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The Fixers: Eddie Mannix, Howard Strickling and the MGM Publicity Machine Paperback – December 13, 2004
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Eddie 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.
- Print length325 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherMcFarland & Company
- Publication dateDecember 13, 2004
- Reading age18 years and up
- Dimensions6 x 0.66 x 9 inches
- ISBN-100786420278
- ISBN-13978-0786420278
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Product details
- Publisher : McFarland & Company (December 13, 2004)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 325 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0786420278
- ISBN-13 : 978-0786420278
- Reading age : 18 years and up
- Item Weight : 15.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.66 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #254,089 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #20 in Movie Industry
- #36 in Performing Arts Industry
- #363 in Movie History & Criticism
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

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Customers find the book easy to read and informative. They find the storyline interesting and shocking, with familiar stories and new ones. The reading quality is described as fun and engaging for movie enthusiasts. However, some readers found the text inaccurate, with grammatical errors and odd wording. They also felt the content was disappointing, average, and dull. Additionally, they felt the pacing was repetitive and bogged down with extraneous details.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers enjoy the book's storyline. They find it interesting to hear the real stories about some of the tales they've heard for years. The content is well-written and reveals shocking details throughout. Readers appreciate the salacious history of old Hollywood, with familiar stories and new ones. The book details many scandals, affairs, liaisons with the Mob, and more. It investigates the complete story and turns them into fully realized morality tales.
"...in other books as mere gossip, in this book they are turned into fully-realized morality tales and a testament to the enormous pressures studios..." Read more
"...The book mentions well-known, notorious, episodes in Hollywood history, and offers completely credible inside glances of what was really going on in..." Read more
"...Many stories and incidents are covered here....or perhaps 'uncovered' with updated factual info that we were not aware of...." Read more
"...Spencer Tracy, Charlie Chaplin and many others. It's an amazing story and a page-turner that you're never quite certain of the ending...." Read more
Customers find the book readable and well-written. They find it informative and structured to provide a sense of each scandal as it unfolds. However, some readers mention that the facts are incorrect.
"...Great read. Five Stars!" Read more
"...THE FIXERS resolves that gap with great clarity and detail...." Read more
"...I found this a very readable book, and yes, you do find out how most 'incidents' were fixed, by MGM's power fixers leaning on the police department,..." Read more
"...THE FIXERS is rubbish, but it’s readable rubbish, and entertaining for what it is—a sort of National Enquirer Bible of Golden Age Hollywood...." Read more
Customers enjoy the book's reading quality. They find it fascinating, fun, and interesting for movie enthusiasts. The information on stars is entertaining and makes them smile or blush.
"...foundation of the Fixers, it almost immediately perked up and grabbed my attention once we got into the types of things Mannix and Strickland had to..." Read more
"...However, in all, this is a very interesting book." Read more
"...I was never bored reading this book - I only wished the writer had touched on what was happening at other studios besides MGM." Read more
"...THE FIXERS is rubbish, but it’s readable rubbish, and entertaining for what it is—a sort of National Enquirer Bible of Golden Age Hollywood...." Read more
Customers find the book credible and interesting. They say it's in good condition and makes a good case.
"...He makes a good case in each, but it's entirely supposition on his part...." Read more
"...I found a few inaccuracies in the text, but overall I give the book high credibility." Read more
"...I thought it was pretty gritty, and interesting reading." Read more
"Product in good shape." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the authenticity of the book. Some find it fascinating, well-researched, and a tell-all about Hollywood. They say there is a wealth of information and new facts. Others feel there are less facts presented, mainly stories that are not verifiable, and questionable or unsourced allegations.
"...Although I knew of many of the stories told here, there is a wealth of new facts in "The Fixers' where the complete story is investigated and,..." Read more
"...Less facts presented, mainly stories that are not verifiable. I found the text needed editing and often repetitive." Read more
"This is a pretty good book about MGM and Hollywood in general in how scandals were handled starting in the nineteen teens, the 20s, 30s, 40s and the..." Read more
"...The book mentions well-known, notorious, episodes in Hollywood history, and offers completely credible inside glances of what was really going on in..." Read more
Customers find the book contains inaccuracies, grammatical errors, typos, and oddly worded sentences. They also mention that the book is poorly written and confusing. Readers also mention that the book contains factual errors on picture titles, studios, performers, names, and other details.
"...I found the text needed editing and often repetitive." Read more
""The Fixers" is a wildly inaccurate book that inflicts great damage to the integrity of responsible cinema history on two fronts. 1...." Read more
"...Unfortunately, the book is short on meaningful biography, and long on delving deep into some of the most sordid events in Hollywood from the..." Read more
"...Typos and factual errors abound (did you know that the Marx Brothers made a movie called "Monkee Business?" yeah, news to me too), sometimes..." Read more
Customers find the book's content disappointing, average, and uninteresting. They describe the author as irresponsible, ignorant, and a pig ignorant. The editor did not do a great job, and the book is unreliable and useless as Hollywood history.
