Samuel Marx
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Samuel Marx (January 26, 1902, New York City - March 2, 1992, Los Angeles, California) was an American film producer, screenwriter and book author.
He started working in 1919 as an office boy at the New York office of Universal Pictures, where he met Irving Thalberg, then secretary of 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 Lassie Come Home (1943) and Son of Lassie (1945). During the 1950s he began working as an executive producer for Desilu Productions, where he was responsible for films and shows such as The General Electric Hour. During the 1970s, he returned to writing books, such as Mayer and Thalberg: The Make-Believe Saints (1975). Marx also helped Hollywood historians with their research for television shows. One such show, the TNT special series MGM: When the Lion Roars, was telecast in 1992 during the month Marx died.
In 1990, Samuel Marx and Joyce Vanderveen published Deadly Illusions. Marx was MGM's Story Editor and a friend of both Paul Bern and Irving Thalberg at the time of Bern's death. Back in 1932, he had actually gone to Bern's house before the police were informed of the discovery of a dead man. He spoke with Thalberg outside the house. Thalberg told him Bern was dead, that he (Marx) should not go inside, that the sight was too gruesome and that he should go home. Next day, he was among the studio executives who were told by Louis B. Mayer what the case would have to be to avoid scandal: "Suicide Because of Impotence!"
In the 1980s he investigated the case, and for the first time scrutinized the remaining available evidence. He concluded that Louis B. Mayer and Howard Strickling allowed the evidence to be tampered with before the police arrived and that Irving Thalberg went along with the lie. Further, Marx claimed that Bern was murdered by Dorothy Millette, who then committed suicide. Marx also claimed that Los Angeles D. A. Buron Fitts had been bribed by MGM to keep a lid on the case.
[edit] References
- 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)
