Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx [Hardcover]

Stefan Kanfer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 9, 2000

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

According to this engrossing, exhaustively researched biography, Groucho Marx (1890-1977) was a grouch who merged his raffish public persona with his dour, peevish private self. Former Time cinema critic Kanfer presents Julius Henry Marx as a browbeating spouse who drove his three wives to alcoholism or heavy drinking, and to divorce. Though he could be an endearing parent, his aloofness and fault-finding alienated his son and two daughters, in Kanfer's verdict. Groucho remained a perpetually insecure "infantile grownup," Kanfer avers, because of his troubled relationship with his aggressive stage mother, Minnie, who took eldest son Chico (Leonard) as her pet, and thought Groucho unattractive and let him know it. This is not a debunking biography; on the contrary, Kanfer calls Groucho the father of modern comedy, whose influence extends from M*A*S*H to Jerry Seinfeld to Woody Allen to daily conversation. Although Kanfer tries to warm up to his subject on a personal level, Groucho comes off as a thoroughly dislikable misogynist who nursed lifelong grudges against his children, wives, managers and compatriots. Long stretches of this bio make for painful, even depressing reading, despite a truckload of gemlike anecdotes, incisive mini-biographies of all the Marx Brothers and invaluable film and stage criticism. Still, the book's first half, which follows the brothers' comic quartet from struggling vaudeville act to stardom, is exhilarating. Photos. Agent, Kathy Robbins. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Groucho Marx mastered the worlds of vaudeville, theater, movies, radio, and television, yet he remained a moody, morose, unfulfilled man. Plagued by nagging financial insecurities, partly realized literary ambitions, and difficult, unsatisfying relations with his wives, lovers, and daughters, Groucho was a "depressive clown," notes Kanfer (The Eighth Sin). This is the show business saga of "Minnie's boys," Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and, sometimes, Gummo and Zeppo. Groucho never really had a childhood, as mother Minnie drove the boys relentlessly as they perfected their trademark antic, ad-lib style. Many books on the Marx Brothers pay homage to their innovative wisecracks, word play, and nonstop non sequiturs, but Kanfer shows the show biz realities behind the madness. The book also details Groucho's ambivalent relations with his son, Arthur; his brothers; New Deal liberals; intellectuals and collaborators like S.J. Perelman; and his custodian, Erin Fleming. Although Chico and Harpo remain shadowy figures in this portrayal, this is the first comprehensive portrait of Groucho in years. Recommended for large public and academic libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/1/00.] Pubbing in the same month as Kanfer's book, this work may signal the beginning of a Marx Brothers revival. The brothers' nonstop barrage of verbal and visual gags delighted average moviegoers and intellectuals alike. Kanfer focuses on Groucho, where Louvish, the author of The Man on the Flying Trapeze, a biography of W.C. Fields, expands the canvas to appraise the contributions of the other brothers, plus Margaret Dumont, a regular target of the brothers' mayhem. Chico was a compulsive gambler and risktaker. Harpo, whose comedy career was limited by his silent act, found fulfillment in family life. Dumont, Louvish shows, was more than a dimwitted comic stooge. (In fact, the Marx Brothers often failed to attract a female audience, an interesting topic covered more fully by Kanfer.) The Marx Brothers' story is now encrusted with numerous myths and dubious anecdotes, and Louvish does a solid job of separating fact from fiction and includes a family tree and a discussion of the FBI's file on the group. Like Kanfer's book, Monkey Business includes generous excerpts of classic Marx Brothers film dialog. Recommended for public library film collections.
-Stephen Rees, Levittown Regional Lib., PA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1st edition (May 9, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375402187
• ISBN-13: 978-0375402180
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 7.4 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,726,203 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A solid, readable account, June 2, 2000

By 

M. Ritchie (Columbus, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx (Hardcover)

This book does a nice job of putting together bits of information and stories from a variety of sources into one volume. The author's style is strong and brisk and keeps you reading. The best parts of the book are his discussions of the plays and movies, although he pads things out with a few too many pages of direct film dialogue transcription. Even when the material was very funny on its own, the Marxes' delivery is what made their movies classics, and no amount of quoting can really bring Groucho's performances to life on the page. The first part of the book is, by necessity, also largely about Chico and Harpo, and Kanfer keeps all the brothers in focus as long as they remain important to Groucho; Kanfer also nicely charts the various rises and declines of Groucho's later life.

