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The Fixers: Eddie Mannix, Howard Strickling and the MGM Publicity Machine ReviewI'm a big fan of classic Hollywood, and in the many star biographies I've read, the names of Eddie Mannix and Howard Strickling crop up often. When I found an entire book, just about the two of them, I pounced.Fleming has some fascinating stories to tell, and at first glance, most of the anecdotes appear to be, for the most part, well documented. When he relies on his own theories, he clearly states that this is the case; even when he just theorizing, he seems to have a good basis in fact, or what facts can still be uncovered after all these years, and after all the covering-up Mannix and Strickling did. His theories about, for example, the deaths of Paul Bern and George Reeves seem sound, on the face of them. I was shocked to read of Wallace Beery's alleged involvement in the beating death of Ted Healy, founder of the Three Stooges, but even that seems to be reasonably well proven.
He does a good amount of research about the early lives of Strickling and Mannix, a topic that has never been explored at any length before. He also provides a detailed history of the origins of the motion picture industry and the births of the major studios, much of which will be familiar to scholars of Hollywood history.
I started to seriously doubt his accuracy for the first time around page 166, when he describes Jean Harlow's death as being caused by "uremic poisoning caused by an infection from wisdom teeth surgery the month before." It's odd, because Fleming previously made several references to David Stenn's excellent biography of Harlow; Fleming apparently didn't read it all the way through, however, since Stenn provided proof that Harlow's death from kidney failure stemmed from her bout with scarlet fever at age 16 (her kidneys had been damaged by the fever and gradually failed her over the next 10 years until her death).
Then I started noticing the various references to author Charles Higham, and I thought, "uh-oh." Higham is the now-notorious author of several Hollywood "biographies" (and I use that term loosely) that are chock-full of wild inaccuracies, the most notable among them being his accusations that Errol Flynn was a Nazi spy. His biography of Louis B. Mayer was also filled with laughable mistakes. Higham's books are listed in the bibliography, along with Kenneth Anger's atrocious collections of Hollywood rumors and nasty gossip. Fleming's credibility took another dip.
So in the end, I'm torn. In some places, Fleming seems to have done a great amount of research (although in some cases his sources are dubious at best). He does a good job of laying some myths to rest and trying to sort out the details of others, such as Clark Gable's various drunken car accidents, and rumors that he at one point struck and killed a pedestrian. On the other hand, he does tend to go into more detail than is plausible about the star's sex lives and orientations, making assertions that he can't possibly know or prove are true. Overall, I would say, enjoy the book, but take it with a grain of salt. The only people who could truly tell this story are Mannix and Strickling themselves, and except for a few tantalizing tidbits passed on to their friends throughout the years, they chose to keep their silence.The Fixers: Eddie Mannix, Howard Strickling and the MGM Publicity Machine OverviewEddie Mannix and Howard Strickling are virtually unknown outside of Hollywood and little-remembered even there, but as General Manager and Head of Publicity for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, they lorded over all the stars in Hollywood's golden age from the 1920s through the 1940s—including legends like Garbo, Dietrich, Gable and Garland. When MGM stars found themselves in trouble, it was Eddie and Howard who took care of them—solved their problems, hid their crimes, and kept their secrets. They were "the Fixers." At a time when image meant everything and the stars were worth millions to the studios that owned them, Mannix and Strickling were the most important men at MGM. Through a complex web of contacts in every arena, from reporters and doctors to corrupt police and district attorneys, they covered up some of the most notorious crimes and scandals in Hollywood history, keeping stars out of jail and, more importantly, their names out of the papers. They handled problems as diverse as the murder of Paul Bern (husband of MGM's biggest star, Jean Harlow), the studio-directed drug addictions of Judy Garland, the murder of Ted Healy (creator of The Three Stooges) at the hands of Wallace Beery, and arranging for an unmarried Loretta Young to adopt her own child—a child fathered by a married Clark Gable. Through exhaustive research and interviews with contemporaries, this is the never-before-told story of Eddie Mannix and Howard Strickling. The dual biography describes how a mob-related New Jersey laborer and the quiet son of a grocer became the most powerful men at the biggest studio in the world.
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