Customer Reviews

The Fixers: Eddie Mannix, Howard Strickling and the MGM Publicity Machine

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

It's hard to trust Fleming's "new" information about the situations Mannix and Strickling "fixed" when he can't handle basic facts such as the location of Hearst's Wyntoon property (Northern California, not Oregon as Fleming says) or which trains brought the early film pioneers to Los Angeles (not the 20th Century Ltd., as he says since it only ran between NYC and Chicago). Some of his gossipy details have been supported by the stars themselves or by people close to them, but far too many are just rank speculation he presents as fact. If I'd paid the very high cost for this book, I'd be irate. God bless Interlibrary Loan. Save your own money, readers.

Potentially fascinating stuff about the MGM guys who covered up Hollywood scandals but too much hearsay and out-and-out misinformation to be taken seriously. Author claims Rex Harrison's US career was "doomed" by his affiliation with the 1948 suicide of actress Carole Landis. Actually, Rex' best career years were yet to come--Broadway stardom in My Fair Lady (and Best Actor Oscar for subsequent film version), Oscar nomination for Cleopatra, a co-starring role opposite Doris Day at height of her popularity, lead in multi-million dollar musical Dr Dolittle. . .so much for career disaster. And fact-checking. Fix this!

"The Fixers" is a wildly inaccurate and disturbing book that inflicts great damage to the integrity of responsible film history on two fronts. 1. The book is replete with factual errors on picture titles, studios, performers, names, you pick a category. A complete listing of the mistakes by author E.J. Fleming should require McFarland to publish a separate errata sheet but that listing would probably be longer than the book itself! 2. The book is a slop bucket of unsubstantiated gossip, rumor and absurd speculation by the author. Most of this nonsense lacks any type of documentation or fact although Fleming relies on discredited sources like Charles Higham and Kenneth Anger to foist his view of Hollywood as a stewpot of perverseness. The author's apparent obsession over the sexual orientation of actors such as Barbara Stanwyck and Cary Grant that is emphasized to the point of ludicriousness such as presenting what Stanwyck and Robert Taylor did or didn't do in their own bedroom as permanent truth.

While there is always interest in that aspect of Old Hollywood and show biz that constitutes gossip or scandal, such accounts should be balanced and grounded in fact, not simply assumed in an author's imagination.

This book is in no way a researched or balanced biography of Howard Strickling or Eddie Mannix. Both men are presented in broad brush strokes as omnipotent CIA-like studio manipulators without a single redeeming feature.

One of the few solid parts of the book starts out to be the initial account behind the mysterious demise of 'Superman' actor George Reeves. Fleming's rendition appears to be heavily borrowed from the writing of Sam Kashner's and Nancy Schoenberger's "Hollywood Kryptonite". Even though E.J. Fleming extensively interviewed Jack Larson, he amazingly subsitutes his own personal theory about Reeves' death at the end of this section, (it's almost as if Fleming suddenly forgot he was writing a non-fiction book and thought he was concluding a novel), that apparently occurred to no one else and has no basis in fact.

Okay, so don't just take my word for it. Read Laura Wagner's review of this book in the April 2005 issue of Classic Images that has a comprehensive of list of some of the errors and flights-of-fancy in "The Fixers".

Little wonder that the remaining Hollywood old-timers are extremely wary of talking to any author after a load of inaccurate garbage like this is published.

What a wastes of money,glad I got it at the library.Where to start with this mess of a book?I've collected books about early Hollywood for two decades and this may be the worst.A great concept was ruined by sloppy writing,countless errors and disrespect for iconic actors.Of course not all stars were admirable in private life ,but PLEASE,not all were as the author portrays them, alchohol& drug-ridden wrecks who slept with everyone,every gender,every place.Oh,did I forget to add murderers to the mix?All this scandalous content,yet the book is still a snore.If even 10% of this tripe was true,Hollywood would have been a walking STD.Seems only Lassie was virtuous(although,come to think of it,Lassie WAS a boy...but I digress!) Another issue are the countless factual errors ,many within pages of each other.How can you believe a book that varies subject's ages as well as dates of pivotal events from page to page?There seems to have been no fact-checking.David Stenn's wonderful "Harlow" & "Clara Bow" were a pleasure to read.Jeanine Basinger's "The Star Machine"is amazing,covering the same stories as Fleming but she gets it right with heavy research and depth.Her book is one you hate to finish while "The Fixers" leaves you feeling like you need a shower.Mannix & Strickling were not well served by this boring,mistake-ridden book.If you must ,wait to find it at Goodwill,$35 is a ridiculous amount for this silly paperback.Or, get "Hollywood Babylon" if you need a fun,trashy,over the top Hollywood book.

I have been waiting 30 years for this story to be told - now that I have read it, there are some things that probably should have remained in the dark, if only for memories sake! The author did a superior job of researching his information and presenting it in an unbiased fashion- weighing in when he felt it necessary to lodge his own conclusions. As a long time student of this period in Hollywood with a large library of books to support it, I haved learned many of these "secrets" in my travels through the non-fiction world that has been available through the years but I must admit that there were some unpleasant surprizes in this book that had only been hinted at in others and many times, incorrectly. If the movie "Hollywoodland" had not traversed the George Reeves murder so thoroughly, this telliing would have mined a lot of clues by itself. In "The Fixers", many a rumor has now been put to rest.

This book is so riddled with lies and contradictions it is useless as Hollywood history. I have never read a worse book on Hollywood period. I wish I could get a refund of the purchase price. Don't waste your money on this one. I have personally been to all the Thelma Todd locales and the authors account is pure fabrication. I could note many more inconsistencies.

E.J.Fleming showed so much promise in his past books, so I was quite excited to get my hands on this book, nothing could have prepared me for Mr.Fleming's hatred for everyone connected to Hollywood from it's infancy to the end of the studio system. With all the great and extensive reference materials at his disposal he chose instead to resort to the same old innuendoes and stories that do not and have not ever been proven. However it is the oblivious HATE that exudes through the pages, so thick it needed to be cut with a knife. I can not reccomend this book and I hope young readers will not pick this up and think it is the gospel or a true history of Hollywood.