There are two main problems: one is that there are virtually no notes, despite the vast amount of direct quotes from various sources. There is a list of major published works on Groucho, with some given helpful annotation, but more detailed notes should have been present. The other problem is that, too often, Kanfer forgets to let us know what year he's talking about, or how much time is passing between sections. Several times, I found myself flipping back and forth, trying to place an incident in time. The book is strictly chronological, but the details get slippery. I would also have liked a few more photographs. Overall, recommended--almost certainly the best bio yet about a cherished and never to be forgotten man.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Yes, I'm a Marxist!, June 12, 2000

By 

John DiBello (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx (Hardcover)

As a Marx Brothers fan, I've purchased and read many of the biographies/critiques of Groucho and Bros. (and there are a *lot* of them!), and I found this to be one of the most entertaining. We've reached the point in history where first-hand biographies can no longer be written--most of Groucho's friends, collaborators, and family are dead, so Kanfer's is likely the first of books that will study Groucho from a more historical perspective, using newspaper articles, movie reviews, and the books that have gone before (Kanfer points out, a little defensively for my tastes, that Groucho told so many tall tales you couldn't take first-person testimony at face value anyway). "Groucho" makes for an effective (if somewhat detached) bio: overall quite entertaining, not skimping on Marx's low points and somewhat pessimistic worldview as well as his more familiar triumphs. By all accounts, including this one, Groucho was not a guy you'd want to pal around with unless you had the sharpest wit (and even then he'd dislike any attempt to outshine him), and Kanfer does a credible job of portraying Groucho's sourness as well as handling a controversial subject: just how badly Groucho was treated by women in his later years (and to be perfectly fair, his less-than-stellar treatment *of* women throughout his whole life). I have to praise an aspect of this book not many other reviewers have mentioned: it is immensely funny, not because Kanfer is a humorous writer, but because he has the good sense to occasionally step aside and recount some of Groucho's funniest lines or dialogue. Still, the occasional sloppiness in writing and editing (as mentioned by other Amazon reviewers) did make me scowl once in a while as I read it. I wouldn't call this the definite Groucho bio-- but it's an entertaining read and a decent synthesis of the many books I've read before with a slightly fresh spin. Still, given Groucho's disarming, misleading wit about anything personal, can there *ever be* a definitive bio? I'm eagerly awaiting Simon Louvish's "Monkey Business"--given his excellent *and* entertaining W.C. Fields bio, perhaps it's Louvish who can best do justice to the Marxes--but with this enigmatic cult icon whose greasepaint mustache and quick words hid a much more complex man, I wouldn't be surprised if Groucho's up there having a good old laugh on all of us who are trying to analyze his wit rather than just enjoy it.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Worthy of eleven years in Twelveworth, September 20, 2000

By 

Mike Stone - See all my reviews

This review is from: Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx (Hardcover)

Mr. Kanfer makes a point late in this book that once he was pushed into show business at an early age, Julius Henry Marx ceased his existence, eternally replaced by the acerbic, wisecracking, iconoclastic character "Groucho". The man no long was; only the persona remained. The detailing of this problem -- which ruined Milos Forman's recent Andy Kaufman biopic, i.e. the examination of the man where the public persona is omnipotent -- is the real strength of this book. Kanfer does a great job showing how Groucho could never escape being Groucho; he was either the funny little man with the greasepaint moustache, cutting people down with his razor sharp wit, or he was nothing. It's a great psychological portrait.

The vaudeville sections are bright and lively, really capturing the anarchic spirit that the brothers held. Kanfer does a good job showing the transition from vaudeville to movies, including the fears and trepidations of those involved, especially Groucho's. Even though we know that worldwide fame would eventually come, the road traveled to get there is filled with much tangible drama.

Groucho's later years are done particularly well. They're especially effective when the reader gets an indication of how far Groucho has fallen: a man who once verbally terrorized all the women in his life gets his karmic retribution. It's quite a sad chapter; I as a reader couldn't wait to read of Groucho's death, just to put the old man out of his misery. Very powerful.

Unfortunately, the book is weak in several other areas.

The sections dealing with Julius' childhood needed a deeper biographical sketch of his mother Minnie Marx. We are told repeatedly of her great will and dominance over the boys, but we only see glimpses of that. Kanfer does yeomen's work researching the other areas of Groucho's life, so why skimp out on the beginnings?

Later, when dealing with the heyday of the Marx Brothers movies, it is apt to re-quote a criticism Groucho himself makes on page 380: "[Critics] do a new kind of writing. They rent our movies, tape-record them and write down all the good jokes in their books. Quite a writing feat!" He's talking about the glut of criticism following the Brothers' renewed popularity in the 1960s, and Kanfer uses the quotation wisely to that extent. Unfortunately, he himself uses that very same hackneyed technique! There are transcriptions of scenes from 'Duck Soup' and 'Horse Feathers' that run for pages. Granted, they are almost as entertaining on paper as they are on screen, but they serve little purpose in a biography. Kanfer tries to tie the scenes into the narrative of Groucho's life, but he generally fails to do so effectively.

When Groucho has his popular rebirth, with the television show 'You Bet Your Life', what should be an important time in contributing to the enduring appeal of the comedian is glossed over. A period of ten years feels like just two, before we are thrust into Groucho's twilight. I would have loved more anecdotes and analysis from this era.

My suggestion to those interested is that this is a good start to get an understanding of Groucho. For those already versed in Marx lore, this book will probably infuriate rather than enlighten you.