Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 791.430280922
EAN num: 9780312252922
ISBN number: 0312252927
Label: Thomas Dunne Books
Manufacturer: Thomas Dunne Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 464
Printing Date: June 08, 2000
Publishing house: Thomas Dunne Books
Sale Popularity Level: 903399
Studio: Thomas Dunne Books
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Strange but true: this is the very first authentic account of the Marx Brothers, their origins and of the roots of their comedy.
First and foremost, this is the saga of a family whose theatrical roots stretch back to mid-19th century Germany. From Groucho Marx's very first warblings with the singing Leroy Trio, this book brings to life the vanished world of America's wild and boisterous variety circuits, leading to the Marx Brothers' Broadway successes, and their alliance with New York's theatrical lions, George S. Kaufman and the 'Algonquin Round Table'.
Never-before-published scripts, well-minted Marxian dialogue, and much madness and mayham feature in this tale of the Brothers' battles with Hollywood, their films, their loves and marriages, and the story of the forgotten brother Gummo.
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
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Rated by buyers 
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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 interesting reading. The project as a whole, though, is a monumental failure.
First, the book is almost unreadable. There are multiple puns in nearly every sentence. The tone expresses the author's desperation, and no other word will do, to be thought clever. It gets in the way of what reliable information is in the book.
Second, the author's interpretation of the evidence is shaky at best. Because an early draft of a play script is the same or very similar to a movie filmed years later does not in any way prove that the performers didn't ad lib extensively while staging the play, but the author treats the matter as settled, the ad libbing as something minimal and grossly exaggerated, just because the Marx Brothers' movies are similar to the early play scripts. Nonsensical.
Finally, for all the author's smug assurance that he's gotten the details right where earlier authors were sloppy, you'd think perhaps he could check details like the spelling of Nacogdoches. I live in Nacogdoches -- I'm writing this from Nacogdoches -- and it is NOT "Nagacdoches," an error he repeats five or six times on a single page. It's not the easiest town name in the world to spell, and from any other author I'd shrug and read on, but this author's self-congratulation for his accuracy is so overblown that the glaring error is all the more maddening.
Bits of the book were worth the read, but disappointing isn't a strong enough descriptor.
Rated by buyers 
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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 also get a lot of information on the generations that came immediately before. Some readers might feel all of that information is superfluous, but you can't really understand a person unless you know where the person comes from. I really enjoyed all of this background information. Another highlight was all of the research into their vaudeville years, as well as how for once Gummo and Zeppo don't get the short end of the stick. I also loved the pictures, but wished there had been more, particularly showing the boys with their own families. That would've been a really nice touch, given how much information we got on their wives and children. Another plus was the information on baby Manfred, whom many researchers and even members of the Marx family long believed was apocryphal. Based on the information given, I was able to submit his burial location and the brief biographical information and cause of death to the Find-a-Grave website and will know where to find his grave if I'm ever in the Brooklyn cemetery where he's buried.
I wasn't as bothered by the writing style by others have been, but I agree that it could get a little overly cutesy. Encorporating such a style once in awhile is fine, but sometimes it seems overdone, and you don't really need to write in a funny style when the people you're writing about are already funny enough on their own. I also thought their post-1937 films, for the most part, were given amazingly short schrift. Just because generally speaking most people don't hold them in high regard doesn't mean they're only worth a few pages each. Maybe it's time to give these later films a critical reevaluation and see what is good in them instead of automatically saying they're so bad they don't even deserve the same detailed treatment their very first seven films deserve. And I agree, for all of Mr. Louvish's massive research on the Marx family, it seems baffling that he couldn't go to the pretty minor effort to look up the meaning of some of these American references and slang words that he admits he doesn't know the meaning of, instead of saying, for example, "No, I have no idea what a college widow is either." I also noticed a few other minor errors; for example, Mr. Louvish states that Harpo is the one who steals Maurice Chevalier's passport in 'Monkey Business,' when Zeppo was actually the one who did that.
Overall, this is a very engrossing entertaining book, although small things like the ones detailed above prevent me from giving it a full 5 stars.
Rated by buyers -
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. But if you can get past all that, this is a great resource that gets at the truth (or as close to it as possible), clearing up a lot of the mis- and dis-information put out over the years about the Marxes and their achievements. I really felt after reading it that I have a much better understanding of the "real" story.
Rated by buyers 
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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 around for many, many years. His research of the ancestral roots of Minnie and Sam "Frenchy" Marx are impeccable.....and Louvish's way of putting the "ages" of the brothers in their proper timeframe is very first rate. I think he captured each brother perfectly. I was impressed at his case for giving Chico a hell of lot more credit in steering the brothers to superstardom. Chico was a go-getter, just like his mother Minnie, and I was happy to see Chico portrayed as something more than just the gambling, womanizing, loose cannon type of a guy we all know about (or thought we knew about). That's not to say Chico wasn't like that, it's just good to hear something else about him for a change (I'd kill to have the mathematical mind that guy had!). Harpo is always just the Harpo we all know (just like in "HARPO SPEAKS!") and love. He definitely marched to a beat of a different drummer (Louvish captures that perfectly), Harpo was his own man to say the least. That's a good thing. Groucho, is displayed (like usual) as cantankerous, moody and insulting (well, this IS Groucho we're talking about!). But Louvish gets into the reasons WHY Groucho was that way (let's just say insecurities MIGHT have played a small part in Groucho's disposition).
For me, reading of Zeppo's burden of being so much younger and feeling he was always an afterthought is sad. To be bearing the middle name of his deceased eldest brother, you have to feel some sympathy towards the poor guy. Zep's talents lie elsewhere, as subsequent chapters explain. Louvish's use of prime Marxist dialogue is superb, and he really outdid himself in research at the Libary of Congress, finding several vintage manuscripts just lying there waiting to have their moment in print.......speaking of moments, I was really intrigued by the true story of Margaret Dumont. This woman managed to pull off the ultimate lifelong-practical joke on GROUCHO of all people. Read the book to see what I'm talking about. Everything you'd want to know about the Marxes is here, and there's so much irony in the stories, it's mind boggling. What really got me was the sad way each of their lives ended. None of them (except maybe Gummo) just went along peacefully. Chico died of arteriosclerosis, with practically nothing to show for all the glory years in the movies, Harpo had a heart attack during open-heart surgery (on his 28th wedding anniversary no less), Zeppo died of lung cancer. Groucho's surviving relatives' feud with Erin Fleming (even after Grouch was gone) was a sad closing to an amazing, but sometimes painful life. But it's the laughter that kept the brothers (and brought all of us) together. That's what this book celebrates more than anything. The genius of their comedy, their anarchistic style, they brought THEMSELVES to us, the movie goer. That's why almost 80 years later, we're still interested in them, because there was no one else like them, probably never will be. But it's the legacy of laughter they left behind, the legacy that Louvish writes about so beautifully. First rate book, get this one.
Rated by buyers -
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 Brothers. Humorwise the author isn't trying to be the sixth Marx Brother any more than he's trying to be fourth Beastie Boy, the second Maureen Lipman, or the fifth Beatle. He's just trying to set the scene, which I feel will add to the book's value as time goes on, because that's what good history is.
Of all the secondary Marx(i.e. surname-not-Marx) material I have read, this is the one I have the most affection for, mainly because it is not trying to be definitive or exhaustive or curatorial, and yet strangely is better at all three than anything else Marx-related I've read in the past. Even if you've never seen a MB movie, you will probably find plenty here to amuse.
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