We Goofed!

Here at SSUWAT, we strive to not only entertain, but inform. So we are quite embarrassed to learn that we misidentified the mysterious starlet hidden by the long shadows thrown by Marilyn, Mitzi, Tony, et al.


The young lady on the far left is not Virginia Gibson, but, in fact, another Warner Brothers starlet altogether, Patrice Wymore! You'll have to forgive us this faux pas, as both young ladies were singers/dancers/actresses in relatively the same mold; and both made their film debuts in Tea for Two (1950). Patrice had made her Broadway debut several years earlier, and had in fact won a Theatre World award as "most promising actress."


Patrice's next film, Rocky Mountain (1950), was a fairly undistinguished Western made more interesting by her off-screen romance with its star, Errol Flynn -- who was beginning a long slide down a slope of dissipation.


Flynn's personal demons and addictions made his marriage to Wymore a difficult one; they eventually separated, but never divorced, and Wymore was his legal widow when Flynn died in 1959 -- although, at the time, Flynn was living with his latest paramour, Beverly Aadland, whom he had met when she was a 15 year old Lolita, and who co-starred in his final, inglorious film, Cuban Rebel Girls.


Wymore, who had retired from the screen in 1955, attempted a comeback following Flynn's death. She played Frank Sinatra's girlfriend in the original, all-star Ocean's Eleven (1960), and put together a successful Vegas act. She also made the summer stock rounds, touring in such productions as Guys and Dolls, Irma La Douce and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.



In 1969, Wymore retired from show business, retreating to the Jamaica mansion, plantation and ranch which Flynn had left her in his will. She continues be active in affairs relating to Flynn's estate, attending tributes in his honor. We extend our sincerest apologies for this case of mistaken identities, and vow to sit through Cuban Rebel Girls in its entirety as penance.