Join author Josh Frank and local musician and entertainer Bill Marx for a special program celebrating the release of Giraffes on Horseback Salad, a fascinating new book that brings to life the “cult film that never was.” In 1937, the famed Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí, in collaboration with his friend and admirer, comedian Harpo Marx (Bill’s father), came up with an idea for a film that would merge Dalí’s imaginative art with the fast-paced comedy of the Marx Brothers. Rejected by MGM, the film never made it to the silver screen, disappearing into the annals of history, a footnote in the otherwise prolific careers of two artistic greats.

Giraffes on Horseback Salad brings the never-made movie to the printed page as a fully realized, dazzlingly illustrated graphic novel, based on Dalí’s own notes and sketches. A comment on the Surrealists’ desire to challenge the mundane woes of everyday life, the book follows Jimmy, a businessman whose life is turned upside down when he encounters the Surrealist Woman, a magical shape-shifting beauty who is turning his upper-class social scene on its head. Part captivating graphic novel, part historical document, this is a must-read for fans of art, comedy, cinematic history, and innovative storytelling.

Josh Frank is a writer, producer, director and composer. He’s the author of Fool the World: The Oral History of a Band Called Pixies; In Heaven Everything is Fine; and co-author of the illustrated novel The Good Inn. He built, owns, and operates the Blue Starlite Mini-Urban Drive-In Movie Theatre in Austin, Texas.

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