Warning. This episode contains details that some listeners may find disturbing. He. Wanted. To. Do this. Welcome to the show. I'm Michael Mae, and returning this evening is Sean Anthony Davis, who was previously on my Internet Mysteries episode. How are you doing, Sean? Oh. That's right. Yeah, I actually forgot. We solved other mysteries. yeah. Yeah. Yes. Well, they actually have.
I've been tracking it because I don't even know if you know this, but for a while, that was my highest downloaded or whatever. This was. Yeah. like, pumped to hear it's a fun episode. I thought it was like I, it was one of my easier episodes in terms of research because I, I do deep dives and I didn't do super deep dives and all those topics. Yeah, exactly, exactly. but it's a good one. And I've been keeping a list of others that I'm planning to do a follow up in the future.
So if you're down for it, you can even come back on that. But it was really fun. And so if anybody is new to the show, please go back and listen to internet Mysteries. It's a really good episode. And so, Sean, you're you're an all around sort of storyteller writer. You're the assistant director of an upcoming movie that, that we both worked on.
and as we also discussed last time, because you work at Naughty Dog Studios, I just basically tell everybody that you created The Last of Us, even though that's not true at all. Right, right. All the above. Of course, of course. Well, thank you for, you know, getting out of your Hollywood high house. I don't know what the term I'm trying to think of in. Yeah. Can. Coming down here. Yeah, yeah. and coming down to us.
So today we are going to talk about Hollywood, which is something I thought you'd be a great guest for, because this is one of the legendary Hollywood mysteries when it comes to these kind of things. And that's George Reeves, who died by suicide at the age of 45. He was very infamously, and I'm sure as most people listening knows, he played Superman in The Adventures of Superman, which was a series that came out starting in 1951.
And because of that, he was a larger than life celebrity and yeah, just a big, big, big celebrity at the time. So of course, this story, when he he committed suicide, they found his body spread throughout all the newspapers. It was reported everywhere. Or however, a lot of people suspect that there was foul play and that this wasn't suicide. And that is because there are a lot of strange details or strange facts about the case, if you want to say that.
And this is also possibly the beginning of what is known as the Superman curse, this story and the theories have been explored in the movie Hollywoodland with Ben Affleck and Adrien Brody and, just a bunch of other. It was a huge cast of Haskins. Haskins. Yep, yep. otherwise known as Schmoe. And, and, yes, Omari. Exactly. Yes. Obviously his most famous role. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Who framed Roger rabbit also? Yeah. So, That's right, that's right. Same time period. Same same same vibe. Indeed.
so, yeah, let's let me back up a little bit and let's just learn a little bit about George Reeves, who he was. What's going on? It's time George was born. George Keefer Brewer, which I think is a great name, and he was later known as George Reeves. Obviously, he was born on January 5th, 1914, and Woodstock, Iowa. His parents separated shortly after his birth, and he was raised primarily by his mother, Helen Lester.
George would move around quite a bit in his childhood, but they eventually settled in Pasadena, California, where he attended high school and showed an early interest in acting. He was also a talented amateur boxer musician. He played several instruments. However, it was the allure of Hollywood that truly captured his imagination. Reeves striking good looks and athletic build made him a natural fit for the silver screen, and soon he found himself pursuing a career as a thespian.
George's big break came in 1939, when he landed a role in the epic film Gone With the wind. I'm sure you've probably heard of that, right? Shine. Gone with the wind. Just a tiny, tiny little movie. Yeah, yeah. Over the next few years, George appeared in various films, a lot of B-movies, some two reelers, and some serials. But, as much as he wasn't like a big, big, big star, he was consistently working, doing very well for himself. And then World War Two came around and he left for the Army.
But he continued to make films for the military. But after the war, though, he continued to work, his casting was typically in lower budget serials. And it's important to note here that his paychecks were kind of getting smaller and smaller through, like the late 40s, working on these lower budget things. It was his casting as Superman in the television series Adventures of Superman in 1951 that catapulted him to fame as the iconic superhero George Reeves became a household name.
