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Archive for the ‘Wives’ Category

Hot Time in Havana

17 May

At one of the world’s most “spectacular” and “phenomenally popular” night clubs in the world, the Eden Concert Night Club, located in the center of town between Sloppy Joe’s and the Hotel Plaza. In 1939, it evolved into the Tropicana.

May 17, 1938

Evening Herald Express

Errol Flynn Friends In Havana Cafe Fight

“I think this all so funny”, quoth Lili Damita, stage and screen beauty, who was a spectator while fists and bottles flew in a free-for-all-fight at the Eden Concert Night Club with Errol Flynn taking a prominent part in the fighting.

The fight started last night when one of the members of Flynn’s party got into an argument with a man at a nearby table. A minute later, chairs and bottles began to fly.

Flynn, who often plays rough and tumble parts in the movies, joined in with two or three effective punches at those who got in his way. The only casualty was an unidentified American who received a broken nose and a cut eye. Flynn and the others were unhurt and continued their party.

Flynn’s only loss was the disappearance of a valued cigarette lighter.

May 17, 1938

Los Angeles Examiner

Errol Flynn Aids American In Fight

Errol Flynn, Hollywood film actor, received the thanks today of an unidentified American he saved from serious injury during a fight in a night club here last night.

Fists, bottles and chairs were flying when Flynn intervened. The American who was involved escaped with a broken nose. Flynn was not hurt.

He was accompanied by his wife, who refused to take the matter seriously.

Before the Eden Concert, there was the Zombie Club, at the same location on Zuluetta Avenue, two doors down from Sloppy Joe’s.

— Tim

 

Cinco por Cinco de Mayo

05 May

Buenos Dias, Amigos.

Errol was a very frequent traveler to Mexico during his heydays in Hollywood. He drove, he flew, and he sailed to South of the Border. In celebration of today’s Cinco de Mayo holiday, here are five chronological photos taken in Mexico City, Acapulco, and Morelia, plus a bonus bow-and-arrow-fishing film with Howard Hill in the famous sportfishing waters off the coast of Old Mexico.

— Tim

 

April 29 — 1945 — — Errol Peps Up Hollywood Party

29 Apr

Huston was a very skilled boxer, with a very long reach. Both went to the hospital, were complimentary of each others fighting skills and etiquette, and subsequently became friendly. The fight is thought to have been over OdH, with whom both Errol and JH had been in love.

— Tim

 

Errol’ s Last (?) Will and Testament filed April 27, 1954

27 Apr

Flynn Will Omits Bev

NEW YORK (UPI)

— A fight brewed today over the estate of actor Errol Flynn, whose will was filed for probate here Wednesday. The will, dated April 27, 1954, left most of his estate to his widow, Mrs. Patrice Wymore Flynn, with specific bequests to his children and parents. In Hollywood, his former wife, Mrs. Nora Haymes, said Flynn had told her there was another will dated sometime in 1957 in which he left everything to his children and parents. She said she planned to consult an attorney to protect the interests of her two daughters by Flynn.

Melvin Belli, San Francisco attorney representing Beverly Aadland, Flynn’s 17-year-old companion for the past year, said he was amazed that no provision had been made for his client He said he knew Flynn wanted to provide for Beverly and Belli said he would do something about it. Flynn and his widow had been separated for some time while he travelled to Europe and the Caribbean with Beverly.

— Tim

 

A Kiwi in Hollywood Hog Heaven

20 Apr

April 20, 1936

Harrison Carroll

Evening Herald Express

Errol Flynn and Lili Damita don’t intend to live all the time on the ranch where he expects to raise hogs. They are building a house -n the Laurel Canyon district. One of the most unusual houses in Hollywood, too, for it will be modeled after Flynn’s ancestral home in Belfast. Incidentally, did you know that Errol was not born in Ireland? It was New Zealand while his father and mother were on a scientific expedition.

— Tim

 

Going Places

17 Apr

April 17, 1935

Harrison Carroll

Lily Damita and Errol Flynn are still going places together.

_______

Here they are two months later, on June 16, at the Venice Amusement Pier, with Marlene Dietrich and Madonna (or perhaps that’s Carole Lombard?) Errol became “the talk of the town” for his immense popularity with the many women at the Tunnel of Love that night. Talk about going places, four days later he and Lili flew to Yuma. Then he flew into immortality.

— Tim

 

Dodgin’ Like Flynn

31 Mar

March 31, 1939

Harrison Carroll
Evening Herald Express

Lili Damita let Errol Flynn go on to the Dodge City preview trip alone. She and Dolores Del Rio are spending time at Palm Springs.

Dodgin’ Like Flynn

— Tim

 

The Mostly True Story and “Adventuring Career” of Errol Flynn

29 Mar

March 30, 1938

Sidney Skolsky

TINTYPES
Hollywood Citizen News

(All Photos Added)

Errol Flynn is an actor who always tries to act his role, that of a handsome man dashing around in search of adventure. He was that kind of actor before he ever looked at a camera, and he would be that kind of an actor had he never got into the movies.

He is a skilled boxer. He was England’s representative in the 1928 Olympic Games at Amsterdam.

