bathing party at the Beverly Hills Hotel Sand and Pool Club.
Dressing in a bathing suit of the 1900s, Mr. Berle saw to it that his guests had the time of his life.
Custard pies throwing was judged by the guest of honor, Mack Sennett. On the throwing end were Misses Judy Garland, Joan Davis, Ann Miller, Bonita Granville, Patti McCarty, Carole Landis, and Linda Darnell. At the receiving end of their deadly aim were the host and Buster Keaton, Errol Flynn, Billy Gilbert, Parkyarkarkus, and Laird Cregar.
When the Keystone Kops, Dave Rose, Eddie Cronjagger, and Charles Hall, tried to “break up” the battle, they met with furious bombardment themselves.
Ping pong, tennis, badminton, and a variety show with clowns, dancing and comedy diving kept the party at top speed.
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The famous Beverly Hills Hotel pool was very briefly known as the “Sand and Pool Club”.
Once again the door of the picturesque garden house of the Beverly Hills Hotel to receive a notable and festive medley of filmlanders,with Edmund Goulding in the hosting role and Doris Duke Cromwell enjoying the honor spot.
Apropos of the parties Doris has tossed for Eddie’s delectation at her sumptuous home in Hawaii during his Honolulu holidays, and to provide the visitor with a homelike atmosphere, the Garden House was adorned with palms, Polynesian blossoms and other Hawaiian detail.
A Hawaiian played a soft obbligato to the cocktail chatter, and among those bidden wer the Herbert Marshalls, the Gary Coopers, Reggie Gardiner, Ann (Mrs. Jack) Warner, Sonja Henie and Dan Topping, Harry Crocker, Minna Wallis, Lionel Atwell, Barbara Hutton, Cary Grant, Gloria Swanson, John McLane, Walter Brooks, Jack Warner, Rex Cole, the Errol Flynns, Edgar Selwyn, Kay Sutton, the Ben Finneys, Joan Bennett, Sam Hoffenstein, the Sam Raphaelsons, Philip Terry, Gene Markey, the Charles Boyers, Lothar Mendes, George Brent, Ann Sheridan, Tim Durant, the Charles Feldmas, Eddie Sutherland, Mary Rogers, Dudley MurphyCharles Chaplin, Mona Maris, Gregory LaCava, Andy Lawler, Jean Negulesco, and Roland Young.
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Look for this photo of Errol at the B.H.H. in the video below – with Barbara Stanwyck, Gary Cooper, Tiger Lil, Rocky Cooper, and Robert Taylor. The date of this photo is uncertain to me, but it was definitely taken at the Beverly Hills Hotel, and it appears to be relatively contemporaneous.
Actor Errol Flynn was recovering today at Hollywood Hospital after collapsing on a Warner Bros. set.
he was expected to remain in the hospital for at least a week. His physicians, Dr. Carl F. Stevens and Thomas W. Hern, said Flynn suffered “a recurrence of an upper respiratory ailment” which he has had for some time.
Flynn collapsed yesterday while working on To the Last Man. Action will be shot around him until he returns.
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Northern Pursuit was originally known as To the Last Man and was based on a magazine story. A.I. Bezzerides wrote the first screenplay under the supervision of Jesse L. Lasky. William Faulkner later worked on the script.
According to Tony Thomas:
“During the production of Northern Pursuit, Flynn took ill in May 1943, collapsing on the set and being hospitalized for a week. The studio released information indicating he had a “upper respiratory ailment,” but he was battling tuberculosis.”
Havana, May 17. Errol Flynn, Hollywood film actor, received the thanks today of an unidentified American he saved from serious injury during a fight in a night club here last night.
Fists, bottles and chairs were flying when Flynn intervened. The American who was involved escaped with a broken nose. Flynn was not hurt.
He was accompanied by his wife, who refused to take the matter seriously.