"Book is average in its approach to the content. The topic is in itself rife with tendency toward innuendo and exaggeration...." Read more
"...THE FIXERS is rubbish, but it’s readable rubbish, and entertaining for what it is—a sort of National Enquirer Bible of Golden Age Hollywood...." Read more
"...Shame on EJ Fleming for such an irresponsible and pig ignorant book." Read more
"...The editor didn’t do a great job." Read more
Customers find the book's pacing slow and repetitive. They mention it's bogged down with unnecessary details, confusing, and boring. Some readers also say the writing is unclear and vague.
"...I found the text needed editing and often repetitive." Read more
"...It was so boring, repetitive, and full of misinformation that I had to stop and read other reviews to see if it was just me feeling this way...." Read more
"...Our author here rehashes & repeats opinion too often. It became tedious & felt bogged down with extraneous details...." Read more
"A fun read, somewhat tragic but very repetitive and many grammatical errors. That aside I enjoyed the book very much." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2017I have read so many books about Hollywood I feel I'm beginning to become a bit of an expert myself. This book came out in 2004. I don't know how I missed it!
Although I knew of many of the stories told here, there is a wealth of new facts in "The Fixers' where the complete story is investigated and, in many cases, finally solved. Although I thought it started out a bit slow as Mr. Fleming laid the foundation of the Fixers, it almost immediately perked up and grabbed my attention once we got into the types of things Mannix and Strickland had to deal with during their long careers at MGM Studios. At this point I couldn't put it down. What has been passed off in other books as mere gossip, in this book they are turned into fully-realized morality tales and a testament to the enormous pressures studios were under to keep their stars' reputation pristine.
Mannix was recently immortalized in the film "Hail Caesar," played by Josh Brolin, a humorous attempt to show the things he was called upon to clean up. The characters are all familiar from other books, but not in the way they are written here. You really feel you get the whole story in "The Fixers."
Some reviewers have faulted it for what they see as focusing too much on the "closeted" actors, but there were stories from both sides of the fence, one more deliciously tawdry than the next. The story of Nelson Eddie and Jeanette MacDonald was hysterical. I didn't know much about them but the whole thing reads like a Greek Tragedy in Beverly Hills.
Great read. Five Stars!
- Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2024This is a pretty good book about MGM and Hollywood in general in how scandals were handled starting in the nineteen teens, the 20s, 30s, 40s and the 50s. One unfortunate aspect of the book is in how it is arranged. The chapters are by decade. There should have been many more chapters which would have been arranged by subject matter. The author jumps from one topic to another without any breaks. In the last chapter, the 1950s, it seems that almost all the chapter is devoted to one subject, which is the life and death of George Reeves, Superman. However, in all, this is a very interesting book.
- Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2016This book is a real page-turner. Certainly one of the more eye-opening accounts of the Golden Age of Hollywood. It serves many purposes.
It is first of all a history of the Golden Age of Hollywood. The book has a difficult time getting started, though. It begins with a history of the movie industry, from the very beginning. And when I say “from the beginning,” I mean it. Literally from the late 19th Century. The history proceeds further and travels along with the careers of Eddie Mannix and Howard Strickling.
This is not an ordinary history of Hollywood. From this rather laborious beginning, I literally could not put this book down. This history is told through the media manipulations and interventions of Mannix and Strickling to preserve the public image of MGM’s biggest stars. Eddie Mannix and Howard Strickling were the Hollywood “fixers.” If there was a problem with a major star — an unsavory personal fact, a drug dependency, an arrest, a death, a sexual deviancy, an unwanted pregnancy, a DUI, literally any PR problem that could tarnish the star’s image — they fixed it with the press, and if needed, law enforcement. This usually involved some degree of advanced public relations, such as issuing phoney press releases or some other form of disinformation, but frequently involved the transfer of cash to public officials or the private parties affected, hiding guilty parties, or whatever it took to handle a potential scandal. It is a form of media manipulation not widely found in the celebrity world nowadays, although their techniques are regularly practiced on a daily basis by the government.
To give you an idea of how smooth these fellows were, consider an incident from the life of Clark Gable. In 1933, Clark Gable, very drunk, hit and killed a pedestrian on Sunset Boulevard — and then drove away. He called Strickling in a panic. Strickling contacted and hired Jerry Giesler — a celebrity lawyer, who deserves a book about his own legal career, and who successfully defended Error Flynn in his statutory rape case — and spirited Gable to the high desert, ordering him to stay put for a while. Mannix arranged the settlement of the personal injury claim of the private party. The private party’s family was paid off; they were paid $400,000.00 in 1933 dollars. Mannix could not fix it with the D.A., however; it was, after all, vehicular manslaughter. So he had a straw man take the blame instead. According to the arrangement, whoever took the blame for the accident would be guaranteed a life-time salary from MGM. The fall guy submitted to an inquest, and, fortunately, perhaps not surprisingly, the fall guy was not found criminally liable. Still, after all was said and done, the fall guy took an extended European vacation until things calmed down, only to return to an illustrious career in Hollywood. Brilliant! These guys were smooth operators. The name of the “fall guy”? John Huston. Coincidence? Gossip? There are no newspaper accounts of a traffic death involving Clark Gable, — nothing. But there were newspaper reports of a traffic death on Sunset Boulevard with the same date and time Gable ran over the pedestrian, identifying the guilty party as John Huston by name.
