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March 14, 2023 - Dennis Prager Show
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Dennis Prager here.
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Hi everybody, welcome to the Dennis Prager Show.
About 25 years ago, let me think, would that be accurate?
Yeah, I think it is.
I published, let's see, in the 80s and 90s, I published a newsletter.
So, sort of pre-internet.
And one was called Ultimate Issues, from which we got the name of the third hour on Tuesdays in my show, and the other was called The Prager Perspective.
I'm almost certain it is so long ago that it was in Ultimate Issues that I wrote my lead article on the war on tobacco.
And my key point was there's something morally obtuse going on.
Why is there no war on alcohol since people who smoke hurt themselves whereas people who drink, I should be more precise, can hurt themselves?
And people who drink can hurt others.
There's mothers against drunk drivers.
There's no mothers against smoking drivers.
Alcohol use accompanies criminal violence very often.
World War II, it was a widespread phenomenon.
In the German army, when they were told to slaughter Jews, it would be accompanied by alcohol.
And, of course, the drunk drivers and the people who hurt members of their family.
Not everyone who drinks does this, but most of the people who do this drink.
And yet the society decided to make its war on tobacco.
American society in the 1920s decided to make the war against alcohol.
Prohibition was a mixed bag, but largely it didn't work.
But at least the moral motivation Was sober.
No pun intended.
I said then, in the 1980s, it is an indication of the broken moral compass of the society that 60 years after Prohibition, they went after something that hurts the user, not others.
Health had supplanted morality.
That was my argument.
I was right.
I am certain that I was right.
And now the same forces, almost always from the left, under the most draconian and vile man to hold the presidency in American history, Joe Biden.
They want to lower the nicotine levels in cigarettes.
This is their battle.
And now, what did you just send me on e-cigarettes?
Administration tries to shut down.
FDA orders Juul to stop selling e-cigarettes.
Why?
Why?
Because high school kids are using it?
Folks, it's not nicotine that hurts kids.
It's the tar and the other junk in cigarettes.
Nicotine is addictive.
That's correct.
So what?
The ignorance that dominates public life in this country nowhere more And it's not ignorance.
It's...
It's fools.
Fools run our public health.
Like the Mayo Clinic listing that cigars are no safer than cigarettes.
You know that that's an out-and-out lie?
It's pure lie.
It's an amazing thing.
The Mayo Clinic.
And they're not alone.
I'm sure virtually every distinguished.
So-called distinguished medical place.
And you know why they lie?
Because they feel they're doing a moral good by lying.
The fewer people who smoke, the fewer deaths.
So you can lie about anything to get people to stop.
That's why they came up with the gigantic lie of Secondhand smoke kills 50,000 Americans.
Most Americans believe that.
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday, that's today, ordered Juul, J-U-U-L, to stop selling e-cigarettes on the U.S. market, a profoundly damaging blow to a once-popular company.
Whose brand was blamed for the teenage vaping crisis.
More teenagers than ever are dying, dying, being killed by fentanyl.
And they're going after e-cigarettes.
They opened up the borders, this administration, to enable fentanyl to come in from Mexico.
But they're going after e-cigarette companies.
I'm sure a lot of parents don't want their kids smoking e-cigarettes.
So I have a question.
Why?
On the list of things that would trouble you, why would that be even on the list?
Nicotine?
So they'll get addicted to nicotine?
So what?
Nobody's ever answered my so what question.
Now, you might say, oh, well, you smoke cigars.
You're addicted to nicotine.
And by the way, people say that all the time.
Ignorance is now a non-issue to a lot of people.
There's zero addiction in my life to cigars.
Zero.
Not only do I go a full day a week without smoking cigars on my Sabbath because of the ban on lighting a fire in the book of Exodus.
Sure, it's a very obscure law.
I explain it.
It's a very profound, incredibly profound law.
I explain it in my commentary on the book of Exodus.
And I often go days.
If I'm on the road and I don't have the time or access to a cigar lounge, it's a relaxing thing for me.
And, for the record, 99% of cigar smokers don't inhale.
The cigarette smoker smokes for nicotine.
The cigar smoker smokes for taste.
It's a very, very, very big difference.
But even if I were addicted to nicotine, so what?
It's about as innocuous a thing to be addicted to as exists.
I'm not addicted to controlling people's lives, which the left is addicted to.
The order affects all of Juul products in the U.S. market, the overwhelming source of the company's sales.
