— Tim
Archive for the ‘Newspaper & Headlines’ Category
Introducing Errol Flynn
24
May
Hollywood Citizen News – Behold Them Minus Hokum by Peter Pry – December 1, 1934
Errol Flynn, newly arrived Irish actor, will have to call out the police reserves for protection
when the local gals discover that he is independently wealthy and doesn’t need to act for a living.
Flynn has lots of that appeal too, and is a husky specimen. He hewed a fortune out of a gold mine in
New Guinea, he represented Ireland as a boxer in the Olympic games of 1928, he has braved cannibals,
is 25, and has never been married! He has only been acting for two years. And he refused the role
of Oberon in A Midsummer’s Night Dream because he didn’t want to start his film career by
playing the king of the fairies.
Los Angeles Evening Express – Harrison Carroll – December 3, 1934
Actors making their debut in Hollywood usually proceed cautiously. Not so, Errol Flynn,
the 25-year-old Irishman signed by Warner Brothers. In his biography charge, which all
newcomers are asked to fill out, Flynn gave some answers that made the boys eyes pop out.
For one thing, he listed actors as his pet aversion. And there were some hotter ones but
we can’t go into them.
Flynn is 6 feet 2, weighs 180 pounds and his hands are calloused. He is a descendant of
Fletcher Christian , of the crew of the famous British ship, the Bounty. He was once a
pearl fisherman and he made a good stake for himself prospecting for gold in the heart of
New Guinea. In 1928, he represented Ireland in the boxing events of the Olympic Games.
And his description of Douglas Fairbanks Jr. will get a chuckle out of Hollywood. Young Doug,
he says, has dveloped an Oxford accent so thick that it is hard for even English people to
understand him.
Los Angeles Examiner – Lloyd Pantages – January 29, 1935
Errol Flynn is not only a good looker, but a swell actor, so keep your eyes open for this gentleman.
Los Angeles Evening Herald Express – Elizabeth Yeaman – February 5, 1935
Despite the fact that Errol Flynn is an extremely handsome young Irishman and fairly bursting with
personality, Warners have cast him as a murderer for his film debut here. He will be the villain in
The Case of the Curious Bride, in which Warren Williams has the lead of the sleuthing attorney.
Hollywood Citizen News – Elizabeth Yeaman – March 26, 1935
Errol Flynn, the husky Irish actor at Warners, gets his second film assignment. He will be seen as a
pirate with Robert Donat in Captain Blood. Now it is uncertain if Jean Muir will have the
feminine lead.
Tanikiu Tumas to King Karl Holmberg for the articles and Flynnspiration!
— Tim
Many Munns Ago
21
May
-
Long ago but not far away (in a seaside hamlet known as
Palm Beach) there dwelled a family of great size and prominence
known as the Munns. The Munns clan was comprised of a
“cornucopia of cousins” with last names like Astor, Biddle,
Drexel, Pulitzer, Renssalaer, Spreckels, Vanderbilt and Wanamaker. (One of the renown Munn cousins was a nun, none other than St. Katherine Drexel.)
The link, info and imagery below include a wealth of Munn shots
and multiple Munn mansions.
One of the illustrious Munns was Countess de Munn,
and this brief story below is one of her most Flynntastic,
written by the legendary Lloyd Pantages.
————
Lloyd Pantages – Los Angeles Examiner I Cover – May 27, 1936
The Countess De Munn started out to Hollywood
with a South American wildcat as a present for
ERROL FLYNN, but while walking it on the deck
of her yacht the kitty jumped overboard and SANK.
So FLYNNSIE is minus a zoo at the moment.
————
— Tim
— — Late for La Conga — — A Week in the Life of Flynn
19
May
Evening Herald Express – Harrison Carroll – May 16, 1938
Errol Flynn has wired for reservations at La Conga for the night of May 21.
ERROL FLYNN AIDS AMERICAN IN FIGHT
Los Angeles Examiner – May 17, 1938
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.
ERROL FLYNN, FRIENDS IN HAVANA CAFE FIGHT
Evening Herald Express – May 17, 1938
“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.
Flynn’s only loss was the disappearance of a valued cigaret lighter.
Louella O. Parsons – Los Angeles Examiner – May 26, 1938
Errol Flynn is lost again between Havana and Hollywood.
Ed Sullivan – Hollywood Citizen News
Errol Flynn gets in June 4.
Louella O. Parsons – Los Angeles Examiner
Lili and Errol Flynn, no longer “among the missing” planed in yesterday morning from Chicago.
— Tim
Errol’s Open Letter
16
May
An EFB Four Score News Report
Los Angeles Evening Herald Express – Harrison Carroll – May 1937
“In an open letter to the graduating class of the Black-Foxe Military Academy,
Errol Flynn expounded with some typical Errol Flynn philosophy – urging the boys
to seize adventure from life before settling down to careers. The star is now
embarrassed, trying to think of informative or tactfully discouraging answers to
24 members of the class, who have written him, demanding details on how to do it.”
Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Hats Off to Black-Foxe Military Institute
Sean attended Black-Foxe for two years in the Fifties, but, not enjoying its boarding-school isolation and regimentation, left before graduating to live with Lili in Palm Beach.
The school can be seen in the cold war film “My Son John” with Robert Walker, Helen Hayes and Van Heflin. Walker’s real sons, pictured below, also attended the school. (Walker died during the shooting of this film, which had to be finished with film he shot in a Hitchcock film shot a few years earlier.)
— Tim
In the Wake of Hurricane George
16
May
With hurricane season rapidly approaching in Florida, here is a rarely seen photo of Errol and Nora arriving in Miami in the wake of “Hurricane George”, “one of the most powerful and largest storms ever to hit SE Florida.” www.wunderground.com…
1947 was the first year the U.S. Air Force officially assigned names to hurricanes. The worst hurricane that year was Hurricane George, aka “the Fort Lauderdale Hurricane”, because of the Category 4 havoc it caused in Fort Liquordale. It caused extensive damage in Louisiana and Mississippi, also.
“Errol Flynn and his wife, Nora, are pictured on their arrival here by plane from Jamaica. Their flight course closely paralleled the course of the hurricane. ‘Shocking and sad, ‘ Flynn said of storm-wrecked Miami.” Flynn and wife are shown on the stairs of an airplane.” September 20, 1947.
In October, the long-delayed filming of The Adventures of Don Juan began in California.
Orange represents Category 4 winds:
Man on Miami Beach, where there was major flooding and damage, including to 334 hotels:
— Tim
Errol Saves England (Again) — Eighty Years Ago
15
May
An EFB Four Score News Report: The Anniversary of The Prince and the Pauper
Louella O. Parsons – Extract from the Los Angeles Illustrated Daily News – May 12, 1937
“Miles Herndon, dashing soldier of fortune, delivers the rightful prince.
Warners are indeed fortunate in having Errol Flynn in the family to play Herndon.
Where I ask you, is there a more suitable actor for a role that calls for
a handsome devil-may-care adventurer? Errol may have had bigger roles, but
never one that suited him better.”
Elizabeth Yeaman – Extract from the Hollywood Citizen News – May 13, 1937
With the coronation in England dominating the headlines for days, nothing
could have been more timely than Warners’ film version of The Prince and
the Pauper, which is climaxed by an elaborate coronation sequence.
Harrison Carrol – Extract from the Los Angeles Evening Herald Express – May 13, 1937
If Mark Twain had been alive today and had written The Prince and the Pauper
under Hollywood assignment, he could not have turned out a more perfect screen
story for this coronation year and for two extraordinary child actors, Billy
and Bobby Mauch.
In its spectacular and veracious coronation scenes this is as timely a picture
as could be asked.
It is Errol Flynn, playing a good natured soldier of fortune, who takes the young prince under his wing – not the least believing his story – and finally clears the way for a nick-of-time restoration of the royal youth, just as the unwilling beggar boy is about to be crowned king of England. In the role, Flynn is a dashing figure.
Warners have made the coronation ceremony one of the year’s spectacular screen episodes.
The Prince and the Pauper is an excitingly narrated, handsomely prodeuced, finely acted picture – an artistic achievement for producer Hal B. Wallis and all concerned – and a box-office natural.
Heading the supporting bill is a color short, A Day at Santa Anita.
Flynn saves England!
Just in time for the Coronation!
— Tim
Seventy Years Ago —— Silver River/Sheila Graham
09
May
SHEILA GRAHAM – Hollywood Citizen News – May 8, 1947
I was on the set when Errol Flynn knocked out Barton MacLane
for a scene in Silver River. I’ve often been told the
story of the star who punched too soon, and the guy who forgot
to duck, and never believed it. But this I saw. Poor Errol.
It really hurt him more than MacLane. “It was the first time in
12 years,” he assured me, “that a punch of mine ever connected.”
Barton, of course, is used to movie risks because he’s usually
cast as a heavy. In the old days when a punch connected with his
jaw, he’d fight back, when he came to. Now he writes it off as an
occupational hazard.
Here’s what is reportedly the only known photo of the literary Garden of Allah gal,
Sheila Graham, and her over-the-hill beau, F. Scott Fitzgerald – on Revolution Boulevard in Tijuana!
Fitzgerald used to get angry and drunk at the thought Errol might possibly flirt with Sheila,
by far the best looking of what she called the “unholy trio” of Hollywood gossip columnists-
her, Hedda and Louella.
Below is Flynn vs. MacLane, preceding Errol’s knock out punch.
— Tim
Pushin’ Like Flynn — Four Score and 100 Yards Ago
06
May
An EFB Four Score News Report*
Los Angeles Evening Herald Express
Harrison Carroll – May 7, 1937
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 automatile by its rear end and pushed it wheelbarrow fashion to a gas station 100 yards away.
* As always, all credit and thanks to King Karl Kognoscenti Holmberg for the records making these EFB News Reports possible. Mille Grazie, Karl!
— Tim
