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 MGM studios and was hired by Thalberg as Story Editor, the executive in charge of the sreenwriting 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 '50s he began working as an executive producer for Desilu television productions where he was behind shows and films such as The General Electric Hour. During the 1970s, he returned to writing books like 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 was informed of the discovery of a dead man and saw Thalberg tampering with the evidence. 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 whole still available evidence. He concludes that Bern was murdered by Dorothy Millette who then committed suicide: 2 days after Bern's death she jumped from the ferryboat Delta King, traveling from San Francisco to Sacramento. Her body was found a few days later by men fishing on the Sacramento River. Her shoes and her jacket were found on the boat: typical for suicides, she took them off before jumping into the water. The famous "suicide note" that actually wasn't one, had in fact been written by Bern, but some weeks earlier: to apologize for a minor quarrel with Jean about the secluded location of their home. Jean wanted to live in a livelier place. Bern had bought a bunch of roses and presented them to Jean with the note that became a "suicide note" in the eyes of Los Angeles D. A. Buron Fitts who was bribed by MGM to keep the lid on the case.

• 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)

[Samuel Marx on IMDb]