The role brought him immense popularity but also typecast him, making it difficult to find work in Hollywood. Typecasting is still a thing, folks, but it it it can be a burden to actors, but it it's very different nowadays. You can actually kind of fight through that or use that to your advantage. Now we're back then it was really controlled and limited careers and actors.
So since George couldn't get cast and other projects because of being Superman and a TV star didn't get paid the same they do now, he began to find himself having trouble paying the bills when the show ended. So thoughts, comments or anything. Yeah, yeah. No, no. And also it was the, the studio, the studio system back then, and you were under contract. Typically you could work kind of independently, but most people were under contract, so it's like, hey, I'm.
I'm a skinny little nerdy, nerdy dude. If I got a contract as an actor for a studio back then, they would probably just be like, oh, where's our nerdy guy? Nerdy guy? Michael's on on contract. He's already getting paid weekly. Just put Michael in that and you kind of get stuck in these things and and people just the nature of kind of the stupidity of the business, they just couldn't see you for anything else.
And even the the guy that played Superman in the early 40s, a guy named Kirk Allen, which I'll talk about again when I mentioned the Superman curse later on. Kirk Allen, the same thing happened to him after playing Superman in the 40s. He literally had no career after that. It was just basically kaput because people only saw him as Superman. Oh yeah. Yeah, it is really interesting.
And he did try to use it to his advantage, as I think anybody would watch when the rolls started dying out, and he wasn't making a lot of money. He was. I think he was, like, signing up for wrestling matches. And we've all heard many stories about him kind of doing, like children's events and speeches, almost like the conventions of the day, so to speak, so that he could actually make some money. And he did it make, you know, he did not make good money on the TV show.
Was it kids television show? You don't get paid super well back then. But it was good. Like if you were I were getting paid the same amount. Now we'd be like, Holy shit, I'm getting paid really well. But it wasn't what you think of as like a television star, and it's going to run out pretty quickly. So, Yeah. Yeah, it's it's all kind of interesting, fascinating stuff. And also really important details for what's about to happen.
So I do want to talk about a significant figure in George Reeves's life, Tony Mannix. Tony was the wife of MGM studio executive Eddie Mannix, a man rumored to have connections with the darker side of Hollywood. And Tony herself was a former Ziegfeld Follies showgirl, and she met George in the early 1950s, and the two quickly, quickly began a passionate love affair and their relationship. This is really important to know their relationship was open. This wasn't like a hidden affair going on.
It was well known they would go to parties together, they'd go to dinner, and even Eddie Mannix, Tony's husband, they'd go on vacations as like, almost like a quadruple thing because. Yeah, because, well, Eddie had his own mistress that he would bring along Tony. Tony? Yeah. He had her mistress, which was George Reeves. they would all vacation together. They'd go to dinner together.
So this is, I guess you would call it, like, an open relationship between Tony and and her husband, which is just really interesting and strange and kind of progressive in its own weird way. it's also worth noting here that George was a partier, and I think that that went into all his relationships he had he did drink a lot and not only in social occasions, but also at home. He'd hang out and have a bunch of drinks, and it had a relatively high tolerance for such things.
However, as many Hollywood tales go, the relationship with his love affair, Tony Mannix, was very complex, and while Eddie, as I mentioned, was very aware of it, we don't know what would happen if, say, Tony and George broke up, which is what happened. George dumped Tony and she was devastated by it. And since they were this like open couple, I imagine Eddie probably heard about this very quickly. And we don't know if Eddie's views changed about George in terms of like a friendship.
I'm probably explaining this way too, making it sound way too complicated. The point is, is that Eddie may have disliked George after he broke up with his own wife. Right. Yeah, yeah. And this feeds into one of the main theories, which is why I bring it up. We're just purely making up conjecture. but it is part of the story. And let me give you a little bit of background about Eddie right now. So Eddie Mannix is a name that looms very large in Hollywood history and lore.
