Samuel Marx
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Samuel Marx (January 26, 1902, New York City – March 2, 1992, Los Angeles) was an American film producer, screenwriter and book author.
Life
Marx was born to a Jewish family.[1] and started working in 1919 as an office boy at the New York office of Universal Pictures, where he met Irving Thalberg, then secretary to Universal boss Carl Laemmle.
On May 24, 1930, he arrived at the Metro-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, including
Deadly Illusions
In 1990, Samuel Marx and Joyce Vanderveen published Deadly Illusions. Marx was MGM's Story Editor and a friend of both Paul Bern (husband of actress Jean Harlow) and Irving Thalberg at 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 by Louis B. Mayer that, 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 and Howard 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 former
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 Angeles
References
- ISBN 9781610533232.
- ^ "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 as Murder Hollywood Style – Who Killed Jean Harlow's Husband? (Arrow, 1994, ISBN 0-09-961060-4)
External links
- Samuel Marx at IMDb
- Samuel Marx at Find a Grave