Customer Reviews (8)

groucho!!!
Book is GREAT,. Alot of laughs,. although not from the book, heres a little bit of Grouchos TV show.
One of my favorite lines that RARELY EVER AIRS.

Groucho is at his desk talking with a lady.
Groucho: "I hear you have 15 children all with the same man"
Lady; "Yes its true,. I have 15 children all with the same man."
Groucho: "Why do you have so many children?" Lady: "because I love my husband"
Groucho, turns, stares at camera for about 15 seconds, then says
"I love cigars, but every once in awhile I take it out of my mouth"
Gee, I wonder what he was refering too..LOL..

The art of verbal slapstick, it is fading in the era of verbally crude humor
The Marx Brothers movies are some of the best demonstrations of verbal slapstick ever written and delivered. In this book, some of the best frames from their movies, Cocoanuts, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, Duck Soup, A Night at the Opera, A Day At the Races, At the Circus, Go West and The Big Store are presented. The dialogue associated with the still is included and from it, you can get some of the feel for the verbal bantering that takes place between the characters. While it is impossible for any combination of stills and text to truly capture the action in a Marx Brothers movie, this book comes as close as possible. Reading this book will make you want to rent their movies and watch them once again.

This Book Quacks My Duck Up !!!
I purchased this wonderful book way back in 1972. Today, I still love to grab a quick laugh from it. The contents here are great quotes & Bits from the films of the madcap four, then three {after Zeppo leaves} Marx Brothers. this book use photo-stills taken from the scenes of the movies they are from, matched with the words spoken in those scenes.

Most material used herein is from the brother's earliest movies: "Coconuts" thru "A Night at the Opera", as the final films that the brothers made, have less quality material in the writing department. This is NOT a biography of their movies or personal histories... BUT if you enjoy the great humor of The Marx Brothers, this one is a MUST READ. You are indeed LUCKY that this is still available.
FIVE STARS!!!

Useful Before Video...
While this book was very useful before you could buy the movies on VHS or DVD, the need for it is somewhere reduced in the 21st century.It is, in essence, a collection of still frames from assorted Marx Brother's movies with some of the dialogue printed beneath the frames.

It is very funny reading and spares you the need to see some of the later films.On the other hand, why not just buy "Duck Soup" and enjoy it first hand?

The Essence of the Marx Brothers
I first got this book in high school (early 70's). It turned me on to a life-long love of the Marx Brothers. I even used it for scripts for a student film.

If you want to get a true feel of the wit, timing andmarvelous play on words of the Marxes, this is most definitely the place. It is a pity that this book is now out of print.I would give my eye teethfor a copy. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a collection of radio scripts of the comedy series starring Groucho, Waldorf and Chico Marx which ran for six months from November 1932. They have recently been discovered and are published here for the first time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Loved this book
I used to have a copy of this book that I brought with me on overseas travels. Whenever I needed a laugh I could just sit down and read some of the radio plays in here, some of the funniest material I've ever read. They're no less funny for having been copied and redone in the decades since they were first broadcast (often by the Marx Brothers themselves) and it is so easy to hear the voices of Chico and Groucho reading their lines.

A great book!

Sure to Bring Laughs
This remarkable set of radio scripts from 1932-1933 almost brings the fast-talking Marx Brothers back to life.It seems that these scripts could only be performed by Groucho and Chico Marx in their hilarious and fast-insulting style.The scripts bring many laughs as the detectives go forth to flirt with women, uphold justice, and insult the stuffed shirts.These scripts bring many smiles, but are also a little depressing as no known tapes exist of these long-forgotten radio broadcasts from the pre-television era.

Essential!
Reading this book is just like watching a classic Marx Brothers movie.There are the same hilarious jokes, the same wacky conversations between Goucho and Chico.In fact, some pieces of dialogue in this book made it to the movies!As you read, you will be amazed at these comic geniuses and their perfect sense of comedic timing.A definite must for all Marx Brothers and comedy fans.

An Absolute Must for Marx Brothers Fans
If I hadn't been a merchandiser for WaldenBooks when this priceless gem was published, I probably never would have heard of it.What a loss that would have been for me. If you've seen any of the Marx Brothers' movies, you'll actually hear their voices (and honks) as you read these hilarious scripts.You'll love it.One word of caution, though.Make it a point to read it before you climb into bed with your significant other, or you'll soon find yourself ejected for disturbing their rest with your frequent outbursts of laughter.

