The great Flynn Fight, Winchell vs. Doane

Errol Leslie Flynn was a swashbuckling handsome actor of the 1930’s who starred in many films with Olivia de Haviliand including Captain Blood. He was born on the Winter Solstice in Hobart Tasmania, Australia, June 20th 1909 around 2:30 in the morning so says most astrological sites citing Doris Chase Doane of the Church of Light. His ascendant is the fiery at 13 Aries (an unsuccessful bomb explosion)  that in so many ways sums up his personal life.  Gossip Columnist Walter Winchell (in the Jones natives #981), says the year was wrong–Flynn was born in 1905.

Radioman Walter Winchell vs. Astrologer Doris Doane.

So Winchell’s chart has some problems, the least of which is Winchell is    craven, and with a tendency to bad mouth anyone who did not curry his favor.  He often extorted Hollywood stars with “created blackmail”  knowing the impact of his column , and so it s a good bet that was the case here, playing upon Flynn’s vanity. Winchell did not care if “the thing was true or even half true” ¹ ibid. Winchell and Rushmore. , just that he filled copy.  Thus, Winchell’s reputation makes it a questionable birth date. But as have neither sources nor records that support either, so we have to review the two charts and see how they stand up. We cannot dismiss his claim because of bias.

Chances are that Flynn like the Duke of Wellington when held up by a London gossip hound to print some damaging letters that had fell into his hands, told the scoundrel “Publish and be damned,” responded similarly to Mr. Winchell. Doane being in Los Angeles probably heard more (unprinted) rumours than the rest of the country so knew the story Doane though was  not falling for the bait and ignored the remark. ² Doris Chase Doane, Progressions in Action, American Federation of Astrologers, published 1977 in Tempe, Arizona. for Mrs. Doane does not use the Winchell time in her book or give credence to his sources  .

If she had, the chart would look like above — everything is the same but the year. Even the ascendant is still in Aries, as Doane specified, but this time at 25 or “a double promise”. The Uranian bucket of ought 9 — becomes the splay of 05. It could work and it would solve some problems, like why Flynn, handsome , light on his feet, scandal-prone, — was so evanescent, but when progressed to October 23, 1959, Flynn’s time of death,  becomes more like a monetary crisis than a fatal heart attack.

Thus, we can cast aside the Winchell 1905 time.

                      New Research sheds light

Now instead of a splay we get a rather perplexing chart because of the stalled locomotive that lurks within it. Unable to resolve this, he never went to war — he was 4F with a bad heart — he was bucket with an Uranus handle. He has a strong preponderance in the third house of communications.—he had no brothers or sisters, so this aspect was magnifying his work in the film industry.

The Uranus in Capricorn becomes the reason for the charisma, the allure, the grace just like it did fellow Australian Sir Don Bradman, the Cricket Player. Both come out of no where, makes their splash, their mark on the world and leave. Bradman’s Uranus is in the 5th house of play, while Flynn’s is in the ninth house of long journeys highlights the voyage from home to Hollywood, to London and Jamaica and then to Hollywood and Vancouver, and of course those films.

In Flynn’s fifth house of children and creativity lurks Jupiter — he had 4 children and starred in many films, running the gamut — Westerns historical films, modern day war movies, and even a modern drama or two — though admittedly not all were as successful as those he made with l Director Michael Curtiz. His only son, Sean by Damita, was an incredible look alike in blond, died in Viet Nam about 10 years later; they alas never spoke.

The incident that so destroyed his self-image also led to his self-destruction, was the infamous statutory rape trial — where he met wife #2 pretty 18 year old Nora Eddington at the cigar stand — was followed by the hideous fall into an alcoholic and drug haze. He died at 50, looked 75 and was barely recognizable in Vancouver, Canada, with another teenage nymph on his arms, almost kitty corner to his hometown, and right after the northern hemisphere’s fall equinox in 1959.

It was a brutally tragic end to a what had been a glorious start.

Jones has 9:25 at night, turning the Uranian bucket, into Aquarius rising. I like the ascendant as Air but not fixed. Like Doane he puts everything in the northern hemisphere. That said neither do I agree with Cardinal Fire, Doane’s choice btw, but that’s another post, for another day.

Footnotes:

• 1
  ibid. Winchell and Rushmore.
• 2
  Doris Chase Doane, Progressions in Action, American Federation of Astrologers, published 1977 in Tempe, Arizona. for Mrs. Doane does not use the Winchell time in her book or give credence to his sources