Join NY Times author Chris Enss, and Raiders of the Lost Ark and Revenge of the Jedi producer Howard Kazanjian, as they launch their new book Straight Lady: The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, “The Fifth Marx Brother.” Refreshments will be served, and Marx Brothers’ films will be shown.
The launch will be held on Friday, October 14 at the Lamanda Park Branch Library at 140 South Altadena Drive Pasadena, CA. 91107 from 6 P.M. to 8 P.M.
1927 -“The Second Hundred Years” silent short film released starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy – 1st Laurel and Hardy film with them appearing as a team.
“The Marx Brothers exploded on the scene and screen in the 1930’s. Their vaudevillian antics brought needed comedic relief during the crushing weight of the Great Depression. The boys took the usual slapstick routines and amped up their deliveries with snide comments, slurs and sarcasm. Groucho and the boys needed a foil for their routines. Veteran actress Margaret Dumont was brilliant in that role.
Her portrayals of oblivious dowagers were a perfect fit for the madcap Marx Brothers, in particular, the ad libbing sardonic Groucho. She appeared in all of their biggest hits; ie., “Duck Soup”, “A Day at the Races”, A Night at the Opera”. Her role was to be oblivious to the taunts hurled at her character. In other words, a straight lady.
Collier magazine featured Margaret in 1937. She had received an Actor’s Guild Award for Best Actress for her performance in “A Day at the Races”, which grossed 5 million, an astonishing figure at the time. The headline for the article was “Lady Who Assists the Homicidal Comedy of the Marx Brothers”.
Margaret Dumont had a complete life; Enss and Kazanjian’s research fill in all the voids. “The Straight Lady” digs deep and produces an revealing chapter in the amazing early success of the movie business. For those readers who enjoy a fascinating story, this book will fit the bill. For those who love Hollywood history, it is a must read.
1927 – “The Jazz Singer“, directed by Alan Crosland, starring Al Jolson and May McAvoy, released, 1st film with a soundtrack (Honorary Academy Award 1928).
Straight Lady: The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, “the Fifth Marx
by Chris Enss & Howard Kazanjian
Lyons: Globe Pequot. Oct. 2022. 208p. ISBN 9781493060405. $30. FILM
COPY ISBN
Frequent collaborators Enss and Kazanjian (authors of the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans joint biography The Cowboy and the Señorita and The Young Duke: The Early Life of John Wayne) offer film buffs an engaging biography of Brooklynite Margaret Dumont, born Daisy Baker (1882–1965). She is most famously remembered as the deadpan comic foil—a stereotypical stately dowager whom Groucho played off of—in seven of the 13 movies by the Marx Brothers. Enss and Kazanjian argue that Dumont’s Marx Brothers roles were characterized by the actress’s dignity, even as the films poked fun at her age and weight. Dumont, often bedecked in an opera-length necklace, trained in and performed opera before transferring to stage, film, and TV variety shows. She had retired in 1910, after marrying a millionaire industrialist, but when he died during the 1918 flu pandemic, she returned to acting and worked until her death.
VERDICT While comedy fans will enjoy the reprised storylines and biographical vignettes, this multileveled work also offers media scholars a deeper look into Marx Brothers films in which Dumont was epochal and reflective of the era’s gender standards and mannerisms.
1941 – The Maltese Falcon, John Huston‘s adaptation of Dashiell Hammett‘s famed 1930 novel, had its world premiere; it is considered by some to be the greatest detective movie ever made.
1941 – “The Maltese Falcon” directed by John Huston and based on Dashiell Hammett’s 1929 novel of the same name, starring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor, premieres in New York City
“In the world of comedy, being a ‘Straight man’ isn’t easy. You have to set up the comedian for his next joke and give the proper reactions but being a ‘Straight Woman’ is the toughest job there is. A woman must tower over the comedian in attitude, deflecting the insults, and be his perfect foil. In movie after movie, Margaret Dumont was Goliath to Groucho Marx’s David; imperious, with just the right touch of snobbery for Groucho to deflate, but always standing her ground against his barbs while being wonderfully funny. Groucho actually claimed that Miss Dumont never understood his jokes, thinking it was all nonsense. And those straight-faced, dismissive reactions made her all the funnier. They were the perfect team, and now this book gives this superb comic actress a long over-due tribute to her talents.”
C. Courtney Joyner, Award-winning film historian and screenwriter
