Today is Toni Mannix' Birthday!!!!

Little, sweet Camille Toni Frommess Mannix is born on this date in 1906. I'm not certain if they ever actually wed, but she was for certain the common-law wife of Edgar "Strawberry Shortcake" Mannix, right-hand man to Louis B. Mayer, and the third most powerful man on the lot. Theirs was an odd alliance; though they were certainly soulmates they both led wildly promiscuous lives by any era's standards. Just a taste of Eddie: he beat the shit out of and broke his first wife's back and then most likely arranged her mysterious roadside death in the Palm Springs desert during their contentious divorce. He had his Japanese mistress and Toni was passionately in love with George Reeves; their story has been told in two excellent books, HOLLYWOOD KRYPTONITE by Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger (thanks for the pic of TM), and THE FIXERS by E.Y. Fleming. The Fixers is unbelievable reading, though it would be easier to believe as fact if someone had proofread the book. In certain chapters I thought there was some studio I had never heard of called MMG, but, nah, it's just MGM. Go to Alibris right now and buy a used copy of each. Go ahead. I'll wait.

Anyway, Toni was a tough chick who did lots of bad things. Then she dressed herself up and called herself a Catholic and spent the last days of her life living in a suite at St John's hospital. There is much to say about her, but hell, she dies next month.