"Mr. B" or Comforting Thoughts About the Bison: A Critical Biography of Robert Benchley (Contributions to the Study of Popular Culture) [Hardcover]

Wes D. Gehring (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0313252424 | ISBN-13: 978-0313252426 | Publication Date: October 30, 1992 | Edition: annotated edition

With the cooperation of Benchley family members, and using diaries and correspondence and much archival material, Gehring has written a fresh and lively biography of humorist Robert Benchley. Known for his development of the comic anti-hero in essays, columns, film scripts, as a screen actor, and on stage and radio, Benchley emerges as a fascinating individual whose significance as a pivotal American humorist is fully documented. Benchley's times and places--including New York's Algonquin Round-Table set of the 1920s and Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s--are colorfully depicted, and there are interesting glimpses of friends and colleagues such as Dorothy Parker, S. J. Perelman, Donald Ogdon Stewart, and Groucho Marx. The flavor of Benchley comes through not only in observations and anecdotes but in a section reprinting ten of his letters, six of his Life "Drama" columns, and a collage of his published comments on favorite comedians. Author Gehring also provides an annotated bibliography of Benchley's books and selected shorter works and a bibliography of books and articles about him, a chronology of events highlighting his life and career, an annotated filmography, and a selected discography. Illustrations include photographs spanning Benchley's career and reproductions of his own sketches and cartoons. Mindful of Benchley's warning not to get too serious over laughter, Gehring has produced a thorough critical and bibliographical examination of a comic persona, which is also a fond celebration of a great humorist.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

WES D. GEHRING is Professor of Film at Ball State University where he specializes in film comedy.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Greenwood Press; annotated edition edition (October 30, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0313252424
• ISBN-13: 978-0313252426
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,839,833 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "Mr. B" not bad but could "B" better, April 20, 2004

By 

A. W. Senior "The Carpal Tunnel Kid" (Utica, New York United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: "Mr. B" or Comforting Thoughts About the Bison: A Critical Biography of Robert Benchley (Contributions to the Study of Popular Culture) (Hardcover)

Wes Gehring contributes a great deal to Benchley scholarship, being the first Benchley biographer to sift through the letters and extant diaries. His investigations have been extensive, and aside from beating the whole "antihero" theme to death, he offers intelligent commentary on Benchley's life and work. But this self-professedly scholarly study (listed at so high a price) is full of typographical and other errors that a good line-editor and/or fact checker should have corrected. For example, within two pages of the main text, Gehring has Benchley writing the introduction to S. J. Perelman's "Strictly for Hunger." Another howler occurs when Gehring inserts a note into Benchley's letter describing Artie Shaw's near-fatal illness: "Shaw lived until 1991." This would no doubt surprise Mr. Shaw, who is still alive and well at this writing. Some of the difficulty may have originated with Gehring's (and his secretary's) unfamiliarity with the computer--he goes on at length about his trouble with the machine. This ineptitude is perhaps meant to evoke the spirit of Benchley, who admittedly could not change the ribbon in his typewriter without becoming "festooned like Laocoon." The difference is that Benchley's fumbling was funny. Gehring's is just irritating, particularly if you paid full price for the book. (I didn't.) This book is for the true Benchley fan, who will be able to wade through the mistakes to find the nuggets of new scholarship that made it ultimately worth reading.