Juul's sleek vaping cartridges and sweet-flavored pods helped usher in an era of alternative nicotine products that became exceptionally popular among young people and invited intense scrutiny from anti-smoking groups.
Anti-smoking groups, these are people, like the environmentalists, who found the cause, think they're wonderful human beings, for suppressing others' rights.
In the name of health.
Health uber alis is a concept I came up with very many decades ago.
You saw it in the lockdown, in keeping kids out of school.
In the name of health, you can do anything you want.
We return, 1-8 Prager 776. The Dennis Prager Show.
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I was talking to you about the latest attempt to control people's lives.
It is amazing the FDA, which has lost the respect of half this country as a decent, honest broker of scientific help to this country.
The Association of Vapors, the American Vapor Manufacturing Association, their spokesman, Amanda Wheeler, Actually,
the president, not spokesman, said, measured in lives lost and potential destroyed, FDA's staggering indifference to ordinary Americans and their right to switch to the vastly safer alternative of vaping will surely rank as one of the greatest episodes of regulatory malpractice in American history.
That is correct.
That is what it is.
It is indifference to life.
It's not even a health issue.
What's unhealthy about vaping?
Tell me.
I'm sure some of you think it's a real risk and the government should tell you that you can't.
But it's a substitute for the real dangerous stuff, cigarettes.
You have to be a fanatic.
These people who look upon prohibition, the advocates of prohibition as fanatics, it makes one choke.
The fanaticism of our time dwarfs the fanaticism of America of a hundred years ago.
It dwarfs it.
You know what part of it is?
They're just bloody bored.
Do something!
Do something!
Regulate more Americans' lives.
Control more behavior.
Then you go to bed feeling you've done good.
And who doesn't want to go to bed feeling they've done good?
You should thank God if your kid vapes rather than smokes cigarettes.
Nicotine.
There is a word that I've seen thus far in this article in today's New York Times that speaks about the health dangers.
Oh, yes, it did.
Chemicals may leak out of...
I mean, we're talking on the level of lightning.
By the way, did you read about this woman and her dog that were killed by lightning?
It was here in L.A. She was walking her dog and got killed by lightning.
Freak?
I mean, it's beyond belief.
That's the example used when people speak about things that are rare.
Pretty bad luck.
Luck is a factor in life, my friends.
I am in the fourth of my five-book commentary on the first five books of the Bible, the Rational Bible.
Deuteronomy is coming out.
Genesis and Exodus are out.
Deuteronomy is coming out in October.
You can pre-order it on Amazon.
I hope you do.
For your sake, much more than for mine, but for my sake as well.
Because it's an incredibly difficult challenge to make so clear texts that are not clear to people.
Anyway, I didn't go in order, so the fourth book to come out is Numbers, which ironically is the fourth book.
And there's an amazing verse.
In that book, Moses was a humble man, more humble than anyone else on earth.
It's an amazing thing.
So I have an essay on humility.
What is humility?
Can you know you're humble?
I'll talk about that another time.
It's a great subject.
Can you know you're humble if you're humble?
But the reason I raise it is, one of the reasons everybody should be humble is that no matter how much you have attained in life, there was good luck involved.
No matter how hard you worked, the fact, just one simple example, the fact that you were healthy enough to do it.
I remember when I was very young, one of the greatest cellists on earth was a woman named Jacqueline Dupre.
I actually saw her play in the year I, she was British, the year I studied in England.
She was young, beautiful, and spectacularly talented cellist, married to one of the best-known classical musicians, Daniel Barron-Bohm.
She's a pianist and now a conductor.
She got multiple sclerosis, I believe it was, and then died in her 30s.
It was bad luck.
So I'm just reflecting on the fact that you can't...
One of the reasons to be humble...
Just objectively speaking, even morally speaking, just on rational grounds, is that you are lucky to have achieved what you have achieved, even though you may have worked very, very hard for it and earned it to a certain degree.
Controlling others' lives in the name of health.
And Americans totally support this, by and large.
Oh, it's health.
Of course I lose my rights.
Talking about losing your rights.
Our neighbor to the north, which as I wrote months ago, is becoming the Cuba.
A new Cuba.
Canada still requires airline passengers to wear face masks on board.
Back in a moment.
The Dennis Prager Show.
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That's the Salem Podcast Network.
Or YouTube.
I have this really, really good weekly podcast.
With a 22-year-old woman.
Is that amazing?
That is amazing.
Yes.
Well, I am going to a subject now.
Oh, let me just say to Louis, Michael, Thomas, and Albert, if you can hang on, I hope to take some or all of your calls.
