PDF Ebook Hello, I must be going: Groucho and his friends, by Charlotte Chandler
There is no doubt that publication Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho And His Friends, By Charlotte Chandler will certainly always provide you motivations. Even this is merely a publication Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho And His Friends, By Charlotte Chandler; you could discover lots of genres and also types of publications. From captivating to experience to politic, and sciences are all offered. As exactly what we specify, here we offer those all, from well-known authors and publisher on the planet. This Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho And His Friends, By Charlotte Chandler is among the compilations. Are you interested? Take it now. Exactly how is the way? Read more this post!
Hello, I must be going: Groucho and his friends, by Charlotte Chandler
PDF Ebook Hello, I must be going: Groucho and his friends, by Charlotte Chandler
Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho And His Friends, By Charlotte Chandler. Is this your leisure? Just what will you do then? Having extra or downtime is really outstanding. You can do everything without force. Well, we suppose you to spare you couple of time to review this publication Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho And His Friends, By Charlotte Chandler This is a god publication to accompany you in this totally free time. You will certainly not be so difficult to recognize something from this book Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho And His Friends, By Charlotte Chandler A lot more, it will assist you to get better info and experience. Even you are having the fantastic tasks, reviewing this publication Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho And His Friends, By Charlotte Chandler will not include your mind.
It can be among your early morning readings Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho And His Friends, By Charlotte Chandler This is a soft documents publication that can be got by downloading from on-line book. As understood, in this innovative age, modern technology will relieve you in doing some tasks. Also it is just reviewing the existence of publication soft file of Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho And His Friends, By Charlotte Chandler can be added function to open. It is not only to open as well as conserve in the gizmo. This time in the morning and also other free time are to review the book Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho And His Friends, By Charlotte Chandler
The book Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho And His Friends, By Charlotte Chandler will certainly still provide you favorable worth if you do it well. Finishing guide Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho And His Friends, By Charlotte Chandler to review will certainly not come to be the only goal. The objective is by getting the good worth from guide till the end of the book. This is why; you should find out even more while reading this Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho And His Friends, By Charlotte Chandler This is not just how fast you check out a book and also not just has the amount of you finished guides; it is about exactly what you have actually obtained from the books.
Thinking about the book Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho And His Friends, By Charlotte Chandler to read is additionally required. You could select guide based upon the preferred motifs that you such as. It will certainly involve you to love reading various other books Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho And His Friends, By Charlotte Chandler It can be also concerning the necessity that binds you to read the book. As this Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho And His Friends, By Charlotte Chandler, you could find it as your reading publication, even your preferred reading publication. So, locate your favourite book here as well as get the connect to download the book soft file.
When Charlotte Chandler called Groucho Marx for an interview, he answered the phone himself. Declining to be interviewed, he invited her over to his house so he could tell her no in person. After talking with her for hours, Groucho asked, "Why aren't you writing?"
Hello, I Must Be Going is the story of Groucho and the Marx Brothers, told through Groucho's everyday conversations with Charlotte Chandler and his friends. And what a group of friends they were! Woody Allen, Jack Nicholson, Elliott Gould, Bill Cosby, Marvin Hamlisch, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Sidney Sheldon, and dozens of others walk through the pages of this fascinating book. Anyone interested in Groucho or the Marx Brothers, or who wants to spend a few hours in fabulous company, will find this book irresistible.
- Sales Rank: #1931186 in Books
- Published on: 1978
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 568 pages
Review
"Reading Hello, I Must Be Going is like really being there. And I should know. I love the book."
-- Zeppo Marx
"Hello, I Must Be Going is as funny, even funnier than Groucho has ever been."
-- Otto Preminger
"Charlotte Chandler's book is the real thing. Absolutely authentic, beautifully researched, a joy to read."
-- Billy Wilder
"Knowing Groucho was fascinating, but this book knows Groucho better than I did."
-- Mike Nichols
"The definitive book on Groucho Marx."
