Marmo's fascination with the industry started with seeing the "Dawn of the Dead" in 1978 (after which he said he "didn't sleep for days"). But his watershed moment occured as a kid, when he and a friend named Frank quietly peeked into funeral home and watched an embalmer begin to work on a body.
"I was like, 'Oh my god,' we couldn't believe what we were seeing because there was a little crack in the window," he said, though workers soon spotted the kids. "They chased us, but we were young kids and we got away. But me and Frank kept going back. We kept going back."
By age 15, Marmo's morbid curiosity had led to a part-time job at the funeral home.