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The Wicked Wit of the West: The last great Golden-Age screenwriter shares the hilarity and heartaches of working with Groucho, Garland, Gleason, Burns, Berle, Benny and many more

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Groucho Marx and S. J. Perelman both agreed: the fastest quippers, the best wits able to come back with "one line impromptus" were George S. Kaufman, Oscar Levant, and Irving Brecher. Irving Who? Brecher was behind the camera or behind a typewriter most of the time, but the subtitle of his memoir will tell you that he had connections: _The Wicked Wit of the West: The Last Great Golden-Age Screenwriter Shares the Hilarity and Heartaches of Working with Groucho, Garland, Gleason, Burns, Berle, Benny, & Many More_. The book is by Brecher "as told to Hank Rosenfeld", and for once the collaboration seems genuine and meaningful. Rosenfeld is himself a comedy writer, and he spent seven years hanging around the elderly Brecher, in plain hero worship. Much of the book is a transcription of their conversations, and it works well as a documentation of a friendship between two men who like bantering and kidding. It also includes some of Brecher's standup routines, but best of all, it has his stories of working and laughing with comic stars all through the twentieth century. Brecher died last November at 94, and didn't get to see the publication of the memoir he and Rosenfeld had been working on, but this merry book is one of the best last laughs you'll ever read. "So here it is," he says near the beginning of the book, "I'm saying it. I admit I am very funny. I don't like to quote myself, but unfortunately everybody I know who should be quoting me is dead. Fine friends they turned out to be."

Brecher was one of those Hollywood denizens that got his start the classic way, as an usher in New York City. As a teenager he would send in gags on postcards to columnists Walter Winchell or Ed Sullivan who would credit him by name. He got a long-term assignment of writing gags for one of the most visible comedians in the business, Milton Berle, and this material brought him to the attention of Hollywood. Brecher was astonished to be working with stars he used to see in the Nickelodeon when he was a kid, including his idols, the Marx Brothers. Brecher helped punch up _The Wizard of Oz_. And then he was assigned to write the Marx picture _At the Circus_; with that and with the later _Go West_, he was the only writer to get sole credit on Marx movies. There are wonderful stories about the Marxes here, anecdotes any fan will adore. Brecher went on to write movies like _Meet Me in St. Louis_ and _Bye Bye Birdie_. While writing movies, he also wrote the radio sitcom _The Life of Riley_.

Brecher became a widower from one long-term marriage and then entered another. He does not seem to have used his wit against his wives but rather as a palliative during arguments. He remembers an argument with his first wife who was so upset she said, "That's it! I'm leaving you!" He gave her the reply, "That's OK with me. But if you go, I'm going with you." Looking back at that bit of dialogue forty years later, he remarks, "It worked." Brecher never really left show business, though he pays tribute over and over again to the comics he worked with whose funerals he had to attend. He was attending tributes through his last years and doing stand-up when just standing up was difficult. In fact, he would get to the podium with a walker; his wife called it "The Rolls". Asthma was a problem, too: "For about ten minutes I'm all right. And then I'm gasping. You can't ask the public to spend money to see an old Jew gasping. It's not nice." But his material was still good: "Yes, I did have eye surgery. I knew I needed it when the other morning, I woke up and my vision was so bad, I couldn't find my hearing aid." _The Wicked Wit of the West_ (the title comes from a designation Groucho had given him) is full of wonderful stories and laugh-out-loud jokes from a jubilant joke-maker. "OK, so maybe I don't look at the world through rose-colored implants", the elder Brecher observes, "In fact, I really like the world. It's the putzes in it! And I don't resolve to change. If I've said anything snide, I'm sorry. Unless it gets a laugh."

The book is not only a an obvious work of love for Brecher, who comes right off the pages but is a great insider look at some of the most famous Hollywood personalities of the many decades when Brecher was writing. The anecdotes about work, travel and play with some of the 20th century's best known comedians can, on their own, make the reading worthwhile.

From the prejudices that Jews faced to the ways that different comedians and comics left their mark on today's film canon, this book packed in a lot of history before I stopped laughing and noticed the importance of the subject.

The book is a mixture of formats, including interviews/dialogues between the author and Brecher, who are both quick and funny.

Definitely get his book no matter whether you're looking for cinema studies, Judaica, American cultural studies or a light and funny read for the bathroom.

ROFL. Irving Brecher, a guy I never heard of before, comes alive - even though I read he just died. This tour de force of funny includes insider stories about Harpo, Groucho, Chico, Judy Garland, Jack Benny, and others. Written in a casual, engaging style, this hybrid memoir - part first person autobiography and part biography - "a freak" as Brecher puts it in the book - will satisfy comedy lovers.

Yet the delightful wordplay also shows that intelligence and creativity can overcome difficult life circumstances. Inspiring on multiple levels. God Bless you Mr. Rosenfeld (Rosewater). Note: Kurt Vonnegut would have loved this book!

Irving Brecher, who died in November 2008, had many claims to fame during his long career in vaudeville, radio, films and television. Beginning as a gag-writer for Berle and Henny Youngman, Brecher became a Hollywood script doctor/writer and director, sole writer of two Marx Brothers movies, Emmy winner for 'The Life of Riley,' and so on. Yet the most meaningful distinction Brecher earned was probably the fact that Groucho Marx, no slouch in the wit department, rated Brecher as one of the three wittiest men living, the other two being Oscar Levant and George Kaufman! Brecher, with the help of comedian/writer/storyteller Hank Rosenfeld, details his many lives and (comedy) crimes in this wonderful 2009 release from Ben Yehuda Press.

