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Monkey Business: The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "The year 1900..." (more)
Key Phrases: college widow, comedy four, duck soup, Marx Brothers, New York, Animal Crackers (more...)

3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)

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Hardcover Available from these sellers. Published June 7, 2000	Hardcover, June 7, 2000	--	$79.00	$6.75
Paperback Available from these sellers. Published January 31, 2000	Paperback, January 31, 2000	--	$58.98	$47.45
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A serious book hiding behind a goofy title, Monkey Business captures a tremendous amount of detail in its pages, enough to satisfy the most hard-core Marx Brothers aficionado. Author Simon Louvish has a talent for showcasing contrasts, and it's these contrasts--along with a few surprises--that make the brothers such fascinating characters. Among all the scripts, photos, and quotes are some unexpected discoveries, especially the real story of Margaret Dumont. While lamenting the tall tales that have circulated around this actress's life so far, Louvish applauds her image as the ultimate "straight" lady when she was really pulling a lifelong practical joke. And while the one-liners are as entertaining as always, it's refreshing to see glimpses of Groucho's serious side. One chapter begins with an earnest letter to his daughter's boyfriend about the young man's struggles with anti-Semitism, advising him to "comport yourself in such a manner that you will ultimately gain their respect." Of course, he immediately follows up with "Tomorrow we're having tea at the White House. I hope they have pumpernickel": this is Groucho we're talking about, after all. Louvish takes the same one-two narrative punch with the other brothers, interspersing real-life slapstick with tales of gambling debts, relationship difficulties, and professional disappointments and triumphs. Complete with a chronological list of life events and films, a complete reference list, and a thorough index, Monkey Business is the biography serious Marx Brothers fans have been waiting for. --Jill Lightner

From Publishers Weekly

Told with tremendous style and sparkle, Louvish's composite portrait of the Marx Brothers offers an indispensable overview of the actors' saga. Decked out with photographs and sprinkled with excerpts from reviews, interviews, memoirs, film dialogue and hitherto unpublished skits and scripts, this biography captures the sheer exuberance of the foursome as they conquered vaudeville, Broadway and Hollywood. Louvish gives equal billing to all the brothersAJulius (Groucho), Leonard (Chico), Arthur (Harpo), Herbert (Zeppo), plus Milton (Gummo), who left the act to become a Hollywood agentAand vibrantly re-creates a supporting cast of characters that includes George Kaufman, Irving Berlin, Irving Thalberg, S.J. Perelman and Margaret Dumont. Yet the biographer of W.C. Fields (The Man on the Flying Trapeze) maintains critical detachment in assessing the brothers' onstage/onscreen antics and their often messy private lives. Groucho, for one, comes off as a lot more likable than in Stefan Kanfer's Groucho (Forecasts, Mar. 20). While Louvish fully acknowledges the abusive behavior that drove Groucho's first wife to alcoholism, Julius Marx seems more forgivably human here, and Louvish depicts Groucho's relationship with daughter Miriam as loving and solicitous. His fresh research clears up all manner of myths, embellishments and omissions in previous biographies and in the brothers' autobiographies. In this invigorating reappraisal, the Marx Brothers, more than "Minnie and Sam's boys who never grew up," are timeless satirists of pretension, folly, privilege and snobbery, in the tradition of Cervantes, Rabelais and Mark Twain. The "Four Horsemen of the Apoplexy," they embody an authentic acceptance of life's absurdity as well as a desperate need to leave one's mark. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

Hardcover: 464 pages
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; 1st edition (June 8, 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312252927
ISBN-13: 978-0312252922
Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6 x 1.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds

Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #580,243 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
The year 1900. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
college widow, comedy four, duck soup, harp solo, gag writer, script versions

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Marx Brothers, New York, Animal Crackers, The Cocoanuts, Los Angeles, Margaret Dumont, Minnie Palmer, United States, Horse Feathers, Hector Arce, Captain Spaulding, Marx Bros, Harpo Marx, Morrie Ryskind, Arthur Marx, Alexander Woollcott, Ned Wayburn, Beverly Hills, Groucho Marx, Palm Springs, Arthur Sheekman, Ben Hecht, Gus Edwards, Long Island, Paul Wesolowski

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 76 books:

Animal Crackers (French's Musical Library) by George S. Kaufman on 13 pages
The Marx Bros. Scrapbook by Groucho Marx on 12 pages
Animal Crackers (Marx Brothers) by Morrie Ryskind on 12 pages
GROUCHO LETTERS by GROUCHO MARX on 8 pages
Harpo Speaks! by Harpo Marx on 8 pages

See all 76 books this book cites

6 books cite this book:

Images of Idiocy: The Idiot Figure in Modern Fiction and Film by Martin Halliwell on page 220, and Back Matter
Stan and Ollie: The Roots of Comedy: The Double Life of Laurel and Hardy by Simon Louvish in Front Matter, and Back Matter
Castaways of the Image Planet: Movies, Show Business, Public Spectacle by Geoffrey O'Brien on page 213
Stutter by Marc Shell in Back Matter
No Applause--Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous by Trav S.D. in Back Matter

See all 6 books citing this book

Books on Related Topics (learn more)

W. C. Fields by James Curtis

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5001 Nights at the Movies by Pauline Kael

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Dazzler by Steven Bach

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No Applause--Just Throw Money by Trav S. D.

