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Flynn at play

08 Apr

Has anyone ever seen this old home movie footage before?

37 seconds into the movie Mr Flynn makes his appearance and Nora

Eddington  is also in it

— daringthorpe

 
 

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  1. Gentleman Tim

    April 8, 2015 at 5:28 pm

    Sensational, Daringthorpe!!!! I have never seen it before! What a find, and what a treat! Thank you. (And whoever said Garfield & Flynn were never in a movie together)

    P.S. Looking yours up, I saw also this one from a decade earlier: youtu.be/9ZQDcoAe-WI…

    Just guessing, but these home movies may have belonged to the fellow who appears to be in both, with more hair in the first. Familiar face, but I can’t name him. An exec perhaps? Anyone recall his name?

     
    • Gentleman Tim

      April 8, 2015 at 6:12 pm

      David O. Selznick!

      Flynn again shows how fun he was. In today’s news there’s an excellent description of his fun and charming character during this same general timeframe:

      www.mywebtimes.com…

       
      • Maria

        April 8, 2015 at 10:19 pm

        Thanks for posting. I have seen parts of the video- but not all. Such good times!
        Around .55 we see John Garfield and Richard Conte (one of the bad dons in The Godfather!) Classic! and Peter Lorre!

         
      • Maria

        April 8, 2015 at 10:24 pm

        I love reading (or hearing) about that side of Errol – I think that was one of his happier times.

         
      • shangheinz

        April 9, 2015 at 9:07 pm

        Tim-O, I have to nix Selznick. That curly guy looks a lot like Billy Wilder to me. And the blackhaired gal aside Nora could be a very young Juliette Greco. But I wouldn`t bet me on that one….

         
        • Gentleman Tim

          April 9, 2015 at 9:42 pm

          Holy Bohemian, chanteurheinz! Juliet Greco!? At the Beverly Hills Tennis Club in 1945? If so, she sure hightailed it out Paree’ awfully fast after her little run in with the Nazis.

          Billy Wilder, too! Man, the B.H.T.C. was the place to escape to! (You certain I’m not seeing David O, wilderheinz?)(Howz about Selznick in the ’35 clip, and Wilder in the ’45.)

          www.youtube.com…

          errol-flynn-juliette-greco-the-roots-of-heaven-1958-BPAH2B.jpg

           
  2. shangheinz

    April 9, 2015 at 9:01 pm

    Wow, an Errol full of grace and agility and in full colour , too! Daring, that was dashing!!

     
    • Maria

      April 10, 2015 at 12:36 am

      I think the white haired gent is Frank Morgan aka the Wizard of Oz.

       
      • Gentleman Tim

        April 10, 2015 at 4:38 pm

        That’s definitely The Wiz in the ’35 clip, Maria! How about that hair net of his!

         
  3. Tom Webb

    April 10, 2015 at 11:54 am

    Wow! A great find, and in color, too! I love the footage of Flynn in action, not sure who the dapper gent is with him, don’t think it’s Frank Morgan. You can see both Morgan and Selznick in the 1935 footage. Definitely Billy Wilder here. Love Garfield, Lorre, and Conte at play, excellent. I’m pretty sure that’s Joy Page sitting with Nora. She was Ann Warner’s daughter with actor Don Alvarado, years before Ann married Jack Warner. Joy was the young woman from Bulgaria in “Casablanca,” whose husband, Helmut Dantine, is allowed to win at roulette by Bogie, so she doesn’t have to sleep with Claude Rains’ Captain Renault, to get a visa. I believe Joy died just a year or two ago.

     
    • Gentleman Tim

      April 10, 2015 at 4:47 pm

      Awesome info, Tom! Thanks! I kept thinking and wanting to say Ann Warner, but knew Nora’s poolside companion was much too young to be Ann Warner. Never thought of her daughter! (who does indeed look quite a bit like Juliette Greco, but Greco would have likely still been in France at the time.) Come to think of it, Joy must have seen quite alot of Errol when she was growing up. Probably had some kind of crush on him – like her Mom perhaps!

      Flynn looks so cool in this. He had to be huge fun to have at a party.