-- Irv Kupcinet, Chicago Sun-Times
"I wish I could have met Groucho, and now I have. In Hello, I Must Be Going, Groucho never disappoints."
-- Tennessee Williams
"I'd like to have a book like this written about me. Absolutely!"
-- Bette Davis
"Charlotte Chandler's Hello, I Must Be Going contains such a wealth of Groucho Marxisms that she qualifies as the late comedian's Boswell."
-- Richard R. Lingeman, The New York Times Book Review
"Hello, I Must Be Going is fabulous. The best book of its kind."
-- Elliott Gould
"Under those curls, Charlotte Chandler has a tape recorder in her head."
-- Jack Nicholson
About the Author
Charlotte Chandler is the author of several biographies of actors and directors, including Groucho Marx, Federico Fellini, Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, Bette Davis, Ingrid Bergman, Joan Crawford, and Mae West, all of whom she interviewed extensively. She is a member of the board of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and lives in New York City.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter One: "Hello, I must be going"
Groucho did not grow old gracefully, because there is no such thing. It was an indignity with which he lived, with the greatest dignity possible. "Growing old is what you do if you are lucky," he said, and though any decline was a constant offense to his pride, Groucho mustered all his strength for what in the end had to be a losing battle.
The Groucho legend, however, didn't age; it was frozen in time. The Duck Soup Groucho was expected by some; others expected to find the You Bet Your Life Groucho. After one of his jokes you could hear echoes of "He's the same, he's the same as ever!" People didn't want to see their idol fall. If Groucho was aging, so were they -- someone else's old age is a threat to one's own immortality. Time may pass for them as it does for other mortals, but they are shocked to find that it also passes for an immortal of the silver screen and the video tube. Captain Jeffrey T. Spaulding, Professor Quincy Adams Wagstaff, Impresario Otis B. Driftwood, and Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush are ageless, but Groucho was in his eighties.
In his daily life, the most difficult competition Groucho had to face was competition from his younger self. His professional appearances, though happening until shortly before his death, were constantly diminishing in number -- to avoid growing old in technicolor close-ups, and because growing old isn't funny.
Groucho had a perspective different from those of most of his friends, since virtually none of them had ever been that close to a century old. Health and survival became what was important. He gave the highest priority to remaining able-minded. "I want to go on as long as I can, as long as I'm in good shape, especially mentally." But he did not find the rigors of growing old or the supposed secrets of longevity to be a diverting topic of discussion.
"Age isn't very interesting to talk about. Anyone can get old. Everybody gets older, if you live long enough."
In answer to Jack Nicholson's "How old are you, Grouch?" he raised his eyebrows and said, "It's not how old I am, it's how I'm old."
During Groucho's last visit to New York City, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and Penelope Gilliatt joined Groucho and me for lunch in his suite at the Sherry Netherland Hotel. We gathered in a football huddle in the living room, glasses in hand. Groucho raised his glass of tomato juice in a toast and said, "To health. That's all there is." Mystified, Betty pondered the toast. "Is that all there is?" she asked. Groucho shrugged and said, "Vay iz mir." Adolph translated: "That means 'Woe is me.' What kind of a toast is that?" Groucho didn't even try to explain that for him the greatest luxury in life was being able to take good health for granted.
While we were having dinner before going to see Juno and the Paycock, Billy Marx, Harpo's adopted son, asked Groucho what was the most exciting thing that ever happened to him.
"The most exciting thing that ever happened to me was when my doctor said I was good and healthy."
"I mean in show business, Groucho," Billy persisted.
"I was in show business when the doctor said that."
He also tried to explain his feelings to virile young friend Jack Nicholson, who couldn't really put himself in Groucho's house slippers:
Jack Nicholson
We ought to be goin' around the town together, Grouch. We'd have some time!
Groucho
You reach a certain age, and you don't care about sex anymore. You just care about health.
Jack Nicholson
There has to be more than that. You can still always do something. You can just lay around and...
