— Tim
Archive for the ‘Newspaper & Headlines’ Category
A Knock-Down Drag-Out Affair
13
May
Alice in Wondrousland
11
May
Errol Flynn crowns Alice Moore, La Cuesta Queen at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff: June 1, 1940
— Tim
Location Location Location
11
May
May 11, 1940
The Weekly Wireless
Miriam Hopkins in three moods -demure, gay and grim. The swash buckler is, as you probably guessed, none other than Errol Flynn.
The appearance of a grasshopper in the leading
lady’s bed may wreck a million-dollar movie. That’s why location-man hates arranging locations, especially for films such as
Warner’s spectacular “Virginia City,” made at Flagstaff, with Miriam Hopkins and Errol Flynn.
The stars, director Michael Curtiz, and about a hundred others spent six weeks on the famed
Painted Desert.
Only those who have been on “location” trips can have any idea of the headaches involved. Joe Barry, who handled the “Virginia City” job, estimated the expense og the trip at approximately £20,000, over and above regular salaries and production costs.
But money was the least of his worries. A location invariably offers unexpected problems, which may vary from finding lost children to the discovery of a grasshopper in the leading lady’s bed.
He can figure almost exactly the cost of train fare and freight. He can allow £2OOO, more or less, for food for the company, and not be far wrong.
Even if Miss Hopkins had insisted on strawberries for breakfast, or if Mr. Flynn had called for a special kind of beef to keep up his flagging strength, the final totals would not have been changed much. But there are other expenses which cannot be budgeted so closely. There are the items of rent and feed for horses needed, in addition to those taken from Hollywood, accommodation and food for drivers of trucks and buses from the studio and those hired “on the ground.”
Flagstaff, where the company had to stay, is a small town of 4000 inhabitants, with three small hotels and a limited number of restaurants.
The problem of assigning living quarters and eating places was no small one, and arrangements for doctors, nurses, dentists, barbers, laundries, and filling stations had to be made.
Dry-cleaning alone presents a problem in a small community. Even though he allowed £3OO for that
item, he had to be sure that the local cleaners could give him the overnight service he needed.
He had to get local people to serve as extras, and this invariably led to hard feelings on the part of those he did not employ.
A location-man must, if possible, re-route any regular plane service over the location. Railroad whistles have to be suppressed.. Officials of all kinds must be met, wheedled, placated, and side-tracked. Sometimes fences had to be removed, and replaced later,and roads had to be covered up. (“Virginia City” starts in American Civil War times, so that motor cars and their tracks must be kept well out of sight.)
Irate neighbors in the vicinity who had not been employed by the company chopped wood and beat
on tubs, to the dismay of the sound men, until Joe appeased them.
Fire hazards had to be watched, dry creeks to be flushed with water dragged miles in tanks, a telephone from the company headquarters to the home studio had to be kept open continuously.
On any location at night there are standing-room-only signs before the theatres and cafes. Ice cream is at a premium. The studio had to
put up a big bond that no liquor will be allowed on the Indian reservation near the “Virginia City” camp.
Joe brought the “Virginia City” location back to Hollywood according to budget. But he lost weight doing it. He always does.
…
ERROL’S LETTER ABOUT THE LOCATION
…
…
DICKIE JONES’S MEMORIES OF ERROL AND FLAGSTAFF
Did you stay in Flagstaff while filming Virginia City?
DICK JONES: Oh yeah, I remember it real well. I just about ate myself to death with trout. I loved it. I actually came back to Flagstaff later that year to do The Outlaw.
What can you tell us about the personal appearance you made at Flagstaff’s Orpheum Theater while filming here?
I don’t remember it at all. I probably did a trick roping act, because that was the only thing I knew. (Laughing) I could strum a ukulele but that wouldn’t have been much!
Do you have memories of working with Errol Flynn in Virginia City?
The one thing I can remember was that he had this standard-sized schnauzer. He had that dog trained. [Flynn] had this swagger stick and he’d be slapping his boot with it, then he’d stop to talk to somebody and he’d slap them on their boot with that swagger stick. Then when he walked away the dog would come up and lift its leg up on them. I think [co-star] “Big Boy” Williams almost wanted to kill him!
I really enjoyed working with Errol Flynn. I worked with him again on Rocky Mountain (1950); that was my favorite of all the films I ever made. [Flynn] was one of the best journeyman actors. He knew his trade and worked his craft real well.
— Tim
Stuck on Thursday Island
11
May
Being that it’s Tuesday, here’s a post on Thursday Island.*
* For those who may not know where Thursday Island is, it’s northeast of Friday Island, southwest of Wednesday Island, with Tuesday Islets east-northeast of it.
…
May 11, 1936
Harrison Carroll
Evening Herald Examiner
Quarantine authorities have gummed up Errol Flynn’s plan to make a Hollywood servant out of his former house-boy in New Guinea. According to a cable just received by the star, the boy is being held on Thursday Island, following an outbreak of contagious illness on the ship in which he was traveling to California.
…
A couple of years before Flynn made it to Hollywood, during his last days in New Guinea, Joan Crawford starred as Sadie Thompson in “Rain”, a “shocking” film based on Somerset Maugham’s most famous short story Errol would have definitely known of the film, because Maugham’s story was based on a trip he took to Thursday Island, in the Torres Strait between Australia and Papua New Guinea, the film of which came out while Errol was Down Under. Maughman visited the island because a friend of his in Sydney warned him not to go. So he went and stayed three weeks..
“[It’s] the last place made by God, that there was nothing to see there and he would probably have his throat cut if he went there.”
When he arrived at Thursday Island, he was greeted by a woman in her nightgown. That and the island’s many colourful characters inspired him to write a story, about a ship that is forced to stop on Thursday Island because of an infectious disease outbreak!
