I recently discovered a gem of a book about screenwriter Irving Brecher entitled The Wicked Wit of the West: The last great Golden-Age screenwriter shares the hilarity and heartaches of working with Groucho, Garland, Gleason, Burns, Berle, Benny & many more.
Oy, that’s a mouthful!
Who is Irving Brecher you may ask?
Irving Brecher was a comedy writer and the only screenwriter to write two Marx Brothers movies – At theCircus and Go West – all by himself. He also punched up The Wizard of Oz, wrote Shadow of the Thin Man, Ziegfeld Follies, and adapted musicals Bye Bye Birdie and Meet Me In St. Louis for film.
Groucho Marx called him “The Wicked Wit of the West.”
Author, folk journalist, and radioman extraordinaire Hank Rosenfeld spent six years getting to know Irving while they collaborated on this delightful memoir.