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Martin A. Grove, who wrote more than 3,300 columns for The Hollywood Reporter over 25 years as one of his era’s most respected and influential film experts, has died. He was 83.
Grove died Tuesday at Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center of cancer-related natural causes, his daughter, Universal Pictures vp media Alyson Grove, told THR. He inspired her to work in the business, she said.
Grove’s “Hollywood Report” column, which centered on box office analysis, marketing and distribution, appeared on the pages of THR from July 1985 through January 2000. His “Filmmaker Focus” column, which showcased the art of making movies, then served as an exclusive THR.com feature through December 2010.
“My dad truly loved his time at THR,” his daughter said.
The amiable Grove also appeared as a movie expert on CNN’s ShowBiz Today from 1989-2001 and as a movie analyst for CNNfn’s The Biz from 1996-2004, and his entertainment business reports could be heard weekday afternoons on the all-news Los Angeles radio station KNX from 1999-2004.
In 2001, Grove taped luncheon interviews at Wolfgang Puck’s Spago in Beverly Hills with the likes of Ron Howard, Ridley Scott, Steven Soderbergh, Wolfgang Petersen and Michael Bay for the AMC series Behind the Screen.
And from 1990-2008, he produced, wrote and provided the voiceovers for 90-second sponsored movie previews distributed to airlines including American, United, Delta, Northwest and TWA.
Born on March 30, 1943, in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, Martin Allan Grove received his bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University, where he majored in art history and journalism and worked for the campus radio station, WRSU.
En route to earning his master’s degree in screenwriting from NYU’s School of the Arts by taking night classes, he spent his days at ABC, where he handled radio network publicity and then business publicity for ABC television.
As management, he helped keep WABC, New York’s top-rated radio station, on the air during several extended talent and engineering walkouts in 1967 by filling in on the graveyard shift for such popular DJs as Bruce Morrow (Cousin Brucie) and Dan Ingram.
“As the strikes went on,” he said, “WABC created new jingles promoting ‘The Strikebound Sound of 77 WABC,’ and I had my own ‘Marty Grove’ jingle to use on the shows I did.”
Grove later directed publicity for the advertising firm Foote, Cone & Belding, headed corporate communications and investor relations for 20th Century Fox in New York and Los Angeles and led marketing for Warner Bros. Television in Burbank (at Fox, he did marketing for its Movietone News library of newsreels as well).
Before studios routinely announced box office figures, Grove served from 1985-95 as an Entertainment Tonight consultant for a Monday feature that projected grosses, and he appeared frequently on ET as a film expert during this period.
Grove interviewed celebrities and filmmakers for THR’s televised coverage of the 1987 Cannes Film Festival and anchored the paper’s TV coverage of the NATO/ShoWest theater owners conventions in Las Vegas from 1987-91.
Starting in 1988, he hosted half-hour talk show episodes about Hollywood and two-minute commentaries about movies for Movietime, the cable network that later became E! Entertainment; produced, wrote and hosted the series For Your Consideration about Oscar and Golden Globes contenders on Time Warner Cable in New York and L.A.; and was a film industry analyst for the Financial News Network.
During his career, Grove showed up on the NBC Nightly News, the CBS Evening News, ABC World News Tonight, Today, 20/20, CNBC’s Power Lunch and Fox News programs was quoted in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time, Washington Post, Sunday Times of London, Rolling Stone and Agence-France Presse.
Since 2008, he served as CEO and president of ZAMM.com, for which he wrote, produced and voiced hundreds of movie preview videos as part of a content partnership with Amazon.
A member of the WGA West, Grove sold screenplay pitches to Paramount and Columbia that he wrote and developed but that were not produced.
He also authored a novel set in the world of network television, 10 pseudonymous mystery novels and a half-dozen pop-culture paperbacks, including an authorized biography of John Travolta, an instant biography of Elvis Presley published within days of his 1977 death and profiles of The Beatles, The Osmonds, Henry Winkler and Paul McCartney.
Along the way, he still examined the estimated box office numbers every Sunday and the actuals every Monday.
In addition to his daughter, survivors include his wife of 55 years, Marjorie; son Geoffrey; daughter-in-law Hilary; granddaughter Reesa; and grandson Rogan.
English (US) ·