Brecher's book is more oral history than straight autobiography. Over a period of years, Rosenfeld taped his conversations/interviews with this marvelously funny man, resulting in THE WICKED WIT OF THE WEST. While there is some jumping-back-and-forth throughout the book, it is still a tremendously entertaining look back at American entertainment in the 20th Century. A wonderful, insightful and honest storyteller, Brecher takes the reader back to the Catskills, Broadway and Hollywood of long ago and shares stories of so many entertainers of note - Berle, Henny Youngman, Jack Benny, the Marx Brothers, Jackie Gleason, Judy Garland, Ernie Kovacs - and some lesser lights as well. While Brecher's tale is a fun read, it also gets high marks for supplying a behind-the-scenes, warts-and-all look at show biz on both coasts.

THE WICKED WIT OF THE WEST is required reading for all cinema buffs and anyone wanting to spend some hours being regaled by one of God's gifts to comedy. Recommended.

The choice is whether to read "The Wicked Wit of the West" quickly because it's such a page turner or to savor each chapter, each page. This book is a treasure trove of vaudeville, radio, film and television history, captured before it could be lost to us forever. The wit of Irving Brecher was incredible: creative, intelligent, and rapier sharp. How fortunate that Hank Rosenfeld was able to spend years capturing that wonderful wit along with the man and his memories so that it will not be lost to the rest of us.

Don't just sit there: order this book now and enjoy every bit of this rare opportunity to truly see behind the curtain.

I had to take a moment to tell you how much I love "The Wicked Wit of the West." At a book signing, I heard some of the recorded conversations author Hank Rosenfeld had with screenwriter Irv Brecher. I can tell you that this is one of the most authentic memoirs I've ever read because it uses exact conversations Hank had with Irv. This is a book you will want to read and re-read. It's a keeper. Irv makes you laugh and while there are great stories you've never heard before, it's also peppered with an honest attitude toward death. A meaningful journey has been captured throughout the pages. When you find yourself quoting stories from the book, you know you've found something memorable. This book is a winner!

from The Library Journal

[...]

* Performing Arts

Brecher, Irving, as told to Hank Rosenfeld. The Wicked Wit of the West: The Last Great Golden-Age Screenwriter Shares the Hilarity and Heartaches of Working With Groucho, Garland, Gleason, Burns, Berle, Benny & Many More. Ben Yehuda. Jan. 2009. c.360p. photogs. index. ISBN 978-0-9789980-8-0. hdcover $55; paperback, ISBN 978-1-934730-23-2. $25. FILM

Brecher is the most influential writer you've never heard of in Hollywood. He wrote At the Circus and Go West for the Marx brothers and classics such as Du Barry Was a Lady and Meet Me in St. Louis for MGM. He wrote stand-up for Milton Berle and created the radio and television program The Life of Riley. Now in his nineties, the man is still a comedic genius with wit and timing that can't be beat. Incredibly, his career covers the entire spectrum of 20th-century entertainment, beginning with vaudeville and encompassing movies, radio, plays, television, and even the web (in impassioned support for the writers' strike of 2007). Brecher's story is presented as a series of interviews, which allows his voice to come through in its witty splendor. Rosenfeld does a fine job as chronicler, selector, and muse for these interviews, and his genuine friendship with Brecher is the reason that this book exists. Altogether delightful, this is an incredible reminiscence by a remarkable man. Highly recommended to all film collections and those public collections whose senior patrons will remember the gagsters and stars of Brecher's heyday.

\Christian Zabriskie, Queens Lib., NY

This book should be a national best seller - it's one of the funniest and most interesting books I've read in years. If you have a sense of humor, you owe it to yourself to get this book. It also has poignancy and truth, which are art the heart of all great art. Just get this book, for godsakes!

Hank Rosenfeld, a stalwart of Spy and NPR, has done a great job collaborating on this memoir-cum-biography of the great Hollywood screenwriter Irving Brecher, who wrote screenplays for two Marx Brothers movies (At the Circus and Go West), Meet Me in St. Louis and Bye Bye Birdie!, and invented The Life of Riley, among other accomplishments. The book is full of behind-the-scenes stories and hilarious anecdotes featuring Groucho Marx, Jack Benny, George Burns, Jackie Gleason, Carole Lombard and other show biz greats. The book has its element of sadness, too, as Brecher discusses how in his mid-fifties, with a tremendous career behind him and a lot of opportunity ahead, he lost his creativity when confronted with the difficulties of dealing with his schizophrenic son. I also appreciated seeing the deepening relationship between Irv and Hank, who clearly became so much more than collaborators as Brecher declined and eventually died in this 95th year. And the cover, by Drew Friedman, is a joy. Anybody who loved Old Hollywood and the Golden Age of Comedy will love this book.

I am enjoying this biography so much that I as I near the last page I had to stop a moment to say thank you for a delightful read. I know all the Los Angeles venues mentioned and in every case the description is right on, giving me a guarantee that the interviews are equally accurate, real laughs about a really wonderful character from a terrific, understanding writer. As soon as I finish that last page, in the spirit of Brecher/Rosenfeld, I am beginning my search for the perfect corned beef sandwich, cole slaw on the side.