43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Juicy and fascinating, but is it 100% accurate?, January 1, 2006
This review is from: The Fixers: Eddie Mannix, Howard Strickling and the MGM Publicity Machine (Paperback)
I'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.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Mediocre at best - a missed opportunity!, July 11, 2007
This review is from: The Fixers: Eddie Mannix, Howard Strickling and the MGM Publicity Machine (Paperback)
Initially I enjoyed reading the book although I did find the author's style of writing a little annoying. However I quickly became concerned about the level of research the author had conducted for each scandal that was discussed. In some cases it seemed to be fine and quite well thought out, for example his take on Clark Gable's involvement in a couple of road accidents and then at other times he seemed to rely solely on another persons' book for his research. The worst example I came across which really irritated me was his take on the death of Thelma Todd, the extent of his research seems to have been that he read Hot Toddy and has taken it as Gospel. I have read Hot Toddy and it had no list of references to help prove that Thelma Todd was murdered in fact it read like a completely fictionalised biography. From this point on I noticed just how often the author made reference to other people's books for his research and I began to think that this book was little more than a cobbling together of all the racy and interesting gossip from lots of other books. To be honest this wouldn't have bothered me as I quite enjoy reading a real hatchet job of a book about film stars, reading all the gossip and comparing books about the same person. However I don't think that this was what the author set out to do and I feel cheated that he didn't look more closely at each story and assess them properly which is what I thought he was going to do, comparing different takes on a scandal or piece of gossip and then giving his own opinion and research.
Considering the book is about Strickling and Mannix they do not really come across as the main focus of the book. I don't feel that I know much more about them than I did from reading other Hollywood books. There are very few pictures of them, in fact the best one of each of them is on the cover. There are no personal pictures of them with their families or of their wives. There are quite a few pictures in the book but they are all standard black and white pictures and seem to be stock photos of the big Hollywood stars. I know what they look like! I would have liked to have seen photos of the other people that were involved in the scandals or pictures taken at the time the scandal occurred. For example why talk about Lila Leeds' beauty and not bother to include a photo?
The book was very expensive for what it was.
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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing, December 25, 2005
This review is from: The Fixers: Eddie Mannix, Howard Strickling and the MGM Publicity Machine (Paperback)
As one reviewer has stated, there is very little here which can not be sourced in others books. I suppose the value is that it has all come together in one read.
The list of scandals is built around the careers of Mannix and Strickling at MGM. The book is structured so you get the feeling of each scandal as it occurs. As Mannix and Strickling are dealing with one issue, another arises, then another etc. They were very busy.
I too skimmed the last sections. The detailed analysis of George Reeves, the first superman, is boring.
I have passed the book on. Borrow it from your library but don't waste your money like I did.
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