Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel: The Marx Brothers' Lost Radio Show

by Michael Barson

Gathers transcriptions of the Marx Brothers radio show, and discusses the background of the show

Genres: Humor, Fiction, Classics

330 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well ladies and gentlemen, in the words of Mrs. Rivington in the season finale, "This is all perfect nonsense." ☺️ It was so cozy and fun to read these old radio scripts and imagine all the colorful scenarios the boys found themselves in. I laughed out loud quite a few times, and I am now thoroughly convinced that Esso is more powerful than any gasoline. Goodnight, ladies! 📻🥸🇮🇹❤️

[Remo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recopilación de los seriales de radio que durante los años cincuenta hicieron famosos a los hermanos Marx. Se nota claramente cómo en muchas ocasiones Martes y 13 han bebido de su humor absurdo (me gusta más Martes y 13). Hay algunos seriales realmente graciosos. En conjunto el libro es una biblia del absurdo. Los Marx eran geniales, aunque el propio libro explica al principio que el guión no era uno de sus fuertes (pues anda que si llega a serlo...).

[David]

A good book for a Marx Brothers fanatic to have. Lots of recycling here, though. Bits from the first four movies are reworked into a number of the scripts for this weekly radio show which survived only one season. Still, there are a few unfamiliar lines in there in the standard Groucho/Chico styles. On radio, so utterly without Harpo. Also utterly without Zeppo, though he was still part of the team at that point.

[Javier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una colección de historias algunas más entretenidas que otras.

[Pablo María Fernández · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este libro me reveló un secreto a voces que de chico desconocía: detrás del monólogo brillante de un cómico suele haber un ejército de guionistas. Desde Tato Bores pasando por un Conan, Colbert u otra estrella del Late Night Show hasta los mismos Hermanos Marx. En el caso de ellos este texto compila un programa de radio que hicieron en 1934 y para el que usaron no sólo a Nat Perrin y Arthur Sheekman como co-guionistas sino que éstos a su vez sumaron a George Oppenheimer y a Tom McKnight para que les escribieran (parece que la tercerización no es exclusiva del mundo corporativo).

La introducción del editor al mundo de una radio auspiciada y manejada también por grandes compañías petroleras es interesante. Los guiones en sí debo admitir que en su momento me divirtieron aunque hoy cuando releo mis marcas lo encuentro bastante trillado. Recuerdo que en esa primera lectura me parecía escuchar sus voces saliendo de los altoparlantes de una radio vieja y con la voz chillona del locutor diciendo los anuncios. En ese sentido me gusta que captura esa época de radio de los ‘30 a los ‘50 quizá donde era el medio de comunicación masivo por excelencia hasta ser desplazado en parte por la televisión.

Es fascinante la historia del humor en Estados Unidos (estoy justo leyendo en el Kindle The Comedians que cuenta la evolución del vodevil al night club y luego a la radio y televisión). De alguna forma los Hermanos Marx son una transición entre el slapstick de Los 3 chiflados y un humor más refinado del absurdo con escenas desopilantes y que hasta se daba el lujo de incluir solos de arpa (Harpo) y de piano (Chico) en medio de una película.

Al momento de comprarlo no era una opción pero hoy quizá lo haría directo en inglés porque si bien no utiliza tanto juegos de palabras en la traducción se pierden cosas. Y aún más, no lo compraría ya que es un error creer que porque alguien nos gusta en un formato lo vamos a disfrutar en otro (incluso aunque sea la misma obra). Si bien no hay grabaciones intuyo que gran parte de la magia de estos guiones aparecía cuando los actuaban Groucho y Chico.

Más sobre esta reseña y otras en:
https://pablomariafernandez.substack....

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun and at times, a real amusing read. But, to really get a real feel for the show's episodes and how Groucho and Chico acted out the scripts. It needs the regular telecast from when it was on the radio back in the 30's. The scripts come across real dry while reading them here. But with Groucho and Chico reading it out on air, it probably was a real amusing radio show.