He has an ugly scar on his ankle, the result of being hit by a poisoned arrow by natives in the bush country of New Guinea.

He went to Spain to take a look at the fighting and he wrote an adventure book, “Beam Ends,” which was banned in Germany because it contained too much levity.

The movies aided him with his “adventuring career.” An English film company produced Mutiny on the Bounty, and cast him as Fletcher Christian. The company went to Tahiti for the location shots, and after the picture was finished, he stayed on. He bought a boat and hired a crew and went into the pearl fishing business.

Then he got restless and went prospecting for gold in New Guinea. With the money he made, he bought a schooner and went into the inter-island freight service. Then he just kept on adventuring around. Why, he just kept on, sounding like a scenario.

He even had an adventure while on the boat on his way to Hollywood. He met Lili Damita.

He danced with her, thought she was lovely, enjoyed himself, and didn’t think about it until after they kept seeing each other in Hollywood. Then, in his customary dashing style, he boarded a plane with Lili, flew to Yuma, and married her.

He calls her Damita. She calls him Flynn.

He was born June 20, 1909, in the north of Ireland. He went to school at the Lycee Louis Grand, in Paris, and at St. Paul’s in London. He claims he is a direct descendant of Fletcher Christian, who led the mutiny on the Bounty.

He is 6 feet 2 inches tall, weighs 180 pounds, has brown hair, and is an excellent cook.

On the set he wanders about and seem to behaving a good time. He appears to enjoy his work, as if it were another adventure for him. He reads his script over at home, and then tries to learn a scene the night before he is to play it. He will often rehearse a love scene on the set, reading over the dialogue with the script girl.

He often takes his dog, Arno, on the set with him. He’ll park the dog in his portable dressing room, and the dog knows enough about picture making not to bark. It is the only dog allowed to enter the Warner commissary.

His pet aversion is to be hurried by people. He also hates alarm clocks. A valet wakes him every morning.

Recently, his valet quit him to become a picture actor. He didn’t see the valet again until one day on the set of Four’s a Crowd. He was playing the role of Flynn’s valet.

He likes to write. Besides several books he has written a play, “White Rajah,” which the Warners are supposed to make into a movie. He also wrote articles for a fan magazine. He reads newspaper editorials earnestly, and then writes “letters to the editor,” giving his views on various subjects. He sings to himself as he writes.


He resides in a modest house in Beverly Hills. There is one room in the house, his den, which even his wife can’t enter without his permission.

His favorite outdoor diversion is sailing. He is now getting ready to cruise on his new yacht, Sirocco. He also swims, rides, and plays tennis. He is considered one of the best tennis players in the movie colony.

Sleep annoys him. He doesen’t believe in more than six hours sleep, and likes to get up while he’s still tired. He believes that sleep should be taken sparingly and that indulging in it is like indulging in any other vice, such as drinking or smoking. When he sleeps a great deal he feels sluggardly all day. He resents the idea of devoting too much time to sleep.

When he does sleep, he sleeps with the windows open, and without a pillow, which he believes ruins one’s posture. He sleeps in an old-fashioned, four-poster bed. He always sleeps alone. Damita sleeps in another room.

He doesn’t own a pair of pajamas or a nightgown. He sleeps in the raw. Occasionally, he dreams. And the dream is usually about some thrilling, bold adventure, modeled after a scenario.

— Tim

 

A Plea of Urgency

29 Mar

March 30, 1937

Elizabeth Yeaman
Hollywood Citizen News

The Warner Brothers are sincerely worried over their failure to locate Errol Flynn, who was hastily summoned back to Hollywood when it was learned he was planning to penetrate war-torn Spain. Errol was in Paris, and last week he told his wife, Lili Damita, he was leaving for Spain. He left, while Lili remained in Paris. He didn’t tell her where he was going in Spain, and apparently Lili didn’t bother to inquire. Robert Schless, head of Warner Paris office, has not been able to locate him.

Errol, when he left, was determined to do some war corresponding in Spain. He started to make arrangements with the United States for some special articles, but the studio jumped in and soured the deal. Errol threatened that he would make arrangements with an English syndicate.This he may have done.

Warners cabled him to be back by April 15, to start The Perfect Specimen. I doubt if they actually had a picture ready for him, but hoped to get him back on a plea of urgency. Miriam Hopkins has been announced for the co-starring spot in The Perfect Specimen, but that announcement is quite premature, for she has not been signed for the role.

— Tim

 

The Train to Spain ====== Mainly on the Plain

26 Mar


“Beautiful spring day, warm sunshine, country beautiful. How can people fight a war in this lovely weather? Four hours train journey from here the most savage cruel patricidal war is being waged.”
First entry in Errol’s Spanish Civil War Diary- March 26, 1937 (83 years ago today)

===

Excerpts from Robin de los Bosques in the Spanish War

See, also: Lincoln Douglas Hurst: The True Adventures of a Real-Life Rogue

“In 1935, Flynn married French-American actress Lili Damita (divorcing in 1942), with whom he had a very stormy relationship, with frequent physical fights. They were called the “Fighting Flynns,” and he called his wife “Tiger Lili.” When his friend Dr. Herman F. Erben Read the rest of this entry »

— Tim