We have in the past here plugged Raised Eyebrows, a fine book by my pal Steve Stoliar. Steve worked for Groucho Marx for the last few years of the great comedian's life and was therefore in the midst of the stormy presence of Erin Fleming in Groucho's life. I probably don't have to remind anyone who would come to this site what that was all about but just in case, I wrote about it here.
Congrats to Steve. It was announced yesterday that his book is to be turned into a movie directed by rocker-turned-director Rob Zombie, screenwriter Oren Moverman and other folks you can read about in this news item. If you read that, don't read the comments, most of which are from people condemning the project because of some idea they have of this film looking like other Zombie projects. They know not how passionate and loyal to Groucho's memory Steve is; how he'd never be a part of anything that didn't serve this subject properly. (This is something that often annoys me about the Internet…this rush to review movies that haven't gotten anywhere near a camera yet. The screenplay isn't finished, the picture isn't cast, not one frame of film has been shot but somehow, you know exactly what it will be like.)
As I've written elsewhere here, I had two brief in-person encounters with Groucho and Ms. Fleming during those years…enough to believe that Steve, who was present for most of it, got the story exactly right in his book. I don't mean just that he knew what was going on but also that he set it down in an accurate manner as opposed, say, to making himself look like more of a hero than he was. He did though do much to help his employer and idol, and that story is well worth the wide audience that it will get from a movie of this sort. So I view this as good news, not just for Steve but for those of us interested in the sheer history going on there.