Harpo Speaks

De: Harpo Marx

Narrado por: Johnny Heller

First published in 1961, this is the autobiography of Harpo Marx, the silent comedian of The Marx Brothers fame. Always silent on the stage and screen, Harpo speaks for the first time and shares the story of his remarkable life with humor, intelligence, and love. A truly gifted musician, brilliant comic, and wonderful person, Harpo comes alive in Harpo Speaks.

Public Domain (P)2024 Abbreviated Audio

Wonderful story, behind a funny man 

Finally! After waiting 55+ years, a audiobook, of , “Harppo speaks”. ever sense I saw The TV show “YOU BET YOUR LIFE “ and Harpo came on to give away his book to the contestants, I always wanted to read it, but can never find it. Finally, the book has been resurrected, and is a funny and heartwarming story of the behind-the-scenes of at least one of the Marx brothers.   The reader does a good job at convening Harpo Marx‘s story . Now I just have to wait, and hopefully not another 55 years for Audible to come out with Groucho Marx book, ” speaking of Groucho “

A fascinating man

Perhaps because we are so used to seeing Harpo as the clown, it comes as a bit of a surprise to find out what a Renaissance man he was. The depth of his intellect and talent was hidden behind the wig and horn honking antics.

The narrator did a fine job, although I did find his voice somewhat grating.

Excellent autobiography of an interesting person

The stories related by Harpo were very entertaining and witty. The performance lacked a lot, but the words made it for it.

Best Autobiography Ever!

Too tired to write much except that I loved every minute of Harpo's autobiography. It was entertaining, deep, and revealed a man who had a tremendous capacity for friendship and for enjoying life.

The narrator was amazing - I can't say enough good things about what a great job he did. Loved it!

What a life.

Harpo speaks is a lot like watching Harpo perform. Funny and silly at times with a harp playing like bit of thoughtfulness and inspiration.

Not a “tell all” about show business or his famous family at all, thank goodness, but a fun, heart warming story of an uncomplicated life lived as well as we all would want it to be. Fan or not this is one of the best star biographies you’ll ever listen to or read.

Johnny Heller does a great job performing it and in his own forward (1st time I’ve heard of this but it’s the right thing to do) explains why he performs it as he does.

Hope this is helpful to y’all and enjoy your day!👍

One of my favorite memoirs

A book I always love coming back to. It paints so many portraits. Life as a poor child of immigrants in turn of the century NYC. Life of struggling performers crisscrossing the nation. Life of the Manhattan elites in the roaring twenties and glittery Hollywood of the 30s. And rounding it all with his peaceful homelife of the 50's. The section on Soviet Russia is fascinating, a blend of stories that are ironic, funny, curious and tense. Props to Mr. Heller for his voice work, I very much appreciated his 90 second note at the beginning about his process for voicing s silent figure. I'll be listening to this annually I'm sure just as I read Harpo Speak annually.

The kindness of Harpo

What a beautiful biography, and an excellent snapshot of American history. This story was heartwarming, sweet and full of adventure.

Wish I could have met him.

The story kept me interested. The reader kept me in the moment. I loved it!

Harpo needs a better voice

I enjoyed the story, but I don't really care for the narrator, Johnny Heller. He states at the beginning that he researched what little audio was available of Harpo's real voice, and decided not to do an imitation of him, but to at least copy the speaking style of an early 20th century New Yorker. He does not pull it off convincingly. He also notes that Harpo spoke in a lower tone of voice than his brothers, but his own voice sounds too high. He sounds more to me like the old farmer character from Pepperidge Farm commercials. In spite of this, it's nice to revisit this book again after many years.

Fantastic autobiography, truly terrible, stort-breaking narrator

This is one of my favourite autobiographies of all time. I must have read this book easily over 100 times, to the point where I've memorized at least half of it.

Because it's about Harpo Marx, I never thought I'd ever see the day it appeared in audiobook. Needless to say, the instant I saw it, I bought it

Unfortunately, the narrator is atrocious. He speaks far too fast, has a weird Chicago/Maine accent, and sounds like he's doing a really bad imitation of Groucho trying to read Harpo's story poorly on purpose.

Many of my relatives are from old school NYC back in the days when the Marx brothers roamed the streets of the city. I know exactly what the brothers sounded like, including Harpo. There are very few extant voice recordings of him, but there are a few, and I've heard them. He sounded exactly like my Uncle Dominick.

This narrator takes the heart out of the entire story. NYC is one of the main characters of the lives of the Marx brothers. The narrator should have at the very least had an old-school NYC accent. Not only that, but his accents are absolutely horrible and NOTHING close to the accents they're supposed to be. Who gave this mess a green light?

Has anyone involved in this project ever actually *been*to NYC, or even talked to a New Yorker in their entire lives? I think not.

I love this book, but I'm probably going to return the audiobook. The narrator is so bad it's impossible for me to focus on the content of the story. At least when I read it on the printed page I can hear it correctly in my head the way it's supposed to sound, and not have to listen to as dude who has a voice that sounds like someone's stepping on a duck.

It's really, really easy to find a good narrator with the right accent. Why they'd choose this loser is beyond me, but it ruins the whole thing. Immersion in the story is impossible because I feel like I'm listening to some jerk from Idaho they collared off the street at random and forced to read a book they have no interest in

Hard pass. What a shame. This could have been a truly great audiobook if it had been treated correctly by people who know what they're doing. The narrator's disclaimer at the beginning is no excuse for the terrible job he did reading this book.