PDF Monkey Business The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers Louvish Hollywood Biographies Simon Louvish 9781566560337 Books
Download As PDF : Monkey Business The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers Louvish Hollywood Biographies Simon Louvish 9781566560337 Books
This is the first full and properly researched biography of all five Marx BrothersChico, Harpo, Groucho, Gummo and Zeppo. First and foremost, this is the saga of a family whose theatrical roots stretch back to mid-19th century Germany. From Groucho Marxs first warblings with the singing Leroy Trio, this book brings to life the vanished world of Americas wild and boisterous variety circuits, leading to the Marx Brothers Broadway successes and their alliance with New Yorks theatrical lions, George S. Kaufman and the Algonquin Round Table. Never-before-published scripts, well-minted Marxian dialogue, and much madness and mayhem feature in this tale of the Brothers battles with Hollywood, their films, their loves and marriages, and the story of the forgotten brother Gummo.
PDF Monkey Business The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers Louvish Hollywood Biographies Simon Louvish 9781566560337 Books
"I have never read an author so glaringly in need of a strong editor as Louvish. What's most painful about his atrocious writing style is that-- as noted in other reviews-- it ruins the impact of what are otherwise unusually well-researched books with a surprising amount of new information.
Louvish the researcher would be a gift from the gods if he would only limit himself to being a researcher for a more competent writer. While I can understand not wanting to limit one's career to such an anonymous, thankless role, he's simply a terrible, terrible writer: self-congratulatory, affectedly ornate in his sentence construction, and embarrassingly unfunny whenever he attempts to emulate the comedic style of his subjects. Perhaps this would be fixable by a ruthless editor (crossing out every single one of his jokes would be a good start). But the more established he becomes with each new biography published, the slimmer becomes any hope that he'll ever be reigned in.
Unfortunately for fans of 1930s comedy like myself, with Louvish one the very few authors consistently writing modern volumes on the leading figures of the era, I'm too interested in his subject matter to ignore his work, however deep my disdain. And so I find myself continuing to suffer through book after book despite the fact that I can't turn a page without being annoyed.
Two stars rather than one because there truly is excellent research here (I've found the factual errors noted in other reviews quite insignificant, *especially* when compared to the unbelievable sloppiness of most published work on the era). And he does reveal some brand new information for the dedicated Marx fanatic, something increasingly rare and precious as the years tick by.
The background provided on Margaret Dumont is the high point of the book, for e.g., but typically, even this is marred by the author's constant, and i mean CONSTANT, need to declare just how myth-shattering and novel his new information is.
For the best career overview of the Marx Brothers, I can't recommend more highly Joe Adamson's Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Sometimes Zeppo: A History of the Marx Brothers and a Satire on the Rest of the World (A Touchstone book), the only book I've read where the attempt to incorporate Marx-style humor works. For a more biographical slant, Hector Arce's Groucho (The Autorized Biography). Despite the singular title, it's a solid and well written look at the team as a whole (necessarily focusing on Groucho from the 1950s on).
I recommend skipping Louvish's books unless, like me, you are a total fanatic for new scholarship on early film comedy. If so, you'll value the new research, but have some aspirin handy."
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Monkey Business The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers Louvish Hollywood Biographies Simon Louvish 9781566560337 Books Reviews :
Monkey Business The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers Louvish Hollywood Biographies Simon Louvish 9781566560337 Books Reviews
- I have never read an author so glaringly in need of a strong editor as Louvish. What's most painful about his atrocious writing style is that-- as noted in other reviews-- it ruins the impact of what are otherwise unusually well-researched books with a surprising amount of new information.
Louvish the researcher would be a gift from the gods if he would only limit himself to being a researcher for a more competent writer. While I can understand not wanting to limit one's career to such an anonymous, thankless role, he's simply a terrible, terrible writer self-congratulatory, affectedly ornate in his sentence construction, and embarrassingly unfunny whenever he attempts to emulate the comedic style of his subjects. Perhaps this would be fixable by a ruthless editor (crossing out every single one of his jokes would be a good start). But the more established he becomes with each new biography published, the slimmer becomes any hope that he'll ever be reigned in.
