Tell everybody in the States it is my BIRTHDAY tomorrow!
— David DeWitt
Author Archive
Showdown by Errol Flynn!
17
Jun
The West Australian Newspaper
Saturday, October 12, 1946
At work on SHOWDOWN with his editorial assistant …
The dedication he wrote to his parents reveals he was not happy with the final result … perhaps warding off criticism of his work?
The book went on to be republished in paperback many times. It is now a collector’s item and if you have a copy, hang onto it!
— David DeWitt
Flynn, by a Knockout! Perfect Specimen!
10
Jun
Flynn’s opponent later became a personal assistant in Hollywood to Daryl Zanuck …
DAILY ADVERTISER NSW
Friday 16 December 1938 – Page 6
Tasmanlan-born film star, knocked out Captain Aidan Roark, the international polo player. A brawl occurred at a cocktail party at the home of socially prominent Mrs Jock Whitney. Spectators say that
after the knockout a friend of Roark’s rushed forward and punched Flynn in the jaw, loosening a tooth. Flynn is 6ft 2in in height, and weighs 12st 12lb. He was discovered by Mr. Charles
Chauvel, and his first screen appearance was as Fletcher Christian in the Australian production, ‘In the Wake of the Bounty.’ The last two films in which Australia has seen him were the Hollywood productions of ‘The Perfect Specimen’ and ‘Robin Hood.’ Captain Roark’s height and weight are
not on record locally. A Captain Roark played No. 3 at polo for England against the United States in 1927 and again in 1930.
The Lux Radio Theatre. January 2, 1939. CBS net. “The Perfect Speciman”. Sponsored by: Lux Soap. A multi-millionaire bred to be “a perfect speciman,” takes off to be his own man and avoid his dominating grandmother. Dr. Floyd L. Ruch, an associate professor of psychology is interviewed. Joan Blondell has trouble reading her script during the post-story interview.
Errol Flynn, Joan Blondell, May Robson, Cecil B. DeMille, Lou Merrill (performer, commercial spokesman), Frank Nelson (performer, program opening announcer), Byron K. Foulger, Lindsay MacHarrie, Alma Lloyd, Clem Bevins, Eddie Waller (doubles), Ross Forrester, Gay Seabrook, Billy Bletcher, Bob Burleson (doubles), Earle Ross (doubles), Lou Fulton, Edward Marr (doubles), Louis Silvers (music director), Samuel Hopkins Adams (author), Melville Ruick (announcer), Norman Reilly Raine (screenwriter), Lawrence Riley (screenwriter), Brewster Morse (screenwriter), Fritz Falkenstein (screenwriter), Caroline Frasher, Raoul DeLeon, Gil Patric, David Kerman, Margaret Brayton, Floyd L. Ruch (intermission guest), Frank Woodruff (director), George Wells (adaptor), Charlie Forsyth (sound effects). 59:37.
“A constable in the New Guinea police at 17, an overseer of a copra plantation, then collumnist for a Sydney Australian newspaper, master of a trading boat, gold prospector, memner of the Australian Boxing Team in the 1928 Olympics- he’s never stopped roving.” Dawn Patrol has just been released. Flynn planning trip to Cat Cay in Bahamas for giant tuna fishing in the early spring. He also plans to sail Sirocco II in the annual race from California to Hawaii in the summer.
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— David DeWitt
Flynn’s Last Fling …
08
Jun
Near the end of his life, Hollywood’s greatest swashbuckler embarked on one final adventure-the Cuban revolution
By Gaspar González | From Tom Selleck, Nov/Dec 2007 Click the image for the full story …
— David DeWitt
Sean Flynn & Lasden Park!
04
Jun
28
May
“The Movie Adventures Of Eva Jordan” by Jan Hill.
Eva is thirteen (going on fourteen) and intensely curious. And she wonders why Mr. Owens is talking about Spain, and those “fighting their leader, General Franco, and his fascist ideology.” He adds, “big-time Hollywood actors, like Errol Flynn, the same fellow who will be here soon to play Robin Hood, have already gone to Spain to see what they could do to help the Loyalists.”
— David DeWitt
Mail Bag! Olivia Explains …
16
May
Our own Karl Holmberg sends this delightful interview from 1978 with Olivia de Havilland …
Thanks, Karl…
— David DeWitt
Mail Bag! Reagan, Flynn and Wayne?
15
May
Our Portugal based friend Audie spotted this and send it along …
Here’s the nearest that John Wayne and Ronald Reagan came to acting in the same feature film. (Sadly, not all that close):
Olivia, Flynn and a future President (as George Custer).
In April, 1940, Warner Bros. set up the semi-Western Santa Fe Trail as a vehicle for Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. The plot followed the exploits of army officers J.E.B. Stuart and George Armstrong Custer after their graduation from West Point.
As per usual, the brothers Warner were free and easy with facts, given that Stuart graduated from the academy in 1854 and Custer matriculated in 1861, and the two men didn’t know one another. The Hollywood rationale? “Come on, already! This is a movie! At least both of them graduated from the Point!”
Duke Wayne, now in the A-list category thanks to Stagecoach and Dark Command, was approached by Warners to play the George Custer role. Wayne, however, turned up his nose at the part, having no desire to play second banana to Flynn (then Warner Bros.’s biggest star), even though the flick was a big-budget epic.
Undaunted, Warners cast contract player Dennis Morgan as Custer, but Denny fell out due to a scheduling conflict. At which point, up-and-comer Ronald Reagan, fresh from his triumph as George Gipp in Knute Rockne, All American, was hurriedly awarded the role.
Mr. Reagan, aware he was a last-minute replacement, later recalled how a frazzled studio tailor rushed into his dressing room to refit a Santa Fe Trail cavalry costume:
It occurred to me then that it would be just as easy someday to throw my clothes in a corner and hang some other actor’s in their place. …
If John Wayne had been less finicky about the parts he accepted, the “other actor” in Santa Fe Trail would have been the Big Cowboy and not Ronald Reagan portraying George A. Custer.
This is as close as the two ever got to acting in the same film: they were both offered the same part.
Postscript: “SFT” was a highly profitable film that boosted Reagan’s career. It fell into the Public Domain when United Artists Television neglected to renew the copyright.
— David DeWitt