It's a rare time.
I like every call up there.
I have a guest because I think I met some of your colleagues.
I'll tell you who I'm speaking to, of course, folks, in a moment.
So...
Here at the local radio station, it's a national show, but based here in the L.A. area, and they work in hospice.
And I have a particular affection, even though I have not had personal contact with hospice work.
I have a particular affection and respect for people who do, and I said, I'd like you to come on.
The lack of talk about death in modern Western life is a phenomenon unto itself.
My guest, the woman who said, mm-hmm, that you just heard, is Natalie Rosemont.
She's Bristol Hospice Bereavement Coordinator.
It's in the LA and Ventura County areas.
So you coordinate for Bristol Hospice, is that right?
That's correct.
What does it mean you coordinate?
I'm the bereavement coordinator, which means that I manage all the bereavement services.
So not only are we with our families during the time that their loved ones are in our care, but as a bereavement coordinator, I provide counseling services to our families for 13 months following.
So for us...
We're here from the start to the finish and beyond.
Being able to sit with someone who's dying is important, but being able to be there with the family after is just as important for us.
So this is such a phenomenon.
At what age did you know you would end up working with the dying and their families?
I actually came into this field from a different perspective.
I like being with people who are hurting, who are struggling, but I found my calling to be able to sit with the death and then dying probably about 10 or 11 years ago.
I had a friend whose mother was dying, and even though I am in the field of therapy, we really didn't know very much about death and dying.
Grief training is kind of just basic.
So I felt really called and longed to be able to go into the ministry.
So I started working with children, and then from there I realized it's actually better to provide our care and our service even before the family is in grief, before the bereavement part.
So I decided to take a job in hospice, and it's been amazing to be able to be with our families.
How long have you been working in hospice work?
Ten years.
Now, does your work involve being with the dying?
Yes.
I provide anticipatory grief with the families, so I sit with them.
I talk with them.
We work through all of the steps and the processes, even before their loved ones are gone.
And then I walk with them for the following 13 months and continue to provide support with all the first that come up.
I think, is it fair to say, let's put it that way, so I shouldn't even say I think, is it fair to say that the average individual would think that at least in some respects you have a A depressing job.
Absolutely.
I get that a lot.
I get a lot of, isn't it hard?
Isn't it heavy?
People don't like to talk about it.
It's a taboo subject.
But it's something that we all go through.
It's something that we're all going to face in one way or another in our lives.
We're human.
It's part of life.
So is it depressing?
For me, because I have a heart for it, I actually feel honored and I feel touched that people share their loved ones with me.
Being able to walk into someone's home at such an emotional and heavy and dark time and to be able to provide that support and be that rock, it feels more of an honor than to be depressing.
So you don't leave a day's work down.
I cry.
I cry a lot.
Oh, that's interesting.
But it's part of it.
And I miss a lot of my patients and a lot of their families.
And that part gets to be heavy, but it's not really depressing if I do my job right.
All right, hold it there, because I have so many questions.
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Hello everybody, I'm Dennis Prager and I welcome you back or to the show.
It's a three hour show.
If you can't hear all three hours, go to PragerTopia.com.
You can hear all three hours whenever you want without commercials.
PragerTopia.com.
At the minimal price of between five and six dollars a month.
Which, as I said the other day, I hope I didn't offend anybody, I have to believe is affordable to virtually everybody listening.
Five to six dollars a month, if that's a burden, I mean this with only respect, then obviously one is in a desperate situation financially.
That's not said to be an ad for a Pregatopia subscription.
That's just said as a generalized principle.
I spoke last hour about the banning of e-cigarettes, putting this company out of business by the Biden administration.
and There are no limits to the Biden administration's attempt to control everything.
What is it?
The red flag laws?
Is that it?
About the guns?
The red flag?
That John Cornyn and some other fools who were Republicans?
I am so disappointed in John Cornyn.
Maybe I shouldn't be.
You in Texas know him better than I. You're telling me that without a warrant, without a criminal Behavior?
Somebody could say, you know, my neighbor is a crackpot.
You should take away their guns.
Am I misunderstanding the law?
These people are prophets.
They know who will use a gun immorally?
By the way, if indeed this thing is serious, you should take the gun away from every single gang member.
Correct?
You're a member of a violent gang, they should take your gun away.
They won't, though.
Most of the gangs that are engaged in this violence are minorities, and it'll be called racist.
Anyway, back to the issue that I started with.
I want to read to you.
