Hollywood

Arthur Marx, TV writer was 89

groucho-arthur-marx-nyt.jpg
Marx, who died today at home in Los Angeles, was the son of Groucho Marx and wrote two books about life with his famous dad. In Hollywood, Arthur Marx teamed with Robert Fisher to write scripts for several Bob Hope films and television sitcoms, including “McHale’s Navy,” “Petticoat Junction, “My Three Sons,” “All in the Family,” “The Jeffersons” and “Maude.” They wrote 41 episodes of “Alice” from 1977 to 1981, the New York Times obit says. In 1993, Marx wrote an unauthorized biography of Hope that revealed a bunch of unflattering details, about which Publishers Weekly said:

The author breaks new ground in sleaziness with hearsay anecdotes about Hope's alleged rigging of a beauty contest in return for the winner's sexual favors, his supposed stranding of an actress on a remote Pacific isle because she rebuffed his advances, unsubstantiated stories of Hope and Bing Crosby exchanging lovers, and one tale that combines oral sex with a case of poison ivy. This is a hatchet-job that many readers will find irresistible.

Photo: "Life With Groucho"/Simon & Schuster in the NYT


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