Groucho Marx: The Comedy of ExistenceA trenchant examination of an iconic American figure that explores the cultural and psychological roots of his comic genius Born Julius Marx in 1890, the brilliant comic actor who would later be known as Groucho was the most verbal of the famed comedy team, the Marx Brothers, his broad slapstick portrayals elevated by ingenious wordplay and double entendre. In his spirited biography of this beloved American iconoclast, Lee Siegel views the life of Groucho through the lens of his work on stage, screen, and television. The author uncovers the roots of the performer's outrageous intellectual acuity and hilarious insolence toward convention and authority in Groucho's early upbringing and Marx family dynamics. The first critical biography of Groucho Marx to approach his work analytically, this fascinating study draws unique connections between Groucho's comedy and his life, concentrating primarily on the brothers' classic films as a means of understanding and appreciating Julius the man. Unlike previous uncritical and mostly reverential biographies, Siegel's "bio-commentary" makes a distinctive contribution to the field of Groucho studies by attempting to tell the story of his life in terms of his work, and vice versa. |
Contents
A Fateful Condition | 1 |
Nothing Will Come of Nothing | 15 |
Human All Too Human | 32 |
Groucho the Jewish OutsiderPhilosopher | 121 |
Gone Today Here Tomorrow | 138 |
Acknowledgments | 153 |
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actor American Animal Crackers Anobile appeared asked audience become bellboys biography Bontsha bullies Captain Spaulding character cigar club Cocoanuts comedian comedy comic art convention crowd culture Driftwood Duck Soup Dumont Eliot fact famous father figure films Frenchie funny Geiger Gookie face Groucho Marx Groucho plays Gummo Hammer harp Harpo Horse Feathers humiliating immigrant insult intellectual Jewish humor Jews joke Julius language Lassparri laugh laughter literary living Margaret Dumont Marx Brothers meaning Minnie Monkey Business moral movie never Night Night in Casablanca once Opera outrageous Pacino Peasie Weasie Peretz performance Perhaps person quip reality Rittenhouse routine satire says scene seems sexual Shean show business shtick sing social someone story style T. S. Eliot talk tell Thalberg Tomasso truth turned Uncle vaudeville verbal W. C. Fields W. H. Auden Wagstaff walks wife woman women words writes young