The Marx Brothers

Marxes in the Macy's Parade

2012-01-05T19:09:00.000-08:00

Fellow Marx fan Matthew Coniam, on his Marx Brothers Council of Britain blog has brought up the topic of Marx Brothers balloons in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Trolling the internet, I have found two pictures of the big-headed brothers which appeared in the 2003 parade.

From AVclub.com, I present the following excerpt from the article, “Look kids, it’s Eddie Cantor!”: 12 obscure Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons from years past. Based on the pictures above, it seems that the article is incorrect in stating that four brothers were represented in 2003.

When four balloons representing the Marx brothers marched through the 2003 Macy’s parade, spectators may have been a little baffled. The Marx balloons were part of an attempt to celebrate the parade’s past by copying vintage designs from back when the Thanksgiving streets were filled with more than just cartoon characters and advertising mascots. They weren’t traditional balloons, but rather floats with giant balloon heads meant to resemble the brothers. The giant-headed brothers, decked out in black and white, had been a mainstay of the parade in the ’30s, but in the 21st century they came off as garish, bizarre, and vaguely horrific. They haven’t reappeared.

RIP, Son of Groucho

2011-06-11T02:20:00.000-07:00

Somehow I missed the passing of Groucho's son Arthur at age 89 on April 14, 2011. His obituary at the New York Times is quite interesting.

Marx and Lennon

2011-06-09T16:56:00.000-07:00

As detailed in the April 28, 1995 New York Times article Philatelists Just Wanna Have Fun, the Republic of Abkhazia,a rebellious region in the northwest of Georgia, or a printing company claiming to be the Republic of Abkhazia, issued a stamp set commemorating not Karl and Vladimir, but Groucho and John. When my wife bought me a few sheets from the International Collectors Society some fifteen or so years ago, the retail price was $12.72 per sheet. Now they can be found on eBay for as little as $7.00. No doubt many "Limited Editions" from companies which flood the market with "collectibles" have suffered similar fates.

I still like the stamps, though.

Zeppo's Ex Writes a Book

2011-06-05T18:07:00.000-07:00

Barbara Sinatra, fourth and final wife of Frank Sinatra, has written a book about her years with the singer.

In an interview appearing in the Sunday, June 6, 2011 New York Times Magazine, she answers a number of questions about Frank's violent streak, his drinking, and his infidelity--none of which seemed to bother her very much as long as he gave her birthday presents like a Rolls Royce Corniche. The subject of her marriage to Zeppo Marx, to whom she was married when she met Sinatra, gets only a brief mention by the interviewer. I don't imagine Zep was that easy to live with, but I think he came out ahead in the deal.

Barbara Marx today, with the same smooth skin she had several decades ago on the book cover.

Birthday Reminder

2010-09-13T07:23:00.001-07:00

Just a reminder that Oct. 2 with be Groucho's 120th birthday. The cake below was created for his 103rd birthday in 1993. The walleyed portrait of Groucho is a borderline candidate for the Cakewrecks blog.

A Night at the Opera on the Road

2010-06-02T12:57:00.001-07:00

As I have pointed out before, Harpo was posthumously baptized as a Mormon. Still, you wouldn't expect the Utah State Historical Society to be a rich source of Marx Brothers history. You'd be wrong, because the USHS has produced a very interesting page related to the premiere of the stage version of "A Night at the Opera" in 1935. MGM producer Irving Thalberg arranged for the brothers to road test the show in Salt Lake City, Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco before filming began. Audience reaction was carefully observed in order to fine tune the script and timing of "Opera." I'll leave it to the interested reader to click over to the USHS site for details.

I'd also like to point out a link provided by USHS. It is a page of material deleted from the original script. Some of the stuff is pretty good, IMHO. For example:

Driftwood (to the cab driver when he learns that he has arrived at the opera house before the opera is over): On account of you, I nearly heard the opera! Next time I go to the opera, I'll take a turtle. At least with a turtle you've got something. When you get tired of it, you can make turtle soup. Of course, you can get turtle soup in cans. But you can't go to the opera in a can. On the other hand, you can't go to the can in an opera.

To read more, click on this link.

Former Marx Secretary Surfaces

2010-06-02T12:32:00.000-07:00

A recent article by Wesley Slape at TDN.com reveals that Dorothy Ohman, who was Jack Benny's secretary from 1957 till his death in 1974 started her career at age 21 as secretary for the Marx, Miller, and Marx talent agency in Los Angeles. The principals in the agency were Zeppo, Gummo, and Zeppo's brother-in-law, Alan Miller.

