Simon LouvishRezensionen

This is an odd book with a fictional conversation with Groucho. Interestingly, he did say most of this, just not to the author. He said it in other interviews and such so this was his voice for sure.

Very well researched bio of the leading film comedy team of all time - Laurel and Hardy. The book goes into quite a bit of detail about their lives and their films. I learned much from the book and found it easy to read and at times, hard to put down. My only complaint is that the photographs are not very clear but very dark and it is hard to discern what is in some of them. For anyone who wants to know about Stan and Ollie - this is the book for you!

This well-researched overview of Laurel and Hardy's career suffers from the fact that neither Stan nor Ollie led remarkable or extravagant lives. Unlike Chaplin, Keaton or Arbuckle there is neither grandiosity, decline nor scandal to report – merely a lot of hard work. Laurel and Hardy's contribution twentieth century culture is enormous, so it is reassuring not to have it eroded by any off-screen failings; the 'Louella Parsons' side of their lives is addressed (and gossip is sometimes scotched) but not given undue importance. Louvish succeeds in collecting and evaluating the often unreliable accounts of events – whether inflated by studio publicity or misremembered by elderly moguls – and reducing them to what is verifiable as fact. He is less successful when he lets his own imagination fill in the gaps, such as his ex nihilo assertion that the young Hardy was a local outcast because of his weight. Apart from this small complaint (and the occasional unwelcome intrusion of 'theory'), Stan and Ollie gives a balanced account of a the career of the screen's greatest comedy team.½

A comprehensive overview of the Marx Brothers that doesn't forget what Gummo and Zeppo brought to the show.

The pursuit of the truth is a goal of this book, but the author is honest that you can't always know. When he can't sort it out, he presents different stories, from different people's memories, and lets the reader sort it out.

It seems you get the warts-and-all look at the brothers, and it's not all attractive.

For example, Groucho is largely blamed for his wives' alcoholism, saying that was their only respite from his verbal abuse. This is at odds with another book on Groucho that I've read, and reviewed, called Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx. Which is the truth? I don't know.

Ultimately, what we should take away from the Marx Brothers is the terrific films - and the not-so-good ones, too - that are their legacy and gift.

Read more of my reviews on Ralphsbooks.

Wretched prose.

A detailed biography that tries to get to the truth of all the stories Fields told about his origins, and to the man behind the persona he created. Louvish had access to voluminous scrapbooks that Fields kept of all his appearances and to family papers, and he did exhaustive research in to archives at the Library of Congress and other places to seek out old scripts for vaudeville skits, studio correspondence, etc., etc. There are a lot of transcripts of routines (some reviewers didn’t like this, which I found puzzling – surely if you’re reading this, you like Fields and get a kick out of these.) There are great portraits of Eddie Cantor, Bert Williams, Fanny Brice, and others not well known today.
I hadn’t realized that Fields had such a long career as a juggler or that he’d traveled the world in that role for years before he became the comedian we recognize now. I liked it a lot and it was a perfect airplane and poolside book. The last part of Fields’ life wasn’t as well described as I would have liked but overall it was great. Apparently this was the go-to Fields biography for several years but now it’s been superseded by James Curtis’ W. C Fields. I’d like to read that one too.

A long, deep look into the archives of Mae West, of the papers she left behind, and an analysis of same. I really liked the dive into the vaudeville years, and the deep look at that lifestyle and history.

Despite being well-researched, it was still on the dry side, and the last years felt kind of rushed through. And it captured times, dates, plays, events, but not the SPIRIT of them... I felt like it was circling around Mae West, but never got close enough to feel her essence.

On the other hand, if anyone was ever deeply invested in maintaining the image, and dead-set not to reveal any inner fears/doubts/mistakes, it was Mae West. So, worth a read for Mae West fans or researchers.

I've read a number of biographies and filmographies of my favorite comedy team, Laurel and Hardy, by now (even named my two cats Stan and Ollie). My memory may be faulty, but it seems to me that this writer has gone to extra lengths to add to the body of knowledge about the boys, or unearthed the truths behind some of the long-accepted stories about them. In particular, there are a number of Hal Roach's (their long-time producer and director) self-serving oral memories from late in his own life that are debunked here.

Through it all, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy remain two genuinely decent gentlemen who liked and respected each other, enjoyed their work, and saw what they did as craft rather than art. But the author also reviews each of their numerous films and makes it clear that, in his opinion (and mine), some are masterworks of comic art. There are some pictures here, but it's never enough to suit me.

The author includes one of my favorite stories about Stan, which may be apocryphal, but I find it believable, on his deathbed:

To the nurse who was preparing an injection: "I'd much rather be skiing than doing this."
The nurse: "Oh, Mr. Laurel, do you ski?"
Stan: "No, but I'd much sooner be skiing than what I'm doing now."

The author spent the majority of the book going over the papers of Mae West instead of giving us insight into her from quotes from those who knew or worked with her. I found this approach to be boring. We did not need endless plots of her plays or films or other writings. The joke file was somewhat interesting. There were only a few letters mentioned. There are numerous quotes from newspaper reviews, which again, does not give us much insight to Mae West the person. This is a long book and it is full of misspelled words and inaccuracies such as on page 193-194 where the author says the cast of 1941’s Strawberry Blonde consisted of James Cagney, Rita Hayworth, and Maureen O’Hara. Cagney and Hayworth yes but O’Hara – absolutely not – it was Olivia deHavilland in one of her most delightful roles. On page 315, the author indicates Charles Winninger played “Cap’n Henry” in Showboat. Showboat’s Captain always has been Cap’n Andy. As bad as Jill Watts book on Mae West was, this one is no better and not worth the time spent to read the 422 pages.

Probably one of the worst biographies I've ever read. Three inches thick, and I don't feel like I know much more about W. C. Fields than I did to start with (which wasn't much). If you want pages of script dialogue, constant comparisons between his stage sketches and scenes in his movies, and totally wrong historical information, this is the book for you. This author is the most pompous and self-aggrandizing hack I've ever experienced.

Totally not recommended.

More a filmograghy than a biography, Interesting people presented in a dull book