The Essential Groucho Writings by, for, and about Groucho Marx

by KANFER, STEFAN

• ISBN13: 9780375702136
• ISBN10: 037570213X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-06-13
• Publisher: Vintage

Summary

Groucho Marx may be the funniest man who ever lived. Here in one volume are the classics of Marxian mayhem: excerpts from the scripts of the immortal movies, passages from his books, his articles for magazines ranging fromThe New Yorkerto theSaturday Evening Post, the choicest ad-libs and quips from his long-running game show,You Bet Your Life, and selected letters, including his classic correspondence with T. S. Eliot. It's all here-the finest and funniest work by this century's most influential comedian, that man of whom Woody Allen said, "He is simply unique in the same way Picasso and Stravinsky are, and I believe his outrageous, unsentimental disregard for order will be equally funny a thousand years from now. In addition to all this, he makes me laugh." In the words of Groucho Marx: One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he go in my pajamas I don't know. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana. Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.

Author Biography

Stefan Kanfer lives in New York.

Table of Contents

Introduction	xi
``I know that you are true to the Army. I only hope it remains a standing Army.''
The Napoleon Sketch from I'll Say She Is!	3	(10)
``You can even get stucco---oh, how you can get stucco.''
Dialogue from The Cocoanuts	13	(8)
``One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas.''
Dialogue from Animal Crackers	21	(7)
``You bet I'm shy. I'm a shyster lawyer.''
Dialogue from Monkey Business	28	(4)
``There'll be no diving for this cigar.''
Dialogue from Horse Feathers	32	(5)
``Go, and never darken my towels again!''
Dialogue from Duck Soup	37	(9)
``I could rent you out as a decoy for duck hunters.''
Dialogue from the lost radio shows, Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel	46	(26)
``You haven't got a baboon in your pocket, have you?''
Dialogue from A Night at the Opera	72	(7)
``Say, you're awfully large for a pill.''
Dialogue from A Day at the Races	79	(8)
``I had dinner with my celebrated pen pal, T. S. Eliot.''
From the Groucho Letters	87	(26)
``Right from the feeding.''
Covering Groucho	113	(13)
``I am sometimes jealous of my past.''
From fugitive comic pieces and articles	126	(83)
Groucho Marx
``I'll never forget my wedding day . . . they threw vitamin pills.''
Selections from You Bet Your Life	209