[Sarah Brecko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every time I read a Marx Brothers book I enjoy it immensely - this is the only subject that has consistently made me laugh out loud while reading.
My only issue was about three quarters of the way through the jokes got a little monotonous. The material repetitiveness shows up more when you are readying back to back scripts of a weekly radio show.
Still, a great read.

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of scripts for the Marx brothers' radio show. They're a bit uneven but often hilarious, and provided material for some of their best movies.

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. In 1932, before they made Duck Soup, Groucho and Chico had a radio show playing a crooked lawyer and his dimwit crooked aide (originally this was Beagle, Shyster and Beagle but an attorney named Beagle threatened to sue). The live shows weren't recorded but if you know the Marx Brothers it's easy to imagine the delivery of the lines in these collected scripts. At its best, this is great zany humor ("Why are you giving our boxer rotten meat?" "If I give him good meat, he doesn't leave any for me."), but reading it all one episode after the other it lost some of the charm. Even discounting that, I think they were straining by the end, borrowing heavily from the earlier movies and having them vacation here, there and everywhere to juice things up (if they'd given them new characters in every episode it wouldn't have mattered much).

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is twenty-five short radio plays (one is missing, twenty-six were written and produced) written for the Marx Brothers, between their early four movies at Paramount and their later movies at MGM. The scripts were written by Nat Perrin, Arthur Sheekman, Groucho, and Chico, for which the Brothers Marx were paid the princely sum of $6,500 for a weekly 1/2 hour radio show advertising Esso products. (Harpo was doing goodwill tour of Russia during this time for the government, and his silent persona didn’t suit radio.)
My friends and I are doing the first pages of the first script, originally called “Beagle, Shyster & Beagle,” until a lawyer named Beagle threatened to sue Esso, because he feared that his clients couldn’t tell the difference between him and Groucho. Bought in Hobart, or another used bookstore, for $4?

[Christopher Rush · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sure, much of the lines are reworkings of movie scripts, but back in the day, would that be tedious to the audience? Surely not. The series gets better as the creative team soon breaks out of the confines of the office, though poor Miss Dimple gets less to do as the series progresses. It's a nice, lighthearted pun-filled forgotten-yet-familiar time with two Marx brothers, what more could you want?

[Stephen Hero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Based upon content contained within some sort of dry e-mail I sent on to this female coworker I received the response "You are a funny man."

So then I quickly questioned in response fashion "Sad clown kind of funny or relevant Marx Brother kind of funny?" Her almost immediate response to my inquisitive nature was the comment "You are hilarious!!!!"

That, my friends, is how you can quickly up your perceived workplace humour context; by embellishing even more additional dry-witted written hilarity that is neither dry nor hilarious but simply sad and embarrassing, borderline sad-witted, into the overt continuation of an asinine e-mail chain.

And that is why I so very most brutally impose a five-star rating on this tome. It's not just a humorous read; its very content was the crux, the catalyst, the centerpiece, and the very core of my aforementioned back-and-forth banal company e-mail communicae.


So that's my Friday morning in a nutshell. But I'm salaried.


And, yes, I know that communicae is not a real word. Obviously I'm waxing my literary license and leveraging something called neologism. Look it up if you have to.

[Chuck LoPresti · Rating 4 out of 5]

You won't likely find the broadcasts, don't think they were recorded so - here you go. Most of these jokes have found their way to their movies so this is for completeists only. I imagine most folks, like me, aren't better actors than the Bros. and thus will either fill in the voices in their heads as they read to the best of their ability or just plow through with no attempt to recreate what is now legend. This is no place to start with these fellers in text - Harpo Speaks might be that book...Groucho and Me otherwise...Kanfer's book is the respectful tell-all that scholars need.

