DEATH ON THE AMAZON

A passionate love affair between an actor and a model ends in tragedy in this partially fictionalized memoir set in 1960s Hollywood.

Long before Eric Fleming got his big break with a leading role on the television series Rawhide, he was Edward Heddy Jr., born in Southern California and raised during the Depression. Escaping the constant physical abuse of his father, young Fleming hopped a train and took up the harsh life of a street urchin, stealing in order to eat and trading his father’s beatings for those of his teenage hoodlum bosses. He joined the Navy’s Construction Battalion during World War II. When a terrible accident deformed his face, Navy doctors were able to perform reconstructive surgery that left him more handsome than ever. Rebranded as Eric Fleming, he was already a successful actor in 1963 when he met Garber, a “Manhattan model/showgirl” whose fast-paced social life included men with Mafia connections. Despite the fact that he had a blind date with Garber’s roommate, Fleming and the author fell for each other at first sight and immediately became inseparable. Both shared a love-hate relationship with the glitzy but shallow allure of the “Hollyweird” movie culture, and Fleming saw his relationship with Garber as his ticket to escaping the scene for a peaceful life in Hawaii. Financial ruin at the hands of a shady accountant forced him to accept a role in another film, with disastrous results. The author has taken on an interesting challenge in writing this memoir in both her voice and Fleming’s. Though mention is made of his lifelong journal-keeping, Garber does not credit his diaries with providing the material written from the actor’s viewpoint. The hard-boiled style is appropriate and captivating in a portrait of mid-20th-century Los Angeles, as when the author recalls purring: “I liked men who shelled out bread for my Manhattan penthouse.” But this hard edge sometimes slides into mean-spiritedness, including a few scenes of homophobia and fat shaming. Hardest to understand is Garber’s choice to devote almost half the narrative to the on-location film shoot that ended Fleming’s life on the Amazon River in Peru while omitting any account of his no doubt thrilling journey from injured Seabee to acclaimed TV star.

An intriguing but uneven account of a movie-land love story steeped in Hollywood glamour.