She got to know all the brothers while working at the agency, and recalled Groucho as "low-key" when he dropped by the office, and that he didn't have to "be on" around the family. Harpo was a "dapper dresser" with "a good personality and class." Chico was "the same as he was on screen. He was the playful one, full of fun."

Groucho Marx, Cigar Aficionado

2010-04-01T02:17:00.000-07:00

If you didn't have the foresight to buy the Spring 1993 issue of Cigar Aficionado, or, like me, you don't know which box in the basement your copy is in, here is a link to an article about Groucho and his cigars by his son, Arthur.

A Cat Named Groucho

2010-03-07T02:47:00.000-08:00

Recently auctioned on eBay was this newspaper clipping which Zeppo sent to Groucho in 1975, along with a note that read, "Groucho, thought this cute, will try to come see you next week. Love, Zeppo."

The caption reads:

All that's missing is the cigar to make Groucho, this mustachioed cat, look just like his famous namesake. Groucho, who's half Siamese, has two other unusual features: his hind legs are twice as long as his front ones, and he has no tail. Groucho, owned by the Morris Gilbert family of Brownwood, Tex., won a blue ribbon at the Brown County pet fair last fall after judges chose him the most unusual cat displayed.

The seller made this statement in the listing:

I was Groucho's personal secretary and archivist for the last three years of his life, and am the author of the book RAISED EYEBROWS: My Years Inside Groucho's House. Groucho received this item from Zeppo in July of 1975. He did, in fact, get a kick out of the cat photo (Groucho had a weakness for kitties to begin with), but rather than saving the note and photo and putting it into a scrapbook, he simply tossed it into the waste basket under his desk. (After all, Groucho would hardly have looked upon a note from Zeppo Marx as a rare and desirable collectible!) So - I retrieved the note, envelope, and clipping from the trash and saved it for whatever passes as posterity.

That would be Steve Stollar, who authored Raised Eyebrows.

The clipping, note, and envelope went for $299 to the only individual who placed a bid.

The Brothers and the Cubs

2010-03-04T01:56:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Rick Kaempfer, editor of the blog Just One Bad Century, for pointing out that the Marx Brothers were Chicago Cubs fans. At the time of WW I, Minnie moved the family to a farm in LaGrange, Illinois, because she had heard that farmers would not be drafted. Rick quotes Groucho's comments about life on the farm:

The first day we got up at 5 in the morning. The second morning we dawdled until 6. By the end of the first week we slept until noon, which gave us just enough time to catch the 1:07 train to Chicago to see the Chicago Cubs play.

Apparently, the brothers spent a lot of time at Cubs Park, now known as Wrigley Field, during the World Series year of 1918.

Groucho and Marilyn Monroe

2010-02-20T04:00:00.000-08:00

In this clip from 1963, Groucho talks about Marilyn Monroe appearing in the 1949 movie, "Love Happy." Her scene in the movie appears at the end of this clip.

Faux Groucho

2010-02-17T02:57:00.000-08:00

It's hard to resist dressing up as Groucho. He is universally recognized and the makeup is pretty easy to do. I've done it myself in younger, more hirsute days. I won the Halloween costume contest at the children's hospital where I was working at the time.

Over at The Marx Brothers Council of Britain blog, Matthew Coniam unleashed a mystery on the blogosphere in the form of a photo of someone disguised as Groucho. The photo was used on the cover of CD of Groucho's radio performances.

Tom (sorry--I have no additional identifying information), an astute reader of Matthew's blog, solved the mystery. The photo is of famed photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt, and Tom had seen it before in the book Life Goes to the Movies.

A little Googling on my part uncovered the article, "Speaking of Pictures", subtitled "LIFE photographer gets made up to look like seven other people," in the September 26, 1949 issue of Life. The Paramount makeup artist who transformed Eisenstaedt into characters ranging from Sampson to Victoria Lake noted that Groucho was the easiest.

Chico Becomes a Bandleader - 1942

2010-01-07T08:58:00.000-08:00

The March 28, 1942 edition of Billboard included an article titled "The Marxian Approach to Bandleading" by Chico Marx. I've always thought of Groucho as the writer among the brothers. He wrote several books and articles, as well as many letters which have been compiled in books. As far as I know, Harpo, though adored by the literary types at the Algonquin Round Table, never did any writing. His autobiography, Harpo Speaks,was ghost written by Rowland Barber. The article in Billboard is the first piece of writing I've seen carrying Chico's byline. Whether he actually wrote it himself, I don't know.

