Four of the Three Musketeers: The Marx Brothers on Stage

by Robert S. Bader

Overview

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 also 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 will take its place as an essential reference for this iconic American act.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780810134164
Publisher:	Northwestern University Press
Publication date:	10/15/2016
Pages:	544
Product dimensions:	7.10(w) x 10.10(h) x 1.90(d)

About the Author

ROBERT S. BADER is the editor of Groucho Marx and Other Short Stories and Tall Tales. He is the curator of the Bing Crosby Archive and produced the television special The Legendary Bing Crosby. Bader is also the writer and producer of the Warner Bros. documentary The Dawn of Sound: How Movies Learned to Talk, and has produced numerous archival DVD releases, including two sets of You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx. His recent DVD productions include the Marx Brothers TV Collection; The Honeymooners: Lost Episodes, 1951-1957; and The Best of the Danny Kaye Show. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and several dogs.

Table of Contents

Introduction 
Prologue - The Old Country
I. THE MARXIAN PREHISTORIC
1. The House on 93rd Street
2. Uncle Al, Gene Leroy and Johnnie Morris
3. On the Road with Master Julius Marx
II. THE NIGHTINGALES, ALMA SCHANG AND THE UBO
4. Ned Wayburn’s Nightingales
5. A Nightingale Sang in Coney Island
6. Four Nightingales and Six Mascots 
III. THE BUMPY ROAD TO THE BIG-TIME
7. The Metamorphosis: The Three Marx Bros. & Company in Fun in High School
8. Pantages, the White Rats and “Peasie Weasie”
9. Changing Partners: Gordon, Shean and Lee
IV. AND THEN THERE WERE FOUR
10. The Four Marx Bros. & Company in Mr. Green’s Reception
11. The Sex Lives of the Marx Brothers and Other Catastrophes of 1913
12. Chicago’s Only Lady Producer of Vaudeville Attractions
13. Home Again and Broken Hearts
V. THE BUMPIER ROAD TO BROADWAY
14. Home Again...And Again, and Again, and Again
15. The Five Marx Brothers and How They Became a Quartet...Again
16. A Show By Any Other Name
17. On The Mezzanine Floor with a Smudge of Grease Paint
18. On the Balcony, the Mauritania, and Albee's Blacklist 
VI. FROM THE ASHES TO THE TALKIES
19. I'll Say She Is
20. The Toast Of Broadway
21. The Cocoanuts
22. Talkies, Animal Crackers and the Death of Vaudeville 
VII. THE END OF THE ROAD
23. The Last of Minnie and the Crash of '29
24. The Four Marx Brothers And How They Became A Trio... Again 
Epilogue - The End of a Dream Come True
Appendix -The Marx Brothers Stage Chronology (1905-1945)
Bibliography
Acknowledgements

Editorial Reviews

A new benchmark in Marx scholarship.”  —Los Angeles Times

"I don’t know what this guy [Bader] was thinking, that he would spend this much time and do this much work on the Marx Brothers. He did the most incredible job of research, and he’s also a very good writer. And to me, the history of the Marx Brothers is kind of the invention of comedy, not just as a substance but as a business." —Jerry Seinfeld

"Who would have dreamed that there could be much, much more to learn in still another book about the Marx Brothers? Not I. And yet, Robert Bader—focusing on the under-researched vaudeville days of the hilarious siblings—has gone where no man went before, discovering a treasure trove of Marxiana to delight the hearts and minds of those of us who can never get enough." —Dick Cavett


"I have read virtually every book ever published about the Marx Brothers. I have even written about them myself. Robert Bader’s book is a revelation." —Leonard Maltin, author of Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide and The Great Movie Comedians

"In discussing the brothers' personal and professional accomplishments, Bader gives each man his due individual and group justice. Dozens of good books have been written on these brothers...and Bader's rich volume joins those." —CHOICE


"In Four of the Three Musketeers Robert S. Bader shows that Groucho, Chico, Harpo and Zeppo had nothing on Minnie Marx—the booster, nag and agent who set them on their way to fame." —Wall Street Journal

"A book that no devoted Marx Brothers fan should be without… Four of the Three Musketeers is a fascinating, indispensable book that details the evolution of one of the greatest comedy teams as they went through a long, bumpy trial by fire."  —Montreal Times

From the Publisher