A Thread for Images of Lili
An Ad for the Casino de Paris, Where She Replaced the Legendary Mistinguette
Shades of Sherwood?
“Ex-Femme Du Captaine Blood” – Gone Flapper Perhaps? – With a Great One of Errol & Sean, Also
A Pop Moderne Interpretation
— Tim
Tim; I have had the pleasure of seeing some of Lili Damita’s films. She was a stunning, sensuous beauty. In photos taken of her in private life, she is even more strikingly attractive. I wonder how she looked in her later years. Did she age well? I know that when a couple of confidence men went to see her late in life with false news of Sean Flynn, Lili sized them up and tossed them out. She reused to let them take a photo of her. Ralph Schiller
You’ve inspired me to watch Lili, Ralph! Thank you.
From what I’ve learned down here in Palm Beach, Lili aged well physically, but not emotionally. She lost that megawatt smile and energy of hers that made her so radiantly attractive and alluring years earlier. … That, of course, may have started after the opening night of Captain Blood, but amplified even more so after the divorce, and, worst of all, after losing Sean. Life wears us all down ultimately, even the most privileged. Still, we’re blessed to have it.
Here’s some early Lili:
Tim; If you can find a late photograph of Lili Damita and post it here for us, I would be very grateful. Another old movie queen retired ad died in Florida. This one was an even bigger legend, Hedy Lamarr who died in Orlando, Florida in 2000 at age 86. Hedy kept her slim figure to the end but her face was marred by too much plastic surgery. She is unrecognizable in her late photos. Ralph Schiller
Come to think of it, Ralph, other than the one on her headstone, I don’t recall seeing any photos of Lili in her later years. Everything I’ve read and heard about her during her time in Palm Beach indicates she was very under the radar, increasingly reclusive as she aged. Many if not most of the Palm Beach elite were seasonal residents and often participated in their (still) famous charity balls, where they were frequently photographed. Not to my knowledge Lili though. I’ll have to get down to the PB Historical Society Library and see what I can find. Thank you for prompting me to do so!
One fascinating story I came across is that Joe Kennedy hired Lili as a “nurse” to help attend to John Kennedy following his being PT 109 injuries. (Lili & Sean lived walking distance from the Kennedy compound.) If this was true, per his reputation, I suspect that old man Kennedy may have had other hopes for luscious Lili. He certainly had the bankroll to tempt the ex-Mrs. Fleen.
[img]http://image2.findagrave.com/photos/2001/222/loomislilidamit2.jpg[/img]
Tim; What a fascinating story about a fascinating woman! Lili would have been between the ages of JFK and his father when she nursed the son. There is some doubt on her birthyear. The gravestone says 1908, and other sources say 1901. Lili is buried in Iowa and suffered from dementia before her passing. The two confidence men actually were wired with a recording device when they met Lili. The Lili I heard on that recording was sharp, alert, and tough as nails. Thanks Tim, Ralph
I’ve heard this recording, too. I was yelling, Leave the videocassette and player with Lili so she could watch her son on The Errol Flynn Theatre in PRIVACY! Why couldn’t they have the decency to let her do that? All they wanted was her memorabilia, I wanted to get my hands on their throats …
David; I’m sure Lili had seen the Errol Flynn Theater television episode with her son Sean. She just didn’t trust these guys for good reason and wanted them out of her home. One was an attorney who could have been disbarred for making a recording without Lili’s consent or knowledge. Later I was told that Lili heard about the recording and couldn’t wait to get her hands on their throats! Ralph Schiller
Oh, she had seen the episode? (Interesting, my reply is matching your original italic text!) Then why did she invite them to her house? They claimed to have info about her missing son? Scumbags, to say the least …
David; They told Lily they had some news on Sean and naturally like any mother hoping beyond hope, invited them over. When she found out that the news was simply an old TV episode, she started showing them the egress. Yes, they were scumbags. Ralph Schiller
Hi Ralph. Been searching hi and lo for photos of Lili in PB. No luck on any new ones, but have come across a few things here and there. Here’s the big news though: Lili WAS a nurse! – just as I had heard on the street.
… I doubt I’ll ever find in print that Lili nursed JFK, but I’d be surprised if Joe Sr. did NOT try to hire Nurse Damita. She was right down the block and one never knows when they’d be in need mouth to mouth resuscitation.
news.google.com…
Here would have been Nurse Damita’s place of employment, a short walk or limo ride from her place on Sea Breeze.
[img]http://imagecache5d.allposters.com/watermarker/37-3790-9WEIF00Z.jpg?ch=671&cw=894[/img]
GT – This a nice pic of the Kennedy’s compound. I used to drive by a lot of those mansions up there PB a few years back. If I remember correctly wasn’t Kennedy’s place a pinkish color and right across from the actual beach?
Not sure why I remember this, maybe because of the “Pink”…
I once went up in that area and got some furniture from Jerry Lewis – he was giving it away, as he was redoing his house. Got some pretty cool stuff to say the least.
Ah well, back to Lili – Do you have any pics of her estate? curious as to how well she was living since it was being paid by Errol’s income/alimony – which if I remember was a pretty sum, and in this she held from marriage for a long time, in fact after his death in ’59. (married 1962)..
She was a though broad to say the least and vindictive too! Not only was the Flynn money good, but also getting that last smack down, a piercing thorn in Errol’s side ’till his death – I believe she raveled in it – to see him squirm especailly when he had financial problems…….
Yup. Lili was one vindictive lulu, even after she keft Lala-Land for Palm Beach. With Sean, she lived on Seabreeze. Later, she lived on Woodbridge, back to back with Mar-a-Lago, living on Loomis’s Eskimo Pie dough. Her and Trump would have made some neighbors!!
Had no idea Jerry Lewis lived on PB. I imagine he and/or Dino must’ve have met Flynn somehere along the line. Very cool you got some of his furniture!
Some evidence of Lili having studied some nursing during the War. Here she is with Myrna Loy, Ann Sothern, and Red Cross worker, I believe. This, of course, is not proof she worked for Joe or John, but it does appear to confirm that she may have had some nursing skills during the timeframe local folklore has it she worked at the Kennedy Compound on Palm Beach as a nurse.
[img]http://www.sammaroniesentertainmentfunhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/loy-5.jpg[/img]
What a beauty.
Oui, oui, Monsieur Zacal.
… and she could handle Errol’s lingua franca, too – as confirmed in this clip with Super Duper Gary Cooper:
youtu.be/J5zCfrP9bWM…
Just wanted to give a heads up, sort of far out but TCM has scheduled one of Lili Damita’s films on Friday, May 22 at 6:15 a.m. A tad early but still… I confess I’ve never seen any of her work.
[img]http://www.theerrolflynnblog.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/tumblr_m6q9tgnZnu1rqurkqo1_5001.jpg[/img]
Lili arguably was Errol`s most beautiful wife. A true diva of her day and a very persued woman in her hayday:www.theerrolflynnblog.com…
“Dazzling, Brooding Beauty” 1932
Hollywood Can’t Figure Lili Out
news.google.com… (with photo to side)
Two Hands Free for the Prince, 1931
news.google.com…
“Lily” the Blonde, 1930
news.google.com…
Lili the Happiest Person in the World
news.google.com…