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29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Juicy and fascinating, but is it 100% accurate?, January 1, 2006
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 17 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing, December 25, 2005
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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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Mistake after mistake, May 31, 2006
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.
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