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December 24, 2008
Forward on Brecher: "The Funniest Man You Never Heard Of"
This week's Forward reviews The Wicked Wit of the West:
The Funniest Man You Never Heard Of
By Gordon HaberSome people have greatness thrust upon them, others thrust it upon themselves. When Irving Brecher was ready for greatness, he just took out an ad.
In 1933, 19-year-old Brecher was ushering at a movie theater in midtown Manhattan. For kicks, he mailed jokes to New York columnists; once in a while he had the thrill of seeing them in print. After a friendly critic (if such a thing is possible) told Brecher that he actually could get paid for writing comedy, Brecher put an ad in Variety. A rising young comic named Milton Berle had a reputation for appropriating material; Brecher's ad claimed that his own jokes were so bad, "not even Milton will steal them." Intrigued, Berle hired Brecher, thus beginning a groundbreaking, lucrative and fascinating career in show business.
Brecher was the rare example of a prodigy who fulfilled his early promise. He wrote for Berle's stage and radio shows, for Vaudeville comedians like Henny Youngman and for the Western star Hoot Gibson (whom Brecher remembers as okay enough, although he "liked his horse better" -- maybe because Gibson never paid him). But it was in Hollywood that he racked up his real achievements. Although the Marx Brothers famously employed platoons of screenwriters, Brecher got sole credit for two of their movies, "At the Circus," and "Go West." He also wrote the screenplays for two classic musicals, "Meet Me in St. Louis" (for which he got an Oscar nomination) and "Bye Bye Birdie." Under contract with MGM, Brecher wrote lines that were spoken by immortals: Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Lucille Ball and Fred Astaire, to name a few. Under contract with himself, he created the wildly popular radio series "The Life of Reilly." When he adapted the show for television, he made a bundle and gave a hard-drinking young comic named Jackie Gleason his national break. With "Reilly," Brecher also pretty much invented the sitcom (an enormous accomplishment for him, but for us a mixed blessing).
Given this impressive career, you might think that Brecher would be better known. But in Hollywood, then as now, even the best writers toiled in semi-obscurity. (Brecher's YouTube video in support of the 2007 writers' strike suggests a slight but lingering bitterness.) As a corrective, Hank Rosenfeld, a self-described "folk journalist," spent seven years of his spare time interviewing Brecher. Rosenfeld collected the results in "The Wicked Wit of the West."
Considering the subject, Rosenfeld's obsession is laudable, but it makes for a strange book. With all the incidental material that he provides -- the descriptions of where the two men met and what they ate, and sometimes what Brecher was wearing -- the "as told to" credit doesn't convey the underlying hero worship. At times, "The Wicked Wit of the West" reads like a milder, Jewish version of Nabokov's "Pale Fire," an inadvertently revealing look at a biographer a little too enthralled by his subject.
Nevertheless, of the two voices, Brecher's is still dominant. This is because of the combined force of Brecher's memory and personality, both of which remained powerful when the writer was in his 90s. (Brecher died, at 94, on November 17). In the interviews, Brecher comes across as funny and cranky, joyful and philosophical. His career is interesting, because
he knew so many giants and because he reveals his own fears and failings. To the reader's benefit, he also reveals his grudges. Some of the funniest parts of the book involve Brecher's run-ins with studio executives, like the "bloodless" Southerner whose behavior suggested that his "favorite movie was probably 'Birth of a Nation.'" The reputation-piercing stories are even more fun. Apparently, Bob Hope was a "killer" in business, cultivating a lovable public persona while quietly insisting on payment for charity gigs: Brecher claims to be "surprised to hear that [Hope] had died, because there's nothing in it." And then there's Al Jolson, who never told his younger wife about his vasectomy. This way, if she got pregnant, he'd know that she had cheated.
Show business biographies can be dicey. More often than not, they're exercises in narcissism, nostalgia or both. This one avoids the former and only occasionally indulges in the latter. Although Rosenfeld's asides can be intrusive, we should be grateful that he set his sights on Irving Brecher. "The Wicked Wit of the West" portrays a man who, despite decades in a vicious industry, stayed generous of spirit, clear-eyed and, most important, funny.
Posted by yudel at 4:27 PM | Comments (0)
December 15, 2008
Library Journal loves Irving Brecher and Wicked Wit
Wicked Wit of the West earns a starred review from Library Journal!
Brecher is the most influential writer you've never heard of in Hollywood. He wrote At the Circus and Go West for the Marx brothers and classics such as Du Barry Was a Lady and Meet Me in St. Louis for MGM. He wrote stand-up for Milton Berle and created the radio and television program The Life of Riley.
Now in his nineties, the man is still a comedic genius with wit and timing that can't be beat. Incredibly, his career covers the entire spectrum of 20th-century entertainment, beginning with vaudeville and encompassing movies, radio, plays, television, and even the web (in impassioned support for the writers' strike of 2007).
Brecher's story is presented as a series of interviews, which allows his voice to come through in its witty splendor. Rosenfeld does a fine job as chronicler, selector, and muse for these interviews, and his genuine friendship with Brecher is the reason that this book exists. Altogether delightful, this is an incredible reminiscence by a remarkable man. Highly recommended to all film collections and those public collections whose senior patrons will remember the gagsters and stars of Brecher's heyday.--Christian Zabriskie, Queens Lib., NY
Posted by yudel at 3:52 PM
December 1, 2008
Five Star Review for Cabalist's Daughter from Tzvee Zahavy
From Tzvee's Talmudic Blog:
Five Star Review: The Cabalist's Daughter: A Novel of Practical Messianic Redemption by Yori Yanover
Yori Yanover has crafted the Jewish answer to the blockbuster TV action series "24."
The Cabalist's Daughter: A Novel of Practical Messianic Redemption by Yori Yanover is the most clever action-packed Jewish novel ever written.
This book is informed by Yanover's deep knowledge of Jewish religion and beliefs and his wide learning of kabbalah and Jewish messianism. Yori maintains a pace of action in this book that can rival that of any of the best screenwriters in Hollywood today.
I will be astonished if a savvy TV producer does not grab up the rights to this book. Yanover's story cries out to be adapted to a major creative TV release.
Who is this outstanding author? Yori is a well-regarded journalist and writer who also pioneered the Jewish Internet and virtually invented the Jewish blog.
I must issue this disclaimer. I worked as a colleague in awe of Yori at the Jewish Communications Network in 1996 and 1997. I am forever indebted to this man who showed me how to persevere in the face of great business challenges and maintain a focus on the tasks at hand - in this case inventing the Jewish Internet in a company that was run by the proverbial management team of well-intentioned amateurs.
Yori is at once a pious Jew, a heretical Israeli and a voracious consumer of modern pop culture. Nobody I know could craft a more clever assemblage of the latest news of the Jews as Yori did at JCN - every day of the year - with absolutely astonishingly brilliant photoshopped images, clever headlines and acutely on the money judgment of what was and was not newsworthy.
Now Yanover tells a story in this new book of a master cabalist in Brooklyn -- father of the messiah. With allusions to the Hasidic mystical dynasty and to ancestral legend, Yanover keeps one eye on Judaism's core beliefs and the other on the Kojak-like tensions that make up the Lower East Side of New York City.
Does this description of this book seem like it marks a totally fresh and novel writer's formula? You bet it does.
Is the world ready for Yori's outlandish messiah story replete with "firefights, helicopter battles and strange visions"? In an era that has witnessed one bestselling Christian apocalypse series of books after another it is high time that we, the founding dramatic Israelites, came back to the center of the stage and offered up our answer, as Yanover does indeed in this great new book.
Posted by yudel at 9:08 PM | Comments (0)