Sorry to report but the great Doris Day has left us at age 97. In her own autobiography Miss Day wrote how much she enjoyed kissing the great swashbuckler Errol Flynn at the end of the hilarious comedy “It’s A Great Feeling” (1949). Doris Day was a hit singer who sold millions of recordings, had a hit TV series that ran for five years, and starred in 39 motion pictures including one for Alfred Hitchcock. We salute this great lady who save the lives of many animals.
— rswilltell
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 leady 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.
A strictly modern supporting cast is lined up for The Perfect Specimen. Beverly Roberts will appear in the second feminine lead, and Dick Foran will be on hand in another featured role, while comedy is to be provided by Edward Everett Horton.
Michael Curtiz will direct, and the picture will star almost immediately. It is amazing how fast production is being resumed, now that the producers have reached an agreement with the Screen Actor’s Guild.
***
— Tim
I was on my way across the country from West to East coast about 8 years ago, and realized I could take advantage of the route to stop in Kansas at Dodge City, to take a look at what remained of the main theatre where Errol Flynn spoke to the crowds about his new film Dodge City, and a huge event it all was. I found the theatre, The Dodge Theatre, with its marquee down and laid inside the locked doors, and drove part of the parade route. But apparently, I missed something!
I did not find this plaque on the Dodge City Trail of Fame …
I found the boulevard where the parade was held that Errol rode a horse down and waved his hat to the heavy crowds on April 1, 1939. 50,000 people showed up for the film’s premier.
Three movie theatres were needed to meet the demand for the film. Errol and others spoke to the audience at the Dodge Theatre. It fell into disuse in later years, and the time I rolled by, it’s marquee was torn down as a hazard and laid inside the closed doors of the theatre. It was auctioned on eBay but a bid of $490 did not meet the seller’s price so it remained in the old movie house. There was an effort to restore it that came to nothing, as far as I can tell.
— David DeWitt
The most highly coveted of ornamental plants, the delicate, exotic and graceful orchid represents love, luxury, beauty and strength. In ancient Greece, orchids were associated with virility. There are numerous kinds of orchids but the black orchid is regarded the most intriguing and powerful of all. The Greek word “orchis” means “testicle” and is a symbol of virility. Ancient Greeks believed that they could control a baby’s gender by eating orchid roots. If they wished a son, the father would eat a large and new orchid tuber. If they wished a daughter, the mother would eat a small tuber. This belief, and other perceived magical sexual and spiritual powers of orchids, helped them remain popular into modern times.
Perfect for Virile Errol’s Hollywood Hot House, described below!
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 hundred 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 the star owns on the tip 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.
***
Fascinating footage of Cat Cay Island circa when Errol first sailed there, shortly after he purchased Sirocco:
— Tim
I noticed the shoes right away, didn’t you?
— David DeWitt
From
From this week’s Fayetteville Flyer:
“Northern Pursuit”
“Though he was Australian-born, Errol Flynn was one of the United States’ most popular commodities during World War II.
Flynn made a name for himself swashbuckling across the silver screen in such classics of the 1930a as 1935’s “Captain Blood” and 1938’s “Adventures of Robin Hood,” but during the early 1940s few Hollywood stars made more of a splash in war pictures than Flynn. Films like 1941’s “Dive Bomber” and 1942’s “Desperate Journey” cemented him as one of Hollywood’s greatest stay-at-home warriors.
One of Flynn’s most overlooked pictures “Northern Pursuit” comes from the same era and is set against a World War II backdrop as he stars as Steve Wagner, a former corporal in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that goes undercover to root out a covert Nazi scheme.
The film, which Turner Classic Movie channel is scheduled to play at 7 p.m. (CT) Tuesday was Flynn’s first movie after being acquitted of two statutory rape charges in 1942. Though Flynn’s was never as popular after the trial as he was before, he still knew how to carry adventure movies and romance pictures alike.
“Northern Pursuit” is a solid thriller, directed by the capable Raoul Walsh, who also directed Flynn in the Gen. George Armstrong Custer biopic “They Died With Their Boots On” in 1941.
Walsh amps up the tension and leaves the viewer questioning whether Flynn is a turncoat or not through much of the movie which co-stars Julie Bishop, Helmut Dantine, John Ridgely, and Gene Lockhart.
Avalanche!
— Tim
You must sign up to become a Subscriber before you can use this site, or be Invited to become an Author. The Allow Requests we receive from non-subscribers are generally bots and spammers and do not get approved. I am sorry if anybody who would like to join the blog and is not a bot or spammer and gets caught up in our security screens but we do our best to protect ourselves and our readers from these intrusions. The reason you may not be getting through the signup process is always because your email address or IP has been flagged before as a spammer. In any case, Subscribers must have 2 approved comments before they are allowed to post comments without moderation, and this eliminates a lot of spamming, as well … We appreciate you all but ere on the side of caution to protect our members and readers!
Admin/The Errol Flynn Blog
— David DeWitt
