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An updated paperback version of the book heralded as "a new
benchmark in Marx scholarship" by the Los Angeles Times Before film
made them international comedy legends, the Marx Brothers developed
their comic skills on stage for twenty-five years. In Four of the
Three Musketeers: The Marx Brothers on Stage, Robert S. Bader
offers the first comprehensive history of the foursome's
hardscrabble early years honing their act in front of live
audiences. From Groucho's debut in 1905 to their final live
performances of scenes from A Night in Casablanca in 1945, the
brothers' stage career shows how their characters and routines
evolved before their arrival in Hollywood. Four of the Three
Musketeers draws on an unmatched array of sources, many not
referenced elsewhere. Bader's detailed portrait of the struggling
young actors both brings to vivid life a typical night on the road
for the Marx Brothers and illuminates the inner workings of the
vaudeville business, especially during its peak in the 1920s. As
Bader traces the origins of the characters that would later come to
be beloved by filmgoers, he also skillfully scrapes away the
accretion of rumors and mythology perpetuated not only by fans and
writers but by the Marx Brothers themselves. Revealing, vital, and
entertaining, Four of the Three Musketeers has taken its place as
an essential reference for this legendary American act. Now, the
updated edition adds newly discovered performances-some submitted
by readers-and additional information provided by descendants of
long-departed vaudevillians mentioned in the book.
Susan Fleming appeared in three Broadway shows and twenty-eight
films before she turned her back on a show business career she
never really enjoyed or wanted. The role of her lifetime came when
she married Harpo Marx in 1936. Together, they raised four adopted
children and enjoyed one of Hollywood's happiest and most
successful unions. But their twenty-year age difference made Susan
a young widow in 1964. On her path to Hollywood, Susan worked in
Broadway musicals produced by Florenz Ziegfeld and George White and
befriended a young dancer who would later be known as Paulette
Goddard. In Hollywood, she appeared in films with stars like John
Wayne, W.C. Fields, and Katharine Hepburn and worked at all the
major studios. But it wasn't until she fell in love with a
confirmed bachelor, twenty years older than her, that she found her
purpose. Her story is the counterpoint to the beloved and acclaimed
Harpo Marx autobiography, Harpo Speaks! Susan's frank, opinionated
perspective provides a true look behind the curtain and details
Harpo's last years, following the publication of his own book.
Susan's account of her more than thirty-year adventure with Harpo
includes encounters with people like Charlie Chaplin, William
Randolph Hearst, Salvador Dali, Somerset Maugham, Joan Crawford,
Howard Hughes, George S. Kaufman, Helen Keller, Oscar Levant, Jean
Harlow, Bugsy Siegel, Samuel Goldwyn, Menachem Begin, Ginger
Rogers, Alexander Woollcott, and of course, the Marx Brothers.
Susan provides an inside look at the family and pulls no punches
when discussing her brothers-in-law, who weren't always her
favorite comedians.
Before film made them international comedy legends, the
MarxBrothers developed their comic skills on stage for
twenty-fiveyears. In Four of the Three Musketeers: The Marx
Brothers onStage, Robert S. Bader offers the first comprehensive
history ofthe foursome's hardscrabble early years honing their act
in frontof live audiences. From Groucho's debut in 1905 to their
final live performancesof scenes from A Night in Casablanca in
1945, the brothers' stagecareer shows how their characters and
routines evolved beforetheir arrival in Hollywood. Four of the
Three Musketeers drawson an unmatched array of sources, many not
referenced elsewhere.Bader's detailed portrait of the struggling
young actorsboth brings to vivid life a typical night on the road
for the MarxBrothers and also illuminates the inner workings of the
vaudevillebusiness, especially during its peak in the 1920s. As
Bader traces the origins of the characters that would latercome to
be beloved by filmgoers, he also skillfully scrapes awaythe
accretion of rumors and mythology perpetuated not only byfans and
writers but by the Marx Brothers themselves. Revealing,vital, and
entertaining, Four of the Three Musketeers will take itsplace as an
essential reference for this iconic American act.
(Applause Books). Groucho Marx was a comic genius who starred on
stage and in film, radio, and television. But he was also a gifted
writer the author of a play, two screenplays, seven books, and over
100 articles and essays. This newly expanded collection presents
the best of Groucho's short comic pieces, written over a period of
more than fifty years between 1919 and 1973 for the New York Times,
the New Yorker, the Saturday Evening Post, Variety, the Hollywood
Reporter, and other newspapers and magazines. Here is the one and
only Groucho on his family, his days in vaudeville, his career,
World War II, taxes, and other topics from his love of a good cigar
to his chronic insomnia, from "Why Harpo Doesn't Talk" to "The
Truth About Captain Spalding." The familiar irreverence, wordplay,
and a dash of self-deprecation bring Groucho's wisecracking voice
to life in these pages, firmly establishing him as one of the
world's great humorists. Groucho Marx and Other Short Stories and
Tall Tales (a title of Groucho's own choosing) is essential reading
for Marx Brothers fans, and a hilarious and nostalgic trip through
the twentieth century.
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