Hank Rosenfeld, THE WICKED WIT OF THE WEST Irving Brecher biographer:: Mr. Media Radio Interview

BY BOB ANDELMAN

Hank Rosenfeld found the kind of book writing job that guys like me salivate over. He met Irving Brecher, a brilliant and funny writer from the Golden Age of Hollywood comedy, and spent hours recording stories from Irv about everyone from Groucho Marx and the Marx Brothers to Judy Garland and Jackie Gleason.

AUDIO EXCERPT: "Irv loved that movie, Meet Me in St. Louis. He had to read the entire script to Judy Garland because L.B. Mayer said, 'She doesn't want to do the picture!' She didn't want to be outshone in the movie by the little girl's part. But Judy used to come over to his house and sing. So he sold every line in the script to her like it was Shakespeare."

“The Wicked Wit of the West,” as Groucho called him, lived a long and productive live, starting out writing one-liners for Milton Berle in the 1930s, two Marx Brothers films, punching up the humor in The Wizard Of Oz, writing and convincing Judy Garland to star in Meet Me in St. Louis, creating the long running radio and TV sitcom, “The Life of Riley,” and writing the original film version of Bye Bye Birdie for Dick Van Dyke and Ann-Margaret.


Lucky for us, Brecher maintained a magnificent memory of the events of his life and spent his last years telling his stories to Hank Rosenfeld. Rosenfeld produced a book that is mostly Brecher’s memoir with some bits of Rosenfeld thrown in.  The Wicked Wit of the West is a terrific read for any fan of comedy, particularly the Marx Brothers/Milton Berle/Jackie Gleason variety. It gets my highest possible recommendation.

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You can LISTEN to this interview with HANK ROSENFELD, author of THE WICKED WIT OF THE WEST, by clicking the BlogTalkRadio.com audio player above!

Copyright 2009 Bob Andelman. Click here for copyright permissions!

Elder Statesmen Agree: Fiction Sucks

From month to month, Esquire is consistently inconsistent. One month Mr. Media will read it from cover to cover, the next, pffffffft.

Fortunately, the February 2007 issue is chockful of challenging reading, including the annual Dubious Achievement Awards.

And then there are the back-to-back stories about two very different American seniors, actor Dick Van Dyke, 81, and lawyer-activist Ramsey Clark, 78. What could the co-star of "Night at the Museum" and Saddam Hussein's attorney have in common?

A bad attitude toward fiction. To wit:

Van Dyke: "For some reason, as time gets short in life, wasting time escaping through entertainment bothers me. I've been off fiction for years."

Clark: "Voltaire says history is fiction agreed upon. I find that unacceptable."

Hope this doesn't turn folks off Oprah's Book Club. Ever since James Frey, fiction just ain't what it used to be.