Wallace Reid: The Life And Death of a Hollywood Idol

by E.J. Fleming

For a decade Wallace Reid was the most recognized face in Hollywood, the most universally beloved actor in silent film. Today all that is widely remembered of "Wally" Reid is that he died in a padded sanitarium cell, the victim of a fatal morphine addiction. Of all the actors who have enjoyed great fame only to vanish from the public eye, Reid perhaps fell the fastest and hardest. This first full biography recounts Reid's complicated childhood, his disrupted family history and his rise to film stardom despite these restricting factors. It documents his myriad talents and accomplishments, most notably his gift for brilliant onscreen acting. The text explores in depth how the modern studio, however unconsciously, turned the popular star, a well-adjusted man with a loving family, into a drug-dependent mental patient within three years. His death rocked the foundations of Hollywood, and the huge new industry that he helped build nearly died with "Dashing Wally Reid."

Genres: Biography, Media Tie In

302 pages, Hardcover

First published February 8, 2007

About the author

E.J. Fleming has been researching Hollywood for decades and has penned biographies of Carole Landis and Wallace Reid, among other books. He lives in the country in Connecticut.

Reviews

[Laurie V · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poor Wally Reid. Paramount valued him so much as its world-wide top box office draw that he was literally worked to death. Reid was injured in an accident while shooting a film in 1919. Head of Production Jesse Lasky made the call to supply Reid with morphine to get him through filming. Lasky came up with this brilliant solution to avoid delaying filming and moving the production, which would have cost about $50,000 by today’s standards. Lasky quickly realized the damage he’d done to his #1 asset and rushed Reid onto picture after picture from 1920-1922 so he could get as much work out of Reid as possible before he inevitably collapsed. Reid wasted away in a padded room in the basement of a sanitarium three years later just so Paramount could save a few thousand dollars. It’s interesting to note that the three scandals that led to censorship in Hollywood (Fatty Arbuckle charged with rape, the William Desmond Taylor murder, and Reid’s death) all involved major players at Paramount.

Now that I’ve rallied against the injustice done to Reid, I need to mention a few problems with this book. Overall it’s an incredibly boring read. Author E.J. Fleming provides extensive information about Reid’s films, including detailed synopses, cast lists and release dates. It’s unnecessary to devote two paragraphs of plot and the names of the first 8-10 actors in the cast for every single film Reid did. Also, the narrative jumps around in time and occasional non sequiturs that lead to nowhere are confusing. Fleming was probably trying his best to fill his contracted manuscript pages and adding filler was likely unavoidable. It’s been almost 100 years since Reid was a movie star. It's an archeology project to trace the details of his life offscreen.

Also – and this is really what keeps the book from being good – the information given about the William Desmond Taylor murder in this book is mostly inaccurate. It’s very easy to find credible information about the Taylor murder for free online at www.taylorology.com. Fleming also devotes a few paragraphs to the death of actress Olive Thomas, again presenting false rumors as facts. Fleming obviously did a huge amount of research on Reid for this book, so it's odd he'd be that careless in other areas. Unfortunately, this throws the entire book into question.

While the book itself isn't so great, I did enjoy learning more about Wally Reid. Fleming had a difficult job trying to piece together the life story of a long-gone silent movie star who is best remembered for his death. It's not a great book, but I'm still glad it was written if for nothing else than the beautiful cover.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first half of the book was filled with unnecessary information and focused too much on events and people other than Wally. However, I enjoyed the second half much more. I appreciated the author's perspective on Wally's life and his relationships with the many people in it, and I agree with his insights. Still, there isn’t a decent biography of Wallace Reid, one of the first movie stars, and I hope one day there will be one.

[Samantha Glasser]

I read about half of this book in college. A friend let me borrow her copy. It is slow going, which is why I didn't finish it. There is a lot of dry history here including a rundown of Reid's family tree.