Paul Bern was second only to Irving Thalberg at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the 1930s. Known throughout the movies as 'Hollywood's Father Confessor', Bern had earned a reputation for being a loyal and supportive friend and for becoming one of MGM's most respected and creative directors. In short, it was nearly impossible to find anyone who would say anything negative about Paul Bern. Until he died. Then he would be accused of becoming so depressed and despondent over his own impotence that he had no choice but to commit suicide, and he would be denounced for attempting to rape his new bride, Jean Harlow, and of beating her bloody with a cane on their wedding night just two months earlier.But MGM publicity people and studio police knew how Paul Bern really died. They knew a long-ago common-law wife had recently emerged from the fog of mental illness believing she was still married to Paul, and they knew she had visited him the night before he was found dead. They knew she had killed him, but they also knew that publicly revealing Bern's first marriage would mark his current marriage - a marriage to MGM's now fastest rising star - as bigamous. So, they staged a suicide and embarked on a very public tarnishing of Bern's memory and legacy, leaving the world to believe he was impotent and suicide-obsessed and killed himself out of frustration with his marriage to a sex symbol. This biography rights that wrong by uncovering startling facts about Bern and MGM's tarnishing of his memory. It features almost 100 rare photos, many never before seen, along with three appendices examining the handwriting on the alleged suicide note and Bern's will and estate.

For over 100 years, people have been drawn to sites of tragedy involving the rich, beautiful, and notorious of Hollywood. Tourists visiting 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, and myriad haunted mansions. The book tells the fascinating stories and makes finding those locations simple. It is an extensively-researched update to E.J. Fleming's first Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites book, published in 2000. Seventeen driving tours include over 650 sites relating to celebrity deaths and scandals. Each tour covers a specific area from Hollywood and the Sunset Strip to Brentwood and Malibu, covering the entire L.A. basin. There are concise, easy-to-follow, directions to each location (over 150 photos help pinpoint the sites) and the fascinating real story behind each stop. Mildly curious? Wildly morbid? Whatever your style, turn to this book - and you'll soon be turning some of Hollywood's darkest corners.

For a decade Wallace Reid was the most recognised 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 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.

Before she was a glamorous actress, before she was a war-time pin-up star, even before she was Carole Landis, she was Frances Lillian Ridste, an insecure young girl from Wisconsin. She was strikingly beautiful, talented, and on her way to becoming a movie star, yet she spent her entire life searching for love. Though she appeared in more than 60 films during her short career, Landis was better known for her extraordinary beauty and many romantic relationships than for her acting or comedic timing. Like many starlets of the time, Landis worked her way up from uncredited bit parts (and according to rumors, from the casting couch) to leading roles in such films as Topper Returns (1940) and My Gal Sal (1942) over the course of her 11-year career. She spent more time visiting troops during World War II?traveling hundreds of thousands of miles and coming near death twice?than any other Hollywood star. Despite her seemingly glamorous and carefree life, Landis was unable to build a lasting relationship, a fact that contributed to her suicide at 29. This work examines Landis's life and career in Hollywood, focusing on how her movie career affected her short, unhappy life.

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.

Death of an Altar Boy tells the sad story behind the 1972 murder of a 14-year-old Massachusetts boy and how the Catholic Church's history of whitewashing priest abuse was the cause and the reason it went unsolved until now. The death of Danny Croteau faded from newspapers and memory for 20 years, until the Boston abuse scandal exploded and it was revealed that his parish priest was the only suspect. Everyone, including his superiors, assumed he was the murderer, and still does. But he was not alone. After reviewing over 10,000 pages of police and court files, and interviewing investigators, Danny's family and friends, fellow abuse victims, and church officials, E.J. Fleming uncovered the truth about what happened to Danny. For the first time, Death of an Altar Boy exposes church complicity in the cover-up and hiding their priests' involvement with an organized ring of abusive priests active at the time of the killing. A strong case is also made for the identity of the ring members who participated in the murder.