Vince Flaherty's first experience in the entertainment industry came as a child actor in "The Texan" starring Rory Calhoun, and in the recurring role of a schoolboy on "The Donna Reed Show".  Over the years his assignments have grown from roles on TV soaps, co-star and guest-star performances on prime time episodics, to the writer and producer of several feature films.  His production credits include "A Gun, A Car, A Blonde", starring Billy Bob Thornton, John Ritter, Andrea Thompson, Kay Lenz and Jim Metzler; "Wendell's Sweet Christmas" by director Ichiro Irie; and "Sin-Jin Smyth" starring Roddy Piper, Richard Tyson, Jonathan Davis and Don Stroud.

Vince came to Los Angeles at the age of six when his father accepted a job as the highest paid nationally syndicated columnist with the Hearst newspaper organization.  He spent many summers back East, and as he grew older he was afforded the opportunity of working with legislators as a page on Capitol Hill.  He recalls going with his family to the Kentucky Derby as a guest of the Governor of Kentucky, and riding to the Rose Bowl on a special bus which had a full bar, a band, and a guest list including the likes of President Harry S. Truman and Senator John F. Kennedy.

Vince vividly remembers football from the sidelines with uncle Pat Flaherty who played for the Chicago Bears, and cousin Ray Flaherty who played for the Chicago Bears and the New York Giants.  Ray coached the Washington Redskins and other teams and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1976.  After his sports career, Pat Flaherty came to Hollywood as a producer for Joseph P. Kennedy's 20th Century Fox, and ended up becoming an actor in the aftermath of the Great Depression.  Vince recalls the good times he spent with Pat ('Churchill' in the original "Mutiny on the Bounty" and 'Mike' in "My Man Godfrey" - and over 100 other feature films), visiting the movie studios and meeting stars.

Other favorite recollections include traveling with his father's pal John Wayne on a junket to Texas to promote the movie "The Alamo", and accompanying William Holden to Africa, where he spent a summer working on a game reserve.

So, much of Vince Flaherty's early experiences in Washington D.C. and Hollywood revolved around politics, sports and the entertainment busine ss.  And his eventual entree into motion pictures came naturally.  Early in young Flaherty's career it wasn't unusual for him to obtain an appointment with a studio executive who would pick up the phone and inquire: "What are we shooting on the lot now?"  And if there wasn't an opening for an actor or an assistant director in any of the productions, they sometimes made one.

As a teenager, Vince felt he was in his element at University High School in West Los Angeles.  “Uni” has an incredible roster of alumni who have become successful in many fields.  But unexpectedly, Vince’s parents took him out of high school to travel with the campaign train through Pennsylvania and New York while his father helped write speeches for future president Jack Kennedy.  Afterward, Kennedy's special assistant arranged young Flaherty’s admission to a prestigious old guard school on the East Coast.  When Kennedy was elected president, Vince accompanied future California State Treasurer Kathleen Brown, at the Inauguration.

One cold winter evening Flaherty was trying to study in his room when he realized that a hit record he was hearing on the radio was made by some of his acquaintances from Uni High in L.A.  So he quit school and returned home, determined to make it on his own terms.  But by then, the power of the Hearst newspaper empire was eroding, and the Jack Warners, Tony Owens and Mike Todds had been replaced by a new generation of movie moguls.  Young Flaherty had to make his way on his own merits.

The first recording sessions Vince produced were with the great Ernie Freeman and the then unknown Daryl “The Captain” Dragon, Jimmy James and Charles Wright.  Over the next few years Daryl prepared the charts and played piano, Hammond organ and harpsichord on several records.

Also unknown at the time, was a band called the Grass Roots.  Vince played with them at clubs called The Brave New World and Bito Lido’s (named by Vince’s high school friend Tommy Thompson for his family, Bill, Doris, Linda and Tommy).  Their new sound began to attract a large cult following.  Another Uni high pal who Vince wrote songs with, was Gary Zekley.  Gary’s dad Zeke wrote a syndicated comic strip called “Maggie and Jiggs”.  Gary soon had a top ten hit “Midnight Confession” and the group who recorded it took the name “The Grass Roots”.  Rather than fight about it Vince’s friends concluded it wasn’t that great a name anyway and they changed their name to Love.  In return for free recording time for their own demos, Love backed up Vince in the studio.

One night at a club Vince was introduced to songwriter Sharon Sheeley.  They danced together and really hit it off.  Vince didn’t know it but Sharon was the, wife of DJ Jimmy O’Neil who hosted the hit rock and role show SHINDIG.  Sharon left Jimmy and became Vince’s girlfriend.  She said Vince reminded her of her first fiancé, rock n’ roller Eddie Cochran who was killed in a car crash in England.  Sharon never got over Eddie and purchased a grave next to him.  Of the four in the car that rainy night, the chauffer, Sharon and Gene Vincent survived, but Eddie was killed and Sharon remained hospitalized for weeks while the London press had a field day about the tragedy of her loss.

Another rocker from America that became popular in England during Eddie Cochran’s time was Vince Taylor. Taylor had several hits in England with his band The Play-Boys, later called the Bobby Clarke Noise, but Taylor became disoriented on LSD and was missing engagements.  It was even worse when he did show up clad in chains and preaching to the audience.  Sharon took Vince to London to replace him, which didnt work out, but thereafter Taylor's famous drummer Bobby Clarke, came to the US and played with Vince.           

In the meantime, an L.A. group “The Elves Themselves” had a rift with their leader and Vince joined them. In addition to the usual five-piece lineup they used electric violin, cello and horns. On one studio session the guitar player was Jimi Hendrix. Vince recalls playing a baseline at Frank Zappa’s house while Buddy Miles played on drums. And when Jimi had a surprise lineup change to include Buddy Miles in his concert at Devonshire Downs in 1969, he utilized Vince as an equipment manager. That date marked end of the end of the Jimi Hendrix Experience and the first venture into a new direction with Buddy Miles on drums and Billy Cox on bass. At the time no one, including the Experience’s Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell realized that Jimi was really changing his band because he was given to spontaneously jamming with so many different players.

Vince also played with a band called The Leaves at a club called It’s Boss (formerly Ciro’s).  One night Bob Dylan walked in with his manager, picked up a guitar and sat in.  Another out of the ordinary experience involves Vince’s high school club member Bill Norton (Director/Screenwriter: “Cisco Pike”, “Nashville”, “Tour of Duty”) who asked Vince to help him with security for a Rolling Stones concert in Long Beach.  After the concert, the limo containing the Stones had trouble getting through the crowd.  Bill was in front clearing the way and Vince was on the back bumper, fending off teenage girls, when suddenly the limo broke through the crowd and sped down Long Beach Boulevard, with a police motorcycle escort, but with Vince hanging on the back.  They didn’t stop until they reached the airport where the Stones climbed into a helicopter. Vince followed suit, jumped into the helicopter, and took the ride with the Stones up to L.A. 

In the midst of the chaos of this rich musical revolution, Vince was offered a movie deal and said goodbye to his band to star in a western movie in Italy.  He kept on rockin’ in Roma however, where he performed with Dennis Dell and his band at the Piper Club.  But by the time he returned to the States, it seemed that everybody else had made it but him.  His friend Charles Wright had formed the 103rd Street Watts Rhythm Band, signed with Warner Brothers and was topping the Billboard chart, as was Love on Electra.  But that didn’t stop Love’s guitar player Johnny Echols from shredding out more lead on Vince’s next sessions.

The sixties began with a great deal of optimism and idealism for young Americans, typified by the election of Vince’s hero Jack Kennedy, but by the end of that era, Kennedy was murdered, and a myriad of negative influences seemed to outweigh the positives. Vince became so fed up that he left everything behind and didn’t tell most of his friends where he went. Where he went was back to school.

Years later, after a stint at the U.C.L.A. Department of Film and Television, a semester as U.C.L.A. Television's drama critic and a scholarship to the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, he appeared as an actor or was involved in the production of over 100 feature films, episodics and television movies.  Some of his credits include "Ladies Man", "The Fall Guy", "Blacke's Magic", "Masquerade", "Capitol", featured roles in "Law of the Sea" and "Pendulum" and the lead role in "Lanky Fellow" filmed in Italy.    

With twenty five years of movie-making now under his belt, Flaherty feels his more recent work on the realistic western adventures "La Leyenda", El Regreso and Viva Billy Blood are his best.  As Billy Blood in the trilogy he co-produced, Flaherty portrayed a human type of hero, while bringing to the screen the kind of hard riding horseman he looked up to as a kid.  Turned off by westerns where the actors look like they stepped out of Western Costume, he took pains to recreate the days when you could tell where a cowboy came from by the way he shaped his hat.  He's a polo addict, good enough (rated 3 goals) to have captained a team in the National Finals of The President's Cup.  And he's the creator of the cable TV show "Championship Polo".

His enthusiasm and energy knows no bounds... in addition to raising sons J.P. (John Patrick) and Mike (Michael Vincent), he actively pursues politics.  He is a past president and a director of the Pacific Palisades Historical Society and member of the Pacific Palisades Community Council, and has produced a video history of Pacific Palisades in which some of the old timers from the Will Rogers Polo Club swap tales with Will Roger's son Jimmy around the fireplace at the historic Rogers house.

Vince Flaherty was the person chiefly responsible for saving a sixteen acre wooded area in Pacific Palisades, known as The Ocean Woods, from a tract of 23 homes.  Meeting with community leaders and the city council office, he shepherded a very low density development to realization, saving most of the old trees in the woods and allowing only one residence per acre.  He has particularly enjoyed the past two years of his life, designing and building his own dream house in the Ocean Woods, an authentic Italian-style villa overlooking the Pacific Ocean. And yes, he's still hooked on music and the thrill of jumping on stage, and he regularly performs with his band The Invincebles at venues in the L.A. area.

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