Thomas Franklyn Manville Jr. (April 9, 1894 – October 8, 1967) was an American socialite and heir to the Johns-Manville asbestos fortune.

He was a celebrity in mid 20th-century Manhattan due to both his inherited wealth and his record-breaking 13 marriages to 11 women, which won him an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records.

[1] Born April 9, 1894, Thomas Franklyn Manville Jr. was the son and namesake of the founder and chairman of the Johns-Manville Corporation.

[4] Determined to wed, Manville was 17 years old in 1911 when he met Florence Huber (sometimes given as Hubert), a chorus girl, under a Broadway marquee.

[citation needed] Manville arranged a second wedding ceremony in New Jersey, tried to have another in Maryland, and said that he would, if necessary, remarry his bride in most of the then-46 states.

In a 1995 article, The New York Times reported that Manville would "pay the woman $50,000, pocket $200,000, get a quickie divorce and then, when he needed more money, he'd get married again.

"[10] Manville owned the estate "Bon Repos" in the gated waterfront community of Premium Point on Long Island Sound in New Rochelle, New York.

He equipped it with burglar alarms, peephole doors, armed guards, a public-address system, a radio in every room, and 20 telephones.

[citation needed] In June 1967, while Manville was in Doctors Hospital, three gunmen wearing black masks invaded his estate and stole an undetermined amount of cash, jewelry, furs, and clothing.

In a story appearing under his name in the American Weekly magazine in 1936, he made sport of his marital propensities and pledged that his next wife would be a blonde—almost any blonde.

The next year he took out full-page advertisements in New York newspapers, publicly seeking a new lawyer to represent him in family disputes.

[22] In January 1960, Manville married his 11th and final wife, Christina Erdlen from Heidenheim an der Brenz, West Germany.

When they met she was a 20-year-old waitress in White Plains, New York, married to a barber and with a two-year-old daughter, Dianna Ocker.

Manville was considered something of a clown (an image he cultivated with his public persona—part bon vivant, part hapless tool of women), but was also secretly admired by some for his number of conquests and his extravagant bank account.