Four of the Three Musketeers: The Marx Brothers on Stage

An updated paperback version of the book heralded as “a new benchmark in Marx scholarship” by the Los Angeles Times
 
Before film made them international comedy legends, the Marx Brothers developed their comic skills on stage for twenty-five years. In Four of the Three Musketeers: The Marx Brothers on Stage, Robert S. Bader offers the first comprehensive history of the foursome’s hardscrabble early years honing their act in front of live audiences.
 
From Groucho’s debut in 1905 to their final live performances of scenes from A Night in Casablanca in 1945, the brothers’ stage career shows how their characters and routines evolved before their arrival in Hollywood. Four of the Three Musketeers draws on an unmatched array of sources, many not referenced elsewhere. Bader’s detailed portrait of the struggling young actors both brings to vivid life a typical night on the road for the Marx Brothers and illuminates the inner workings of the vaudeville business, especially during its peak in the 1920s.
 
As Bader traces the origins of the characters that would later come to be beloved by filmgoers, he also skillfully scrapes away the accretion of rumors and mythology perpetuated not only by fans and writers but by the Marx Brothers themselves. Revealing, vital, and entertaining, Four of the Three Musketeers has taken its place as an essential reference for this legendary American act. Now, the updated edition adds newly discovered performances—some submitted by readers—and additional information provided by descendants of long-departed vaudevillians mentioned in the book.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction 
• Prologue - The Old Country
  I. THE MARXIAN PREHISTORIC
• 1. The House on 93rd Street
• 2. Uncle Al, Gene Leroy and Johnnie Morris
• 3. On the Road with Master Julius Marx
  II. THE NIGHTINGALES, ALMA SCHANG AND THE UBO
• 4. Ned Wayburn’s Nightingales
• 5. A Nightingale Sang in Coney Island
• 6. Four Nightingales and Six Mascots 
  III. THE BUMPY ROAD TO THE BIG-TIME
• 7. The Metamorphosis: The Three Marx Bros. & Company in Fun in High School
• 8. Pantages, the White Rats and “Peasie Weasie”
• 9. Changing Partners: Gordon, Shean and Lee
  IV. AND THEN THERE WERE FOUR
• 10. The Four Marx Bros. & Company in Mr. Green’s Reception
• 11. The Sex Lives of the Marx Brothers and Other Catastrophes of 1913
• 12. Chicago’s Only Lady Producer of Vaudeville Attractions
• 13. Home Again and Broken Hearts
  V. THE BUMPIER ROAD TO BROADWAY
• 14. Home Again...And Again, and Again, and Again
• 15. The Five Marx Brothers and How They Became a Quartet...Again
• 16. A Show By Any Other Name
• 17. On The Mezzanine Floor with a Smudge of Grease Paint
• 18. On the Balcony, the Mauritania, and Albee's Blacklist 
  VI. FROM THE ASHES TO THE TALKIES
• 19. I'll Say She Is
• 20. The Toast Of Broadway
• 21. The Cocoanuts
• 22. Talkies, Animal Crackers and the Death of Vaudeville 
  VII. THE END OF THE ROAD
• 23. The Last of Minnie and the Crash of '29
• 24. The Four Marx Brothers And How They Became A Trio... Again 
• Epilogue - The End of a Dream Come True
• Appendix -The Marx Brothers Stage Chronology (1905-1945)
• Bibliography
• Acknowledgements

"Who would have dreamed that there could be much, much more to learn in still another book about the Marx Brothers? Not I. And yet, Robert Bader--focusing on the under-researched vaudeville days of the hilarious siblings--has gone where no man went before, discovering a treasure trove of Marxiana to delight the hearts and minds of those of us who can never get enough." --Dick Cavett

"I have read virtually every book ever published about the Marx Brothers. I have even written about them myself. Robert Bader's book is a revelation." --Leonard Maltin, author of Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide and The Great Movie Comedians

"In Four of the Three Musketeers Robert S. Bader shows that Groucho, Chico, Harpo and Zeppo had nothing on Minnie Marx--the booster, nag and agent who set them on their way to fame." --Wall Street Journal

"A book that no devoted Marx Brothers fan should be without . . . Four of the Three Musketeers is a fascinating, indispensable book that details the evolution of one of the greatest comedy teams as they went through a long, bumpy trial by fire." --Montreal Times