Samuel Marx
 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification.(July 2016) |
Samuel Marx(January 26, 1902, New York City – March 2, 1992, Los Angeles) was an American film producer, screenwriter and book author.
Life
[edit]Marx was born to aJewishfamily.[1]and started working in 1919 as an office boy at the New York office ofUniversal Pictures,where he metIrving Thalberg,then secretary to Universal BossCarl Laemmle.
On May 24, 1930, he arrived at theMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer(MGM) Studios and was hired by Thalberg as Story Editor, the executive in charge of the screenwriting department.
Following Irving Thalberg's death in 1936, Marx became a producer and was behind a number of popular films, includingLassie Come Home(1943) andSon of Lassie(1945). During the 1950s he began working as an executive producer forDesilu Productions,where he was responsible for films and shows such asThe General Electric Hour.During the 1970s, he returned to writing books, such asMayer and Thalberg: The Make-Believe Saints(1975). Marx also helped Hollywood historians with their research for television shows. One such show, the TNT special seriesMGM: When the Lion Roars,was telecast in 1992 during the month Marx died of heart failure at age 90.[2][3]
Deadly Illusions
[edit]In 1990, Samuel Marx and Joyce Vanderveen publishedDeadly Illusions.Marx was MGM's Story Editor and a friend of bothPaul Bern(husband of actressJean Harlow) andIrving Thalbergat the time of Bern's death.
In 1932, Marx had gone to Bern's house before the police were informed of the body's discovery. Thalberg told Marx that Bern was dead, and that he should not go inside, but rather he should go home. The next day, Marx was among the studio executives who were told byLouis B. Mayerthat, to avoid scandal, the death would have to be ruled "suicide because of impotence".
In the 1980s, Marx re-investigated the case, scrutinizing the available evidence. He concluded that Louis B. Mayer andHoward Strickling,MGM's head of publicity, with Irving Thalberg's collusion, had ordered the evidence be tampered with before the police arrived.
Marx concluded that Bern was murdered by his formercommon law wife,Dorothy Millette. Two days after Bern's death Millette jumped from theDelta King,a ferryboat traveling from San Francisco toSacramento.Her shoes and her jacket were found on the boat, while her body was found a few days later by men fishing on theSacramento River.
Marx also concluded that the alleged "suicide note" had in fact been written by Bern some weeks prior to his death. Bern had given roses to Harlow to apologize for a minor quarrel about the secluded location of their home. With the roses was a note which was later presented as a false suicide note by Los AngelesDistrict AttorneyBuron Fitts,whom Mayer bribed to suppress the case.
References
[edit]- ^Allan, John B. (July 5, 2011).Elizabeth Taylor.Blackbird Books.ISBN9781610533232.
- ^"Samuel Marx is Dead; Hollywood Writer, 90".The New York Times.March 6, 1992.
- ^"Hollywood Story Editor Samuel Marx Dies".
- Samuel Marx and Joyce Vanderveen:Deadly Illusions(Random House, New York, 1990), re-published asMurder Hollywood Style – Who Killed Jean Harlow's Husband?(Arrow, 1994,ISBN0-09-961060-4)
External links
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| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
- American male screenwriters
- Jewish American screenwriters
- Jewish film people
- Film producers from New York (state)
- Burials at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
- 1902 births
- 1992 deaths
- Writers from New York City
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer executives
- 20th-century American businesspeople
- Screenwriters from New York (state)
- 20th-century American male writers
- 20th-century American screenwriters
- 20th-century American Jews