He was born Joseph Edgar Allen, John Mannix. Well, when I wrote that down, I didn't realize how many names that was. Wow. he was born in 1891, in new Jersey, and Mannix started his career in the construction business. Which new Jersey construction. There's going to be a lot of heavy Mafia connections there. However, his knack for handling tough situations, sort of preceded him. And he wanted to get into the film industry. And by the 1920s, he. And did he and did he indeed did get into.
Yeah. Yeah, he and did got into the Hollywood business, securing a position at MGM, one of the most influential studios at the time. And at MGM. Mannix, his role was officially that of general manager, but his unofficial title title was Hollywood's Fixer. And if you've ever heard that term, and I think most people have that started with him, he he's the big Hollywood fixer.
And his responsibilities included overseeing the studio's finances, managing day to day operations and, crucially, keeping the studio's stars out of trouble or at least keeping their troubles out of the headlines. And this came with a lot of power, and he would often use unorthodox methods to protect the studio's interests, and this included bribing police, intimidating journalists, and even, it is rumored, I will say rumored only that he employed violence to keep scandals at bay.
You see, Mannix, his life influence, TV shows, movies, the Coen brothers did a film where Josh Brolin played Mannix. I forget the name of that film. Yeah. Hail, Caesar! so that is that Josh Brolin's character is is Eddie Mannix and his. He was married previously. His first wife, Berniece Fitzmaurice, died in 1937 under its suspicious circumstances. L say so. That's some background on Eddie. Oh, I'll add as well.
Like, because of that, that job in sort of keeping rumors and scandals in tabloids and all of this at bay there. Again, it's all kind of conjecture, but there are the rumors that I believe 99% of them, that he did move in the same circles as a lot of organized crime people, gangsters, those kind of know, those kind of folks. So legitimate businessman. Now, I need to jump ahead here to the night that this whole story, this whole episode revolves around.
And that's June 16th, 1959, the time and day of George's death. It is commonly said that George was having financial troubles, as we've already talked about. However, there are anecdotal accounts in this is very similar to everything else in this story. It all depends on who you talk to. anecdotal accounts that he had a bunch of work coming up. Things were for turning for the better, and he had like a new season of Superman. They were going to bring it back for a season.
They were in talks for that. There's another TV series that he supposedly was producing and had written. There's another movie that he had like gotten somebody to write, and you just hear all these anecdotal accounts of, oh, there's so many projects that are going to happen. You and I both work and live in Hollywood. We all have a bunch of projects, so I don't when I hear these stories, I actually believe all of them. But yeah, sorry. Go good. Yeah. Exactly, exactly.
So so just think about that when you hear the rest of this story, folks. Now, he had broken off his affair with Tony Mannix. I think like six. I don't know, it's more than six. And maybe about a year before, she did not take that. Well, as I've already briefly mentioned, she was calling George's house dozens of times a day, like, like really brutally calling them. There's stories that she was having him followed. she also stole his dog, apparently.
Like, this was, she really was not happy with the break up. On top of that, she had also paid for over the years a bunch of George's things, including his house, his car, tons of stuff. She was really financially his sugar mama, so to speak, for her for a long time. And so that's got to hurt as well when she's devoted financial resources to this man.
And now he breaks it off and he broke it off and started dating a socialite who who I will call like the influencer of her time, a woman named Lenore Lemon. And Lenore was a New Yorker. She had met George. They had kind of fallen for each other. He convinced her to move to L.A.. She complained about L.A.. I was reading interviews with her. She always complained about LA. She really preferred New York.
But that kind of shows you how much she was drawn to George, that she was willing to move there for him. She she's a bit of a controversial figure herself. She was previously married to a Vanderbilt heir. There's some weird stories around some of her other relationships, but to me, I kind of read that as more of just she's just a big party girl. She's in all the clubs. She's at all the events.
