Robert Bader's chronicle of the stage career of the Marx Brothers is a boon to both fans and researchers. As a comprehensive overview depicting the stage careers of all five brothers, the book is as much a history of vaudeville as it is a biography of one its most famous acts. Bader combines his impressive collection of newspaper articles and reviews with a detailed familiarity with all of the relevant biographies and memoirs to paint a detailed and mostly entertaining account of the stage careers of the brothers. Beginning with Julius (aka Groucho) joining the Leroy Trio in 1905, Bader's narrative covers the machinations of their famous mother, Minnie “Palmer” Marx, the many permutations of the Marx Brothers, and the indignities of vaudeville all the way through their success on Broadway with I'll Say She Is (1924), The Cocoanuts (1925), and Animal Crackers (1928). Bader includes many interesting facets that...

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