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May 17, 1938
Evening Herald Express
ERROL FLYNN, FRIENDS IN HAVANA CAFE FIGHT
“I think this all so funny”, quoth Lili Damita, stage and screen beauty, who was a spectator while fists and bottles flew in a free-for-all-fight at the Eden Concert Night Club with Errol Flynn taking a prominent part in the fighting.
The fight started last night when one of the members of Flynn’s party got into an argument with a man at a nearby table. A minute later, chairs and bottles began to fly.
Flynn, who often plays rough and tumble parts in the movies, joined in with two or three effective punches at those who got in his way. The only casualty was an unidentified American who received a broken nose and a cut eye. Flynn and the others were unhurt and continued their party.
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The Eden Concert Night Club was regarded as one of the world’s most “spectacular” and “phenomenally popular” night clubs in the world. Located in the center of town between Sloppy Joe’s and the Hotel Plaza, it evolved in 1939 into the also world-renowned Tropicana Club.
“Beginning in the late 1930s and booming in the 1940s, conga dancing became wildly popular in the US.” Errol occasionally joined in the Congamania – in Cuba, in Hollywood, and in New York. Here is some evidence, beginning with a news report of a wire from Cuba, where Errol had just been, or was very soon to be, involved in a “free-for-all” Dodge City-like fracas at a famous nightclub in Havana, details of which I will post tomorrow.
May 16, 1938
Harrison Carroll
Evening Herald Express ba
Errol Flynn has wired for reservations at La Conga for the night of May 21.
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The La Conga in Hollywood
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Errol was still kicking more than a year later. Here he is sitting with his sister Rosemary (and Randy Burke) and in a conga line led by Desi Arnaz on tumbadora at the La Conga in Manhattan, on August 5, 1939:
La Conga, Manhattan
The conga craze continued in Hollywood (and around the world) into the Forties. Here’s Desi Arnaz leading a huge line in Too Many Girls (1940) during which he and Lucy fell in love, leading to groundbreaking television history, in the form of I Love Lucy and Desilu Productions, etc. Look for Lucy near the end of this wildly fun conga clip.
Racking his brain over what to do with eight loose acres up on Mulholland Drive, overlooking the San Fernando Valley, Errol Flynn hit on an interesting idea. He will turn his property into a fancy rest camp, with eight guest cabins, three tennis courts and a dozen riding nags available for the nearby Hollywood folk in search of quick relaxation.
Flynn plans to spend a lot of money on the project. Chances are that Bud Ernst, one of his close pals, will manage the place, which will be open to the public.
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The Adventures of Robin Hood; Released May 14, 1938
Quotes from Louella O. Parsons’ glowing review of The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Adventures of Robin Hood is the most exciting costume play of this or any other era. Cunningly combining melodrama, romance, and colorful adventure, it romps along at Twentieth Century speed, making us forget we are seeing legendary characters who lived in the swashbuckling of early England.
Robin Hood comes to us in the person of dashing Errol Flynn, whose performance tops anything the young Flynn has yet given to the screen.
There couldn’t be a lovelier Maid Marian than Olivia de Havilland.
Basil Rathbone gives one of his topping performances as Sir Guy of Gisbourne.
Claude Rains reaches new heights.
Ian Hunter is the perfect King Richard the Lionhearted.
You’ll like the kittenish Una O’Connor, the prankish Eugene Pallete, the hearty and lovable Alan Hale, the weak, spineless Sheriff of Nottingham played by the sterling actor, Melville Cooper, merry crew member Herbert Mundin, and Patric Knowles.
Much credit goes to that splendid director, Michael Curtiz, and William Keighley
The music, by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, is enchanting.
Costumes by Orry-Kelly are beautiful.
The photography, by Tony Gudio and Sol Polito, is poetic.
Perc Westmore, may I say, did a great job on makeup.
The Technicolor adds materially to the beauty of the picture.
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Joe Mantegna, who sought and received a Hollywood Walk of Fame Star next to Errol’s, gives a Flynntastic interview about the greatness and importance of both Errol Flynn and The Adventures of Robin Hood. He is a true fan.
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