Straight Lady is still going strong.
Amazon ranks the title in the top twenty books
in the category of theatre biographies.
Enter now to win a copy of Straight Lady:
The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, “The Fifth Marx Brother.”
Journal Notes
Margaret Dumont on Nitrateville
Enter now to win a copy of
Straight Lady:
The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, “The Fifth Marx Brother
Howard Kazanjian and I had the pleasure of participating in the Nitrateville podcast to discuss Margaret Dumont and the book Straight Lady.
You’ll find the episode at https://nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=33730#p270032.
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Midwest Book Review of Straight Lady
Critique: Informed and informative, Straight Lady: The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, “The Fifth Marx Brother” must for the personal reading lists of motion picture enthusiasts, cinematic film historians, and the legions of Marx Brothers’ fans. While unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, college, and university library 20th Century Cinematic History & Biography collections, it should be noted that “Straight Lady: The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, “The Fifth Marx Brother” is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $21.49).
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Margaret Dumont – Holding Her Own Against Groucho Marx
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Straight Lady:
The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, “The Fifth Marx Brother
“She’s so in love with me, she doesn’t know anything. That’s why she’s in love with me.”
Grouch Marx’s character Dr. Hackenbush about Margaret Dumont’s character
Mrs. Emily Upjohn in the film A Day at the Races.
Before the Marx Brothers
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Straight Lady:
The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, “The Fifth Marx Brother
The sidewalk that lined the thoroughfare in front of the Broadway Theatre in New York was filled with fashionably dressed ticket holders ready to see the musical The Summer Widowers. Written by Glen MacDonough, who also wrote Babes in Toyland, and with music by A. Baldwin Sloane, The Summer Widowers is the story of a female detective hired to keep tabs on three men whose wives are spending the summer in the country. The star-studded cast included comedienne and songstress Daisy Dumont. The reviews received for her role in the musical were beyond favorable. “It is doubtful there is any woman on the American stage who is more strikingly attractive or talented,” the September 23, 1910, edition of the New York Tribune read. “Miss Dumont has had several excellent opportunities in the last few seasons, and she has benefitted by all her stage experience…. She is about the most sought-after woman for light musical comedy roles that there is in the United States. Not only because of her attractiveness but because of her pleasing abilities.”
Daisy was particularly radiant when she stepped onto the stage to regale the audience with one of the production’s most popular songs. She cast a glance toward the balcony area to the right of the stage and smiled lovingly at the distinguished gentleman in the plush box seat. Wealthy, forty-year-old, ex-golf champion John Moller, Jr., nodded and winked at the twenty-seven-year-old actress. At the conclusion of the musical number, he stood up and applauded Daisy’s performance. The theatregoers below him followed suit. Daisy was grateful for the enthusiastic reception and offered a dignified bow in response. Suddenly, a large wedding bell was lowered over the stage and a shower of rice fell from the flies as the orchestra played the wedding march. Daisy was just as surprised by the display as the audience. This was not part of the show. She took another bow as the crowd looked on, still applauding. She blew a kiss to John before sashaying into the wings.
Just twenty-four hours prior to the curtain going up, Daisy and John had been married in a simple ceremony in Greenwich, Connecticut. Irene Franklin, known as the “most popular vaudeville actress,” and her husband, dramatic actor Burton Green, were matron of honor and best man. After they exchanged vows, the four made their way to the New York Athletic Club for a celebratory dinner.
“Yes, it was all very sudden,” Daisy told entertainment reporters. “But I have known Mr. Moller for two and a half years. We couldn’t have been married before because he was only divorced last week.”
To learn more about the talented actress who would be Margaret Dumont read Straight Lady
Machine Gun Kelly: Dead or Alive
Last week my sweet friend Laurie Cockerell escorted me to the town of Paradise, Texas, to do some research for the book I’m working on about George “Machine Gun” Kelly and his wife Kathryn Thorne. One of the stops made was to Kelly’s grave. While searching for Kelly’s final resting place we met a man wandering through the cemetery taking pictures. After helping us locate Kelly’s grave marker he asked us we were aware that Elvis was alive and shared that the singer and actor was preaching sermons at a church in Georgia. He went on to inform us that JFK and Princes Diana were also alive and serving pie at a local eatery. We smiled politely and nodded before telling the curious man that we’d love to stay and chat, but we needed to get back to the planet earth.
I wasn’t the slightest bit surprised to find that this misguided fellow has his own Youtube channel where he talks about the famous men and women the public believes are dead but are living and working at places like Chick-fil-A and Boot Barn. The followers of this silly man are staggering. More than thirty thousand individuals tune in regularly to hear what he has to say! I couldn’t help thinking after watching a few moments of the “show” that it seems like the only people who are quiet and don’t film themselves saying such crazy things are serial killers. We live in a nauseatingly confessional society, but it wasn’t always that way. There was a time when you wouldn’t dream of telling a person you just met that you were an alcoholic. Unless, of course, you met the person because you had driven your car into their swimming pool.
The thing about the entertainment media’s brand of voyeurism is, we’re so easily bored that if somebody wants to keep our attention, they must continually supersize the freak value. What I can’t fathom are the people who auction off their privacy on the open market. You can go on-line now and watch mutants and cybergeeks who record every nanosecond of their lives – every snore, every burp, every restraining order filed against them by Oprah or Taylor Swift. It all raises the philosophical question: how can you broadcast your life when you don’t have a life?
What’s really bothering me is that in retrospect, I should have stayed at the cemetery long enough to ask the man if George Kelly was still alive. I’m kicking myself now thinking that I could have driven to Home Depot and chatted personally with the gangster about his misdeeds.
