Mannix served as a naval lieutenant with the
Photo-Science Laboratory in
Washington, D.C. during
World War II, proved popular and were later expanded into book form in his 1951 account of carnival life,
Step Right Up, which in turn was reprinted in 1964 as
Memoirs of a Sword Swallower. A reviewer commented, "The short, photographed in Mexico, shows the huge bird landing gracefully on the arm of good-looking Jewel [sic] Mannix in some of the most beautiful real-life filming on record". In a related undertaking, he wrote the screen play for an Oscar nominated short film,
The Boy and the Eagle, (1949) starring and narrated by
Dicky Moore about a crippled boy and a wounded eagle that he nursed back to health. The eagle later saves the boy from a rattlesnake and in the excitement, the boy discovers he can walk. While the film has a story arc, its main focus is on the training of the eagle, so much so that it takes on the aspect of a training film on falconry. The film was directed and produced by a friend and fellow falconer, William R. Lasky, son of
Jesse L. Lasky, founder of Paramount Studios. He used Mannix's eagle to play that part. The couple also filmed hunting coyotes with their cheetah in the American West, fishermen harpooning manta rays in Mexico, and big game in Kenya. The last of these was filmed with J.A. Hunter and includes a scene of a rhinoceros charging their vehicle, only to turn away when Hunter and a guide shouted and waved their arms. His picture of a wounded manta ray leaping from the water was published in Life magazine. The films were used in lecture tours around the United States. Mannix published an account of the incident, which included pictures of Wiley with the cobra that bit her, several months later in True, The Man's Magazine. Mannix provided a wealth of detail in
Those About To Die; for example, in his account of chariot racing he described "the training of the drivers, the betting techniques, the harnessing of the horses" as well as the racing stud farms. Initially the games were rather tame, featuring acrobats, wire walkers, trained animals and perhaps a sham battle. They evolved over time to include actual battles between armies and even a naval battle fought on an artificial lake that required thousands of men 11 years to build. These spectacles became a narcotic for the audience who became a howling, cruel and lustful mob. The popularity of top gladiators and charioteers was like that of today's top celebrities, only more so." Concerning Wilkes,
Arthur H. Cash, author of his Pulitzer Prize finalist biography, stated that he was a strong advocate for the Colonies, as well as civil liberty, and did not question his motives. He also noted that the Commons House of South Carolina did attempt (although blocked by the governor) to send money to pay Wilkes debts, but these were incurred primarily as a result of his impulsive borrowing. Another historian described it as "one of the canonical histories on the slave trade". Another feature of Mannix's animal books is that, while humans crave a sense of meaning in life, Mannix's animals have no such concept. In the clash between a gamecock and coopers hawk in
The Killers neither is morally superior. This leads to greater uncertainty about the outcome, and perhaps greater suspense, since in typical story telling, the good guy usually wins. As illustrated on the back dust cover, Mannix kept a coyote to prepare for his descriptions of coyote behavior. The front dust cover illustration by David K. Stone (also the illustrator for
Drifter), shows Billy and the coyote running across a backdrop image of the mysterious looking boucher. On the other hand, another reviewer called it flawed but fast moving and enjoyable Peter Ryhiner's autobiography,
The Wildest Game, also featured wilderness adventure, but Ryhiner's goal was to capture iconic animals from all around the world for captivity, not to kill them. Unlike Hunter, Ryhiner was a flamboyant character, and the book plays up his relationship with a girl named Mercia, who becomes his wife. (She proposed to him.) She is featured in many of the photographs included in the book. Another photograph shows Ryhiner in a tuxedo with a valuable white python, (which he captured in
Siam) around his neck. and The Saturday Evening Post (in the book,
Black Cargoes: A History of the Atlantic Slave Trade 1518–1865, 1962).
Interest in L. Frank Baum and the Land of Oz Mannix participated in the organization of the Munchkin Conventions of the
International Wizard of Oz Club with Ray Powell since their inception in 1967 Mannix, himself a magician, took particular interest in a scene in Act III, in which Tin Woodman rescues the Scarecrow from a cage by disassembling him and passing the parts to Dorothy. Then they reassembled him and "as each piece is fitted into place, it becomes more and more animated until the Scarecrow is himself again". He explained that "This illusion is known among magicians as the Black Art effect". He then went on to describe exactly how it was done. Mannix's 1975 novel
The Secret of the Elms (noted above) contains an inside "Oz" joke. It is dedicated to Edith Van Dyne, who most readers would not know was a pseudonym for L. Frank Baum. His 1906 book, ''
Aunt Jane's Nieces'', illustrated by Emile A. Nelson, describes the adventures three young women who are invited to their dying aunt's then home so she can determine which one to leave her estate to. Mannix's book has the same premise (although in his book it is their grandmother), along with frequent references to
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. There are many parallels in the plot lines. In the end, for example, (as noted in a
plot summary) none of the girls inherits Aunt Jane's estate. It goes instead to a neglected boy who has been living there. Furthermore, it turns out that their kindly uncle, not the aunt, is the one with the money and he becomes the benefactor (at least to one of the girls). At the end of Mannix's book the protagonist has an earnest discussion with her benefactor (in his book, the grandfather) in the estate graveyard. After first asking if she can be buried there, she asks "And then will I go to the land of Oz and see Dorothy and the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion?" He responds, "Of course you will. But I rather think I'll see them all before you will, dear". According to the dedication, Mannix's Munchkin collaborators, Ray and Louise Powell, suggested the idea for the book.{{cite book ==Awards==