Prior to his production career, Marcus worked for FBO and then RKO as a sales executive, reaching the level of vice president in both organizations.

[2] Growing up in Buffalo, Marcus was an avid theater-goer, attending the performances of many stock theater companies who passed through the city.

Douglas who directed a film for Jawitz Pictures, entitled Watered Stock (later retitled Beware of the Law), in the sale of its domestic and international rights.

As part of that event, Marcus took the rare step of giving authority to his sales force to directly approve contracts with exhibitors.

[14] Before the year was out Marcus was promoted to Vice President of FBO,[15] and he predicted that 1929 would be the turning point of the motion picture industry, with the advent of sound.

[20] Hiram S. Brown, head of RKO, named Marcus as his liaison officer, splitting his time between Hollywood and New York at the beginning of January 1932.

[29] However, in addition to being the head of Radio's comedy shorts division, Marcus was given the title of associate producer for features by the end of the summer of 1934.

Marcus' first feature was Kentucky Kernels, starring the comedy duo of Wheeler and Woolsey, and directed by George Stevens.

[33] In all, Marcus produced the final six films made by duo between 1934 and 1937, the others being The Rainmakers (1935), Silly Billies (1936), Mummy's Boys (1936), and High Flyers (1937).

[34] Marcus would continue in his dual role at the studio for the 1935–36 season, scheduled to produce 36 shorts as well as three feature films.

[37] One of the first films Marcus produced in the new season was the next Wheeler and Woolsey comedy, The Rainmakers, this picture directed by Fred Guiol.

[38] That season also saw Marcus produce a "tone film", Metropolitan Nocturne, wherein there was no dialogue, instead a musical composition, in this instance the symphony of the same name by Louis Alter, was interpreted on the screen using all pantomime.

[45] High Flyers was originally titled The Kangaroos (the name of the play on which it was based), and initially had a relatively unknown Betty Grable as the female lead.

[48] At the studio's annual sales meeting in June 1937, Briskin announced that Marcus' position within the organization would remain unchanged for the upcoming 1937–38 season.

[53] By the end of February 1938 that arrangement was made official by Leo Spitz, the new president of RKO,[54] and in August Marcus was given a new three-year contract with the studio.

[55] In 1938 RKO created a new type of motion picture, the exploitation film, in response to potential issues from the Hays commission and the National Legion of Decency about the number of crime dramas which were being produced by the studios.

In early 1942 he was the associate producer on The Spoilers for Universal Pictures, which starred John Wayne, Randolph Scott, and Marlene Dietrich.

[64] His first completed project for Fox was Crash Dive, which he finished producing after Milton Sperling was called up to join the United States Marine Corps in September 1942.

[65] This was followed by They Came to Blow Up America, a spy thriller starring George Sanders, for which Marcus' production quality received positive reviews.

Starring Franchot Tone, Ann Richards, and Tom Conway, the picture was produced and released by Eagle-Lion Films.