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The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers.
Faber & Faber, London, 1999.
St Martins Press, New York, 2000, paperback 2001.
‘Well, who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?’ said Chico Marx to Margaret Dumont, nee Daisy, who, on joining the brothers, had been advised to 'wear your tin drawers and have a good time.' Chico's is a good question since the Marx Brothers lied so variously over the decades about everything that Simon Louvish's job must've been a nightmare. Said Groucho, 'Give or take a few years, I was born around the turn of the century. I won't say which century. Everyone is allowed one guess' He was, in fact, many years older than he said.
Did their act suddenly tip over into the now-familiar anarchy in Nagacdoches, Texas, as a resultof pique because the audience walked out to watch a mule running away? Was Groucho's walk based on that of George S Kaufman, who wrote 'The Cocoanuts' and Animal Crackers' for their rocket-assist Broadway launch? The writer was said to be so stooped in thought that he once banged his head into a fire extinguisher. Did he turn to co-writer Morrie Ryskind during 'The Cocoanuts' to say, 'Hush! I think I just heard a line from the script!'
Louvish prints lots of drafts of the routines -'of course, reading the script of a Marx Brothers show is like making love through an industrial-strength condom', he concedes. You'll find everybody's favourite ad-lib from Napoleon here: 'It's the Mayonnaise! The army must be dressing!' A treasure trove of hilarity.
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