May 30, 2004

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  62 YEARS AGO TODAY

  
  

  

  
  

  May 30 1942
  

  Returning home from a night of drinking and reminiscing about the recent death of John Barrymore, movie star Errol Flynn flips on the lights and is horrified to discover Barrymore's corpse propped up in a living room chair. Some of Flynn's friends had given a funeral director $200 to borrow the body for a couple of hours.

  
  

  Director Raoul Walsh, actor Peter Lorre and a few other jokers dragged his corpse into Errol Flynn's living room while he was away.

  
  

  When Flynn returned home, he took off his coat, nodded to Barrymore, took three steps toward the bar, and froze.
  

  "Oh, my God!" he cried, before cautiously approaching Barrymore and poking him. Flynn and the others promptly burst out laughing and they all had a well-needed drink.
  
  [Flynn forgave his friends but refused to help cart Barrymore back to the mortuary.]
  
  
  http://www.anecdotage.com/index.php?aid=10579
  
  
  
  

  
  

  In Too Much, Too Soon (1958), he played his friend John Barrymore.

  
  

   

  
  

  • 4:06 pm
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