The Wicked Wit of the West: Golden Age Screenwriter Irving Brecher Gets the Last Word

I had to take a moment to tell you how much I love "The Wicked Wit of the West." At a book signing, I heard some of the recorded conversations author Hank Rosenfeld had with screenwriter Irv Brecher. I can tell you that this is one of the most authentic memoirs I've ever read because it uses exact conversations Hank had with Irv. This is a book you will want to read and re-read. It's a keeper. Irv makes you laugh and while there are great stories you've never heard before, it's also peppered with an honest attitude toward death. A meaningful journey has been captured throughout the pages. When you find yourself quoting stories from the book, you know you've found something memorable. This book is a winner!

Groucho Marx and S. J. Perelman both agreed: the fastest quippers, the best wits able to come back with "one line impromptus" were George S. Kaufman, Oscar Levant, and Irving Brecher. Irving Who? Brecher was behind the camera or behind a typewriter most of the time, but the subtitle of his memoir will tell you that he had connections: _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_. The book is by Brecher "as told to Hank Rosenfeld", and for once the collaboration seems genuine and meaningful. Rosenfeld is himself a comedy writer, and he spent seven years hanging around the elderly Brecher, in plain hero worship. Much of the book is a transcription of their conversations, and it works well as a documentation of a friendship between two men who like bantering and kidding. It also includes some of Brecher's standup routines, but best of all, it has his stories of working and laughing with comic stars all through the twentieth century. Brecher died last November at 94, and didn't get to see the publication of the memoir he and Rosenfeld had been working on, but this merry book is one of the best last laughs you'll ever read. "So here it is," he says near the beginning of the book, "I'm saying it. I admit I am very funny. I don't like to quote myself, but unfortunately everybody I know who should be quoting me is dead. Fine friends they turned out to be." Brecher was one of those Hollywood denizens that got his start the classic way, as an usher in New York City. As a teenager he would send in gags on postcards to columnists Walter Winchell or Ed Sullivan who would credit him by name. He got a long-term assignment of writing gags for one of the most visible comedians in the business, Milton Berle, and this material brought him to the attention of Hollywood. Brecher was astonished to be working with stars he used to see in the Nickelodeon when he was a kid, including his idols, the Marx Brothers. Brecher helped punch up _The Wizard of Oz_. And then he was assigned to write the Marx picture _At the Circus_; with that and with the later _Go West_, he was the only writer to get sole credit on Marx movies. There are wonderful stories about the Marxes here, anecdotes any fan will adore. Brecher went on to write movies like _Meet Me in St. Louis_ and _Bye Bye Birdie_. While writing movies, he also wrote the radio sitcom _The Life of Riley_. Brecher became a widower from one long-term marriage and then entered another. He does not seem to have used his wit against his wives but rather as a palliative during arguments. He remembers an argument with his first wife who was so upset she said, "That's it! I'm leaving you!" He gave her the reply, "That's OK with me. But if you go, I'm going with you." Looking back at that bit of dialogue forty years later, he remarks, "It worked." Brecher never really l

from The Library Journal [...] * Performing Arts Brecher, Irving, as told to Hank Rosenfeld. 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. Ben Yehuda. Jan. 2009. c.360p. photogs. index. ISBN 978-0-9789980-8-0. hdcover $55; paperback, ISBN 978-1-934730-23-2. $25. FILM 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

ROFL. Irving Brecher, a guy I never heard of before, comes alive - even though I read he just died. This tour de force of funny includes insider stories about Harpo, Groucho, Chico, Judy Garland, Jack Benny, and others. Written in a casual, engaging style, this hybrid memoir - part first person autobiography and part biography - "a freak" as Brecher puts it in the book - will satisfy comedy lovers. Yet the delightful wordplay also shows that intelligence and creativity can overcome difficult life circumstances. Inspiring on multiple levels. God Bless you Mr. Rosenfeld (Rosewater). Note: Kurt Vonnegut would have loved this book!

Great Read. This book took me to that golden time when wit was more important than explosions. After finishing the book I would have given anything to click my heels three times and wish my self back to the time when the greats roamed the world of entertainment.