She mingles with celebrities, with gangsters, with drug dealers, like all the above, because of where she hangs out and how how she kind of acts, I mean, it also, she's not nearly as attractive or, I think, charismatic, but kind of like an older version of Paris Hilton at the time. Like when Paris was, like, just known as being a socialite and partying everywhere. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Yeah. And there's I'm going to I was I was going to wait and bring this up later, however.
So George and Lenore had been dating at this time for about six months. And, you know, there's a bunch of weird stuff that you all are going to hear about in, in just a few moments surrounding his suicide. But there are allegations. Again, I'll just call it, like anecdotal stories, that George had been in a few car accidents prior to this night. And one of those stories specifically says that his brake fluid was drained.
So there's this underbelly of like, is somebody already trying off George Reeves? I will completely state this now. And not save it for later. I've only seen that in weird tabloid things. And just like you'll see people post about it in terms of the newspapers, in terms of the more official accounts, I have not come across any of that. So I don't know if that's true. I do think he did get into a car accident. but it was just like he just went off the road and had nothing further. Great.
I think the word spread after the suicide. Yeah, yeah. So. All right, so here's the here's the alleged. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. That's what we're figuring out. So here's the story of this, this odd and strange night. At least this is the common story. And I'll come back later and kind of correct some things. But this is the story. If anybody's come across this before, this is the main version that you come across. I'll set this up.
You and I are going to read a scene in a second, but let me give a little bit a little bit of background, a little reenactment. So before we do that, George and Lenore, they went out to dinner that night, depending on which newspaper you read, it could be 830. It could be 630, it could be 530, could be 330, it could be 930. All we need to know is they went to dinner. And that is very real and very authentic.
some say that their house guest, a guy named a writer named Robert Condon, who was staying with them at the time, went to dinner as well, but he actually stayed home. So it's just Lenore and George. They go to dinner, they come home, they've been drinking again. They're big drinkers. They come home. It's probably around 11:00 to midnight. They go to bed somewhere in that time period. And as they do, or as they're about to, Lymon turns on the porch light and this was a signal.
This is what they would do at the house, as if the porch light was on late. It meant they were open for business to people would come hang out and have drinks. You hear? It commented that it was a party house. Eleanor Lemon later says, we weren't a party. I was just like a handful of people make. yeah, right. So the porch light is on, which signals people can come by. And again, this is the common story, is that two neighbors, William Bliss and Carol Van Runkle, show up, knock on the door.
Come on in to have drinks. And this is where the scene you and I are going to read, will start. So the way this is written, Sean, do you mind playing both George and Lenore? Because you don't. Yeah. it's the night. wait, what is the date again? Just, June 16th. Yeah, it is the night of June 16th, 1959. And in the living room of George George Reeves home at 1579 Benedict Canyon, Beverly Hills.
Lenore Lemon, William Bliss, Robert Condon and Carol Van Runkle are chit chatting away with cocktails and cigarets in their hands when footsteps are heard coming down the stairs and George Reeves appears in a robe. He's drunk and mad. The Nora tells him to calm down, and the others invite George to join them. Come on, join us, George. Come on. He turns and walks back upstairs, drunkenly mumbling to himself. Lenore turns to her guests. They hear a drawer open in the bedroom upstairs. Bang!
She's interrupted by a gunshot Oh, my. Oh, my. Yes. good, good take on that, I like that. so that is the. That's the common story, obviously, I've taken some creative liberties there, but the the important details are in there of what you commonly hear about this night. Meaning that all these people were over, William Bill bliss and, Carol Van Runkle show up at the door. They're usually in reports called neighbors, but I don't actually know if they really were neighbors.
and in fact, Carol was married to someone else. And Bill, was was his own story, which I will get to later when I clarify things just know that there are some things to fix in that story that is commonly told. So supposedly after the gunshot, Bill bliss runs upstairs. He inspects the bedroom and confirms George has indeed shot himself. But here's where things start to get really strange and interesting. They don't call the cops for 45 minutes.
Not only does that story that we just reenacted feel a little weird or incomplete, but there's some other strange things to this case as well. For one, when George was found, he was naked, not in a robe, like, because everybody says he was in a robe locked upstairs, shot himself. It was naked. It's not so strange to be in your bedroom naked. It's not strange in of itself, but it is kind of kind of weird when you put all these things together.
