Jack Marx

Jackson Gregory Marx (born John Marr, 1965), known as Jack Marx, is an Australian journalist and author. He was born in Maitland, New South Wales and is the second youngest of four children.

Career

Marx moved to Sydney in his late teens to pursue a career in music with the rock band I Spartacus (previously known as 'A Dog for Jonathon'), one of the better 'underground' bands of the day in Newcastle. By his own account, the band was less than successful, Marx becoming "the type of shocking wanker that today I can't stomach ... a guy who thought his destiny was to thrill the world on the rock and roll stage". When I Spartacus disbanded in 1990 — the dissolution due, in part, to Marx's own "spiral into drug and alcohol dependence" — Marx began writing reviews and articles for the free Sydney music press and was soon employed by the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian edition of Rolling Stone as a freelance music correspondent. He became notable for reviewing albums while openly admitting he had not listened to them, choosing instead to search the packaging and liner notes for "the tell-tale signs that you're in for an hour of crap".

Jack Marx (bridge)

John C. H. Marx (1907 – 29 August 1991), usually known as Jack Marx, was a British international bridge player who was instrumental in developing the Acol bidding system.

Life

Marx went to Repton School, and served as a Captain in the Royal Army Service Corps during World War II.

As a competition bridge player he was a genuine expert, though not the most pragmatic player. Marx was a modest man and widely loved; indeed, he was one of the few bridge players who never made an enemy. He did not, however, have an equable temperament, and that limited his career as an international player.

Marx was a member of the Harrison-Gray team, and played as Gray's partner to win the European Bridge League championship teams-of-four for Great Britain in 1950, but he turned down the chance to play in the inaugural Bermuda Bowl world championship the same year:

Despite his temperament, Marx won the Gold Cup in 1937 and 1947, and once more in 1971 after Gray's death.

Though he never wrote a bridge book, Jack contributed many articles to bridge magazines, compèred many bidding competitions, and appeared on many bidding panels. He held a variety of administrative positions in bridge organisations, and was a British Bridge League selector for many years. After a stroke in the 1970s he recovered sufficiently to play regularly at the London Duplicate Club, but no longer played in major competitions. In his later years, he was known among players of a younger generation as "The Headmaster", and to the less reverent young players of a still younger generation as "Big Daddy Acol".