Wonderful `Wicked Wit’

Congratulations to Hank Rosenfeld, my friend and former colleague from Spy, who collaborated on The Wicked Wit of the West, which is a memoir-cum-biography of the great Hollywood screenwriter Irving Brecher, the author of two Marx Brothers movies (At the Circus and Go West), Meet Me in St. Louis, and Bye Bye Birdie!, and who invented The Life of Riley, among other accomplishments. The book is full of behind-the-scenes stories and hilarious anecdotes featuring Groucho Marx, Milton Berle, Jack Benny, George Burns, Jackie Gleason, Carole Lombard and other show biz greats; one especially funny sequence involves a fishing trip that Brecher, Groucho and two other buddies took to rustic Yellowstone Park in the late forties–talk about fish out of water. The book has its element of sadness, too, as Brecher discusses how in his mid-fifties, with a tremendous career behind him and a lot of opportunity ahead, he lost his creativity when confronted with the difficulties of dealing with his schizophrenic son. The book also shows the deepening relationship between Irv and Hank, who clearly became so much more than collaborators as Brecher declined and eventually died in this 95th year. The the cover, by the peerless Drew Friedman, is a joy. Great job, Hank!