A line here from the article.
The article in today's New York Times, FDA orders Juul to stop selling e-cigarettes.
A decisive blow to a once popular vaping brand that appealed to teenagers.
This is the war on nicotine.
Why?
Because it's addictive?
Do you realize how little people think through issues?
So it's addictive.
So is caffeine.
Why don't we ban coffee?
Why sell coffee to teenagers?
Or to anybody?
This is banned to anybody.
Even the New York Times article, which of course the New York Times agrees with any controlling thing in the name of health, nicotine itself is not the cause of lung cancer and other deadly ills from smoking.
Oh.
So what's the problem with nicotine?
But the drug is exceedingly addictive.
Oh.
Drug?
Is caffeine a drug?
Why is nicotine a drug?
The manipulation of language on the left is always remarkable to me.
It's exceedingly addictive.
So what?
Nobody has ever answered my question.
Not one doctor who's called this show.
Of course, doctors in general.
Of course, they believe in the use of government to suppress what they think is health worthy of suppression.
Doctors in general, doctors' commitment to liberty is zero.
Most, the vast majority of doctors were totally on board with, you're fired!
If you don't get the vaccine.
A vaccine which is not a vaccine.
Vaccines that last six months aren't vaccines.
Just for the record, folks, it's the first vaccine in history that lasts six months.
They're fine with it.
The medical profession is just fine with it.
We think it's unhealthy.
We'll force you to stop.
In the name of health, liberty is worthless.
Yeah, nicotine is addictive.
So is caffeine.
I know religious Jews who take caffeine suppositories on Yom Kippur, the most holy day in the Jewish calendar, a day where a Jew fasts for 24, 25 hours, and They get headaches and it's very difficult for them to go a day without their caffeine.
It's actually probably harder for the caffeine addict to go a day without caffeine than for the nicotine addict to go a day without nicotine.
Why isn't that banned?
For those of you like the last caller of the last hour who said, oh, it's addictive.
And he said he's a new listener and he's agreed with everything and now he was appalled that I would not give a damn about it being addictive.
I appall people on a regular basis.
Turns out, though, that in virtually every single instance over time, What people found appalling turned out to be right.
People were appalled that I said that the lockdowns were the greatest mistake in international history.
I said it within two months of the lockdowns.
You know why?
I have no agenda other than what is true and what is good.
Those are my only two questions.
What is true and what is good?
Okay?
In the case of nicotine, it is true, it's addictive.
But I don't understand why that is a big issue.
I cited my wife being addicted to reading, and I mean it because deprived of books she would go into, and she's always upbeat.
Always.
But this would affect her like a person deprived of nicotine would be affected, perhaps even worse.
So the idea of addiction in and of itself being a bad thing, maybe it is, but it's not for the government to control your bad things.
You know how sick our society is that we legalize marijuana and ban e-cigarettes?
Sick!
The whole left is sick, the entire medical establishment is sick.
Sick, folks.
I mean sick.
It's pathologic.
Marijuana, fine.
Electronic cigarettes, banned.
We are mired in sickness because our elites are sick because they're well-educated.
They learned to be sick at college, now increasingly high school.
I spoke to 200 high school kids yesterday.
And it was among the most depressing hours of my professional career.
Not because they loathed me.
That was fine.
I don't have any problem with that.
But because of what they loathed me about.
I said America's not systemically racist.
And that made me worthy of loathing.
A girl got up.
This was really...
And these were hand-picked.
Teenagers.
A girl got up, and I'll never forget this.
I have it recorded, thank God.
And she said, I'm white.
As you see, I'm white.
But my uncle is Hispanic.
Came here from Cuba.
And she was rebutting my notion that the country is not racist.
Even though I acknowledged, of course, there are racists in it, but the country isn't.
What was her example of her uncle being the victim of racism in America?
He has an accent and therefore people treat him poorly.
Example, at an airport once he was called out.
To have his luggage checked again?
Because, why?
Because he had a Hispanic or Spanish accent.
Wow.
I gotta say, that really indicts America, doesn't it?
We'll be back.
The Dennis Prager Show.
A guy called me last week and asked me, Because I frequently say that the left is afraid to debate conservatives, which they are.
I have over and over said, we'll raise the money if that would be helpful.
I'll debate any of the left-wing New York Times columnists, for example.
So a guy called and asked me why I wouldn't debate a guy you named, who does a podcast that I had never heard of.
And so a number of his followers were told by him, contact Dennis Prager, he's afraid of debating me.