Hello, We must be going!
My proposal for a better world: make a package of this book together with Gideons'Bible and stick it onto hotel drawers everywhere in the planet! No wonder this is the surviving marxism, the ideology and enchantment of insulting boredom and its favorite characters. The book's a gem, a nugget. No wonder, too, it is rare and shaped to match the conoisseurs. Waldorf Tecumseh Flywheel and Emmanuel Ravelli are but the finest profiles of the western finest comedy tradition, navigating from naïve and deliciously childish circumstances up to blasting chaotic humor inferno. This is a book to taste like the best wines: one entire case at the time and with no hang overs...never ever!Groucho and Ravelli are stowaways as the ship arrives in New York. They were caught by the Captain but are confounded with a famous adventurer, Sir Roderick by an unaware airheaded socialite (they've had stollen Roderick's luggage and his name was printed on the tags). As the captain wanted to apologyse he says:

Cap - Pardon me.... Groucho - Now what are you going to beef about, captain? Cap - I want to apologyze, sir. I had no idea you were Sir Roderick Mortimer, the explorer. Groucho - Well, it came as a surprise to me, too. ... Read more

Product Description
The temptation is to start with a classic wisecrack: One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I don't know.

But Groucho Marx, like Stefan Kanfer's superb biography, consists of much more than just jokes. Underneath the most famous Marx brother's oneliners and carefree attitude was a life dominated by deep sadness, professional dissatisfaction, and personal turmoil.

Beginning with the Marx Brothers' family heritage and their youth in turn-of-the-century New York, we see Julius and his brothers Adolph and Leonard become Groucho, Harpo, and Chico. We go backstage as they develop their routines in vaudeville, on Broadway, and, finally, in Hollywood. Groucho's story unfolds against the backdrop of the changing world around him and his star-studded milieu, which includes other classic comic figures such as Charlie Chaplin and W. C. Fields, as well as great names like Ben Hecht, George Gershwin, and even T. S. Eliot. Kanfer delves into Groucho's complicated relationships with the people around him — his failed marriages, his destructive behavior toward his children, his clashes with the self-indulgent Chico. The Brothers become the biggest movie stars in the world — a success bitterly followed by slow decline as age, years of profligacy, and ego all catch up with them. Finally, we witness Groucho's extraordinary resurrection — coming back from the career-dead to host the television quiz show You Bet Your Life, which cements his legendary status in American culture.

Groucho Marx proved that comedy could be raucous, sophisticated, and wildly unexpected — all at once. Groucho raises the curtain on this icon of twentieth-century cynicism and irreverence in an authoritative, affectionate, and unsparingly honest look behind the cigar. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (35)

Life Parodies Art
Stefan Kanfer's "Groucho" is one of several biographies that I've read about Julius "Groucho" Marx, and is one of the better books on the comedian.The passage of time has allowed Kanfer to bring us the full story of Marx's life, death and post-death legal situation, to his advantage.There is not much new information about Marx's life that could not be found in other biographies.However, I found in Kanfer's book a significant issue in Marx's life that was not drilled home as effectively in any other biography that I have read: the inability of Marx to separate his stage self from his private life.It's something that should be a common-sense point of acknowledgement, but Kafner seemed to display this point more effectively than other authors.Amid the wreckage of lives of those around Groucho, this is a significant point, as ugly as it may be, but these are (or were) real people who were affected by the same kind of insults that we laughed at when Groucho was on the stage.I'm still a Groucho fan, still enjoy his humor and ad-libs and TV/movie work - he was a brilliant American original - but my admiration for him is from afar, not as a husband or as a father.

