Eddie Mannix

Joseph Edgar Allen John Mannix (February 25, 1891 – August 30, 1963) was an American film studio executive and producer. He is remembered for his work as a "fixer", who was paid to cover up Hollywood stars' often colorful private lives to protect their public image and profitability for the studio.[1] Among his most lasting contributions to Hollywood was a ledger he maintained that lists the costs and revenues of every MGM film produced between 1924 and 1962, an important reference for film historians.

Eddie Mannix
Mannix in 1935
Born
Joseph Edgar Allen John Mannix

(1891-02-25)February 25, 1891
Fort Lee, New Jersey, U.S.
DiedAugust 30, 1963(1963-08-30) (aged 72)
Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Resting placeHoly Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California
Other namesEdgar Joseph Mannix
Occupation(s)Film studio executive, producer
Spouse(s)
Bernice Fitzmaurice
​
​
(m. 1916; died 1938)​

​
(m. 1951)​

Early life

Mannix was born in Fort Lee, New Jersey, the son of John and Lizzie (née Striker) Mannix. Christened Joseph Edgar Allen John Mannix, he used Edgar Joseph Mannix as his official name, but was known to most associates as Eddie. He was of Irish Catholic descent.

Career

After working as a bouncer and then treasurer of the Palisades Amusement Park, he became involved in motion picture exhibition, eventually working his way up to general manager within MGM in the 1920s.[2][3]

The Eddie Mannix Ledger is in the Margaret Herrick Library, at Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study.[4][5]

Personal life

Mannix was married twice and had no children. He married Bernice Fitzmaurice in 1916. Mannix had numerous affairs during the marriage but the couple remained married due to their Catholicism.[6] However, in late 1937, Bernice petitioned for divorce, claiming that Mannix physically abused her and also citing the affairs. Before the divorce was officially filed, Bernice died in a car accident outside Palm Springs, California on November 18, 1937.[7]

After Bernice's death, Mannix began living with actress and Ziegfeld Follies dancer Toni Lanier, with whom he had been having an affair. They married in May 1951 and remained married until Mannix's death in 1963.[8]

Mannix was suspected of involvement in the death of actor George Reeves, the star of the Adventures of Superman television series.[9] Reeves had begun having an affair with Mannix's wife Toni in 1951.[10] Mannix reportedly approved of the affair,[11] which was an open secret in Hollywood. Eddie Mannix was simultaneously having a long-term affair with a Japanese woman.[12] As Mannix and his wife were Catholics who did not believe in divorce, the arrangement continued for the next several years.[10] Reeves, however, ended the affair in early 1959 and soon became engaged to socialite Leonore Lemmon, which devastated Toni. Reeves died of a gunshot wound to the head at his home on June 16, 1959. His death was ruled a suicide, but controversy has surrounded that ruling ever since. Rumors arose that Mannix, who was rumored to have had connections to organized crime, had arranged for Reeves to be murdered by a hitman.[13] Kashner and Schoenberger's partially fictionalized biography Hollywood Kryptonite alleged, without citing any sources, that Toni Lanier Mannix, using her husband's criminal connections, ordered George Reeves' murder.

During his career as a studio fixer at MGM, Mannix allegedly left a trail of secret abortions, sham marriages and several other unsolved homicides in his wake.

Later years and death

Mannix suffered from a weak heart. By 1959, he had survived several heart attacks and used a wheelchair.[12] On August 30, 1963, he died of a heart attack at his Beverly Hills home at the age of 72.[14] He is buried at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, Los Angeles County.[8]

  • Bob Hoskins portrayed Mannix in the 2006 biographical film Hollywoodland, based on the life and death of Adventures of Superman actor George Reeves, who is played in the film by Ben Affleck.[15]
  • Eddie Mannix is Louis B. Mayer's right-hand man in When Garbo Talks! a 2010 world premiere musical at Long Beach Performing Arts Center where LB and Eddie trick Swedish director Mauritz Stiller into bringing Greta Garbo to Hollywood as a contract player for MGM.[16][17]
  • In June 2014, Universal Pictures announced they had acquired the rights to distribute Hail, Caesar!, a comedy film satirizing the American film industry of the 1950s, which was very loosely based on Mannix's career as a fixer. Hail, Caesar! was released on February 5, 2016.[15][18] Brothers Joel and Ethan Coen both wrote and directed the film, and Josh Brolin portrayed Mannix.[19] The film shows Mannix scrambling to solve the kidnapping of an A-list movie star, while battling to keep multiple thinly fictionalized send-ups of real Hollywood scandals of the era out of the tabloids. Behind it all, however, Mannix is depicted as a devout, if sinful and unconventional, Roman Catholic family man with two children and a doting homemaker wife (Alison Pill). His office door reveals his first name to be Edward.
  • Eddie Mannix is a minor character in the Gore Vidal novel Myron.

See also

References
  1. Wood, Gaby (April 7, 2014). "Mickey Rooney's amazing sex life". The Telegraph. Retrieved February 1, 2015.
  2. Eyman, Scott (June 23, 2008). Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer. Simon and Schuster. p. 130. ISBN 978-1-4391-0791-1.
  3. Longworth, Karina (November 6, 2015). "The Fixer: MGM's Eddie Mannix and the lives he ruined". Slate.
  4. The E.J. Mannix ledger. 1962. OCLC 801258228.
  5. Glancy, H. Mark (1992). "MGM film grosses, 1924–1948: The Eddie Mannix Ledger". Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 12 (2): 127–144. doi:10.1080/01439689200260081.
  6. Fleming, E. J. (2004). The Fixers: Eddie Mannix, Howard Strickling and the MGM Publicity Machine. McFarland. pp. 24–25. ISBN 0-786-45495-4.
  7. (Fleming 2004, pp. 173–174)
  8. "Edgar Mannix is Dead' Retired MGM Veteran". Motion Picture Herald. Associated Publications. September 9, 1963. Retrieved March 23, 2016.
  9. Signature Entertainment Memorabilia Auction. Heritage Capital Corporation. 2006. p. 28. ISBN 978-1-59967-036-2.
  10. Tye, Larry (2013). Superman: The High-Flying History of America's Most Enduring Hero. Random House Trade Paperbacks. p. 153. ISBN 978-0-812-98077-6.
  11. Ward, Larry Thomas. Truth, Justice, & The American Way: The Life and Times of Noel Neill, The Original Lois Lane, Nicholas Lawrence Books, 2003. ISBN 0-9729466-0-8. p. 83
  12. Wood, Gaby (January 11, 2015). "Was the original Superman typecast to death?". telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  13. Patterson, John (November 18, 2006). "Who killed Superman?". The Guardian. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  14. "End Of An Era". The Evening Independent. August 31, 1963. pp. 3–A. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  15. Childs, Ben (June 10, 2014). "Josh Brolin joins George Clooney for Coen brothers' Hail Caesar". theguardian.com. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  16. "When Garbo Talks".
  17. "When Garbo Talks! Comes To ICT, Previews Begin 10/12 2010/09/20".
  18. Blake, Emily (October 29, 2014). "George Clooney's Coen brothers comedy 'Hail, Caesar!' gets February 2016 release". ew.com. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  19. Bahr, Lindsey (June 9, 2014). "Josh Brolin to star with George Clooney in Coen brothers' 'Hail, Caesar!'". ew.com. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
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