Enter now to win a copy of
Straight Lady:
The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, “The Fifth Marx Brother.”
“Great stars of Hollywood often have multiple books written about them, but the marvelous character actors who support them are mostly ignored. An exception is “Straight Lady: The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont” by Chris Enss and Howard Kazanjian, a prodigiously researched biography of the actress who played the stalwart victim of the Marx Brothers’ comedy of assault. The Marxes were all over the place, but she was steady, always playing the same woman, who merely had different names: Mrs. Rittenhouse, Mrs. Claypool, Mrs. Potter.
Straight Lady is a noble enterprise, in the Dumont sense of nobility. Margaret Dumont died, at age 82, in March 1965, and her popularity grows as new generations discover her; standing tall, her posture perfect, ready for whatever is coming at her. She earned the respect the authors have given her. Like her, they play it straight.”
Wall Street Journal Review
