Eddie Mannix, who first appeared in The Unexpected Heiress and was last seen in The Amorous Attorney, was the infamous fixer who worked for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He was recently portrayed by Josh Brolin in the Coen Brothers' movie, Hail, Ceasar! I first heard of Mr. Mannix through the most excellent podcast You Must Remember This, written and narrated by Karina Longworth. Neither Ms. Longworth nor Messrs. Coen has any responsibility for my particular portrayal of Mannix.
After the fall of Paris in the summer of 1940, a portion of metropolitan France was given self-administration by the German occupiers. The capital was in the French town of Vichy and so the French State from 1940 to 1944 is referred to as Vichy France. The Chief of State of Vichy France was the last Premier of France at the end of the Third Republic, Marshal Philippe Pétain, a hero of the First World War. Pétain was convicted of treason after the liberation and was sentenced to death but had his sentence commuted to life in prison. He died in 1951 at the age of 95.
Action française was founded in 1899 and is a monarchist and counter-revolutionary (in opposition to the effects of the French Revolution of 1789) organization still in existence. During the German occupation, the organization officially opposed collaboration while also working with Pétain and moving its headquarters from Paris to Vichy. Some of its members did collaborate while others joined the Resistance and the Free French Forces under Charles de Gaulle.
The Hotel Riviera del Pacifico, which first appeared in The Amorous Attorney, opened as the Hotel Playa de Ensenada in 1930. Marjorie King Plant, who was a Ziegfield dancer and an actress of both stage and screen, was given the hotel by her elderly boyfriend, Jerome Utley of Detroit. In order to be able to legally own the hotel under Mexican law, she married a local lawyer named Alfonso Rocha to gain Mexican citizenship.
Marjorie changed the name of the hotel to Hotel Riviera del Pacifico, renovated the building, and led it to the height of its popularity in the early 1950's. She is purported to be one of the (many) namesakes for the Margarita cocktail as is Miss Peggy Lee.
Braulio Maldonado Sández was the first Governor of the state of Baja California, serving from the end of 1953 through the end of 1959. From all accounts, he was a vicious, petty dictator. He did have a group of enforcers known as Los Chemitas. Pistolero is a generic term that I preferred to use.
More Information
Nick Williams Mysteries
The Amorous Attorney
The Sartorial Senator
The Laconic Lumberjack
The Perplexed Pumpkin
The Savage Son
The Mangled Mobster
The Iniquitous Investigator
The Timid Traitor
The Sodden Sailor
The Excluded Exile
Nick & Carter Stories
An Enchanted Beginning
Golden Gate Love Stories
The One He Waited For
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