Rain became Maughan’s most successful short story, a rage on Broadway, a silent film by Gloria Swanson, a talkie in 1932 by Joan Crawford, and remade by Rita Hayworth as “Miss Sadie Thompson”.
“IF YOU ARE EASILY SHOCKED – RUN FOR SHELTER!”
— Tim
Flynn the Flower Man Plans a Hot House
10
May
May 10, 1938
Harrison Carroll
Evening Herald Express
When Errol Flynn gets back from his Bahamas trip in about three weeks, Hollywood will get a floral novelty. He is bringing several hundted cuttings of a black orchid, found when he and Lili Damita were exploring the southern tip of Cat Cay Island.
His agent got an enthusiastic wire today ordering the for sale sign off real estate property the star owns on the top of Laurel Canyon and instructing him to start building a modernistic hot house in which to grow the exotic blooms. Flynn plans to raise them for the Hollywood market.
P
— Tim
Errol on Empty, But Still a He-Man
07
May
May 7, 1937
Harrison Carroll
Los Angeles Evening Herald Express
If photographers had been outside the Club Marti the other midnight they could have shot an even more unusual shot of a Hollywood star. Errol Flynn discovered that his tiny English car was out of gas. On a dare from a friend he hoisted up the automobile by its rear end and pushed it wheelbarrow fashion to a gas station 100 yards away.
…
I’m on empty as far as photos of Errol’s “tiny English car” and “Club Marti”. Not only do I not know what car is being referred to, I also can not find any photo of Club Marti, which I have confirmed had opened shortly before this incident.
— Tim
Errol Rushed to Hospital – 1942
07
May
May 6, 1942 – New York Times – “Errol Flynn Off to Hospital
(Original Caption) Errol Flynn Collapses on Set. Hollywood, California: A moment after this fight scene was taken, actor Errol Flynn (left) collapsed on the set at Hollywood Studio, and was rushed to the hospital suffering from nervous exhaustion.
This photo is dated July 17, 1942
— Tim
Voyaging Star
06
May
MAY 6, 1938
Voyaging Star Appears Next in ‘White Rajah’ or ‘The Sea, Hawk’
SAILS YACHT TO N. Y.
By LOUELLA 0. PARSONS Hollywood,
Warner’s wandering boy, Errol Flynn, has promised at long last to bring his boat into the New York harbor May 12. At least that’s what the brothers Warner hope will happen. That would land him in the big town just in time for the opening of his most successful picture, “The Adventures of Robin Hood.” After he attends the premiere, Flynn will fly to Hollywood and get ready to star in either “The Sea Hawk,” Sabatini’s romantic sea story, or in “The White Rajah,” which he himself selected. Of course, Warners believe this will happen, but you can never be sure what Errol, who gets the wanderlust every so often, will really do.
— Tim
Cinco de Mayo, Flynnamigos
05
May
Hola, Flynnamigos.
Errol was a very frequent and famous traveler to Mexico. He drove, he flew, and he sailed there: to Tijuana, Ensenada, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, all along and off the coast of Baja, Acapulco, Mexico City, Cuernavaca, and numerous other locations. Plus, he dated and was married to there.
Here is a representative sampling of photos, articles, and videos in predominantly chronological order documenting Errol’s Flynnsational travels and adventures South of the Border.
…
— Tim
To Those Who Knew Him When…
03
May
May 3, 1939
Wireless Weekly
Glamor Man of Screen
Errol Flynn Is Real Life Adventurer
An Unbiased Biography
To those Sydney people “who knew him when,” the screen success of Errol Flynn is just another adventurous lucky break of this incredibly adventurous but capable lad. Flynn’s “official” biography, as set down by himself and his employers, runs counter at several points to the facts of his life as he told them to his acquaintances in Sydney when he was basking in the first beams of the film spotlight after appearing in “In the Wake of the Bounty.”
Flynn is the son of zoologist Theodore Thomson Flynn of Queen’s University, Belfast. He claims to be of the same blood-stock that produced Fletcher Christian, the famous Bounty mutineer, and he claims to have played with Fletcher Christian’s sword as a youngster.
By the time he was thirteen, Errol had attempted running away from home three times. At eighteen he was a member of the British Olympic boxing team. At nineteen he was “hoofed out” of school in Sydney, and he claims he began sailing the Pacific islands as master of a 20-ton yawl. He claims to have guided a party
of film-makers through the New Guinea jungles, and admits having been in the lucrative “recruiting” racket there.
First Film Role
Flynn claims that his movie career began when the party he had guided remembered him, and asked him to enact Fletcher Christian in their film of the Bounty mutiny. His work before the cameras was completed within a few days. Having tasted life in the movies, Flynn decided that that was the life for him.
By his own methods of exploits he did his Job of “selling himself to the Hollywood producers so well that his first part in Hollywood was a starring role!
Worried Employers
Flynn has married Lili Damita and has made a terrific lot of money, has run away from work to enjoy a dangerous sojourn on the Spanish battlefields, has caused his employers a lot of worry and also made himself one of the most glamorous film stars ever known.
Natural successor to Douglas Fairbanks, Errol Flynn is much more picturesque and more genuinely adventurous in his own off-screen life. At 30 he looks back upon exploits of the sort that most men believe are true only in fiction.
Errol Flynn, at 30, one of the big stars of Hollywood, was an adventurer who knew Sydney well only a few years ago.
But, with it all, he has made himself one of the top box office stars in Hollywood, and therein lies his laugh on the Sydney people who deride his smooth-sounding adventures as tall tales.
His weekly pay cheque is not a work of fiction!
— Tim
