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amazon: You Bet Your Life was unique in two respects. Its comedy was based not on actors performing sketch material, but on the personalities and experiences of real people, drawing on their normal lives and occupatons. The program's distinction and quality, however, resulted primarily from its giving Groucho Marx an opportunity to exercise his unique skills without the restraints that broadcasting at that time otherwise imposed. Groucho's principal resource was his talent as an improviers of verbal comedy. Dwan will keep the reader giggling with his stories about You Bet Your Life.
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buy.com: This definitive biography of one of the world's greatest comedians unflinchingly yet affectionately uncovers the man behind the cigar.
Here is the amazing career of the man the world recognized as Groucho: the improbable disasters of the vaudeville years; the Marx Brothers, an act so funny W.C. Fields refused to follow it; the unprecedented Broadway success of The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers; the cinematic triumphs of Duck Soup and A Night at the Opera; and the marvelous come-back career as king of the game show hosts with You Bet Your Life. Here, too, is the man himself: a lonely middle child who aspired to be a doctor; a man who sabotaged three marriages; a father alternately indulgent and cruel. Intelligent and thorough, hilarious and sad, Groucho is a spectacular biography of the century's most influential comedian.
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buy.com: From Library Journal: The one, the only Groucho here offers his own life story, which, of course, includes his famous brothers (LJ 10/15/58). Though filled with laughs throughout, the book reveals the struggle of the Marxes to break from the poverty of New York's East Side to achieve success and stardom. A good companion to last year's reprint of The Groucho Letters.
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Barnes & Noble: From Booknews: Compares and contrasts the two American comics who led comedy out of the age of innocence. Presents a dual biography, and discussion of the con artist, the antihero, and antiheroes and absurdity as defined by Fields' and Marx's films. Includes a filmography, and b&w photos.
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buy.com: In this volume Grouchophiles everywhere can enjoy the best of his trenchant correspondence with the greatest wits and minds of his day, such as E.B. White, James Thurber, S.J. Perelman, Fred Allen, Jerry Lewis, Peter Lorre, Howard Hughes, Irving Berlin, Harry Truman and of course, Chico, Harpo, and Gummo. Here also, giving as good as they get, are some of their responses.
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buy.com: This collection of Groucho's most side-achingly funny pieces is a must for any Groucho fan and for all who love to laugh. Groucho was a comic genius who conquered stage, film, radio, and television--but he was also a gifted writer of these short pieces, which appeared in the New York Times, the Saturday Evening Post and Variety, among others.
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