Book Review: The Fixer: Moguls, Mobsters, Movie Stars and Marilyn by Josh Young and Manfred Westphal (2024)

Synopsis: Coming to Los Angeles in the 1940s after serving in World War II, Fred Otash first joined the Los Angeles Police Department but after clashes with his new boss, quit to become a private detective. Using his connections with the police and relationships he built with many of Hollywood's elite, Otash first worked for a gossip magazine before becoming a sought-after fixer, someone who could keep celebrity indiscretions out of the press and protect both their careers and the studios investing money in them. This biography tells his story along with stories about Hollywood's dark side.

 

Review: I had a bit of a Hollywood history theme the last time I checked out books from the library and, as part of that, ended up selecting The Fixer simply because it sounded interesting. While I didn't know who Fred Otash was before reading the book, I was familiar with the concept of Hollywood "fixers" and what they did for the studios and figured it would be entertaining to read about that kind of thing in more detail.

Overall, I wasn't disappointed.

When it comes to the book's reveals about well-known celebrities, like Marilyn Monroe and Rock Hudson, there really isn't anything that isn't already common knowledge - Monroe did drugs and slept with the Kennedys while Hudson was homosexual, etc. In other words, it's mostly the same details you can get on Wikipedia.

That said, hearing the stories from Otash's point of view, and the steps the private detective took to keep those things (at least at the time) a secret did add a new perspective to those stories. In fact, the part about Marilyn being found in a hotel room naked and unconscious was kind of heartbreaking when bumped up against some of the other stories shared about her from various times she crossed paths with Otash throughout both their careers.

The other part about that I found interesting was how his insider information and celebrity dirt worked both ways. Otash could protect a celebrity one day but the next, depending on who hired him and his own moral justification, use the same information to blackmail a celebrity into paying a larger alimony to their ex-wife. As a result of this, it was hard to decide if he was a hero, villain or just someone who was exploiting a complex entertainment industry to make a buck.

One thing I did like about Otash thanks to this book was how he was determined to be a good father. The story about how he became a dad and had to fight for custody against a well-known criminal was interesting in itself but the way he always tried to find time for his daughter was inspiring and I did like some of the stories that came from that, including the way she would quietly discourage women from dating him. It made him more human in a book full of stories that seemed like they should be fiction.

Final Opinion: The scandals themselves, as I mentioned, aren't anything I haven't read about before. However, the biography does a good job telling Fred Otash's story and how it was shaped by those scandals and is worth reading as a result of that.

My Grade: A

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Here are some reviews of other biographies:

Book Review: Inventing the It Girl by Hilary A. Hallett (2022)

Book Review: Mrs. Sherlock Holmes by Brad Ricca (2016)

Book Review: The Woman All Spies Fear by Amy Butler Greenfield (2021)

Book Review: A Murder in Hollywood by Casey Sherman (2024)