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Today is Errol Flynn's 117th birthday. Renowned for his charisma, good looks and adventurous screen presence, he established himself as one of the most celebrated stars of Hollywood's Golden Age. Born in Hobart, Tasmania, on June 20, 1909, he spent his early years travelling and working various jobs, before pursuing a career in acting. His breakthrough came with Captain Blood (1935), a role that established as a leading man and launched a successful partnership with Olivia de Havilland . Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Flynn became synonymous with swashbuckling adventures films, starring in a series of popular classics, including The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), The Sea Hawk (1940) and Adventures of Don Juan (1948). Known for his athleticism, charm and screen presence, he embodied the romantic hero and became one of the era's biggest box-office attractions. Off-screen, Flynn was equally famous for his adventurous lifestyle and reputation as a playboy. His personal ...

In the early 1950s, 20th Century Fox, like all the Hollywood studios, began facing massive declines in theatre attendance. The advent of television provided Americans with a cheaper and more convenient form of entertainment at home, where families could watch a wide variety of programmes at little additional cost. Desperate to lure potential moviegoers away from their television sets, studio chiefs began exploiting the two obvious advantages that film enjoyed over the new medium: the size of its images and, at a time when television broadcasting was in black-and-white, the ability to produce photographic colour. The introduction of Kodak's Eastmancolor film stock in 1950 made movie production more affordable and efficient, since it could be used with conventional cameras, unlike the previous and more cumbersome Technicolor system. Within four years, over 50 percent of all Hollywood features were being produced in colour.   LEFT: A typical 1950s American family gathered around a te...