Mixed feelings
Having previously read "Harpo Speaks," "Growing up with Chico," "Groucho and Me," and Lillian Roth's "I'll cry tomorrow" and having seen all the Marx brothers films, I honestly felt like this book was merely a hodgepodge of all those previously mentioned sources.There are parts where he quotes word for word what Lillian Roth wrote about working on Animal Crackers, or what Maxine Marx said in her book, and tries to pass it off as his own.There are also long sections where he just reprints dialouge from the films and TV show.That said, the parts involving Grouchos personality and his relationships with women and his family were totally new to me, and very interesting (although I do agree with the earlier reviewer who said it seemed that the author did not like Groucho and tried to paint him negatively.) I don't regret reading this book, true fans will probably know enough to form their own opinions.But I reccomend a number of other Marx-related books before this one. ("Harpo Speaks" being my #1)

A good book on one of the greatest showmen
This biography traces the life of one of the most prolific actors/comedians of the 20th Century - Groucho Marx. We are introduced to the man behind the great (perhaps the greatest?)comic genius.

Groucho (né Julius Henry) Marx was the third son of German Jew Immigrants in New York. His mother Minnie (the driving force behind the Marx Brothers) was influenced by her brother Al Shean who had a reasonably successful career seeing which Minnie decided to enter her five sons into showbiz. After various permutations and combinations and numerous failures and struggles, the Marx Brothers made an indelible name for themselves first in Vaudeville (stage shows featuring a variety of dance, song, humor, and magic) and then in Broadway and the movies as The Marx Brothers (Chico, Harpo Groucho and Zeppo). The brothers had a glorious career from the 1920s to the 1940s despite the depression in between.

Groucho later went on to have a highly successful solo career as a radio (and later TV) host of the quiz show "You bet your life" for which he won critical acclaim.

The sad part about Groucho's life was that it seemed to be based on the dictum of why-have-it-simple-when-you-can-have-it-complicated. Though extremely successful professionally, Groucho had an unhappy personal life especially with regard to the women in his life (mother, wives and daughters). His three marriages were nowhere nearly as successful as his life in the theatre / movies. Groucho's relationship with and (ill?)treatment at the hands of Erin (his female companion towards the end of his life) is also touched upon. The author carefully offers no comments on Erin's behaviour towards Groucho.

The book is on-the-whole well researched though at some points it does seem that Kanfer wants to hurry through for lack of details. Kanfer bases his information on writings of and interviews with Groucho's peers, friends, relatives (especially his daughter Miriam). The reader is given minute details of the comedians life including how he got his nickname - he used to carry a `grouch' bag during his vaudeville days (the `o' at the end of each of the brothers nicknames was taken from a popular comic strip of those days, Sherlocko the Monk ).

The book is interspersed with the quotable quotes Groucho made personally and in his broadway hits and movies such as Duck Soup and Animal Crackers. Though most of the quotes are very incisive and humorous, there are portions in the book where the reader is given an overdose of dialogues from the movies.

After reading the book,Groucho's visage (moustache/thick eyebrows/cigar-in-the-mouth) and hisinimitable quotes (`Outside of a dog a book is a mans best friend, inside of a dog it is too dark to read') remain firmly entrenched in the readers mind.

The Magic Word is "Enigmatic"
This is a fascinating...and frequently sad account of "the life and times" of a truly great comic artist. First with his brothers and then on his own, he created a public persona wearing a "hard clown mask", a persona which he then became in his private life. Eventually and literally, on-screen and off, what people saw is what they got. Kanfer examines Marx's relentlessly unpleasant relationships with his mother and with his brothers, his inadequacies as a husband and father, his immaturity in "matters of women, money, and power", the impact of Irving Thalberg at MGM on the Marx Brothers movies made at that studio, and the agonies Marx experienced during his later years. Many (most?) of his most painful wounds were self-inflicted but, as Kanfer suggests, Marx also did great damage to family members. How ironic that someone capable of making so many people howl with delight would be "incapable of expressing strong emotion, no matter how deep." That is a realm withinMarx which even Kanfer was unable to penetrate.

