Simon Louvish
Author of Stan and Ollie: The Roots of Comedy: The Double Life of Laurel and Hardy
About the Author
Simon Louvish is a biographer of comedians and author of satirical and outrageous fiction. He is a film screenwriter and teaches film at the London Film School.
Image credit: Simon Louvish
Works by Simon Louvish
Stan and Ollie: The Roots of Comedy: The Double Life of Laurel and Hardy (2001) 201 copies, 5 reviews
The Therapy of Avram Blok 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1947
- Gender
- male
- Education
- London School of Film Technique
- Occupations
- biographer
novelist - Organizations
- London Film School
- Short biography
- SIMON LOUVISH was born in Glasgow in 1947 and grew up in Israel. Later he decamped to the London School of Film Technique, where he became involved in the production of a series of independent documentary films. He also published a memoir of his Israeli days as well as a series of novels set mainly in the Middle East. Since 1979, he has also been teaching film at the London Film School and writing for various newspapers and magazines. Louvish is the author of definitive biographies of great clowns of screen comedy, including Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Story of W. C. Fields, Monkey Business: The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers, and Stan and Ollie: The Roots of Comedy. Further film biographies include Keystone: The Life and Clowns of Mack Sennet, Mae West: It Ain't No Sin, and Cecil B. DeMille: A Life in Art. [from us.macmillan.com]
- Birthplace
- Glasgow, Scotland, UK
- Places of residence
- Israel
- Associated Place (for map)
- Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Members
Reviews
A long, deep look into the archives of Mae West, of the papers she left behind, and an analysis of same. I really liked the dive into the vaudeville years, and the deep look at that lifestyle and history.
Despite being well-researched, it was still on the dry side, and the last years felt kind of rushed through. And it captured times, dates, plays, events, but not the SPIRIT of them... I felt like it was circling around Mae West, but never got close enough to feel her essence.
On the other show more hand, if anyone was ever deeply invested in maintaining the image, and dead-set not to reveal any inner fears/doubts/mistakes, it was Mae West. So, worth a read for Mae West fans or researchers. show less
Despite being well-researched, it was still on the dry side, and the last years felt kind of rushed through. And it captured times, dates, plays, events, but not the SPIRIT of them... I felt like it was circling around Mae West, but never got close enough to feel her essence.
On the other show more hand, if anyone was ever deeply invested in maintaining the image, and dead-set not to reveal any inner fears/doubts/mistakes, it was Mae West. So, worth a read for Mae West fans or researchers. show less
This well-researched overview of Laurel and Hardy's career suffers from the fact that neither Stan nor Ollie led remarkable or extravagant lives. Unlike Chaplin, Keaton or Arbuckle there is neither grandiosity, decline nor scandal to report – merely a lot of hard work. Laurel and Hardy's contribution twentieth century culture is enormous, so it is reassuring not to have it eroded by any off-screen failings; the 'Louella Parsons' side of their lives is addressed (and gossip is sometimes show more scotched) but not given undue importance. Louvish succeeds in collecting and evaluating the often unreliable accounts of events – whether inflated by studio publicity or misremembered by elderly moguls – and reducing them to what is verifiable as fact. He is less successful when he lets his own imagination fill in the gaps, such as his ex nihilo assertion that the young Hardy was a local outcast because of his weight. Apart from this small complaint (and the occasional unwelcome intrusion of 'theory'), Stan and Ollie gives a balanced account of a the career of the screen's greatest comedy team. show less
A detailed biography that tries to get to the truth of all the stories Fields told about his origins, and to the man behind the persona he created. Louvish had access to voluminous scrapbooks that Fields kept of all his appearances and to family papers, and he did exhaustive research in to archives at the Library of Congress and other places to seek out old scripts for vaudeville skits, studio correspondence, etc., etc. There are a lot of transcripts of routines (some reviewers didn’t like show more this, which I found puzzling – surely if you’re reading this, you like Fields and get a kick out of these.) There are great portraits of Eddie Cantor, Bert Williams, Fanny Brice, and others not well known today.
I hadn’t realized that Fields had such a long career as a juggler or that he’d traveled the world in that role for years before he became the comedian we recognize now. I liked it a lot and it was a perfect airplane and poolside book. The last part of Fields’ life wasn’t as well described as I would have liked but overall it was great. Apparently this was the go-to Fields biography for several years but now it’s been superseded by James Curtis’ W. C Fields. I’d like to read that one too. show less
I hadn’t realized that Fields had such a long career as a juggler or that he’d traveled the world in that role for years before he became the comedian we recognize now. I liked it a lot and it was a perfect airplane and poolside book. The last part of Fields’ life wasn’t as well described as I would have liked but overall it was great. Apparently this was the go-to Fields biography for several years but now it’s been superseded by James Curtis’ W. C Fields. I’d like to read that one too. show less
Hard to imagine anyone who has not watched a lot of Stan and Laurel comedies appreciating a book about their lives, particularly one 544 pages long. But I grew up in the 50's and saw a lot of their stuff on TV reruns, so, for me, the stage was set for what was an enjoyable read
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Statistics
- Works
- 22
- Members
- 891
- Popularity
- #28,764
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 12
- ISBNs
- 69
- Languages
- 3