Arthur Marx (1921–2011)

A revealing biography of the driven Bob Hope with plenty of dirt dished on his miserliness, womanizing, and other bad habits underlying his patriotism, workaholism, generosity,and a successful trifecta of movies, radio, and television...and I'm skipping vaudeville. The anecdotes are attributed, often to writers, actresses, and others, by name, even the author's father, Groucho Marx, who described a show that went hilariously off the rails with script thrown to the floor producing a show that had to be severely edited. An entertaining and informative book.… (mer)

There aren't too many comedians out there as good as Groucho Marx nor many with children like Arthur Marx that could write such a good book about their father.

The Groucho on show here is an affectionate, loving father, although perhaps not the best husband (in a "annoying wife with jokes" way rather than "have affairs" way) who loved nothing more than to take Arthur somewhere and then get into bizarre conversations with the locals or for that matter, stay in Los Angeles and get into bizarre conversations with locals (to the annoyance of his wife). There's also cameos from the other Marx brothers, especially following Arthur's rise to prominence as a top junior tennis player and they were after free tournament tickets.

I read the updated version of "My Life With Groucho", which I'd recommend as Arthur uses the opportunity (Groucho had died in the intervening years) to attack Erin Fleming, Groucho's last companion.… (mer)