Don’t Go Greyhounds!!

Errol was no Boy Scout, but he did once trek hills and canyons north of Los Angeles with them:

From the Los Angeles Evening Herald Express, reported exactly seventy-eight years ago this weekend, July 17, 1939:

“Leading a band of Boy Scouts and neighborhood youngsters, Errol Flynn is combing the canyons and hills between Sunland and Roscoe in an effort to locate his two prize greyhounds which disappeared from the home of Jim Fleming, his standin, last Wednesday night.

The dogs, valued at $250 each, were a gift from dentist Al Blissing, of Dodge City, Kansas, and were left in Fleming’s care while Flynn spent several days on his boat. Last Wednesday evening, Fleming tied the pets to an iron woodfire bucket in the patio of his home.

Shortly after dinner, Fleming went to take the dogs for a stroll. They were gone – and so was the bucket. Fleming sent word to Flynn, who started the search, rounding up all available youngsters, on Thursday. He fears the dogs might have become entangled with their leaches and the bucket and may be helplessly suffering, perhaps dying in some lonely part of the canyon and hills.”

Jimmy Starr, LA Evening Herald Express

I’m not 100% certain, but this may well have had Errol leading this troop of kids through Verduga and/or La Tuna Canyon terrain, some of which is depicted below. That’s must have been quite a merry and memorable experience for that band of kids – hiking through the hills with Robin Hood!

— Tim