Sunday, April 17, 2011

Sonny

Arthur Marx has died.  He was a tournament tennis player, a novelist, a biographer, a screenwriter, a hit Broadway playwright (The Impossible Years) and a successful TV producer (Alice and many other shows), but he's best remembered for being the son of Groucho Marx.

In fact, he wrote four books about it, the best being Son Of Groucho (1972), which had a sometimes sharp portrait of his father, back when his dad was still around. Groucho may have been a great entertainer, but according to Arthur, he'd insult you before he'd compliment you, and did not part easily with a dollar.  Arthur always feared no matter what he accomplished, his obit would read Groucho's son dies, and that's pretty much how it worked out.

I've met his son, Andy.  I don't assume anyone's asking him to write Son Of Arthur, though if he did I better he'd come across as warmer than Groucho. Let me also recommend his book on Martin and Lewis, Everybody Loves Somebody Sometimes (Especially Himself), published in 1974, a very entertaining (if not especially in-depth) version of the team's story.

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