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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.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49643583897873,"sku":"GOR013702134","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50296226677009,"sku":"CIN0786420278A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50925539393809,"sku":"CIN0786420278G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51155113279761,"sku":"GOR003080890","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52613495587089,"sku":"NLS9780786420278","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52789127119121,"sku":"CIN0786420278VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0786420278.jpg?v=1750882318"},{"product_id":"paul-bern-book-ej-fleming-9780786439638","title":"Paul Bern","description":"Paul Bern, known throughout the movie business as Hollywood's Father Confessor, earned a reputation for being a loyal and supportive friend and for becoming one of MGM's most respected and creative directors. After his death, though, he was said to have grown so depressed and despondent over his own apparent sexual inadequacies that he committed suicide, and he would be denounced for attempting to rape his new bride Jean Harlow. In this biography, the author uncovers startling new facts and argues that MGM knew the real story of Bern's death--that an estranged, mentally ill common-law wife murdered him. MGM understood that the earlier spouse rendered Bern's marriage to Harlow, its fastest-rising star, ambiguous if not bigamous, so the studio staged a suicide and embarked on a very public tarnishing of his memory. Included are 93 rare photos, many lost for decades, along with three appendices examining the handwriting on an alleged suicide note and Bern's will and estate.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51079386857745,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51079389217041,"sku":"CIN0786439637G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52345627607313,"sku":"NLS9780786439638","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52929914536209,"sku":"GOR009789509","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0786439637.jpg?v=1751328729"},{"product_id":"death-of-an-altar-boy-book-ej-fleming-9781476673455","title":"Death of an Altar Boy","description":"The tragic death of 13-year-old Danny Croteau in 1972 faded from headlines and memories for 20 years until the Boston abuse scandal--a string of assaults within the Catholic Church--exploded in the early 2000s. Despite numerous indications--including 40 claims of sexual misconduct with minors--pointing to him as Croteau's killer, the Reverend Richard R. Lavigne remains \"innocent.\"     Drawing on more than 10,000 pages of police and court records and interviews with Danny's friends and family, fellow abuse victims, and church officials, the author uncovers the truth--church complicity in a cover up and the masking of priests' involvement in a ring of abusive clergy--behind Croteau's death and those who had a hand in it.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51120822681873,"sku":"CIN1476673454VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51456798523665,"sku":"CIN1476673454G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":52073510076689,"sku":"CIN1476673454A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52687695184145,"sku":"NLS9781476673455","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1476673454.jpg?v=1751115672"},{"product_id":"hollywood-death-and-scandal-sites-book-ej-fleming-9780786496440","title":"Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites","description":"For more than a century, people have been drawn to sites of tragedy involving the rich, beautiful and notorious of Hollywood. Tourists at the center of the movie universe flock to Rudolph Valentino's grave, the house where Marilyn Monroe died, the O.J. murders condo, the hotel where John Belushi overdosed, a myriad of haunted mansions. In its extensively researched and enlarged second edition, this book tells the stories of these locations and makes finding them simple. Seventeen driving tours include more than 650 sites. Each tour covers a specific area, from Hollywood and the Sunset Strip to Brentwood and Malibu, covering the entire Los Angeles basin. Concise, easy-to-follow directions are given to each location with 145 photos and the fascinating story behind each stop.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51809190117649,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51809190281489,"sku":"GOR014408978","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52589558825233,"sku":"NLS9780786496440","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780786496440.jpg?v=1752324552"},{"product_id":"wallace-reid-book-ej-fleming-9780786477258","title":"Wallace Reid","description":"For a decade Wallace Reid was the most recognized face in Hollywood, the most universally beloved actor in silent film. Today all that is widely remembered of \"Wally\" Reid is that he died in a padded sanitarium cell, the victim of a fatal morphine addiction. Of all the actors who have enjoyed great fame only to vanish from the public eye, Reid perhaps fell the fastest and the hardest.     This first full biography recounts Reid's complicated childhood, his disrupted family history and his rise to film stardom despite these restricting factors. It documents his myriad talents and accomplishments, most notably his gift for brilliant onscreen acting. The text explores in depth how the modern studio, however unconsciously, turned the popular star, a well-adjusted man with a loving family, into a drug-dependent mental patient within three years. His death rocked the foundations of Hollywood, and the huge new industry that he helped build nearly died with \"Dashing Wally Reid.\"","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52455051034897,"sku":"NLS9780786477258","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780786477258.jpg?v=1759373051"},{"product_id":"movieland-directory-book-ej-fleming-9780786443376","title":"The Movieland Directory","description":"The Los Angeles area feels almost alive with movie history. It is impossible to walk down any neighborhood block that didn't play host to movie history on some level. From Chaplin walking Hollywood sidewalks in 1915 to the Three Stooges running down Culver City streets in 1930 to westerns filmed in the Valley in the 1950's, the area has been the background for thousands of films and home to millions of movie people.     Historical documents, census records, movie studio and institutional archives, and personal writings have all been scoured in order to compile the most exhaustive and complete Hollywood address listing ever compiled.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52615669121297,"sku":"NLS9780786443376","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780786443376.jpg?v=1761524816"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-ej-fleming.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}