Unfortunately for fans of 1930s comedy like myself, with Louvish one the very few authors consistently writing modern volumes on the leading figures of the era, I'm too interested in his subject matter to ignore his work, however deep my disdain. And so I find myself continuing to suffer through book after book despite the fact that I can't turn a page without being annoyed.
Two stars rather than one because there truly is excellent research here (I've found the factual errors noted in other reviews quite insignificant, *especially* when compared to the unbelievable sloppiness of most published work on the era). And he does reveal some brand new information for the dedicated Marx fanatic, something increasingly rare and precious as the years tick by.
The background provided on Margaret Dumont is the high point of the book, for e.g., but typically, even this is marred by the author's constant, and i mean CONSTANT, need to declare just how myth-shattering and novel his new information is.
For the best career overview of the Marx Brothers, I can't recommend more highly Joe Adamson's Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Sometimes Zeppo A History of the Marx Brothers and a Satire on the Rest of the World (A Touchstone book), the only book I've read where the attempt to incorporate Marx-style humor works. For a more biographical slant, Hector Arce's Groucho (The Autorized Biography). Despite the singular title, it's a solid and well written look at the team as a whole (necessarily focusing on Groucho from the 1950s on).
I recommend skipping Louvish's books unless, like me, you are a total fanatic for new scholarship on early film comedy. If so, you'll value the new research, but have some aspirin handy. - I found "Monkey Business" very enjoyable and interesting. I had trouble putting the book down. It reads very quickly and is not dull or academic in the least.
The one drawback I found was that the book is not as focused as Louvish's bio of W. C. Fields, but then here he is following five people as opposed to one.
Still, this was a very good book. I liked the way Louvish challenged some old stories about the Marx Brothers, and I liked the way he made a case for Chico being the chief "behind the scenes" brother in business matters. His assessment of the films seemed quite fair to me, and I found it interesting that the Marxes (or their writers) originally intended "Duck Soup" to be more political, and that they made it after plans to film "Of Thee I Sing" fell through.
Still, this is perhaps not the best "first book to read" on the Marx Brothers. I would nominate Joe Adamson's "Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Sometimes Zeppo" for that. - An excellent book not only for Louvish's analysis of their films but for showing how their homelife at turn of the century New York influenced their humor. The author highlights the personality differences in each brother Groucho was penny-pinching, cynical, and yes grouchy; Unlike his cinematic woman-chasing (literally) image, Harpo was happily-married and monogamous; and Chico was an inveterate gambler and womanizer.The author does a good job of highlighting their hilarous off-screen antics; of particular value is his recounting of their cruel but always hilarious practical jokes on the stiff and dignified Margaret Dumont.
- Louvish's detailed biography of the MB's is very good indeed. Starting in mid action, sympathetic, never genuflecting , the book goes on to describe what became of the Marx Brothers. Humorwise the author isn't trying to be the sixth Marx Brother any more than he's trying to be fourth Beastie Boy, the second Maureen Lipman, or the fifth Beatle. He's just trying to set the scene, which I feel will add to the book's value as time goes on, because that's what good history is.
Of all the secondary Marx(i.e. surname-not-Marx) material I have read, this is the one I have the most affection for, mainly because it is not trying to be definitive or exhaustive or curatorial, and yet strangely is better at all three than anything else Marx-related I've read in the past. Even if you've never seen a MB movie, you will probably find plenty here to amuse. - An excellent book not only for its analysis of their films, but for their homelife, which is where their unique humor originated. Like their onscreen characters, the brothers were distinguised by personality in real-life. Groucho was penny-pinching and yes, grouchy; Harpo, unlike his on-screen persona did not chase women, but was married and monagamous; Chico did chase women, was an inveterate gambler(at one point, he owed money to the mob) who couldn't remember his lines. The best part of the book is the author's description of their cruel, but always funny practical jokes on Margaret Dumont.
- Extremely well-researched but the writing is awful. His relentlessly jokey prose not only made reading difficult, but it sometimes made his points impossible to comprehend (e.g., the oft-told mule in Texas anecdote). Stick with the infinitely superior "Harpo Speaks!", by far the best book on the Brothers, and give this one a pass unless you are a total Marxist!