So I decided to check this guy out, and he turns out to be a liar.
Listen to this.
Dennis Prager, thrice divorced.
I only say that because he's such a moralist, and it's pretty impressive to get divorced three times.
Okay, so he's a liar.
I was divorced twice.
There's a big difference because it would sound a little stupid.
Guy's divorced twice and he's a phony moralist.
But with three times, it's still an absurd point.
It has no moral basis.
It's worthy of talking about at another time, does divorce speak to the moral character of the persons who divorced?
You have to be somewhat of a moral idiot to believe that to be true.
Virtually every single one of you knows decent people who have been divorced, some indecent people who have stayed married.
Divorce is a tragedy, but it's not a moral failing.
I mean, I assume in cases where somebody is a serial adulterer, but that's the serial adultery, not the divorce, that is the issue.
He lied about it.
If you Google Dennis Prager divorce, anything that comes up, Wikipedia, anything, is I was divorced twice.
I don't know why divorce twice makes you a phony moralist.
He doesn't think clearly.
There's another aspect aside from his lying.
The other aspect is that mockery...
Is every leftist's form of debate.
That's why it's so rare that people debate their equals on the conservative side.
Oh, he's a moralist and he was divorced.
Can't be.
And then his sidekick says, I hope they had prenuptials.
This is the level of that show.
And so to you, his followers, I hope this is some of the reasons that you'll understand he's unworthy of being on the same stage as me.
But here's another proof that all he wants is to raise his profile.
I went to the site, and here is the number of views his podcast gets.
I put in his name and his show.
The latest, 19,000.
One before that, 36,000.
One before that, 3.9 thousand.
One before that, 17,000.
The one before that, 24,000.
The one before that, 34,000.
And then there's 86,000.
How did that happen?
Because it's about me.
Just mentioning my name tripled.
His views.
Proof.
The only reason this guy has told his sycophants that he wants to debate me is to raise his profile.
That's not my job.
Okay, I hope that answers.
I'm sure he'll apologize for lying about me.
I don't care if he does, to be honest, but it is what it is.
The whole thing fascinated me for the obvious reasons that I just offered you.
All right, let's see here.
That's right, that's correct.
It's very interesting.
That's right, very good point, Doug in Atlanta.
Sugar is very addictive.
That's right, he's absolutely right.
Sugar, nicotine, why are they...
Caffeine, why are they picking on nicotine?
There's no reason.
There is no valid or rational reason.
It's all emotional.
That science has been reduced to emotions by the FDA, CDC, NIH is very scary.
Because where they see smoke, even though it's vapor, In the case of vaping, people freak out.
Not marijuana smoke, interestingly.
My contempt for Biden and the FDA is so deep that it's almost difficult for me to control myself.
Yes.
Okay, let's see.
Take a totally different call.
Michael, Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.
Hello.
Hello.
Hi.
So, I was watching some videos of Tim Pool and Charlie Kirk.
I think you're familiar with both of them, right?
You know I am, so why did you ask the question?
I was just on Tim Pool's Timcast, and Charlie Kirk and I have long been associated.
Okay, well, both of them have already debated Sam Seder.
You know you're afraid of debate, so you should really just get on it.
Okay, so one of the psychopaths.
I'm afraid to debate.
I'm afraid.
Okay, if you believe that, you probably believe.
I'm divorced three times.
Okay, fair enough.
Let's go to Austin, Texas, and Gene.
Hello, Gene.
Hey, Dennis.
Nice to talk to you.
You know, I'm also thinking, you know, what's really addictive is food.
People are over-addicted to food.
Anyone, maybe even shopping in a grocery store, shouldn't be allowed to buy chips, you know, if they appear to be overweight.
Shouldn't be allowed to buy chips.
Well, what's his name?
Bloomberg wanted to do that.
He wanted to ban large cups of soda.
In New York City.
Okay.
Well, that doesn't quite do it.
You know, it would have to be...
Well, yeah.
Look, this is the belief of a lot of people in that you are...
I've got to call in Richard Blythe here.
Anyway, if it's unhealthy, we can ban it.
And Americans...
To a large extent, find that okay.
That's why your kids didn't go to school for two years.
Well, everybody, I often say we talk about everything on the Dennis Prager Show.
The following will be one example of that.
I'm actually talking to you about a Hollywood star who's no longer with us.
Let me give a little preface here, because there is a book out titled Errol Flynn, The Illustrated Life Chronology.
I have the author on.
He's an American living in Germany.
