Fascinating book written by the mother of Beverly Aadland, famed in Hollywood lore as the last lover of Errol Flynn – she started going out with him when she was 15. The book became something of a camp classic – William Styron wrote the introduction to the 1961 edition, acclaiming it as a comic masterpiece.
It’s a hard book to describe, because Florence Aadland is so weird – the first sentence of the book is “there’s one thing I want to make clear my baby was a virgin the day she met Errol Flynn”. She wasn’t a virgin for long – Errol raped her the first time. (Something Beverly herself later confirmed) Well, not "real" rape apparently because she didn’t know what she was doing or something. Anyway, he was apologetic when he found out and they started going out.
Florence’s adoration of her daughter is touching – we hear that she was a special baby, and that she was always talented and admired by people, especially men; we also hear about her talent (something not evident in Cuban Rebel Girls) and her nightclub act, and her habit of escorting young men out – but she wasn’t a hooker no sir-ee. Apparently when Aadland met Errol he was in his “prime” (Florence Aadland became an alcoholic maybe her eyesight wasn’t the best).
The poor Aadlands had a hard time of it after Errol's death - Florence wound up in prison for helping corrupt the morals of her own daughter, then became an alcoholic and died (she sounds fairly boozy already in the book); Beverly was raped an almost killed - she's a housewife now I believe.
Reading this I thought "gee this would make a good movie or play" - and it was turned into a one woman show. Back in 1991 with Tracey Ullman.
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