Harpo Speaks... About New York by Harpo Marx

3 stars
nonfiction/memoir

It feels pretty generous calling this a book, when really it's just a portion of the full memoir, but I did enjoy it. Sadly it's the closest my library has to the full Harpo Speaks.  (Possibly the actual book is what I'll get with the gift card I got for Christmas.)

I LOVE the Marx Brothers and this was an interesting snippet of what their life (specifically Harpo, of course) was like as children.  What a crazy household! lol

The introduction by E.L. Doctorow was interesting, but while I could see what he meant about Harpo being the Marx Brother all the kids related to growing up, that wasn't at all MY experience.  Harpo was always hilarious, but with my love of words it was always Groucho who reigned supreme.

That said, Groucho was ALWAYS talking, so he doesn't seem like as much of a mystery as Harpo does, making a memoir from Harpo's perspective all the more fascinating.

A Father's Day-ish Movie Review

*Note* Blogger hates me. This was supposed to go up yesterday. Sorry.

So talking about Alan Alda made me think of MASH (go figure) which made me think of

THE MARX BROTHERS!!!

(It's a logical leap, I promise. "Yankee Doodle Doctor", a great MASH episode, has tons of Marx Brother references.)

These are awesome Father's Day presents. At least, they would go over great in my family. But we're kinda nutty.

Do you know the Marx Brothers? You have to know Groucho. Everyone knows who Groucho is... even if they don't realize they know.


My personal favorite is Duck Soup.

"Hail, Hail Freedonia!"

I love it.



Go, I tell you. Watch. Run, do not walk, to your nearest library and check out a Marx Brothers movie.

To tide you over, here are some clips:
The Mirror Scene
Abusing the Lemonade Man

And just for fun (From Horse Feathers)

What's the Password??