The Fame Formula. How Hollywood's Fixers, Fakers And Star Makers Created The Celebrity Industry

by Mark Borkowski

The Fame Formula is a gripping study of the forgotten lives, and broken dreams, of the creators of the publicity industry - men who stepped out of the circus life carrying the legacy of P.T. Barnum and applied it liberally to vaudeville and the movies. Starting in the early twentieth century with Harry Reichenbach and Maynard Nottage, whose love of creating bizarre stunts for their clients sometimes outweighed their interest in money, The Fame Formula also reflects how the industry changed, and was changed by, society. The book shows how, in the hands of notorious Hollywood fixers Eddie Mannix and Howard Strickling, publicity agents Russell Birdwell, Warren Cowan, Henry Rogers and more, this freewheeling, anarchic industry became the corporate behometh it is today. It is a story packed with humour, incident, skulduggery and disappointment. Here are the men who hatched ostrich eggs to promote movies and hatched incredible stories to dress up the lives of stars, who buried stories that didn`t fit and buried their lives in their work. And in so doing they laid the foundation of a billion dollar manipulation industry and the modern world`s rampant commercial culture.

Genres: Nonfiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2008

Reviews

[Jovanka Ristich · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love Hollywood movie history and also happen to have a background in PR, then this is the book for you. Lots of insight into the people who helped to create the stories that made Hollywood so fascinating, and continue to do so but in different ways. It's always interesting to follow an evolution. This one happens to be based around celluloid.

[Johnboy Somerville · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a subject I confess to know a lot about or indeed wish to follow, but a book that is full of wonderful insight to the yesteryear and the origins of celebrity.

A book I am glad to have read.

[angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

interesting in parts

[Joe Harmanskov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant insight and very well written. 5 stars