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

Rating:
Summary: If This Were Baseball, This Would Be A Home Run
Review: I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of this book and was not disappointed.
The "FIXERS" were two notorious executives at MGM during its heyday named Eddie Mannix and Howard Strickling. While they have often been referred to in many celeb bios and books about the movies, it has often been difficult to pin down what their primary function was within the MGM corporate organization. Over the years, it has often been alluded that they 'fixed' things (i.e., usually scandals involving MGM's talent). However, no one source had ever cited the extent of their involvement in covering up situations which might prove catasrophic had they been publicly revealed. THE FIXERS resolves that gap with great clarity and detail.
The book itself is grounded in reality, but manages to take on an almost fictional persona interweaving fact in an intimate and slightly gossipy manner. The author establishes a backdrop for the story by detailing how the movie industry came to be and describing with precision the main players as well as the dynamics which existed within the studio system. Once the ground rules are established, Fleming takes off and discusses the scandals that Mannix and Strickling handled over the 40+ year period they were employed by MGM as well as their 'methods' used. The individual stories range from the well-known such as Judy Garland's drug addiction to the more veiled ones like Paul Bern's "suicide". Fleming even goes so far as detailing the real facts behind comedian Ted Healy's death which have been obliterated over the 60+ years since his death. And this constitutes just the tip of the iceberg. Fleming's only ground rule for all of this is that he does not relate any stories that he was not able to verify via reputable multiple sources.
I'm not going to cloud my assessment of this book with more details and run the risk of taking away from the pleasure of reading this book. However, when I finally put this book down I started thinking that this would make a fantastic mini-series on tv or a full length feature in the movies because truth is stranger than fiction.