Review: The Fixer: Moguls, Monsters, Movie Stars and Marilyn by Josh Young and Manfred Westphal

The Fixer: Moguls, Mobsters, Movie Stars and Marilyn

by Josh Young and Manfred Wesphal

Release Date: April 16, 2024

2024 Grand Central Publishing

Hardcover Edition; 336 Pages

ISBN: 978-1538751428

ASIN: B0CDWKJWJN

Audiobook: B0CFC29KNW

Genre: Non-Fiction / True Crime / Film

Source: Review copy from publisher

3.5 / 5 Stars

Summary

During the height of Hollywood’s golden age, one man lorded over the city’s lurid underbelly of forbidden sin and celebrity scandal like no Fred Otash. An ex-Marine turned L.A.P.D. vice cop, Otash became the most sought-after private detective and fixer to the stars by specializing in the dark arts that would soon dominate the entertainment industry.  

Otash was notorious for bugging the homes, offices, and playpens of movie stars, kingmakers, and powerful politicians, employing then state-of-the-art methods of electronic surveillance and wiretapping for a who’s who list of clients for whom he’d do “anything short of murder.”  He lied to federal authorities to protect Frank Sinatra from criminal liability; recorded Rock Hudson’s coming out confession to his estranged wife; moved in with Judy Garland to help her get sober; taped President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy’s tragic love affairs with the greatest sex symbol of all time, and he listened to Marilyn Monroe die.

 

My Thoughts

The Fixer tells the story of Fred Otash, Hollywood's favourite private investigator during the 50s and 60s, a person who was trusted by a lot of people to fix things or to investigate things when problems arose within Hollywood or within the wealthy class. He used a variety of surveillance techniques and was one of the first to use some techniques that led to some ground-breaking investigative work.  While all was not necessarily up to snuff, this book certainly name-drops and I was fascinated by some of things that went on behind the scenes.   

The book focuses on the life of Fred Otash and how he built up his business. The stories are quite fascinating and if you love anything about old Hollywood, you will certainly enjoy the stories that are told in this book.  Because the book is focused on Fred, a lot of the scandalous stories that are mentioned within this book can leave the reader somewhat frustrated as that is not necessarily the role of the book.  To say there were some juicy parts is an understatement however, as Fred knew most of the players in Hollywood during this time period. He stayed with Judy Garland for over a month to help her get sober and I really enjoyed reading about his relationship with her and her children. He was friends with Lana Turner and had to help her when she got entangled with the mob. I read this book specifically because I was interested in his relationship with Marilyn Monroe and what insights he could add to her life; to say she was used is an understatement. And the Kennedy boys, don't even get me started. They may have been good politicians, but their personals lives were a mess.  And while Otash states quite firmly that Marilyn's Monroe's death was caught on tape in this book, the details are still quite vague which shows the fear that still exists in Hollywood today if the truth got out.  There is no doubt that she was being recorded as future tenants found recording devices in the home, but it shows the power that existed in Hollywood when people are still afraid to talk about what happened even today.  

I like to read a lot of biographies so I can't say that I really learned anything new about the people involved except for Fred himself, but that is the reason why I read the book in the first place. There are so many people behind the scenes who know a lot of information and we rarely hear their stories so I was fascinated by Fred's life and what he had to do. The authors mention they barely made a dent into what Fred was involved in in Hollywood as they focused on certain stories, but I was fascinated nevertheless. 

The book is very sympathetic towards Otash, maybe too much. I can't imagine that a man like Otash would have survived in these circumstances without being a little bit ruthless and I would have liked to have seen a bit more of that.  I mean he spied on the rich and fixed their problems, everyone knew he did this, so he would have made a lot of enemies in the process.  

Verdict

The Fixer was an interesting mix of Fred Otash's personal and professional life and I did enjoy the book. I think there is a little bit of everyone who enjoyed reading about the scandals in Hollywood, but I am still shocked at how depraved and how awful some of the things were. Because the book focused on Otash, the stories focused on his involvement in the cases so readers not familiar with them may feel somewhat frustrated at not getting the full stories, but again, that is not the point of the book as there are tons of biographies available for those purposes.  You don't have to have any knowledge of the time period to enjoy this book so I do recommend it to anyone who is interested in how surveillance worked during this time period and how the stars managed to scrape through their difficulties.