Yeah, yeah, but when you kind of put it with everything else. So the bullet shell to the gun was, oh, let me talk about the body position before I say that he's found on the bed. His feet are like off the side of the bed. His back is on the bed. and. Exactly. No, this is an audio medium, but Sean just perfectly reenacted exactly what would have happened. but, the bullet shell was underneath his body, like, behind his back. Which is also odd, because how would that have happened?
The bullet shell or the bullet was in the ceiling, which is also kind of odd, because if you think you'd probably shoot yourself kind of constantly. Yeah. Temple. It was temple. Yeah, it was temple. Now I will say they did the the coroner's report. That's the word did conclude that it was the bullet and it was from his temple and like, oh, everything, everything lined up. And, you know, he he probably just had his head tilted if he did, in fact, commit suicide. But it's still weird.
It is still weird. here's just other things. Not any particular order. He was drunk. He had a lot of alcohol in his system. I think it was 0.27. I'm always bad about what the amounts mean with blood alcohol level. And it was like, yeah. Right, right. Yeah. So he was very drunk. There was no suicide notes. There were no fingerprints on the gun. Oh, the gun was a Luger, by the way, which, I don't know. I just think. Yep, yep. Which I just, I don't know, it just adds a bit of character to this.
There's no, What is it? Burn, burn, burn marks, but, scorch. Yeah. Right. And, another thing to know is that when you're trying to figure out if he committed suicide or not, a lot of people talk about those anecdotal stories of, oh, he had so much work on the horizon. He was also a very, like, jovial and personality person. And he and Leonore were supposed to get married in three days. And in three days. And according to what she said, is they were going to go up to San Francisco.
I don't think they were planning like a big ceremony. I think it was just like, yeah, we're going to go get married. but those are things to think about with the suicide, because a lot of people that don't think he would have committed suicide kind of point to those aspects. I think most people that have been around, folks with depression or read about it, it doesn't mean like, you can still want and feel terrible and yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. issues.
Some. So let's sort of cover real quick. There's like three main theories. And those theories are suicide, which we've we've just been talking about because that could be a really he could have committed suicide. the other theories are that Lenore killed him. Wanted to cover it up, had her friends kind of vouch for her that were there that night. she could have done it in haste or planning, but basically, it's like the theory is. Lenore did it.
Whether she planned ahead or they got in a fight that night, that's TBD. The other main theory is that Tony Mannix and all of her, upset sadness over the break up either had someone to kill George or had her husband's help to get somebody to kill George. So those are the three theories. Suicide. Lenore did it, or Tony was behind it. And all those theories in my mind all hold a little bit of merit. I have my own personal theories that that will come out.
but they all they all are valid in their own way because of all the strange things. And I'll leave us with this. There. There's were also two additional bullet holes found in the floor. On the ground. But all the witnesses say they only heard one shot. Now, later, Lenore says that she causes bullet holes at a previous date. Playing around with a gun. But it is. It is an interesting. Yes, yes. Yep. They were the same gun. The gun was gifted to George from Eddie Mannix, which is interesting.
Yeah. No fingerprints on the gun. And I'm going to. I'm going to leave us with this, John, because we're going to do a second part and come back for all these theories. And I'm going to tease that I do have an answer for the fingerprints, but there were indeed no fingerprints on the gun. Yes. You got to stick around. Now, everybody stay tuned. Listen to the show. Subscribe if you haven't. So you can catch part two of this, this episode.
or this story, because now it's two episodes and all these little nuggets, they're all strange. They're all strange. And that is why this is still a mystery. And why you have people that believe it's suicide. Believe Tony Mannix did it, or believe Lenore did it. And we're going to get more into that in part two. So thank you, Sean, for being on. We'll return shortly. Yeah. Podia. Thank you for listening to a study of strange. If you haven't already done so, take a quick second.
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