Too Bad Zeppo Didn't Write A Book

I hadn't read Harpo Speaks! in years, but I was looking through a closet it and there it was.  Going through it again, I was surprised at how well I remembered many of the anecdotes. Harpo put out this autobiography in 1961, a few years before he died.  The first third of the lengthy book is about his early days--how he and his brothers got into show biz and eventually became Broadway stars.  It's by far the best part.  Unfortunately, once the Marx Brothers become the toast of the town in I'll Say She Is in 1924, the book spends most of its pages telling stories about Harpo's travels around the world and the big names he got to know.  There's more about Harpo playing croquet than making films.

Harpo was adopted by the Algonquin Round Table (you'd think the more literary Groucho would have been, but there you have it) and went on to meet great artists and heads of state.  He took long vacations in Europe and was one of the first American performers to do shows in the Soviet Union.  While these stories are interesting, I longed for more background on Marx Brothers' movies.  Essentially, the last two-thirds of the book are a disappointment.  Fun stories, to be sure, but characters like Oscar Levant and especially Alexander Woollcott, who were friends but not professional associates, take over, crowding out tales of Chico and Groucho and the Brothers' cinematic collaborators.

In fact, there is almost nothing about the five Marx Brothers' movies at Paramount--the films upon which most of their reputation rests today.  There is a page or two on the move to MGM, and the making of A Night At The Opera, but if you want to find out about Monkey Business, Horse Feathers or Duck Soup, look elsewhere.

This is somewhat understandable.  First, this is Harpo's life.  Making those films so many years earlier was only a small part of it, and perhaps not a highlight for him.  Further, when Harpo wrote the book, the Paramount films weren't quite held in the high esteem they are today.  The Marx Brothers' legend would take off very soon, but in the late 50s, they were more a charming old act you saw on the late show (the guys Groucho from You Bet Your Life used to work with) and their best stuff was thought to be the big, classy films they made at MGM, especially A Night At The Opera.

So I'll give the book three honks.  Enjoyable, but a missed opportunity.