Robert Florzak.
And I will say I have never seen a book like this.
And I will be very specific in why I say that.
It has essentially, Robert Florzak, the author, has essentially taken one of the greatest stars in Hollywood history and almost described what happened almost every day of the man's life.
I don't know how he unearthed all this information.
He says it took 10 years.
I think I got that right.
But even if you have no interest in Errol Flynn, if you may not have even ever heard of him, although there is a famous old saying called, In Like Flynn, I won't explain it because it's a family show.
But you may know of him because of his starring in one of the greatest films ever made in Hollywood history, and that is Robin Hood.
The Adventures of Robin Hood.
And he was a, not literally, but figuratively, a true lady killer.
His affairs with women mesmerized the American public during the heyday of his career, I assume the 30s and 40s, but I'll get all of those details from the author.
I'm just telling you, I did not have a particular interest in Errol Flynn.
I certainly knew of him.
I have seen The Adventures of Robin Hood a few times, but the book is riveting.
And I welcome Robert Florzak to the show.
Robert, in all honesty, and I've written a fair number of books, I don't understand how you did this.
How did you find out what he did on any given day?
It was a gradual process.
Thanks for having me on, Dennis.
I started collecting things on him early on as a fan.
It was a hobby, and you understand hobbies as well as anybody.
Yep.
And after a while, the collection started growing, and I would get tidbits of information here and there and start collecting them into a file that started to look chronological.
And at a certain point, my wife had suggested, why don't you do something serious with this?
So at that point, I started looking into the different sources I could go to to fill in the gaps.
And there were many.
There were newspaper archives.
I must have gone through several thousand old newspapers and magazines.
You can get them online.
Some of them are difficult to get for the average person.
Through one of the archives, they gave me a link that archivists and schools can access to old printed materials.
So I did that, but also the Hollywood archives themselves, particularly the Warner Brothers archives.
He was a Warner Brothers contract star for most of his career.
And that particular studio did a great job in saving everything.
Other studios, like MGM, for instance, threw everything out.
Wow.
You lucked out.
Yeah, I sure did.
Unfortunately, he did two films for MGM, and I couldn't get the daily information on those.
So there were a few gaps.
Oh, how interesting.
Does he have Descendants?
Yes, he had three wives and four children amongst the three.
Two of his four children are still living, two daughters from his middle class.
What do they think of your work?
The oldest daughter is hard to find, so I don't know, but his other daughter was very, very supportive, and she wrote the blurb that's on the back of the book that you can see there, which was an amazing...
Amazing thing for me personally, because I would think going back into the early 70s when I began being a fan and I'd read about the people in his life, and especially the family, I would know about these children, including that daughter.
And to think 40-something years later, she's writing the blurb on the back of the book.
It's mind-boggling.
Why did you fall in love with Errol Flynn?
It sounds maybe a little simplistic because it's been said many times that the thing about him is he was the guy that every boy and guy wanted to be and every girl and woman wanted to be with.
And he really was a storybook hero come to life.
As I mentioned in the book, the interesting thing about him is that he's somewhat addictive.
You start learning about him, and you want to know more and more, and it's a very fascinating process, which you sort of began to describe at the top of the show here.
You didn't know much about him, and then you start looking into the book, and it just goes on and on into depth of what he's all about.
So it goes from level to level.
When you're starting out and you're younger, nobody did so many heroic films like that.
So you get into him on that level, then you start learning about the real life, and that becomes interesting, and it just goes on and on.
Well, so let's describe him for those who have never heard of him or seen him.
So again, his most famous film, am I right, is The Adventures of Robin Hood?
Yeah, probably.
That's the film he's probably best known for.
Is it fair to say he was preternaturally handsome?
Oh, absolutely.
There were many people in the field, technically, cameramen, cinematographers, even producers, who said you could not photograph him badly.
In his peak, his total physical nature was near perfection.
And so that's one of the items on the checklist of why he's so interesting.
It's not just the films.
It's not just the adventurous real life.
But it's him himself, physically, and as I mentioned in the book, even his voice, which was a beautiful instrument.
That's right.
Until later on, when it started to go bad with his lifestyle.
So, you probably know him better than, I assume, anybody living, with the possible exception of his daughters.
And you probably know certainly more about him than they do.
Did he know how gifted he was in looks, let's say?
Yes, he did.
And he even mentioned it, that after a while he actually didn't like the whole idea.
Really?
Why?
Yeah, well, because I think he knew in the beginning it helped open doors for him.
