Four of the Three Musketeers: The Marx Brothers on Stage

Bader, Robert S.

ISBN 10: 0810145758 / ISBN 13: 9780810145757

Editore: Northwestern University Press, 2022

Pages are clean and are not marred by notes or folds of any kind. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Codice articolo G0810145758I2N00

Riassunto:

An updated paperback version of the book heralded as “a new benchmark in Marx scholarship” by the Los Angeles Times

Before film made them international comedy legends, the Marx Brothers developed their comic skills on stage for twenty-five years. In Four of the Three Musketeers: The Marx Brothers on Stage, Robert S. Bader offers the first comprehensive history of the foursome’s hardscrabble early years honing their act in front of live audiences.

From Groucho’s debut in 1905 to their final live performances of scenes from A Night in Casablanca in 1945, the brothers’ stage career shows how their characters and routines evolved before their arrival in Hollywood. Four of the Three Musketeers draws on an unmatched array of sources, many not referenced elsewhere. Bader’s detailed portrait of the struggling young actors both brings to vivid life a typical night on the road for the Marx Brothers and illuminates the inner workings of the vaudeville business, especially during its peak in the 1920s.

As Bader traces the origins of the characters that would later come to be beloved by filmgoers, he also skillfully scrapes away the accretion of rumors and mythology perpetuated not only by fans and writers but by the Marx Brothers themselves. Revealing, vital, and entertaining, Four of the Three Musketeers has taken its place as an essential reference for this legendary American act. Now, the updated edition adds newly discovered performances—some submitted by readers—and additional information provided by descendants of long-departed vaudevillians mentioned in the book.

Informazioni sull?autore:

ROBERT S. BADER is a writer, producer, and filmmaker, as well as the editor of Groucho Marx and Other Short Stories and Tall Tales and coauthor of Speaking of Harpo with Susan Fleming Marx, wife of Harpo Marx. Bader is the curator of the Bing Crosby Archive. He wrote, produced, and directed Ali & Cavett: The Tale of the Tapes (HBO, 2020), which was honored with a Critics’ Choice Documentary Award, and Groucho & Cavett, part of the American Masters series (PBS, 2022). He lives in Los Angeles.

Dati bibliografici

Titolo: Four of the Three Musketeers: The Marx ...
Casa editrice: Northwestern University Press
Data di pubblicazione: 2022
Legatura: Paperback
Condizione: As New
Condizione sovraccoperta: No Jacket