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	53% buy the item featured on this page: Monkey Business: The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers 3.7 out of 5 stars (25)
	18% buy Harpo Speaks! 4.8 out of 5 stars (93) $13.60
	12% buy The Marx Brothers Encyclopedia 4.8 out of 5 stars (8) $16.47
	9% buy Stan and Ollie: The Roots of Comedy: The Double Life of Laurel and Hardy 3.8 out of 5 stars (17) $13.46

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Customer Reviews

25 Reviews

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

Average Customer Review

3.7 out of 5 stars (25 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A window into their madcap world, May 30, 2000

By	ron capshaw (new york) - See all my reviews

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.

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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Book Yet on the Marx Brothers, November 18, 2000

By	Edward Garea "Edward Garea" (Branchville, New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Simon Louvish follows up his excellent biography of W. C. Fields with this ground-breaking study of the Marx Brothers. As with the Fields biography, Louvish demythologizes the story of the Marxes and gives us Marx fans a lot more information to digest and enjoy. Fans have tended to accept the early stories of Marx family life as carved in stone; Louvish shows how the real story differs and does it with loving respect rather than the harshness of a debunker. In addition to the Marxes, Louvish also takes a few sidebar trips into the lives of the not so well known supporting players, such as Margaret Dumont, whose life was draped in legend. Well researched and well written. As to the criticism of those who think his writing reflects too much of the Marx style of comedy, I can only reply that no one seemed to mind when Joe Adamson did the same thing in his landmark study on the Marx Brothers films, Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Sometimes Zeppo. I think this style of writing goes with the turf, so to speak, and in any case its annoyance factor is negligible compared to the rewards of his research. Highly recommded for any serious as well as casual Marx fan.

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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars near-top of the marx, June 7, 2000

By	"agrouchomarxist" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

Louvish's comprehensive biography is intelligent, solidly researched (with careful notes, unlike the new Kanfer bio of Groucho), and written with warmth and affection. Where others have accepted mythologies about the lives of the boys, Louvish has dug for facts and unearthed all sorts of tantalizing details and contradictions: he is particularly strong on the family's European roots and their vaudeville career, and he offers the most detailed and lovingly iconoclastic biographical sketch of the implacable and heretofore mysterious Margaret Dumont.

One wishes that his analyses of Marxian comedy were sharper and deeper, and at times the British author seems to have only a slippery grasp of the American pop culture idiom; there are references he just doesn't get. Also, the chatty tone of his writing and his conversational interjections can be distracting.

Overall, though, this is the best Marx book in years--it is trustworthy and enjoyable. Buy it, and tell them AGrouchoMarxist sent you!

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Poorly written, poorly reasoned, poorly checked
I'd give this book one star, but some of the author's patience and endurance in slogging through some old documentary evidence does deserve credit, and does make for some... Read more

Published on January 7, 2006 by Pineywoods Man

4.0 out of 5 stars Not quite perfect
The massive comprehensive research Mr. Louvish did for this book is truly impressive. Not only do we get huge amounts of biographical information on the five main subjects, we... Read more

Published on December 2, 2005 by Anyechka

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent in spite of author's cutesy style.
Okay, the author's style is idiosyncratic (look it up!) and sometimes annoying. He is as keen to tell us how he found the information as he is to tell it. Read more

Published on September 26, 2005 by D. Goodyear

5.0 out of 5 stars Well, "Monkey Business" IS my all time fave Marx movie......
And I must say that this book of the same title is right up there too. I thought Simon Louvish did an excellent job of digging up the truth on the Marxian tales that have swirled... Read more

Published on June 5, 2004 by devotedmarxist

5.0 out of 5 stars Top Quality Biography
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... Read more

Published on January 26, 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Enjoyable
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. Read more

Published on January 13, 2003 by Michael Samerdyke

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific addition to my Marx collection!
Simon Louvish's new book has earned an honored place in my collection of Marx Brothers books and memorabilia. Read more

Published on September 16, 2002 by Joel G. Harris

2.0 out of 5 stars A disapointment
Considering an autographed picture of Groucho graces my office wall, I eagerly looked forward to a new look at the Brothers. Read more

Published on May 3, 2002 by Arnie Bernstein

1.0 out of 5 stars not worth plodding through
As a new fan of the Marx Brothers, I raced to the library to learn more about their history. I stumbled upon "Monkey Business: The Lives and Legends of the Marx... Read more

Published on February 9, 2002 by heather valdez

5.0 out of 5 stars an adrenaline fueled experience!!!
The funniest book about Wall Street. Anyone who is considering going into the financial services industry in investment banking, trading, sales, research or private equity should... Read more

Published on October 20, 2001

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