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Wallace Reid: The Life And Death of a Hollywood Idol

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How Mr. Flemming was able to get so much information about a man who died so long ago is just amazing. I am so glad he chose Wallace Reid as a subject. I read bits and pieces about him, mostly about his morphine abuse, but didn't really know anything about Wallace as a person.
I did think that there was a little too much detail on the synopsis of Mr. Reid's pictures.

All Though the book is a bit expensive, any true fan of the silent era really should have this book in their collection

McFarland has just released E.J. Fleming's "Wallace Reid,The Life and Death of a Hollywood Idol". Wallace Reid(April 15,1891-January 18,1923) was an actor in silent films referred to by Motion Picture Magazine as the screen's No. 1 lover. Today, in 2007, Wallace Reid is almost unknown. William Wallace Reid was born in St. Louis, Missouri into a show business family. Reid performed on stage at an early age. An all-around athlete, Reid engaged in sports, and also maintained an interest in music, the piano, banjo, drums, and the violin. Reid was drawn to the burgeoning motion picture industry by his father. In 1910, 19-year-old Reid appeared in his first motion picture, "The Phoenix", filmed at Selig Polyscope Studios in Chicago. Reid approached Vitagraph Studios hoping to be given a chance to direct. He did, and also worked as a writer and a cameraman. Comfortable behind the camera, he was never really at ease in front of it. But he was soon acting, his natural good-looks perceived by early film mogul, Allan Dwan. He was featured in "Birth of a Nation(1915)" and "Intolerance(1916)", both directed by D.W. Griffith, becoming one of Hollywood's major stars. Involved in more than a hundred one-reelers, Reid was signed by producer Jesse Lasky and then acted in another sixty films for Lasky's Famous Players film company, later known as Paramount Pictures. In 1914, Jesse Lasky's first film, "The Squaw Man", became a great hit. It was the first epic western; it's success helped make Hollywood a center for film-making. Then Lasky merged with Adolph Zukor to form Famous-Players, a major silent-era studio. Lasky was instrumental in molding Reid into a matinee idol. Sadly, Reid's movie image and celebrity lifestyle intersected. Flush with success, Reid hosted numerous parties at his mansion; liquor flowed freely. In 1915, while speeding up the Pacific Coast Highway near the beach, Reid slammed into a small car carrying a family of five. Both cars were demolished. Somehow, Reid walked away with cuts and bruises. In the other car, the driver was dead, and his wife and son injured. Reid was arrested and booked into Santa Monica jail for manslaughter. D.W. Griffith arranged for his bail and he was released the following Monday. But things got worse. In 1919, while working on location in Oregon on "Valley of the Giants", Reid was injured in a train wreck. In order to keep working, studio doctors gave him morphine for his pain. The powerful drug led to addiction. Reid kept working at a frantic pace in films that were growing more physically demanding. Help for addiction was non-existent at this time. Ignoring Reid's illness, and intent on selling tickets, Lasky pushed Reid into role-after-role. In 1922, his health had deteriorated badly, and after contracting the flu, he fell into a coma from which he never recovered. We don't know for sure, but his last days were spent in a padded room. Wallace Reid died at age thirty-one. Though a bit dry, Fleming's "The Life and Death of a Hollywood Idol" is certainly interesting. It features an excellent, detailed history of the shooting of Griffith's 1915 "Birth of a Nation". The book provides extensive histories of noted and unknown silent stars. However, the detailed biographies of obscure players(many in footnotes) will bore many readers; though I found it fascinating. Fleming invests many pages dredging-up the Fatty Arbuckle scandal of 1921. His long trial and final acquittal is old news; any cinema buff has read this all before. Also, Fleming spices up the book with liberal excerpts from Kenneth Anger's "Hollywood Babylon", a graphic expose' based on hear-say and tabloids. Much of Reid's early life is little-known(The history of film-making before 1915 is sketchy. Few films ever survive.), but this is no license to pad the book with movie trivia. The text is well-written, but there are some errors. On page 39, Fleming writes that the noted Paramount director's name was William Desmond Taylor. It wasn't. His real name was William Cunningham Deane-Tanner. On page 80, he says that Reid was considering Lasky's offer to join Universal. But Jesse Lasky never worked at Universal studios. When the depression hit, Lasky lost his job. In the late 50's, Lasky was so deeply indebted to the IRS that he returned to film production at Paramount. He died while his film was still in pre-production. A co-founder of Paramount Pictures, Jesse Lasky died almost penniless. Overall, this is a thoughtful and ambitious work; a true story of a boy's rise to greatness, his abuse by Hollywood, and his terrible decline. Wallace Reid's wife, Dorothy, saved hundreds of poems he gave her. Written just months before he died, Reid wrote a letter to his son called "Lullaby":
You want to know when, O Baby of mine,
He'll be coming home to you.
And O how I'm longing and longing dear
To be able to tell you true.
So come to my heart, dear Baby o' mine,
Let me comfort your baby woes.
You cry for your Daddy, baby o' mine
Can't you see that I'm crying, too?

