Harry was born on April 15, 1930 in Montclair, New Jersey. His parents,
Tom and Anna Flynn, originally came from Fall River, Massachusetts,
moved to New Jersey in the thirties when Tom set up his own Insurance
Agency on Wall Street. They later moved to New York City for a short
time and then moved to Edgartown, Massachusetts, a town on the island
of Martha's Vineyard. At the age of nine Harry attended the Edgartown
School and when he turned thirteen he went away to private school.
After a year at Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island, he
transferred to Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts where the
present President George Bush and his father also attended.
At Andover he was active in athletics doing the hurdles and he also
found time to work on the school production crew for its amateur
theatricals. Harvard University became his next stop where he became
involved in their dramatic club. He was chairman of the Hasting Pudding
Show, the oldest dramatic organization in the country.
While in Harvard Harry was an ROTC candidate and part of his training
was on a midshipman cruise aboard the USS Missouri. From Harvard Harry
went to Officers Candidate School at Newport Rhode Island where he
received a commission in the US Navy. He also wrote the music for their
graduation. After graduating he was stationed aboard the USS Preston a
destroyer for two years serving in the western Pacific. He was married
in 1955 and had three children Hank, Norton and Paul.
Moving to California Harry's first job was selling shirts at the May
Company in Long Beach and on his day off he would go up to Hollywood
and got to know a producer named Arthur Hornblow Jr. He became good
friends with his press agent. The agent took him over to a sound stage
where he watched Shirley MacLean dubbing her lines for Around The World
In Eighty Days. Harry became more intrigued with this end of the
business. He was introduced to man named Charlie Lowe who advised Harry
that he should consider becoming a publicist. He sent him over to a
fellow named Ted Wick who hired Harry to plant people with Louella
Parsons, Hedda Hopper, Army Archerd and Walter Winchell.
Becoming restless at this time of his life he got an offer from ABC to
produce the on air promos. He did this successfully for two years. He
then got an offer to work at Columbia Pictures a television publicist
They needed feature stories for upcoming pilots and Harry was recruited
to write them. He worked there for six years and then due to financial
crunches Harry was let go and hired the same day by Universal.
A friend in ABC told Harry about a Naval Reserve unit that was
producing movies for the Navy and there was an opening. Harry met the
skipper, Commander Sol Gordon, and became his operations officer making
movies. Harry was now back in the US Navy as a reserve officer and he
had to serve active duty on weekends and for months when they were out
shooting a picture. He wrote, produced and directed most of these
movies. He made 5 half-hour documentaries over a period of 6 years and
a lot of smaller educational pictures. His schedule took its toll on
his marriage ending in divorce. He first met his present wife Pamela at
a Television Academy party at the Beverly Hills Hotel for the Emmy
nominations.
A year later a friend of Harry's asked him if he could find a job for a
woman who was going to California. They met and sure enough it turned
out to be Pam. They started dating and eventually they were married.
Pam worked at KTLA in Los Angeles in the promotions department and
Harry went to NBC working in their promotion department He was offered
the opportunity to work for Jim Mahoney and Paul Wasserman. The agency
handled Bob Hope and be liked working with Harry. He also handled Bob
Newhart, Carol O'Connor, John Conboy and Glen Campbell.
Ambitious as he is Harry decided it was time to go out on his own and
established his own agency. Bob Hope asked him to represent him as he
had worked with him before and then Michael Landon was making a movie
called Sam's Son and until this time everything he did was handled by
NBC. He didn't have a press agent and he asked Harry to represent him.
Universal asked Harry if he had any ideas for some of their shows so he
ended up with Charles in Charge, Airwolf, and others for a few years.
When Airwolf went off the air Ernest Borgnine wanted Harry to represent
him. He knew Harry from McHale's Navy when Harry was making promos for
the show.
After Michael Landon died, Harry and his wife Pam wrote a collection of
celebrity reminiscence, of the television giant, called Michael Landon,
Live, Love and Laughter which sold over thirty thousand copies and is
still being sold around the world to Michael's fans.
Harry and Pam still do publicity for Ernie and Rick, but they've
reached a point where they're very selective about whom they will
publicize. They still return to the family farm on Martha's Vineyard
every October. For enjoyment, Harry loves to fly, owns a Cessna 172,
which he shares with his son Sidney, 27, who is also a pilot. They live
in the same house in North Hollywood they bought thirty years ago, and
they have four dogs, two cats, and a variety of gold fish.