This is only one of the many, many inside stories in this book. You see, this is the other way this book may be approached. This book can be considered as containing nothing but gossip, or being the ultimate insider look into the Golden Age of Hollywood. The book mentions well-known, notorious, episodes in Hollywood history, and offers completely credible inside glances of what was really going on in the background. For instance:
Fatty Arbuckle. At one time he was more well-known than Charlie Chaplin. History records that he was involved in a murder trial in San Francisco and it is generally accepted that he was set up. This book delves deeper in the story. Fatty was led for public slaughter by the Hollywood moguls who essentially abandoned him by failing to provide back-up or public support. Their reason? The Hollywood moguls felt that he had earlier “extorted” into giving him an enormous salary against their intentions.
Or Francis X. Bushman. A film star essentially unknown today, but very successful in his heyday. He was ostracized by the Hollywood elites because he very publically carried on an affair with a drop-dead gorgeous eighteen-year old, an act which outraged the conservative sensibilities of Louie Mayer. Mayer was apparently jealous.
There have been some reviews that have disparaged this book because it contains “Hollywood Gossip.” This may or may not be true. The author declares that the contents of the book have all been verified and confirmed by corroborating sources. Indeed, there are approximately twenty pages of footnotes. As with any insider book such as this one, however, some degree of gossip mongering is unavoidable, because the written record is a sanitized version of the real events. This is a casualty of the types of problems Mannix and Strickling fixed. The types of problems Mannix and Strickling fixed consisted of sordid, salacious, real-world problems of real persons who happen to be professional actors. This book lifts the veil of celebrity and takes the real look at these celebrities.
But even if it is all just “gossip,” so what? C’mon now, admit it. Don’t you, the reading public, really WANT to read gossip? Isn’t that what we want to read? Isn’t gossip more interesting than the “truth,” which can be variable and itself dependent on whomever is telling the story?
This is the ultimate insider book. This is an engrossing and gossip or not you will be glued to the pages.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2024Book is average in its approach to the content. The topic is in itself rife with tendency toward innuendo and exaggeration. According to the book, the Hollywood film industry was full of lesbians, homosexuals, womanizers, alcoholics, drug users and any other deviant lifestyle. Less facts presented, mainly stories that are not verifiable. I found the text needed editing and often repetitive.
Top reviews from other countries
- Peggy OldfieldReviewed in Canada on August 20, 2021
5.0 out of 5 stars The Real Tinseltown
For those who have long suspected that Hollywood was the ultimate sin bin where murder, corruption, sexual abuse and sexual deviance were the order of the day, this book will confirm everything you ever heard about The Dream Factory. Author E. J. Fleming goes to great lengths to show how the studio system evolved from the earliest days of silent movies up until the likes of studio bosses such as Louis B. Mayer at M-G-M had total control over their stars and their lives. You think that abortions were something that came along in the 1960's? Think again. As early as the 1920's, the studios were arranging abortions for their biggest females stars and female bit players who were impregnated by male movie actors. The list of actresses who underwent these procedures is staggering. So too are the large numbers of male stars who were out and out drunks and constantly had to be dried out for their next movie role. This books is very well researched and will open your eyes to what really went on during Hollywoods' Golden Age.
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in the United Kingdom on December 24, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars Book review
Very good read, interesting, informative, and entertaining 👍
-
Michiel S.Reviewed in the Netherlands on August 23, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars Schokkend en boeiend tegelijk
Een zeer interessant boek over de duistere kant van Hollywood. Vol met schokkende verhalen over moord, seks, verslaving, omkoping en misbruik en de pogingen van de studios om de waarheid te verhullen.
Dit boek heeft mij een compleet andere kijk gegeven op voormalige Hollywood helden en de (nog bestaande) studios.
Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin, Joan Crawford, Lana Turner en het zeer tragische verhaal van George Reeves.
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Amazon KundeReviewed in Germany on November 14, 2019
5.0 out of 5 stars Super Buch
Für jeden Cineasten.
- Tony BellReviewed in Australia on May 9, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting tales of the Golden Years of Hollywood
This book provides a narrative of the glory days of old Hollywood and the studio system which totally controlled the lives of the "stars". Mannix & Strickling were the "fixers" who paid off the cops, the DA and anyone else who needed to be so that the tawdry tales of the private lives of many of the stars of Hollywood didn't get revealed to the millions of fans who kept the studios rich. Very entertaining and interesting for those with an interest in the back stories of Hollywood. Well written, but some research is a bit 'iffy'...as in saying that Erroll Flynn was born in New Zealand!?! Despite that, well worth the purchase price.