This conversation was interrupted by the entrance of nurse "Happy," whom Groucho always described as "the only woman who can put me to sleep." He was referring to her tickling of his feet, a minor passion of his, "one of the few I can still satisfy." He added wistfully, "That wasn't the way it always was. But when a guy is eighty-three, he should forget the whole thing. I know if I do it, it's going to be lousy, so why cheapen myself? It doesn't depress me. I know I can't do it properly anymore; if I could, I'd still be doing it. I've talked to a lot of guys who are seventy-eight, seventy-nine, and they all say it's hopeless. When you can't get it up anymore, you should quit. When a guy is eighty years old or thereabouts, he should read a book."
I
Is there anything in your life you would do differently?
Groucho
I wish I were young enough to make the same mistakes all over again.
I
But isn't there something you would do if you had your life to live all over again?
Groucho
I'd try more positions.
Animal Crackers had not been shown in theatres for more than twenty years when Groucho obtained a print and screened it at home for us. Mike Nichols and Jack Nicholson were invited for the event, and they clearly thought the film was great. Jack was particularly impressed by Groucho's dance. "I'd sure like to be able to do that," he told Groucho. "It must be really difficult to get it just the way you did it." Groucho said, "I'll give you lessons."
The next day, Jack appeared for his lesson. Groucho got up and did the dance, but it was a pale reflection of his 1930 performance. Jack looked momentarily stunned, and Groucho was angry at himself for not being the man he had been. Then the moment passed and the conversation turned to other topics.
Jack Nicholson, who was born almost a decade after Groucho danced that dance -- perhaps even after Groucho had already forgotten it -- had not fully appreciated the interval of time that had elapsed between the 1930 performance and the 1973 performance -- and neither had Groucho. On the screen the performers remain unchanged over the decades. The motion picture can be rather frightening for the performer who is able to watch his own wide-screen wrinkles appear. When Jack had left, Groucho told me, "I hope I look that good when I'm his age."
In 1974 Groucho returned to New York for the opening of Animal Crackers, and Doubleday Editor Ken McCormick asked him, "What do you find most changed, Groucho?" He replied, "Me, I'm eighty-three." At his Carnegie Hall appearance in New York, Groucho summed it up: "I come from a world that doesn't exist anymore, and hardly do I."
Groucho was fortunate that his character was never extreme youth. Who's ever heard of a youthful lecher? He never had to face the trauma that confronts the motion picture ingenue. The Groucho character was middle-aged in his earliest films and remained so for a very long time. He was, in fact, still readily recognizable in his middle eighties, as one learned on even the shortest saunter down any street with him. Harpo's innocence was like that of a child who was never supposed to grow up, let alone grow old, while Groucho, who wooed dowager Margaret Dumont or soubrette Thelma Todd, didn't have to contend with losing his youth. He could still joke about it. "My youth is slipping," he said. "Someone should tell him to be more careful."
There were those who felt that any public appearances by Groucho in his eighties should be curtailed or better yet, curtained. They felt that his forays into the world of show business were destroying the myth of a Groucho Marx who should not grow old in the glare of the klieg lights. It is part of the limitation of the human condition that the mystique of glamour and the mistake of excessive accessibility have enough difficulty coexisting without the complication of aging.
For Groucho, the important day of his life was today, and he loved playing himself. As the years ahead grew shorter, the tributes grew longer, but he was not ready to be enshrined. "I don't want to be put in a case in a museum like Harpo's harp." As for his fans, some of them young enough to be his great-grandchildren, the thrill of Groucho in his eighties was still a thrill, even if -- especially if -- the name he mischievously signed in the autograph book was "Mary Pickford," which he did on occasion.
As one grows older, one is constantly losing illusions, learning that the "real" Santa Claus is working for the Salvation Army and Macy's at the same time, and that romantic, true, and perfect love rarely ages as well as cognac. But Groucho managed to remain at least somewhat illusioned in the face of disillusioning realities. Life itself, after a certain point, operates under a law of diminishing returns, and eighty-five-year-old optimism is rarer than twenty-one-year-old optimism or even seventy-five-year-old optimism.
