Stars of Bedlam: The Rise & Fall of the Marx Brothers is a fascinating read that details exactly what it says on the tin. The writer, who goes by “the Holy Bee”, details the story of the brothers from when their parents were born, and more extensively when Chico and Groucho began their careers, from around 1905 all the way to about 1930. You’ll note that that’s not when the brothers broke up (Depending on how you look at it, it’d be 1941, 1949, or 1961; I’d go with the first). Part 7 of this eleven-part story is when things get much brisker. Admittedly, that is essentially “the point”. As the Holy Bee states, the “rise” from 1905-1930 is not so well documented, with the only recordings of the group being the first two movies, Too Many Kisses, and a little home movie footage; the earliest of which is from 1925.
Starting around the start of the movies, other history books pick up and continue on, probably because we can actually see what they’re referring to. Even then, the “fall” isn’t covered so much either. The coverage of the Marx Brothers’ poor later films have the excuse of being something you can watch, thus that’s why the old plays are covered in detail, while the movies are in much less. However, the eleventh and final installment covers about thirty years, starting with the beginning of the brothers’ last film, Love Happy. There’s a decent amount of 60s and 70s material, and a lot of 50s, because they were tv stars. While you could say, “But that stuff is viewable!”, the behind the scenes stories aren’t so documented and a good chunk of the tv content is indeed missing or unavailable.
The first six parts make you hunger for more of the brothers, especially from that timeframe. “Why couldn’t television or the internet have been around, at least sound cameras, so the Marxes youthful anarchy could be viewable?” Some have speculated that a lot of their greatest moments are on the stage and are lost to documentation. Even if they were replicated in the movies, there would be factors working against them being as good or accurate. While each part of this biography is reasonably long, time isn’t wasted, with lots of juicy information that details our understanding of what this group would’ve been like. One favorite is James Beury and the $10,000 story, which seems like it was taken from a comedy. Zeppo apparently was briefly working with the group in 1914 and 1915, which is sometimes overlooked. It’d be nice to know why, especially as he’d later hang around sketchy characters.
There’s little on what Gummo was like on stage. Maybe the info here is all that we got, but if not there should’ve been more included? We get excerpts from an interview where Gummo basically says it was right for him to be removed from the act. He is funny there, so more of that interview would probably be worth including, for the sake of giving him a presence. At least we know he can get a laugh in how he discusses himself.
Past 1930, you get a good understanding of how the brothers deal with different egos, who often have power; movie producers, directors, women, responsibilities of being a public figure. It seems that if the brothers were well to do financially and never had to worry about money, Room Service could’ve been their last film. We get a little on how they felt about having to go on, especially Groucho. Groucho can seem very sad in his older years, battling loneliness and the public image of being a character he’s grown beyond. His self destructive behavior apparently drove people away, but the specifics should be there. Did he say or do anything different from one wife to another? Was there a final straw? If so, what was it? Did he have moments of extreme weakness? If so, what? One really good story not in here was that the solo film Copacabana was reasonably successful, with people emphasizing him being a duo with Carmen Miranda. It seems Groucho didn’t want to be in a group and didn’t continue a potentially very lucrative career path. Why he wouldn’t in detail would’ve been a fascinating read, at least mention that incident.
The Holy Bee essentially doing reviews of the movies does feel out of place, especially after so many installments pre-anything to review, but that might be worthwhile to their fanbase. The series generally takes an objective look at the brothers, not being opinionated. The reviews can at times drown out the biographical part and once there are no more movies, the last segment is somewhat bullet point. Perhaps they didn’t feel anything was worth adding? A 2014 biography of theirs called Zeppo = Zero? A Totally Unexamined Life covers many tidbits not in Stars of Bedlam. Maybe they were excluded because they were already there, but the consequence is that Zeppo does seem strangely absent, especially because his dedicated post was reasonably quick and brisk.
When Groucho dies, that’s essentially treated as the end of this story, with Zeppo’s later death almost a footnote. Despite Gummo and Zeppo’s lack of attention, Minnie did get a reasonable amount of coverage when she was alive. There’s a photo to commemorate Minnie, Frenchie, and the three main brothers when they go, but not for Gummo, Zeppo, and Margaret Dumont. The quality of Holy Bee’s writing is demonstrated due to how heartbreaking it is to get to the point where everyone is falling under poor health and ultimately dying. Based on this look into their lives, those deaths feel personal, especially as the three main brothers were all working the year before their passing.
OVERVIEW
For a Marx fan, Stars of Bedlam: The Rise & Fall of the Marx Brothers is definitely worth a read, as is Zeppo = Zero? A Totally Unexamined Life, which perhaps should be read as a spiritual twelfth part, due to covering the end of the life of the last lasting Marx brother. Despite some spelling mistakes and other mentioned criticisms, it does collect so many goodies, both stories and high quality photos.
There’s some nice information on the dates and roles of people that worked with the Marxes, sometimes considered at the time to be just as important and starring in the act as the brothers themselves. I will flex my love of graphs and include a table of membership. This article was not my only source for it and there could be inaccuracies.
The Filme Diary 