       
      • Maria

        April 12, 2015 at 2:57 am

        Not sure if this has already been posted:

        Errol Flynn, the swash-buckling actor best known as Robin Hood, actually qualified for the U.S. national doubles championships alongside his then pal, and Wimbledon champion Sidney Wood. Wood, in his posthumously released memoir THE WIMBLEDON FINAL THAT NEVER WAS discusses Flynn and their rocky relationship that included the two stars sharing the same side of the tennis court. Excerpt from The chapter on Flynn – called “The Other Errol”–

        It wouldn’t be easy for those who have been exposed to the later years’ sad portrait of the hopelessly dissolute Errol Flynn to believe that when he arrived in Hollywood, he was well read, well bred, socially desirable, and a witty and considerate companion. Apart from Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller, he was also the movie colony’s only first-rate athlete.

        I first ran across the swashbuckling actor at the L.A. Tennis Club, where Errol would appear with bowler hat, bumbershoot and a black cocker spaniel on a leash. He could not then afford to be a member, but would come around partly because he loved tennis, but mostly in hopes of running into a director or producer (in which the club abounded) who might give him some “extra” work as a valet, butler or anything that would earn him a day’s wages. There were more than a few nights when Frank Shields (then under contract to Sam Goldwyn) or I would take Errol home to dinner just so he wouldn’t go hungry.

        During the several years that we saw a lot of each other, there was not the slightest hint that alcohol, and later drugs, would eventually be his undoing. Of all the male stars of that era, more adulation was heaped on Errol than any other, including Robert Taylor, Tyrone Power and Clark Gable. If only his good looks and personality were matched by the ability to occasionally say “No!”

        When my business took me from New York to California, which then had been practically a “milk run” for me, I most often stayed with the famed Canadian actor Walter Pidgeon, and, however surprisingly, the first night in town would be a strictly stag get-together dinner with Errol at Dave Chasen’s, The Brown Derby, Cock ‘n Bull or Romanoff’s. Despite ear-whispered invitations from passing ladies, Errol didn’t succumb. I don’t know when he began to lose the battle of self-indulgence, because shortly after we teamed up for a U.S. Championship qualifying doubles tournament in Santa Barbara (that was in 1940, just before World War II shut down my “war non-essential” mining operations.) I closed our Beverly Hills office and moved east.

        At Santa Barbara, Errol and I were accompanied by his wife, the French beauty Lili Damita, to whom Frank Shields had introduced Errol. For the record, Flynn and yours truly knocked off some pretty high-level teams to reach the final and actually qualify for the U.S. Nationals, the modern-day US Open. Errol played amazingly well under fire. Thinking back, his was an extraordinary performance for one whose experience was limited to club practice play. We never thought seriously about going to Boston for the Nationals, but wouldn’t it have been great if we had?

        Errol and Lili argued a bit; that is, Lili argued and Errol stayed silent as long as he could. On this trip, she finally got to him – via Robert Donat – taunting Errol that he couldn’t do as much with a whole script as Donat could do with one eyebrow. This was in our joint Santa Barbara sitting room, and I decamped as Errol was about to gag Lili with a pair of just-pulled-off wet tennis socks.

        Yes – wouldn’t had been great if they HAD gone to Boston for the Nationals!

         
        • Gentleman Tim

          April 12, 2015 at 4:53 am

          Sidney Wood attesting to Errol’s athletic talent being on the level of Johnny Weissmuller is really saying something. I once read that Sidney felt very personally hurt that Errol ignored or possibly didn’t recogize him in a restaurant or club (the El Mo, I believe) in the mid or late 50’s. If I recall correctly, he (Sidney) was with a women who he had previously told how that he had been close to Errol. Errol’s failure to say hello apparently deeply insulted and embarrassed his old friend and tennis legend and likely impacted what he said in “The Other Errol”. (Who really knows why Errol didn’t say hello. He may have simply not recognized his long ago tennis partner.)

          BTW, I wonder/question if Brooke’s grandfather really did “introduce” Errol and Lili??

          Here’s Errol on the famous courts of the Hotel Del.

          lat-scandal6_i7t5dokf20091013143234

           
          • Maria

            April 12, 2015 at 1:24 pm

            Maybe I can find something about that Tim. I guess it is possible that Errol did not recognize Sidney. People can certainly change!

             
  4. Gentleman Tim

    May 12, 2015 at 10:20 pm

    Restorations to begin on this wonderful part of Hollywood history:

    www.latimes.com…

    la-fi-re-country-club-sold-20150511