I mean, there are a lot of things you can read about how people would remark when he would walk into a room.
I mean, everybody was just hushed at this almost perfection of looks.
As a matter of fact, he did a film called Perfect Specimen, which was almost about that.
But in the beginning, it opened doors, and obviously wanting to finally succeed at something in life, he was very happy with that.
But after a while, it started to...
It started to wear on him that the looks were the issue.
And he said at times he didn't even want to look in the mirror anymore.
And as he started to age, and it would show, he at times even mentioned that he was happy that that was starting to happen to him.
Not many people say that.
I've had that experience as I look at myself.
It's understandable.
No, no, no.
My looks have been a burden.
So I relate to Flynn.
So how many stars were bigger than Errol Flynn in his heyday?
That's an interesting question.
You could argue that there are two or three that are bigger than Flynn for various reasons.
Clark Gable is.
Humphrey Bogart is, and even probably James Cagney.
They were all contemporaries.
Gable probably because of Gone with the Wind, which is the most successful film of all time based on ticket sales.
Flynn had a special genre, so it worked very well for him in the 30s and 40s, but once that genre became somewhat passe with the Public at large, it didn't work for him anymore, whereas other actors, like Bogart, for instance, his whole persona works very well for modern audiences because he was a modern...
Boy, is that true.
All right, hold on there, if you would.
Robert Florzak, the author of Errol Flynn, The Illustrated Life Chronology.
The book is up at DennisPrager.com.
It will mesmerize you.
Hey everybody, Dennis Prager here with Robert Florzak, and his book is up at DennisPrager.com.
It's about Errol Flynn, the great star of, what would we say, the 30s and 40s in particular, in the golden age of Hollywood.
Yeah.
And many of you would know him from the classic, truly amazing film, The Adventures of Robin Hood.
By the way, I want to read a little of what people wrote on Amazon about your book, because it is unique.
And I'm not a big Hollywood fan.
I'm a normal fan of movies.
I'm not a big one.
And yet, I find your book riveting.
Was The Adventures of Robin Hood the first big color film?
Yes, the first big one.
As a matter of fact, and it was Technicolor, three-strip Technicolor, which was an amazing process.
MGM had not yet started filming Gone with the Wind, which was going to be their big film of the following year.
And they were keeping an eye on how things were going with the filming of Adventures of Robin Hood.
It was almost like their guinea pig.
And it was because of the success of that filming that they gave the green light to go ahead with Gone with the Wind and Technicolor.
But there were a few films before that that were trying out the new technology, but that was really the first big one.
Folks, if you go to Amazon and you look up the Errol Flynn book, a landmark work and a stunning book.
A towering work that matches its iconic subject.
Absolutely great.
Five star plus.
Spectacular.
They're all right.
I don't know how he did it.
I mean, it's also magnificently illustrated.
Virtually every page has illustrations, a diary, the person in his life, and that is Errol Flynn.
So Errol Flynn, this extraordinary male specimen, as we pointed out, he was gorgeous, but he was masculine.
That's right.
I say that exactly in the book.
Yeah, that's really important for people to know.
There are actors today who are really good-looking, but they don't radiate masculinity.
I have one in mind, but I don't want to say because I don't want to insult him.
But this was not the case with Errol Flynn.
He was a man's man and a woman's man.
Yes, and also quite learned and educated.
Get a little extra light here, I think.
Yeah, that's better.
Yeah, that is good.
I just want to say, with the electricity bills being what they are in Germany, I'm very grateful to you for turning on the light.
Yes, I just realized it myself just now.
His father was a world-renowned marine biologist, so he grew up in a household that was quite intellectual in some ways, and he became that himself.
He was quite well-read.
And whatnot.
But we were mentioning before, by the way, that it was because people like Bogart, in their anti-hero personality, they're able to transcend into the present, though Flynn hasn't been able to because his heroic image was somewhat storybook.
And yet, the interesting thing about it is...
If you look at the bibliography that's out there on all these different stars, you would ask, was he the biggest one, biggest male star from that time period?
And not necessarily.
But I don't think there's any other major star from that time period who has as many books written about him as Flynn does.
I mean, that shows...
The possibilities, the potential of the depth of this character.
I mean, everything from there are books on nothing but his movie posters.
There's a book that tries to psychoanalyze him.
There's one that came out just recently, for instance, by Kevin McAleer.
It's called Errol Flynn in Epic Life, where he writes the entire biography of Flynn with the same rhyming scheme that Lord Byron used to write Don Juan.