I've known about him all my life because he was my great grandfathers cousin. I know that he was a source of great pride to his family and much loved by his fans. Up until now the only book I had read about him was written by his mother who felt compelled to defend him after his death and wanted everyone to know who her son "Wally" really was. That and a few stories from my great grandparents were all I thought I'd ever know. I can't tell you what it means to me to have found this treasure! The picture on the cover just takes my breath away. And the answer to every question I could have asked is there. And so many priceless rare photos of the silent film era bring the story to life. This author just lays it all out brilliantly! Thank you Mr. Fleming for telling his story with so much empathy and respect. As an aside I was also thrilled to find out that Amazon sells his films too-I bought them all of course!

Surprisingly, exhaustively detailed. Amazing job of research; it couldn't have been easy. Comprehensive. Definitive. Bravo.

WALLACE REID, THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A HOLLYWOOD IDOL is a well written listing of Reid's films. It is short on biograpy and long on career accomplishments.
It seems that the author wrote the book from fan magazine articles and not from solid scholarly reseach.

E.J. Fleming has done it again! He has written another fabulous biography about a forgotten classic star. This is a well-researched, well-written, and very entertaining book about silent actor Wallace Reid. It is a fascinating look at the early days of Hollywood and the agony of drug addiction. The book includes some rare photos and a complete filmography. I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Wallace Reid, loves classic movies, or just wants to read an interesting biography. It's a little pricey but it's worth every penny. I can't wait until E.J.'s next book :-)

I became a big fan of E.J. Fleming after my daughter gave me his fabulous Carole Landis biography. I love that E.J. writes about stars how haven't already had a million books published about them I did not know much about Wallace Reid before reading this - I feel like I am an expert now! This is a fascinating look at the early days of Hollywood and the agony of drug addiction. I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Wallace Reid, loves classic movies, or just wants to read an interesting biography.

You should also check out E.J.'s book Carole Landis: A Tragic Life In Hollywood

I found this to be the best of Fleming's book so far. There doesn't particularly seem to have been much to write about Wallace Reid. He lived a rather ordinary Hollywood type life so I gathered. He just got caught up in drugs too young. I didn't need all the films reviews throughout the book. I skipped over all that. It should have been at the back. I just want to read about the personal life of the star. All that information about the films is just filler to me. But what I did get from the book was that Wallace Reid was a nice man, popular with his fans, and his life turned out very unfortunate for everyone. He left way too early. A good read, but I would only get it from the library.

Having read this book I think alot of it must be here say, think a book will come along and give this man his due, since Hollywood took from him the pride, life and most of all the truth. Hollywood really gave him a raw deal the truth soon to be revealed Hope anyone, family members included will give him a break and realize the raw deal HOLLYWOOD GAVE HIM

E.J. hits the ball out of the ballpark yet again. All of his works are sensational, well researched and well written. But this book is one of the best books in the last decade by any author. McFarland did a great job designing the cover and it was eclipsed by the content. The Author is sensational in his description of Reid and the era in whihc he was in Hollywood. This is a must read for Historians of Tinseltown. Reid only gets better with each book.