Who is Tommy Zahn? Already in "legend" status, Zahn was a Santa Monica kid who learned to ride surfboards in the 1930's. On his way to the invasion of Iwo Jima, the last great Pacific Islands battle of World War II which was similar to the Normandy Invasion of Europe, his ship stopped at Pearl Harbor for one day. He raced to Waikiki, rented a surfboard and spent the next four hours surfing. After the war, in 1946, he was signed as a 20th Century Fox contract actor right at the time a Miss Norma Jeane appeared there also. Fox mogul Darryl F. Zanuck liked Zahn and saw him as a likely husband for his young beach and surf oriented daughter. Zanuck even had Zahn try to teach him surfing, but DFZ never quite got the hang of it. Pioneer surfer Tommy Zahn, aboard the Hula Girl ,with his surfboard, on Molokai.