OK Bio
I enjoyed reading this biography of Marx, but I have to agree with the reviewers who claimed it was light on research.It also seems that the author disliked his subject and went out of his way to present him in an unflattering light.Otherwise, it seems to cover his life from the cradle to the grave adequately, but without brilliance. ... Read more

Product Description
The Marx Brothers Scrapbook ... Read more

Product Description
RARE 1989 FILMFAX #14 MAGAZINE featuring THE MARX BROTHERS cover & the article "MARX BROS. LOST TV PILOT 'DEPUTY SERAPH' plus Peter Lorre in Mad Love, tribute to John Carradine, 100 pgs of B movie mania, Johnny Weissmuller Jungle Jim series, John Zacherle interview, Veronica Carlson Hammer Glamour girls, Stanley Kramer interview & more! NICE COLLECTIBLE! ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: Victor Borge, Krusty the Clown, Woody Allen, Seinfeld, Marx Brothers, the Three Stooges, Howard Stern, Larry David, the Producers, Doctor Zoidberg, Larry Gelbart, Henny Youngman, Rhoda, Will ... Read more

Product Description
Great movie still from the Mrarx Brothers film "Room Service".Born in New York City, the Marx Brothers were the sons of Jewish immigrants from Germany.The brothers were from a family of artists, and their musical talent was encouraged from an early age. Harpo was hopelessly untalented on the guitar and piano (he boasts in his autobiography that he only knew two songs, and that he could only play them with one finger); however, he became a dedicated harpist, which gave him his nickname. Chico was an excellent pianist, and Groucho played the guitar and sang. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
In the 1930s and 40s the Marx Brothers kept the world laughing in good times and bad with such screen classics as Animal Crackers, Duck Soup and A Night at the Opera. Comedy was always the driving force behind the Marx Brothers team on-screen. Off-screen they were three unique individuals who shared a love of music. Music from Marx Brothers’ plays and movies has been recorded by a variety of artists since the early 1920s, but it may surprise some to learn that the Marx Brothers, themselves, also left behind an impressive body of work on record. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

An enjoyable,masterful,and scholarly book
A very enjoyable and well researched book. Easy to read and full of interesting information. A prodigious work of scholarship yet very readable. Best book I have read in years.

Not particulary daffy over this book
I won't quibble over such fannish preoccupations as why Harpo's hair is blond on the cover or why Zeppo is not there at all; nor more serious concerns such as that this work has no index (yes, it does need one). My biggest complaint is that this book does not finally and formally end the long-lived and oft-repeated falsehood that the song most associated with Chico Marx (the song he "can't think of the ending" of in Animal Crackers, that is the main theme and is played by Harpo in Monkey Business, and is Chico's motif in Horse Feathers) is "Sugartime" (which itself is often misidentified by its first line, "Sugar in the Morning").

The song in question is, "I'm Daffy Over You" written by Chico and Sol Violinsky (Sol Ginsberg). "Sugartime" was written by Charlie Phillips and Odis Echols (born in 1937 and 1930, respectively) and published in 1957, and was a huge hit for the McGuire Sisters in 1958. Yahn lists "I'm Daffy Over You" in connection with a radio program and sheet music, but does not identify it with any film. He clearly misidentifies the song several times as, "Sugartime."

That this book, ostensibly focusing on the Marxes' music, does not address this issue is shameful, particularly since the matter has been resolved on Marx Brothers listservs and websites (for instance, see Stefan Timphus' magnificent site at marx-brothers dot org [Amazon won't allow URLs, y'know]; you can even find the lyrics to "I'm Daffy Over You" there in the Media Files > MIDI Files).

How reliable is the balance of Yahn's research?

GREAT COMEDY BOOK CONTRIBUTION!
Michael Yahn has made a significant contribution the the Marx Brothers legacy with this book.Every comedy aficionado should have a copy of this work in their library.Music and comedy go hand in hand with the Marx Brothers and the rhythm of their written work is completely musical.It is remarkable to witness the extent of the Marx Brothers influence on pop music and a thrill to finally see all of their contributions compiled in one resource.Thank you, Mr. Yahn, for a detailed, delightful take on the legendary, musical Marx Brothers!

Hooray for Michael Yahn
Given the large number of books devoted to the Marx Brothers, it's amazing that so little attention has been paid to their music.That omission is finally corrected with the publication of The Music of the Marx Brothers: A Bio-Discography.Michael Yahn successfully weaves the Brothers' extensive and sometimes tangled discography with a wealth of biographical material.The resulting book, which includes music performed by Groucho and Harpo as well as others, is as fun as it is informative.It is sure to please both the casual Marx Brothers fan (if such an animal exists) as well as the hard-shell Marxist.Hooray for Captain Spaulding--and for Michael Yahn!
... Read more