- Samuel Marx
Samuel Marx (
January 26 1902 ,New York City -March 2 1992 ,Los Angeles, California ) was an American film producer, screenwriter and book author.Life
He started working in 1919 as an office boy at the New York office of
Universal Pictures , where he metIrving Thalberg , then secretary of 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, including "
Lassie Come Home " (1943) and "Son of Lassie " (1945). During the 1950s he began working as an executive producer forDesilu 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."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 andIrving 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, with Irving Thalberg's collusion, had ordered the evidence be tampered with before the police arrived.
Marx claimed that Bern was murdered by his former common law wife, Dorothy Millette. Two days after Bern's death Millette jumped from the "Delta 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 later presented as a "suicide note" by Los Angeles
District Attorney Buron Fitts , who was bribed by MGM to suppress the case.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)
External links
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