Suzanne Marx, Valley’s Social Skyrocket

There are perhaps a few dozen women in Los Angeles who could be considered leaders on the Los Angeles social circuit. Some get there because of the men they marry; some because of the money or family name they’re born with and some because of their hard work in volunteer activities. Most socially prominent women are clustered in enclaves of old money, like Hancock Park or San Marino, or of glittery new wealth, like Beverly Hills.

Suzanne Marx is the first name society watchers mention when they talk about the San Fernando Valley. As one observer put it, “You know if Suzanne Marx is invited to something it’s got to be big.”

Marx’s energy is legendary. She serves on the Los Angeles County Grand Jury Monday through Thursday, raises funds for the Music Center on Fridays, “catches up with things” Saturdays and works on other projects Sundays and evenings. These include serving on the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Centennial Commission, the Los Angeles Police Crime Prevention Advisory Council and the West Coast fund-raising committees for Harvard and Princeton universities.

Her route upward began with parents’ organizations at the prestigious, private Harvard and Buckley schools her sons attended, picked up steam with her work for the Music Center and really began to move when she was invited to join the Music Center’s prestigious fund-raising arm, the Amazing Blue Ribbon.

Appointed to Commission

Most recently and gloriously, this route led to an appointment by Secretary of Interior Donald P. Hodel to the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Centennial Commission: Marx and her family will be at the gala event in New York this Fourth of July weekend.

“Everyone should be able to help,” Marx says of her activities. “Everyone should be able to fit in. I certainly didn’t come from inherited money, that sort of thing. I have worked hard, very hard. I think one is recognized now from hard work, from dedication. It takes a lot to put on fund-raisers.

“But,” she adds quickly, “I also admire people who don’t have the time, but who do have the financial means to give.”

Marx, 49, is attractive and very slim, with large brown eyes, straight brown hair, a narrow face, a wide mouth and a turned-up nose. She is wearing a beautifully cut floral print dress by Ungaro, sheer stockings, black patent leather pumps and a double choker of pearls.

She has two desks in her sprawling home in the Encino hills: one, checkered with neatly laid out business cards, is where most of her work takes place. The other is just for answering mail. Every day, she gets up at 5:30 a.m. and reads four newspapers.

‘I’m So Organized!’

“I’m so organized!” she exclaims in an enthusiastic, husky voice. “I’m over-organized!”

Marx is so organized that, despite all her projects, she is never too busy to be helpful. She returns calls promptly and writes immediate thank-you notes for the smallest favor. She prepares for an interview by typing up, in capital letters, six pages of thoughts on her various activities: “I FEEL IT IS SO VERY IMPORTANT THAT WE HAVE OUR GREAT MUSIC CENTER HERE FOR ALL OF US TO BE ABLE TO ENJOY” reads one, and, “I AM ALWAYS READY TO JUMP IN TO HELP WHEN THERE IS A WORTHY CAUSE AND THERE IS A NEED.”

How important to her is the social cachet of her activities? “It is very prestigious,” she acknowledges. “But, to me, the real highlight of the Music Center is when we bring the 20,000 children in (for the annual Children’s Festival.) Ninety percent of them have never been exposed to a cultural institution before, and, when you see their eyes light up, it just gives me chills.

“To think that one might be inspired to become a ballerina, or a musician, because of this experience!”

No Valley-Based Charities

But, although Marx has lived in Encino 30 years, she is involved with no Valley-based charities. “I admire what the San Fernando Valley Cultural Foundation does,” she says, “but I want to reach people from all areas. My charity work has always been centered downtown and on the East Coast.” Marx lives in the Valley only because that’s where her husband, internist and cardiologist Dr. Joseph Marx, happened to set up practice.

She leans forward on the plush, yellow floral print sofa in her office, a large room off the master bedroom that was her husband’s study before she took it over. A few fine-looking, elegantly threadbare Oriental carpets are scattered over the yellow shag rug.

“Do you mind if I have a cigarette?” she asks, getting up and walking briskly over to the desk to put one into a gleaming black cigarette holder. “I really don’t smoke much, and I never smoke in front of Doctor--ever, ever, ever!”

Besides smoking, her one other vice is not exercising, “Never!” she exclaims. “ Never! To me, it’s boring. But Doctor is an avid tennis player. I sometimes play with him.”

Husband’s Presence Felt

“Doctor” is not at home this weekend afternoon, but his presence is felt. The walls of the upstairs hallway are decorated with framed statements uttered by J. Marx, M.D. over the years. One reads: “Genius is given to few, but anyone can excel by intensity of effort”--J. Marx, M.D., 1977.

In that spirit, the Marxes’ four sons, ages 29, 28, 27 and 20, have all worn the family motto, “Try,” on silver chains around their necks since they were 5 or 6 years old. “They’d lose them in the park sometimes,” Marx recalls, “but I’d just replace them.”

Craig, the oldest, went to Princeton and Yale and is an on-the-air reporter with a TV news program in Savannah, Ga. Gary went to Harvard and the London School of Economics and is a newspaper reporter in Orlando, Fla. Eric went to Georgetown and Vanderbilt Law School and is business manager for a Los Angeles production company. Jason, the youngest, is a freshman at Princeton and is on the water polo team.

All four are good-looking and strongly resemble their father, a huge portrait of whom looms off to the side of the bed in the master bedroom. “Doctor was so handsome when he was younger,” says Marx.

Tells of First Date

When they met, she was a teen-ager home on vacation from the University of Arizona, where she was majoring in accounting. Her husband-to-be was 30 and had just finished his residency at Los Angeles County Hospital. Their first date was arranged by her parents who, Marx recalls, “said they had this wonderful doctor to fix me up with.”

Not every 18-year-old girl would be so agreeable to her parents’ efforts to match her up, especially with a man 12 years her senior. “Oh, there was kind of a big fight at first,” Marx recalls cheerfully, “but we met, and fell in love, and, a few months later, we were married. I had children immediately.”

What does Marx do when she has a rare spare moment? She reads magazines: Time, Newsweek, Los Angeles and Vanity Fair. Her last book read was “Iacocca.”

“I have to tell you,” she says, “I’m a very people-oriented person. I love to read about people and what got them to the point they are.”

At night, Marx often has dinner meetings, and she and her husband do a lot of entertaining in restaurants. “Cooking is not high on my list of things I like to do,” she says. “I’d rather do a fund-raiser.” Her lack of interest in food helps keep her a svelte size 4. She often skips lunch, grabbing a candy bar instead.

‘Hair Done Once a Week’

“The one thing I do for myself,” Marx says, “is have my hair done once a week.” What about shopping? “I’ve simplified it. Being a size 4, I just wear certain designers. Adolfo. Ungaro. I ordered the Ungaro fall collection at his salon in New York. For evening I collect antique clothes,” she says, leading the way to a walk-in closet the size of a dressing room that contains dozens of hats and scores of dresses and suits.

What’s in the future for Suzanne Marx? “I’m thinking about running for public office,” she says. “There’s an opening on the school board I was considering. But I think I can make a bigger contribution right now volunteering. I’d like to go on a county or state commission. I have a keen interest in that.”

Suzanne Marx, political candidate, is not too hard to imagine. And, should she run for office and lose, it’s plain she would take it in stride.

“The boys and I, and Doctor, have always felt you take a setback and make something positive out of it,” she says. “You don’t look back.”