Speaking of Harpo

By: Susan Fleming Marx, Robert S. Bader

Narrated by: Tim H. Dixon

Bloomsbury presents Speaking of Harpo by Susan Fleming Marx, read by Tim H. Dixon. Susan Fleming appeared in three Broadway shows and twenty-eight films before she turned her back on a show business career she never really enjoyed or wanted. The role of her lifetime came when she married Harpo Marx in 1936. Together, they raised four adopted children and enjoyed one of Hollywood's happiest and most successful unions. But their twenty-year age difference made Susan a young widow in 1964. On her path to Hollywood, Susan worked in Broadway musicals produced by Florenz Ziegfeld and George White and befriended a young dancer who would later be known as Paulette Goddard. In Hollywood, she appeared in films with stars like John Wayne, W.C. Fields, and Katharine Hepburn and worked at all the major studios. But it wasn't until she fell in love with a confirmed bachelor, twenty years older than her, that she found her purpose. Her story is the counterpoint to the beloved and acclaimed Harpo Marx autobiography, Harpo Speaks! Susan's frank, opinionated perspective provides a true look behind the curtain and details Harpo's last years, following the publication of his own book. Susan's account of her more than thirty-year adventure with Harpo includes encounters with people like Charlie Chaplin, William Randolph Hearst, Salvador Dalí, Somerset Maugham, Joan Crawford, Howard Hughes, George S. Kaufman, Helen Keller, Oscar Levant, Jean Harlow, Bugsy Siegel, Samuel Goldwyn, Menachem Begin, Ginger Rogers, Alexander Woollcott, and of course, the Marx Brothers. Susan provides an inside look at the family and pulls no punches when discussing her brothers-in-law, who weren't always her favorite comedians.©2022 Susan Fleming Marx and Robert S. Bader (P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Wonderful stories

This was such a delightful and interesting book! I read it after reading Harpo’s autobiography and it was fun to see how he and his wife remembered things the same and yet differently. New paragraph you’ll wish that you could have grown up with Susan and Harpo as your parents! And she does not hold back on her opinions of his famous siblings.

Try this one

Lovely story. Well read. Lots of info about the Marx brothers. Special info on Harpo. Really a love story

Harpo from a different point of view

Loved hearing more stories about Harpo. It would have been nice for the narrator to be female since Susan's story was being told. Also, there were a few edits that were missed.