The Hollywood Fix — Richard Kirshenbaum

The dirty business of keeping the stars shiny and clean.During Hollywood’s Golden Age, a destitute young man, Bartie Maddox, journeys to Los Angeles and, through his wits, hard work, and talent, becomes the PR fixer to the most important film studio and its studio chief, Solomon Myers. Through his experienced lens, Bartie influences the lives and creation of some of the world’s greatest stars: Duke Drake, Carroll Madison, Mirielle Montaigne, and the heiress, Grace Greystone, La Marquise de Faucigny, exposing how their images are created, managed, and intersect through the Great War and glamor of Tinseltown. This masterful and sweeping novel is based on true stories from the studio system era and PR machines which have not only created legends but exposed the dirty business of keeping the stars shiny and clean. Bartie’s intricate fixes involve endless scandals of money, sex, captivating personas and even the cover-up of death. But in the end, Bartie’s own studio fix becomes the greatest fix of all.