Stefan Kanfer (1938–2018)

Humphrey Bogart grew up in a progressive family where his parents were successful. They did, however, not lavish him with much attention. Au contraire, Bogart grew up an anti-authorative thespian who played theater before becoming the world-famous movie star and icon that he is known as today.

A libertine and man of his word - while it is argued that he was a serial adulterer - Bogart seems to have stayed true to his friends and work for as long as he lived. Half self destructive, half great at what he did, he believed in being a "man" and having a lot of fun.

The book turns him out as a no-nonsense kind of guy who always went for the truth, except in his most alcoholic moments. It shows his ups and downs, and how he always turned around some really bad situations in his life.

This book is straight-forward. There are no revelations in here, and the contents are put out chronologically in one simple way. There is no personal style to the writing, and towards the end I got the feeling that the author simply wanted to finish it off.

There are a lot of enthralling stories on how Bogie and Hollywood worked in the 1940-1960s, not to mention some comparisons between the man and modern-day actors.… (meer)

This is an interesting, well-written biography of an important figure in American culture. Kanfer here makes a strong case for the pervasive nature of the Marx Brothers' (and in particular, Groucho's) influence on comedy in particular and our national zeitgeist in general. The sections on the brothers' art, including vaudeville and movies, and on Groucho's post-Brothers work, is detailed, informative and enjoyable. Unfortunately, Groucho the person was a different kettle of fish. Kanfer presents Groucho as having been permanently scarred by the brothers' determined stage-mom, Minnie, who gave preferential treatment to the two older brothers (I'll use stage names here for ease of communication) Chico and Harpo and younger brothers Zeppo and Gummo, to the detriment of Groucho, the middle son. In fact, Minnie's name for Groucho during childhood was a Yiddish phrase meaning "the jealous one." More specifically, Minnie dragged Groucho out of school at before he was 10 so that he could take part in the family stage act. The result, according to Kanfer, was a man who would remain suspicious of and cold to the women in his life, including three wives and two daughters, all of whom he drove away. Groucho's son, Arthur, evidently didn't fare much better in his relationship, either. It seems unfortunate, even if understandable, that Kanfer chose to spend so much time dwelling on the mostly unhappy concluding chapters of Groucho's long life. This is a biography of Groucho, the man, rather than solely of Groucho the star, but, still the concluding chapters do dive down into a lot of depressing details. So we can see this both as an illuminating biography of a beloved and important figure in American comedy, arts and culture and as a cogent cautionary tale that famous and even revered public figures are not necessarily happy, or even necessarily particularly nice people. Bottom line, though: I found the writing and the subject matter entirely engaging. Very much recommended.… (meer)