I
Was it a hard life in the early days when the Marx Brothers didn't get much money, had to travel all the time living in rooming houses, eating chili every day?
Groucho
Well, I was young. And there's no hard life when you're young. Everything is easy.
I
Yes, but unfortunately, when you're young, you may not realize that.
Groucho
Yeah. You don't know it, so it seems hard. But when you're young, you're not afraid. You don't know any better.
Then Groucho put his finger on what was different for him about being old: "Everything comes harder. You have to concentrate to do what you didn't have to think about before. You can't take things for granted. You can't even take salt for granted."
Having dinner with Jack Nicholson, Groucho suggested to him, "Maybe you should stop using salt while you're still young, so you won't miss it when you have to give it up. I don't use salt, I don't drink now, and I don't smoke.
"I used to be crazy about Somerset Maugham. He lived to be about ninety years old. He still smoked cigarettes. The doctor said, 'You ought to quit. You'll die if you don't quit smoking.' And Maugham said, 'What can you give me to replace it?' The doctor went home in a huff. He was driving a blue Huff at the time."
Happiness consists largely in the ability to live each day without too great an awareness of the passing of time. The ability to be oblivious to the passing of time is one of the greatest luxuries of youth, but Groucho in his eighties still had that casualness about time which allowed him to waste it in nonconstructive pursuits without fee...
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
It's quite a feat to make such interesting funny people sound boring
By Robin Brodsky
I could hardly get through this book. Very disjointed. No flow at all. The one running theme is of a man talking about how old he is. The conversations could have been any group of people talking, no feel for their character, and we're talking about Groucho, and George Burns! Why would you print an interview with Groucho when his only response was "Yeah."? It's quite a feat to make such interesting funny people sound boring. The author repeats the same lines verbatim throughout the book. No creativity. Poorly written. I don't recommend it to anyone.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful.
A rare glimpse of Groucho toward the end of his life
By Gretchen C
As the author points out, Groucho was a willing participant in this book but didn't live to see its publication. Charlotte Chandler spent a good deal of time with Groucho in his home toward the end of his life, and it's a perspective not offered by other authors (and I've read a number of books on the Brothers). Ms. Chandler conveys a sense of mutual warmth between herself and Groucho but doesn't idolize Groucho the Legend to the point of forgetting to capture the man. I also appreciated her kindness and restraint in treating Groucho's twilight-years relationship with the much, much younger Erin Fleming (the subject of a lawsuit by son Arthur Marx and many vitriolic pieces by the tabloid press). My husband points out that a few of the stories are told twice (anecdotally by the author, then in interview form), but that's well worth the price of admission. Transcripts of coversations with Woody Allen, Bill Cosby and others are priceless.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
Memoirs of a Mangy Reviewer
By Eric Draves
I've read part of this book in the library. It contains MANY anecdotes and quotes NOT found in any other Marx Bros. books-- and I've read most of the main ones! Thrill to the revelations about the sixth Marx brother! Gasp in Amazement at the meeting between Groucho and Woody Allen! Cheer at the revelation of the Missing Sketch from "I'll Say She Is!". And last but least, laugh. Of course some tiny smidgen (say, what IS a smidgen, anyway?) of information is incorrect, but hey, beggars can't be writers. Or is that critics can't be boozers?
Hello, I must be going: Groucho and his friends, by Charlotte Chandler PDF
Hello, I must be going: Groucho and his friends, by Charlotte Chandler EPub
Hello, I must be going: Groucho and his friends, by Charlotte Chandler Doc
Hello, I must be going: Groucho and his friends, by Charlotte Chandler iBooks
Hello, I must be going: Groucho and his friends, by Charlotte Chandler rtf
Hello, I must be going: Groucho and his friends, by Charlotte Chandler Mobipocket
Hello, I must be going: Groucho and his friends, by Charlotte Chandler Kindle
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar