The Flynn Flask Man

Oak Lawn-based Heritage Auction Galleries, subject of a cover story in the paper version of Unfair Park back in April '06, now says it accidentally sold $30,000 worth of phony celeb trinkets, among them a flask allegedly belonging to Errol Flynn and Humphrey Bogart's cigarette case, both sold last April. The Dallas Morning News broke the news of the sale and of Heritage's investigation into the authenticity of some 200 other items sold in recent years. And Rick Wamre at Back Talk Lakewood fills in the details about the buyer who figured out his item, the Flynn flask, was a phony -- Charles Heard, who displays his Hollywood collectibles in the Lakewood branch of Wells Fargo Bank.

Incidentally, Heritage is now auctioning off the entire town of Garryowen, Montana, where The Battle of the Little Bighorn began. One assumes that's far easier to authenticate than a flask. --Robert Wilonsky