On February 5, 1943, the jury deliberated, whether to send Errol to San Quentin, or Mulholland Farm (or the State Farm)
The Jury Members were:
Ruby Anderson
Lorene Boehm
Charles Boyd
Loren Curtis
Elaine Forbes
Homer Jacobsmeyer
Jennie Larson
Mildred Leahy
Nellie Minear
Lena Morgan
Georgette Welch
Theresa Wood
—
Alice Chalfant (Alternate)
— —
Juror Selection and Dismissed Jurors:
— Tim
“The case was drawing near to its close. I would either be sentenced to jail or not. Under the law there was no such thing as a suspended sentence or fine. None of those nice amenities. You either had it, or you hadn’t. I had no intention of going to jail. My two-engine plane was out at Burbank, waiting, so that if I got a bum rap, I’d get out there, hop in and leave America and my screen career forever.”
– My Wicked, Wicked Ways
~ Would Flynn Have Flown? ~
I believe Errol would have definitely exited, stage left –
making it one of the most sensational stories of the 20th Century.
What do you think?
— Tim
“Get Me Giesler” By Roy Black:
LA Times: “Before there was Johnny Cochran…”
— Tim
January 26, 1943
TELLS OF FLYNN ACCUSER’S HOPE FOR MOVIE ROLE
Witness Testifies of Girl’s
Plan to Meet Actor.
Los Angeles, Cal., Jan. 25 (M)
A brunette soda fountain girl, Mons Mervyn, today told the jury trying Errol Flynn on statutory rape charges that one of the complaining witnesses, Betty Hansen, informed her she hoped to meet Flynn and get into the movies with his help.
Miss Mervyn said she worked at a drug store where Miss Hansen, a Lincoln, Neb., girl was employed
for two weeks. She said Betty told her she considered Flynn good looking.
Yacht Employee Questioned.
The defense switched to testimony about Miss Hansen after summoning as its first witness Corp. Hubert L. Oliver of Glendale, Cal., now stationed at a Texas army camp. Oliver said he was employed by Flynn as a seaman on his yacht, the Sirocco, that he was aboard the vessel the night 17-year old Peggy La Rue Satterlee, the other complaining witness, contends she was seduced by the screen star.
Oliver testified he heard no disturbance or outcry and that Flynn, to his knowledge, was not below deck at the time of the alleged attack.
Flynn, Oliver said, was at the wheel of the yacht all the way home.
Says Door Won’t Lock.
Mrs. Helga Brabon, former caretaker at the Bel Air home of Fred McEvoy, where Miss Hansen alleged Flynn seduced her, Betty was wrong in saying Flynn locked the door after taking her to the bedroom. She said the door of the room In question has a lock “but it never worked, that I know of, and it still won t work.”
Mrs. Addle E. Odell, operator of a
Hollywood apartment house, said Miss Hansen rented one of her apartments Oct. 1, 1942, as Mrs. Betty Gray. Mrs. Mary Ross, juvenile division policewoman, that Miss Hansen told her Flynn seduced her In a double bad In a large bedroom. This contrasted to Betty’s direct testimony that the alleged seduction occurred In an alcove off the large bedroom.
Jerry Giesler, Flynn’s attorney, said Flynn, himself, will take the stand, probably tomorrow or Wednesday.
Satterlee & Hansen with LA District Attorney Thomas Cochran:
05 Nov 1942, Los Angeles, California, USA — Peggy Satterlee shows a photo of herself and Errol Flynn on his yacht during his trial at a Los Angeles courthouse. Satterlee accused Flynn of committing statutory rape against her on the yacht. — Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS
— Tim
FDR’s Birthday Horse Show
All Proceeds to Infantile Paralysis Charities
Errol Rode White House Horse, “Badger”.
“FIRST LADY PRESENTS TROPHY. WASHINGTON, D.C. JANUARY 25. ERROL FLYNN, STEPPING OUT OF HIS ROLE AS MOVIE STAR, TURNED HORSEMAN, AT THE FORT MYER PRESIDENT’S BIRTHDAY HORSE SHOW. MRS. ROOSEVELT PRESENTS THE HACK CLASS TROPHY WHICH HE WON”
— Tim
Chicago Daily Tribune, January 12, 1934
Front Page:
Back Page:
Navy Reveals Aircraft Carrier Hornet is Lost – Trial of Errol Flynn Opens
— Tim
“In Like Flynn” is commonly said to be a reference to Errol Flynn, the Australian film actor. Flynn was famous for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films and for his flamboyant private life. His reputation as a hard-drinking, hell-raising ladies’ man was apparently well justified, although it has doubtless been enhanced by his delight in playing up to his image. For instance, he titled his autobiography – My Wicked, Wicked Ways and also did nothing to dispel the incredible but nonetheless widespread rumours as to the the size of his penis and the number of women who had shared his bed. Flynn was fully acquitted in February 1943 for the statutory rape.
‘In like Flynn’ – was that Errol Flynn?
The word in had been used with regard to success, good fortune or sexual conquest for some years prior to the 1940s; for example:
John Mills’ Life Race-Horse, 1854:
“The handicapper … considerately classed me among the middle ones, and awarded 6 st. 12 lb. as my burthen. ‘He’s vell in,’ said my owner, ‘very vell in.'”
Alfred Mason’s Clementina, 1901:
“His luck for the moment was altogether in.”
E. Wilson’s Twenties, 1923:
“Well, did Mr. Wilson get it in tonight?”
All of the above might lead us to believe that origin of the phrase ‘in like Flynn’ is clear. As so often though, things aren’t quite as tidy as they might first seem. The earliest recorded use of the phrase is in a December 1946 edition of American Speech:
“In like Flynn, everything is O.K. In other words, the pilot is having no more trouble than Errol Flynn has in his cinematic feats.”
That doesn’t have the sexual connotations that the phrase acquired later. There’s also an earlier, albeit oblique, reference from 1942 – in The San Francisco Examiner (Sports section):
“Answer these questions correctly and your name is Flynn, meaning you’re in, provided you have two left feet and the written consent of your parents.”
Errol Flynn’s particular notoriety as someone especially likely to be ‘in’ in a sexual sense came about after his trial in 1943, although he was already known as a screen romantic lead. If the phrase does derive from his name then it appears to have been coined in regard to his all-round flamboyance and fame – which were both considerable by 1942 – rather than specifically his sexual success.
Another possible figure who could plausibly have been the source of the phrase is the political organizer Edward J. Flynn. He was a campaign manager for the Democratic party during the 1930s and 40s and was well-known to be highly effective at arranging political successes. Such machiavellian organizers were known as bosses. Flynn, with some irony, called his autobiography ‘You’re the Boss’, in a reference to the American voting public.
Edward J. Flynn had not been associated with the phrase ‘in like Flynn’ prior to the efforts by etymologists to explain it though and no records from the 1940s make any such link. It seems very much more likely that Errol Flynn is the Flynn in question and, although the phrase may have been used before he was at the peak of his celebrity, it became well-known by association with him.
Adapted primarily and quoting from:
The Phrase Finder
See, also:
— Tim
