Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho's House

TV writer Stoliar, a lifelong Groucho Marx fan(atic), first came to the comedian's attention while a student at UCLA, where he spearheaded an attempt to win the rerelease of the 1930 Marx Brothers' film Animal Crackers. When the campaign succeeded, he was hired by Groucho's companion, Erin Fleming, as a combination personal secretary and archivist; he began the job in 1974 and held it beyond Groucho's death in 1977. The book is essentially an account of the declining years of a great talent who, even after two-or perhaps three-strokes still showed flashes of the wit that brought him stardom. Looming large in this reminiscence is Fleming, a mercurial woman who ran the household and its head, tried to alienate Groucho from his children and fired most of the nurses and servants who threatened to get close to him. That she may have drugged him on occasion or appropriated some of his money is, Stoliar suggests, at least a possibility. Eventually she was ousted and this branch of the Marx family was reunited. The memoir could be depressing were it not for the author's upbeat tone and Groucho's snappy repartee, which enlivens many pages. Photos not seen by PW. (Mar.)