Great Flynnian Info & Imagery in the Documentary Below.
“In the midst of his honeymoon with his wife, Patricia Wymore, the actor and bon vivant Errol Flynn was sailing towards Gibraltar on his yacht, Zaca, when they were caught in a terrible storm. Seeking the shore, their only choice was to moor their boat at Pollença, a harbor on the island of Mallorca. The place, plentiful in boats and with a distant view of the mountains, swept them in bewilderment. After that first sight of the Mediterranean culture, they subsequently sailed to the Bay of Palma. After their honeymoon ended, Flynn promised to return to Mallorca to stay and that is how in 1955 he settled on the island, where he could find the calm and anonymity that he so desired at the time.” [passaportto.iberostar]
Last year I published a post entitled “A Stay at Palm Beach with the Jell-O Queen” about Errol & Lili’s visit/vacation at Southwood, the prominent mansion of Eleanore Emily Woodward Vietor.*
In response to that post, I received correspondence from a descendent of the Vietors, who has very generously sent some clarifying and enhancing information, including in part the following news articles, the first of which reports (with a corrected date) on the party given for Errol & Lili in 1938. Look at that guest list! The Crockers (parents of Zaca owner Templeton Crocker), the Pillsburys (with all their dough), Howie Hughes, and E.F. Hutton (www.youtube.com…), among many other deep pockets and Cafe Society-Era socialites.
* Southwood was only a very short walk from Mar-a-Lago, the new Winter White House, designed by the very same architect, Marion Sims Wyeth. … Not that anyone who was anyone on Palm Beach in those days would deign to undertake such a horrendously plebeian trek without chauffeur and vetements formels.
Photos I took this afternoon on Calle Ocho in Little Havana, Miami, epicenter of celebrations over the death of Comrade Castro. Up 95 some, Cuban-American Kiki Alonso was soon taking out Castro-lover, Komrade K.
Chaplin, Barrymore, Arbuckle, Keaton, Capone, Hayworth and Flynn, they all came here. A top hot spot for Hollywood luminaries during Prohibition, and, again, during the U.S. gambling ban of WW II.
See if you can see Mickey Rooney and Joe DiMaggio in the photos below.
Hola from Becki on our right and Anita on our left!!
From an old South of the Border haunt of Hemingway, Gardner, Hayworth and Flynn.
Famous for paella and its old Hollywood, bullfight and jai lai crowds, the food remains sensational. Being there before paella time, I had the calamari steak, which was muy, muy, muy sabroso – the best I ever had.
Becki and Anita are fantastic and couldn’t believe how handsome Flynn was and how beautiful Ava was during their Chiki Jai heydays.
Becki, by the way, says she’s ready to go Hollywood herself, Hollywood agents out there. With looks and a personality reminiscent of Linda Christian, I highly recommend her!
Having recently landed at Lindberg Field in San Diego and headed into Mexico today, I thought I’d publish these protoflynnical, Lindberg Field and Mexico-related Hollywood news reports from March 24, 1939:
Los Angeles Evening Herald Express – Jimmy Starr:
Errol (pronounced Errant) Flynn, Hollywood’s “Peck’s Bad Boy” grown up, and his wife,the lovely Lili Damita, were finally lured from their vacation in Mazatlan, Mexico, by the Warner Studio, which demanded his return for picture work.
An effort to reach the film plant on time nearly cost them their lives. Chartering a plane, with Ted Brown as pilot, in Mazatlan, the trio battled heavy fog for most of the way to San Diego.
More thrilling than a horror movie, they were lost somewhere over San Diego. Their gas was low. They had lost their radion beam. With but two minutes of gas time in the tank, Brown took a chance, started to pancake the ship earthward. He caught his radio beams. Luckily, he was over the field!
“We owe our lives to Brown’s remarkable ‘deadstick’ landing,” said Errol, who, with Lili, was still somewhat jittery over the experience.
Lili and Errol arrived in Hollywood yesterday morning.
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Los Angeles Evening Herald Express – Harrison Carroll
Even Lili Damita, who is on the impulsive side herself,was amazed at Errol Flynn’s first official act on returning to California. The Irish star climbed out of a chartered plane, in which he and Lili had flown from Mazatlan, and immediately his eyes fell upon another ship standing on the field.
“That’s a slick job. I’d like to take it up myself,” said the star.
“Go ahead,” said one of the spectators, “it belongs to me.”
So Flynn, whose feet had been on solid ground for less than ten minutes, hopped into the plane alone and took it aloft.
Lili, left standing there, could only shake her head and mutter: “That man! That man!”
btw, in researching this post, I discovered evidence that indicates the pilot who saved Errol & Lili’s lives in San Diego may have been the father of the highly respected tenor saxophonist Ted Brown. Here he is playing “On a Lost Plane to Lindberg” – I mean “On a Slow Boat to China” with jazz legend Art Pepper:
As always with these historic newspaper article posts, all thanks ans praise goes to Flynn Meister Karl Holmberg! Muchos gracias, Mi Amigo!
