Samuel Marx was hired at MGM by producer Paul Bern and became a close friend. He ultimately rose to the position of chief story editor during the busiest period of the industry. When Bern, who married MGM's blonde screen bombshell Jean Harlow, died of what was ruled a suicide, a skeptical Marx began sleuthing, unwilling to believe the conclusion that had been reached.

"Deadly Illusions" represents Marx's effort to solve what has become a longstanding mystery in Hollywood, with many unconvinced, as was the MGM story editor, that Bern had died of a self-administered gunshot wound. Marx concludes that MGM executive Eddie Mannix, operating as studio boss L.B. Mayer's troubleshooter, rigged the suicide attempt to cover up a dark secret about Bern's past, which resulted in his being murdered. To reveal more would be to give away the suspense which should be the reader's discovery.

This is a book that depicts Hollywood during a glorious period of productivity. Marx was a busy on the scene participant and makes you as a reader feel that you were an intimate part of it as well.

Samuel Marx was there. He was a writer and producer at MGM when the lion really roared and was good friends with all the artists and stars and legends on the lot. One very good friend, the sensitive and talented producer Paul Bern, married Jean Harlow, and died under mysterious circumstances shortly after the wedding. Like a Beverly Hills Columbo, Marx solves the mystery. He has access to the real clues, not the ones that have become part of sensational myth, and he makes the case for the only credible version of what must have happened I have ever read in any of the overly sensational, salacious Harlow biographies out there (with the exception of Eve Golden's "Platinum Girl").

This book takes a unique approach to web-based training. Where other books focus on telling us how to develop web-based training or focus on the technology choices we have while designing and developing WBT, these authors provide us with practical tools that help us determine if we SHOULD be offering a specific course over the web. In addition, the surveys and questionnaires provided on the included CD can be modified or used as-is. They help us with the business decisions and the intructional decisions that go into this determination. I bought a copy and have recommended it to others. Great book!

I read that book many years ago while at VICTORIA,B.C.where my sister lives.I had pick it up at a local library.It was actually the first real account of RODGERS and HART and their collaboration of twenty-three years(1920-1943),apart from DICK RODGERS's autobiography published the year before.Several passages of this book are about LARRY HART and his bout with booze that finally killed him at age 47.The story of how the show I MARRIED AN ANGEL was created is really something to read.Apparently,LARRY wrote half the lyrics of that show in one single night.If you like RODGERS and HART,you'll enjoy reading that book.There is only one problem:it was never reedited.Local librarys or used book stores are your alternatives.

Two Hollywood murder cases wrecked havoc on the lives of those closest to the victims. One was William Desmond Taylor. The second was Paul Bern.

When Paul Bern was found dead one morning, suspicions flew and continued to haunt his young bride Jean Harlow until her own tragic end. Did Paul Bern kill himself? Did Jean Harlow do it? Did he really beat poor Jean to a pulp, pushing her to the edge? Or was another force at work?

Like William Desmond Taylor before him, Paul Bern had a secret life that Hollywood knew little about. A woman, Dorothy Millette had lived with Bern as man and wife before his Hollywood glory days. Could Dorothy have reappeared in Bern's life and pulled the trigger on her former lover/common law spouse before ending her own life mere days later?

The only people who will truly ever know what happened at those in the room the night of Bern's death. But Samuel Marx builds a strong case for Paul Bern being murdered and not at the hands of his young wife. If Dorothy Millette was the real murderer, the rumor mill of 1930s Hollywood and a certain Harlow biographer of the 1960s did Jean Harlow and Paul Bern a great injustice and insult.

Even Hollywood's earliest scandals are frequently raked over today: the infamous Arbuckle trials, the William Desmond Taylor murder case, and the questionable suicide of actress Thelma Todd are but a few examples of 1920 and 1930s scandals still being discussed into the new millenium. One of the most famous of these tales concerns Paul Bern, an MGM producer, who was found dead of a gunshot wound in his Beverly Hills some two months after his marriage to Jean Harlow. Word quickly spread that Bern was sexually inadequate and he had taken his life when even marriage to Hollywood's reigning sex goddess failed to arouse him. His death was quickly ruled a suicide and that was that.

