Recently released — Merle Oberon, Face of Mystery — is an account of the controversy surrounding the origins of the exotic Hollywood star of the 1930s and 1940s.
With more than 120 illustrations, some of them quite rare, the book is an account of how prevailing social and racist attitudes forced her to live a lie.
Merle Oberon scaled the heights of Hollywood to fame, fortune and a place in the hearts of a generation of filmgoers — but her origins were always clouded by mystery.
Even today, almost three decades after her death, many in Tasmania, the island she claimed as home, cling fiercely to the belief that Merle was one of theirs, and passions run high on both sides of the question.
The most famous Tasmanian was the king of swashbucklers, Errol Flynn, but Hollywood publicists invented other origins for him to save the effort of explaining where Tasmania is.
Did Merle invent the story of her early life for just the same reason — Tasmania’s remoteness and obscurity?
In this, the first book about Merle Oberon for more than two decades, Bob Casey, author of Errol Flynn and the Sword of Fate, looks at the evidence and draws a conclusion — but it’s a conclusion many Tasmanians still refuse to accept and the controversy will continue.
Chapters include
Daughter of Tasmania?: The beginning of the mystery
Chinese Whispers: The Lottie Chintock story
Passage to India: Firpo’s famous flirt
Hollywood Heights: Triumph in Wuthering Heights
Errol and Merle: Two contradictory characters
Sex and Consequences: A long and stormy love life
The Many Faces of Merle: Beauty and agony
Living the Lie: A tangled web
Hobart Homecoming: A curious episode in Tasmania
Mothers of Merle: Loss and betrayal
Plus a contrary view by Tasmanian personality Edyth Langham and an excerpt from a press interview with Merle Oberon,
Merle Oberon—Face of Mystery by Bob Casey
ISBN 978 0 9805482 1 1
128pp paperback, full colour
$A30 plus $6.50 p&p Australia
Published by Masterpiece@ixl
www.merleoberon.net
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Dear Bob Casey
What interesting stuff! I have take nnote of your material about Merle Oberon and Errol Flynn.
I am trying to make contact with the Weldborough Hotel and follow up your information about a ghost story. I’ll let you know what happens.
Marilyn Quirk
I am interested in acquiring a copy of Merle Oberon: Face of Mystery.
How can I purchase a copy, will this book be released in North America…?
Look forward to a response.
Sincerely,
Joseph Worrell
Toronto, Canada