Chris Enss - Straight Lady: The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, The Fifth Marx Brother

Chris Enss is a New York Times best-selling author who has been writing about women of the Old West for more than twenty years. She has penned more than forty published books on the subject. Her work has been honored with five Will Rogers Medallion Awards, two Elmer Kelton Book Awards, an Oklahoma Center for the Book Award, and was a Western Writers of America Spur Finalist. Her book The Trials of Annie Oakley has been optioned by a major production company and is currently in development to become a motion picture. Ensss most recent works are According to Kate: The Legendary Life of Big Nose Kate Elder, Love of Doc Holliday; No Place for a Woman: The Struggle for Suffrage in the Wild West; and Iron Women: The Ladies Who Helped Build the Railroad.

Enss is the current president of Western Writers of America, is the co-chair of the Historical Commission in Nevada County, California, and is a licensed private investigator.

Howard Kazanjian is an award-winning producer and entertainment executive who has been producing feature films and television programs for more than twenty-five years. He lives in San Marino, California.

So many thanks. A mountain of gratitude.

To Maggie Schreiner, manager of Archives and Special Collections at the Brooklyn Historical Society, and Reference Associate Adrienne Long. Both were gracious and accommodating and retrieved a treasure trove of information about Margaret Dumonts young life.

To John Calhoun, lead researcher in the Billy Rose Theatre Division at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, who kindly provided rarely seen documents and photographs of Margarets early days on Broadway.

To Kenneth Thomas with the Society of Georgia Archivists, who was instrumental with the investigation into Margarets connection, or lack thereof, with author Joel Harris.

To Clark Bernat, culture and museums manager for the city of Niagara Falls; Elizabeth Smyth, professor of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning, University of Toronto; and Julie Denovan, administrative assistant at the IBVM leadership office in Toronto, who provided valuable details about Margarets upbringing and education.

To B. Keith Williams, fact checker extraordinaire, for helping to verify dates, places, names, and attribution of quotes.

And finally, to executive editor Rick Rinehart for agreeing to publish a book about Margarets life and times with the Marx Brothers. Thank you for your kindness and for being accommodating.

Anobile, Richard J. Why a Duck? Visual and Verbal Gems from the Marx Brothers Movies. New York: Darien House, Inc., 1971.

Bickley, Bruce R. Jr. Joel Chandler Harris: A Biography and Critical Study. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1978.

Charles Rivers Editors. American Legends: The Marx Brothers. Scotts Valley, CA: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014.

Cooke, Alistair. Garbo and the Night Watchmen: A Selection from the Writings of British and American Film Critics. London, England: Jonathan Cape, 1937.

Eyles, Allen. The Marx Brothers: Their World of Comedy. New York: A. S. Barnes & Co., Inc., 1971.

Jewell, Richard B. RKO Radio Pictures: A Titan Is Born. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012.

Kanfer, Stefan. Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000.

Katz, Ephraim. The Film Encyclopedia Hardcover. New York: Thomas Crowell, Co., 1979.

Louvish, Simon. Monkey Business: The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martins Press, 1999.

Marx, Arthur. My Life with Groucho: Growing up with the Marx Brothers. Fort Lee, NJ: Barricade Books, Inc., 1988.

Marx, Groucho, and Anobile, Richard. The Marx Brothers Scrapbook. New York: Darien House, Inc., 1973.

Oppenheimer, George. The View from the Sixties: Memories of a Spent Life. New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1966.

Pirosh, Robert, and Seaton, George. A Day at the Races. New York: Viking Press, 1964.

Vieira, Mark A. Irving Thalberg: Boy Wonder to Producer Prince. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.

Webb, Graham. Encyclopedia of American Short Films 19261959. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2020.

Brooklyn Historical Society Library, Vital Records: Daisy Juliette Baker.

Historical Journal of Film, Radio & Television, Vol. 14, No. 1, 1994. London, England: Taylor & Francis, 2015.

Westchester County Historical Society, Daisy Juliette Baker Papers.

Abbeville Meridional, Abbeville, LA, January 18, 1936.