Or rather, that would have been that except for one little thing: the whispered rumor Paul Bern was murdered. Over the decades that whisper has enticed a great many writers, but none approach the subject with such dogged determination as Samuel Marx and Joyce Vanderveen. Making use of Marx's insider connections (he was an MGM story editor), the two piece together a somewhat speculative but extremely credible tale of insanity, bigamy, police corruption, studio power, murder, and suicide to considerable effect. The cast of characters in this 1930s scandal are fascinating in and of themselves, and although the style in which it is written is a bit simplistic DEADLY ILLUSIONS makes for a great rainy-day read; fans of true crime, Hollywood scandal, and Jean Harlow will find it a must have. Recommended.

In this book, the authors provide us with a nice update and future prospects of the tissue engineering techniques in the field of maxillofacial surgery. The basic science principles in which these therapies are based on have been cared and thoroughly described. In addition, the application to oral surgery techniques and the future prospects for other applications are focused along the different chapters of this book. I think this book is a very adequate approach to tissue engineering for those surgeons who want to introduce themselves in these new techniques.

The Communist Manifesto was among the most feared and banned books in the 20th century. After reading it, I wondered why. What could cause so much fear in less then a hundred pages? The book, though short, is a good read, and doesn't talk above the heads or down to it's readers. But it proves the absurity of communism and why it was destined to doom. Pitting the workers (the prolitares) against the upper class in a constant struggle for a piece of the pie, it dictates that the workers will forever be the stepping stones of the elite to gain, control, and retain wealth. Some of Marx and Engels theories make sense, and many labor unions of today adopt many of the manifestos beliefs, but the authors forgot to take one very serious downfall of the human race into account: that of greed. As most of the communist countries show the people that become powerful and retain the control of the communist parties become rich and often the exact people that they claim to hate, living it great wealth while the "workers" suffer. (though it is mostly a satire of socialism, check out Animal Farm, a perfect example). This short books is a good read, and I encourge everyone (especially those that fear communism taking over the world, yet knowing nothing about it) to read it, and seeing why their fears are unfounded, and why it wouldn't (and didn't) work.

Marx's "Communist Manifesto" is a response to human cost of Industrial Revolution. It was a time when Europe was coming of age, with the development of modern industry and the potential world market. This market had an immense development to commerce, to navigation and to industry. These improvements were enacted at a cost of society as a whole divided into two hostile camps -the bourgeoise and the proletariat. Marx immersed himself into the suffrage of the new urban proletariat at the hands of bourgeoise modern capitalist. His solution lay in the abolition of private property living in a society where all are equal.

I found this document an interesting read, as this short concise book simply explains the "theory" of one economic system. It should be noted the democracy prevalent at the time of this books introduction closely resembled an oligarchy, in which the rich and powerful ruled the weak. The impact of socialist ideology on this situation was great: labor movements were created, egalitarianism became a greater part of democracy ideology and the lower classes became more significant to the political system than they had ever been before.

The greatest weakness one can note of Marx's argument, is his failure to predict the significance of the middle class in the nations. Marx's view was that the middle class would either be absorbed into the working class or proprietors. The success of the middle class in present times accounts for the failure of Marx's theory.

The Communist Manifesto is a superior piece of political work. Karl Marx was able to put great information of his Workers theories into one small volume that is 20 times lighter than his work of "Das Kapital"; - having nevertheless great information and inspiration descibing the idea of Communism. This explains the motivations and stages of his idea of a Socialist government, written in a key time when the industry and modern Capitalism first started to develop, using each other to exploit the working class for capital. This book can be read by anyone, and includes a small glossary of important terms to help the reader understand what Marx and Engels are trying to explain. I recommend this book to anybody who considers themself a non-bigot and open-minded person. This is truly one of the greatest, if not the greatest pieces of political literature ever written.