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Flynn
vs. Flynn
Photoplay
magazine, June 1946
 But
the gossips had another juicy bone to chew on because Nora and the baby,
it turned out, had gone directly from the airport to the home of her
family.
Once again, Errol had "nothing to say."
It's been anyone's guess ever since as to the status of Errol's marriage.
Sometimes Nora has lived in the Flynn house, sometimes with her family.
There have been divorce rumors, apparently refuted by Errol and Nora's
appearing in public together directly afterwards. And there have been
reconciliaton rumors, also apparently refuted by the separate appearance
of each in public with other dates.
Last New Year's Eve was a notable example. Errol was "doing the
town" with Ida Lupino, his costar in "Escape Me Never."
Nora was being squired around by Bob Hutton. To the great glee of onlookers
- but with no apparent embarrassment on the part of the principals,
this foursome kept bumping into each other in practically every night
spot in town.
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Nora
was definitely with him recently, however, on Errol's first voyage on
his new schooner, the Zacca, when he sailed it from San Francisco.
"And don't call it a yacht," begs the sailor. "It's not
a pleasure craft. It was used by the Navy during the war and before
that it was used on scientific experiments to study marine life."
Errol plans to use it to film background shots which he can sell to
producers. His first trip will be up the Amazon River. He'd like to
stay a year, but his picture commitments will probably limit the first
voyage to a few months. Eventually he plans to sail around the world.
The Zacca, a 118-foot craft with two diesel engines and two masts, is
being outfitted for the South American trip now. It sleeps from three
to thirty people. It has a freezing unit to keep at an even temperature
the film he will make. He also plans to develop the film on board ship.
Verily,
a departure from the pre-Hollywood days when he sailed a tramp schooner
in the hazardous waters of New Guinea.
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On
one occasion he found himself stranded in New Guinea with three pals.
They had brought the schooner up from Sydney
and wanted to head west. Unfortunately, there was no money for oil for
the engines nor, so far as that goes, for a supply of canned food. They
couldn't stay in port without money, so they decided to go east with the
wind, heading for Rimor even though their charts didn't run that far.
When they arrived, they stocked up with native food and prepared to start
the next day.
Errol doesn't believe in fighting against fate. Much as he wanted to head
west, it looked as though he was destined to go east, and he was ready
to accept it.
"I'm not one to jump the rapids," Errol says. "There's
little of the salmon in me. I'll always go the way the water is running."
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But fate
stepped in. The evening before they were to sail, one of his pals invested
his all in a poker game - and won sixteen pounds. Their oil and food
problem thus conveniently solved, they headed west.
Since then, he's a more confirmed fatalist than ever.
In the present expedition, the oil and food problems are practically
nil, thanks to the profits of swashbuckling. Errol will do the navigating
himself. Buster Wiles, his stunt man, will accompany him.
The question then became: Would Mrs. Flynn also be aboard?
For some time Errol wouldn't say. But it has now been announced that
not only will she accompany him on that expedition, but she will be
his leading lady in the picture he plans to make. Sounds like the unalloyed
romance of adventure. Yet what bold soul would dare to predict in advance
that it would come to pass - Flynn being Flynn?
It all depends on whether or not Errol has promised himself that this
shall happen. For he believes when you make a promise to yourself you
should keep it. And he does.
"I only wish," he adds hastily, "that I were as reliable
about the promises I make to others."
Thus in one parting sideswipe does he prove his dogged determination
that there shall be no whitewashing in this business of Flynn versus
Flynn.
The
End
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