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GROUCHO: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JULIUS HENRY MARX by Stefan Kanfer. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000. 465 pages. $30.
This excellent and highly readable biography of film legend Groucho Marx will be enjoyed as a piece of American cultural history even by readers who are not fans of the Marx Brothers'comedy.
Groucho's journey to the vaudeville stage, and eventually Broadway, Hollywood and television, began on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
He was the third of five sons born to immigrant parents: Sam, a poor (in both senses of the word) tailor and the high-spirited Minnie, whose parents had been unsuccessful vaudeville performers.
By his mid-teens, he quit school to help support the family. The highlight of his youthful singing career was when his portrait improbably graced the sheet music of Farewell Killarney. His brothers soon joined him onstage and eventually changed the act from singing to comedy, featuring the spontaneous humor and anarchic hijinks that had been a hit at family gatherings.
Groucho received his nickname for the so-called "grouch bag" he wore, an early version of the fanny pack, designed to hide cash. Harpo was named for his musical inclinations and Chico was originally Chicko because he chased chicks. The youngest members of the troupe were Zeppo and Gummo.
The brothers were so successful on the vaudeville stage that they soon were tapped to appear in their own Broadway musical. The debut of The Cocoanuts featured so many ad libs that it ran far over its scheduled performance time and theater critics missed the end of the show in order to make their deadlines. Writer George S. Kaufman despaired of ever hearing his lines performed as written while audiences returned to see essentially a different show each night.
The next stop was Astoria, Queens, where the film version of The Cocoanuts was shot. The Marx Brothers had an early failed silent film under their belts and Paramount head Adolph Zukor balked at their $75,000 asking price. Charmer Chico was sent in and bargained him down to $100,000.
The static, stagy look of their early films is a result of the film-making technology of the day. Early movie cameras were very noisy, so the camera and its operator had to be completely enclosed in a soundproof box. Even the paper props used in films were soaked in water, because a rattling newspaper could sound like a thunderstorm when picked up by the microphone.
They went on to make 13 films for Paramount, MGM, United Artists and RKO, including Animal Crackers (1930), Monkey Business (1931), Horse Feathers (1932), Duck Soup (1933), A Night at the Opera (1935) and A Day at the Races (1937). Groucho later hosted the long-running and successful TV quiz show You Bet Your Life with sidekick George Fenneman.
One of the Marx Brothers'funniest scenes was penned by a Buffalo, NY native. Legendary comedy writer Al Boasberg was brought on board to punch up the script for A Night at the Opera and added the scene in which twenty people jam into a tiny shipboard stateroom.
The Marx Brothers were no picnic to work with. Herman Mankiewicz called them "mercurial, devious and ungrateful," and screenwriter Sid (S.J.) Perelman said they were "treacherous to a degree that would make Machiavelli absolutely kneel at their feet."
Kanfer's biography does not whitewash the unattractive aspects of Groucho's personal life. Despite his success, Groucho nursed a sense of grievance against the world and, like many others with a similar conviction, felt entitled to vent his bitterness and rage on those closest to him. Through the years, the women in his life were particular targets. His skinflint ways and bullying behavior drove his wife Ruth to tears and, eventually, to alcoholism. The next two wives fared about the same. Actress Margaret Dumont, whose dignified mien made her the object of ridicule and pranks on screen, received the same treatment in real life. On one occasion, Groucho informed a hotel detective that she was prostitute. Searching her room, the house dick found various Marx brothers in various stages of undress. Dumont fled mortified to spend the night sitting in a train station.
Groucho's hostile, sarcastic persona was funnier onscreen and Kanfer includes several pages of dialogue from the Marx Brothers'movies, as well as assorted one-liners. Remembering those scenes and laughing at those lines are almost enough to make you forget the sad and ugly parts of the story.