Which, of course, was a character that Flynn portrayed in one of his greatest films.
So it goes on and on.
There are just constantly books coming out about this character, and it never ends.
Did he have an affair with his co-star, Olivia de Havilland?
No.
There's rumor, and people in the Flynn world like to debate this and whatnot.
She made a passing comment, supposedly, to another actor that did go on.
But then later on, clarified that that didn't happen.
You're talking about Olivia de Havilland, of course.
And my belief is, had that gone on, it wouldn't have been kept a secret for 75 or 80 years.
Right.
That makes sense.
She was the co-star, folks, in the Robin Hood movie.
That's the only reason I mention her.
Name some of the, if there are, household name actresses that he did have affairs with.
Oh, well, practically every other co-star in his film he probably did.
Anne Sheridan was one.
Boy, where do I start?
A lot of them.
A lot.
And the odd thing about the statutory rape trial, which you may want to bring up shortly.
The joke was that he certainly didn't need to push himself on women.
All of these women came at him from every angle, every day, and the big actresses were no different.
So let's go to the statutory rape trial.
Is that what essentially derailed his career?
Not really.
It was thought it was going to, and he was certainly terrified.
What year was that?
Well, it blew up in late 1942, and the trial itself was January and February of 1943. And as I point out in the book, and show in the book, it was followed so closely around the world.
That headlines about what happened in the trial that day would sometimes make the front page of the newspaper above the World War II headlines of the day.
Wow.
That's how much people were into it.
So what was he accused of?
He was accused on two separate occasions of being with underage girls.
What did underage mean at that time?
It meant the same thing, I think, that it does today.
Under 18?
Yeah.
One girl was 16 and another was 15, but they both presented themselves publicly, not to mention to him, as being much older.
And they came across as much older.
And he just didn't check these things.
And so one of them was kind of coerced into pressing charges.
And then when that happened, the other one was also sort of coerced into it.
I don't think either one of them wanted to have this happen.
Coerced by whom?
Authorities?
Yes, and in another case, the parents, or at least the mother of one of them.
All right, we'll continue.
I'm just riveted by the book and the subject, even though I'm not...
A major Hollywood aficionado.
Errol Flynn, The Illustrated Life, Chronology, Robert Florzak, back in a moment.
The Dennis Prager Show.
Hi, everybody.
Final segment.
Didn't expect it to go an hour.
It's a credit to my guest, Robert Florzak.
Author of Errol Flynn, The Illustrated Life Chronology.
And my God, it is illustrated.
And my God, it is a life chronology almost every day of Errol Flynn's life.
Even if you never heard of Errol Flynn, you will know him pretty well perusing through this beautifully produced book.
I might add, I should have said it earlier, that Robert Florzak, A, is a Renaissance man.
I use the term very rarely.
And he has made a video for PragerU from years ago, and it is one of the most widely viewed, and many views get tens of millions.
So his video, Why is Modern Art So Bad?, is so well done that you will have an education in artistic chaos.
Watching those.
It's a terrific video.
There's no two ways about it.
So I said I had one more question, Robert, and it is, did this in any way, and I'm not expecting the answer to be yes, and I'm perfectly okay with whatever answer you have, But did your immersion in the life of a person who preceded your life have any effect on you?
Hmm.
Probably not in the ways you're...
I don't want to say it's a leading question, but I think I know the type of thing you're getting at.
But it did...
I mean, I really was involved with this guy's life.
And I knew his life before this.
But by the end of the research, and day by day, at the end of his life...
I was exhausted because of him.
And it did make me think more about the idea of being careful of what you wish for.
Oh, see, that's what I meant.
I wanted to know what lesson.
Really, that's what I'm asking.
Any lessons you drew.
Because as you go through this book, and I would like the listeners to know that this is not your typical biography.
I mean, you don't even have to read it from cover to cover.
It's all facts, day by day.
And pictures.
It's important to note.
Yes.
Imagery of photos, documents, letters, that kind of thing.
You're inside this person's life.
As you're going through this, and you get a sense of what it feels like, and you realize it's not easy being on the top like that.
Well, he wasn't shallow.
I said earlier, a deep man in a shallow world.
Well, you bring it to life.
I hope you'll do me next.
The Illustrated Life Chronology, Dennis Prager.
That's right.
I'm one of your hobbies.
That's true.
Folks, you'll thank me for the book.
This was great.
Dennis Prager here.
Thanks for listening to the Daily Dennis Prager Podcast.
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