A book best savored slowly (which I didn't). It's like a stand-up routine in print and just as funny. Reminiscent of [b:Harpo Speaks!|35270|Harpo Speaks!|Harpo Marx|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327885685s/35270.jpg|35205] and, of course, [b:Gracie: A Love Story|231721|Gracie A Love Story|George Burns|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1332235705s/231721.jpg|967218], it was good fun to read about all the old comics and their hijinks in a time when everything wasn't so serious. Or, rather, when it was horribly serious, but people self-medicated with humor, friends, and more humor.

That was what struck me as I read his story of entertaining through Vaudeville, Radio, Television, and Film. A good 40% of people were comedians and a good 40% of shows were comedies. Contrast that to today and it doesn't really seem to equate. But then I'm an old soul. ( )

George Burns kicks back and tells some stories about his life and the people he knew. It's like your great uncle telling some funny stories, except that Burns is talking about Groucho Marx, Jack Benny, Milton Berle and co.

From Jack Benny's pecadillos to Groucho Marx's sea bass gag to Gracie Allen's health decline, Burns loved to tell anecdotes and we loved to hear them from him.

And fans of Captain Betts' seal (the star act that Burns supported when he started out) will be pleased to hear s/he gets numerous mentions throughout the book. ( )

"All My Best Friends" is a great history of how entertainment developed in the 20th century from vaudeville and silent movies to radio to talkies to television. And all the performers are there: Burns and Allen, Groucho and the Marx Bros, Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Al Jolson, Eddie Kantor, Ed Wynn, George Jessel, Fanny Brice and dozens of others. It is mostly anecdotal and it was great as a book to break up my other reading, but I couldn't see reading 100 pages of it per day. Maybe 20 pages or so every so often. Great to lighten the mood, yet other times it was rather touching, for example, when toward the end George ruminates on the three times in his life when he wept. I rate it 4 stars out of 5 because after a while the jokes got a little tiring, and a few were repetitive. One other annoyance - I wish they had put an index in, it would be just ideal for a book like this, but they didn't. Here is a brief sample of what you get in this book, one of my favorites - In earlier pages, George emphasizes Georgie Jessel's reputation as a grand toastmaster who also eulogized just about everybody and anybody at not only Hollywood funerals, but worldwide ones. And if Jessel did not know the deceased, he ad-libbed a bit. Burns runs into James Mason and knowing that Georgie Jessel had recently said a few words at a memorial service for one of Mason's cats, Burns asks how the service went. Mason replies, "...it was really quite moving. You know, I'd had that cat for seventeen years, but until the other day, I'd never realized how much he'd done for the State of Israel." ( )

A very interesting look into the private lives of the great American comedians and performers of the early 20th century, as told by a man whose showbusiness career spanned (at the time the book was written) 86 years. George Burns doesn't mention much of his own career, focusing mainly on the people he worked with in vaudeville, the beginnings of cinema, the Golden Age of radio, and the early days of television: the most covered were Jack and Mary Benny, the Marx Brothers, Jimmy Durante, Eddie Cantor, Al Jolson, Milton Berle, Ed Wynn, and Georgie Jessel. As such, it doesn't cover a good deal of other comedians of the same era, the Three Stooges, Lucille Ball and Jerry Lewis being the most obvious omissions. Still, the book is informative and Burn's frankness and frequent self-depreciating humour make the book very readable. ( )

GREAT CONDITION! ( )