The Errol Flynn Blog

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1. tassie devil

   October 16, 2021 at 6:54 am

   We cannot add anything new but I just love Errol’s shoes I wonder what colour they were . By the way what size shoe is Errol

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   • Ralph Schiller

     October 17, 2021 at 8:30 pm

     Taken during a break on the set of Warner Bros. Technicolor epic “Desert Song” (1943) starring Dennis Morgan. Bruce Cabot is in his French Foreign Legion uniform of his character Colonel Fontaine who chases the elusive leader of the Riffs!

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     • shangheinz

       October 21, 2021 at 12:17 pm

       

       Both seem to have stayed in character- Errol as Gentleman Jim. The third man missing in this pic, or shall we say the odd man out, was Freddie McEvoy who had a bit part in The Desert Song. Much like Flynn in The Lady of Shanghai one has to have eagle eyes to spot him. Little did he know that he would die years later off the shores of Morrocco.

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2. David DeWitt

   October 18, 2021 at 3:52 am

   Thanks Ralf and Genene! I don’t know Errol‘s shoe size but I suppose it could be discovered. Thanks so much for the information about the photo …

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3. Karl

   October 18, 2021 at 1:25 pm

   From one site: hair and eye color not so exactingly descriptive, but also other “parameters” that include shoe size :

   Height: 6’2” (188 cm)

   Weight: 185 lbs (85 kg)

   Chest: 42” (104 cm)

   Waist: 33” (83 cm)

   Arms/Biceps: 15” (39 cm)

   Shoe size: 11 (US) / 43.5 (EU)

   Hair color: Brown

   Eye color: Brown

   ******************************************************************

   A more first hand report I encountered from one who would really KNOW certain stats and an unusual story to go with it:

   “‘I made tights for circus performers, Broadway actors and ballet dancers in New York before I came to Hollywood,’ Willys told us.

   It’s December 1947 and Errol Flynn has just popped a new record in the annals of film history. This is part of my series on clothes, costume and vintage film actors.

   The record? He’s busted the seams on more pairs of tights than any other actor in motion pictures. Three hundred twenty-four pairs Errol has reduced to shreds and this movie isn’t even over yet.

   When Mr. Flynn retired to his dressing room to change his pants they cornered the guy who gets “the headaches from Errol’s record,” Willys of Hollywood.

   “His main business is turning out stockings, padded and plain, for movie queens. He also makes tights. But after the affair of the popped seams, he’s liable to stick to thigh high socks.”

   Errol Flynn’s Measurements:

   “‘First I measured Mr. Flynn,’ began the tights man. ‘He has the best male shape in town. Ankle 9 1/2. Calf 13 1/2. Thigh 20 1/2. Waist 32. Hips 38. Most actors have knobby legs. But Mr. Flynn’s are beautiful.’

   “Willys for ten days fixed the machines at his shop so they’d knit tights to exactly fit Mr. Flynn. The Willys of Hollywood establishment then paused all other work while the machines clacked out 324 pairs of fancy silk tights.

   “‘He has 27 changes of costume,’ explained Willys. ‘I made 12 pairs for each change, so he’d have plenty for rehearsal and plenty for takes.’

   “They were different colors, too. The movie Warners’ The Adventure of Don Juan, is in Technicolor. But the cameraman didn’t like the colors of the tights. So the studio dyed them over again. The seams, shuddered, Willys, came out white.

   “‘They used silk dye,’ he snapped. ‘The seams were sewn with nylon thread.

   The picture was held up until I got out there to see what was the matter.’

   “Willys re-dyed the pants with nylon dye. At last the picture was rolling with Flynn be-tighted in one color. But Flynn was rolling too, his tights.

   “‘He wanted his tights very tight,’ sighed their maker. ‘Every time he put them on he pulled and rolled them around his waist. Like the way women roll stockings that are baggy.’

   “This, he added causes runs to pop in Mr. Flynn’s silk tights. He also came apart when he twice ran onto the sharp point of somebody’s sword.

   “Errol as the nimble Don Juan, was called upon to leap out of beds, across castle moats, over walls and under cover. Flynn further did a great deal of bending over.

   This often left Mr. Flynn with parted pants and the picture would have to wait while he rushed to his dressing room and wriggled into new tights. He could scarcely wear mended ones. So the old pairs were exiled into dust rags for the studio cleaning women.

   “‘But I never made so many as I did for Mr. Flynn. He sure wore those out.'”

   ~ Newspaper wire service article December 1947

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