Chico and Groucho are gods in my world so it is a welcome piece to the library - it isn't essential - but it does document the shows that nobody saved and no Marxist will have wasted time or coin. Three hundred pages of short radio jokes aren't meant to be read in long sittings - and I can imagine that Groucho, the man who knew Thurber, Lardner, Bencheley, T.S. Elliot and more might have balked at this - but it serves a purpose and although this book about a radio show about movie jokes is sort of like a song about a building that represents a poem - it's in no way supererogatory.

[Tom Stamper · Rating 4 out of 5]

These were lost scripts from a radio series that Groucho and Chico did between movies. The series was cancelled after a single season and many of these gags turned up in later movies. They may have borrowed gags from earlier movies too. It helps, of course, when you can imagine Groucho and Chico's voices playing these characters because the gags otherwise can sound flat. A friend and I recorded one of these scripts for a classmate's radio production project and even with our less than stellar impersonations you can tell how the Cadence of their voices and con man approach of Chico works in ways that don't show up on the page.

Personal Note:

Before you could buy books on the Internet, I would canvass used and bookstores new cities looking for books on classic films or golden age baseball players. Back in 1989 I bought this and Joe Adamson's biography on the Marx Brothers in Mishawaka, Indiana. I don't think I ever saw either book again anywhere and they have traveled with me on my every move since, which by my count is 11 times in the last 32 years. So many discarded VHS tapes and 10 years of Premiere Magazine can't say that.

[Jim]

Reading this for another change of pace, partly because I feel like a book of short pieces. It's very witty. I have to admit though, it's a bit dry. If only we could HEAR these!

As I progress into the book, around the 15th episode or so, they seem to get funnier. All the same, I wish I could hear these instead. (although a couple of these scripts are either taken from, or added to movies they made (Animal Crackers, and The Big Store, for two of these)

This is a very witty read. Cornball Humor? You betcha!!! But fun. pity we can't hear them instead though. If you love marx brothers, this is worth a read!

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

A friend of mine gave this to me, and diehard Marx Brothers fans will find something to like in this. But the main thing this book of their lost radio show scripts showed me is just how much their humor was forged by their delivery, not from the quality of jokes. In fact, much of the material was recycled from their movies. As much as I enjoy the Marx Brothers, I was eager to get to the end of the book.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as funny as if I could have heard these radio shows performed ( as far as I know, these scripts are the only surviving evidence of the show) the jokes and thin plots get pretty formulaic, but still contains some great lines and gags and I can hear the Marx Brothers saying them.

Entertaining, and I'll still take weak Marx Brothers over good almost anybody else.

[BR Hischier · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you hear voices in your head that sound like famous personalities, then you'll enjoy this book. However, if when you read you only hear your own unique personal rhythm and voice, skip it. It ain't the Marx Brothers, it's you.

[Fugo Feedback]

Lo tengo de TusQuets pero de una edición bastante anterior. Recuerdo haber leído por arriba un par de las historias y eran muy graciosas. Cuando le pegue una leída íntegra, que me gustaría hacer con los audios originales de fondo, seguro se gane su correspondiente reseña.

[Voland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarante, divertido, todo el humor negro que se llegó a transmitir por radio. W.T. Flywheel es sin duda un personaje embustero, ácido y cargado del humor negro. Un viaje al pasado de la comedia norteamericana. 100% recomendado

[Jeannie Faulkner Barber · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an excellent tale Eric Wilson can weave! I can't decide which of his works I like best...they're all awesome a great page turners.

[Dony Grayman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Colección Andanzas #93. Ejemplar en buen estado con marcas en el lomo.

[Variaciones Enrojo]

Transcripciones de las rutinas cómiacs radiales de los hermanos Marx.

[Kyriaki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant!

[Sandro EC · Rating 2 out of 5]

Los chascarrillos de Chico son malísimos. Muchos chistes se pierden o empeoran con la traducción (sospecho). Las líneas de Groucho (algunas) son lo único que se salva.

[Dony Grayman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edición con portada negra.

[Giovanni Botta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finito nel 01/gen/1970 00:00:00