The article was written three months after Chico left the brothers' act to lead a band. Among other things, he writes:

The first thing I do when a poor but ambitious youngster comes to me and reverently beseeches some inside info on how to become a maestro is give him Toscanini's telephone number. After that I look myself square in the eye--which is no mean trick when you haven't got a mirror on you--and ask myself the burning question, "Marx, how the hell did you get into the band business?" Even tho this is where you came in, don't go away yet. Tea and cookies will be served later.

Pretty good stuff, I'd say. To read the whole article, click on the link in the first sentence in of this post.

Chico Multigraph

2009-12-24T11:57:00.000-08:00

At one of my other blogs, Lugubrious Drollery, I discussed a trick photographic technique which was popular around the the turn of the twentieth century: the photo multigraph. Two mirrors were placed at an angle of about 70 degrees, the subject was seated in front of the mirrors, and the photographer was behind the subject. The subject plus four reflections appeared in the photo. A popular theme was to make it look like the subject was playing cards with four clones of himself, as in the photo multigraph below, ca. 1909, of Leonard Marx. This is particularly appropriate given his propensity to gamble. The photo comes from The Marx Brothers Scrapbook.

If you would like more information about the history and technique of photo multigraphs, see the excellent article, "A Multigraph from Montreal," by Irwin Reichstein.

The Legend of Zeppo's Name

2009-12-17T02:59:00.000-08:00

From Zeppo's obituary in the Spokane, Washington Spokesman-Review, Dec 1, 1979:

The legend is that Minnie, the matriarch of the Marxes, wanted to keep her boys out of the Army during World War I. She installed the family on a farm near La Grange, Ill., since farming would exempt young men from service. Chico one day passed Herbert and said, "Howdy, Zeke." His brother replied "Howdy, Zeb." He soon became Zeppo forevermore.

Add this to other stories of the origin of Zeppo's name, such as being named after the zeppelin, or after a chimpanzee named Mr. Zippo (see also "Zeppo Marx: FAQ").

By the way, I haven't been able to document a performing chimpanzee named Mr. Zippo, as cited in Harpo's autobiography, but I have discovered that Zippo the Climbing Monkey was a popular toy produced by the toy company owned by Ferdinand Strauss in the early twentieth century. In 1921, Louis Marx (no relation), bought out his former employer, Strauss. The deal included the tooling to make Zippo, which at that time was considered obsolete. Marx sold 8 million Zippos over a two-year period, which helped to propel him toward acquiring great wealth and building one of the greatest toy companies of the twentieth century.

Zippo the Climbing Monkey
So, could it be possible that Herbie Marx acquired his nickname from this acrobatic little simian?

Link to Zeppo's obituary.

Link to "Zeppo Marx: FAQ"

Magnolia

2009-12-12T16:56:00.000-08:00

My granddaughter learns the finer points of pool under the watchful eyes of the Marx Brothers.

Was Harpo a Mormon?

2009-12-08T02:51:00.000-08:00

In a fit of tabloid journalism, I just thought I'd see if the headline of this post would lure curious readers.

Harpo Marx was, of course, Jewish.

But, while casting about in the blogosphere for tidbits of information about the Marx Brothers, I happened upon the blog Famous Dead Mormons, which includes a post about Harpo. The author of FDM, who identifies himself as Nom de Cypher, explains:

Some time in 1842, the prophet Joseph Smith introduced to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a temple ceremony called Baptism for the Dead, followed shortly by a full complement of salvific ordinances by proxy for dead ancestors. But as these things often do, the original purpose of the ordinances seemed to be forgotten by some members of the church and they began trying to ‘redeem’ everyone they could identify. Since this was quite a daunting genealogical task in the days before computers, (and for several years afterward) it seems that some members took a shortcut and performed proxy baptisms and other ordinances for any name they could find, which meant a lot of famous people got baptized. It appears that some time in the early 1990’s there was a fad, or at least a hobby, of finding famous people to baptize. In fact, many times, ordinances were duplicated. This web log is a tribute to that fad.

Mormons, as I understand it, believe they are stuck with their family members throughout eternity, and go to great lengths to insure that happens. They expend a lot of effort in genealogical documentation. For information on Harpo's posthumous baptism, click on this link.

Pondering Perelman

2009-11-10T12:45:00.000-08:00

Given that this blog is entitled "The Marx Brothers," it behooves the author to mention one or more of the aforesaid siblings in every post. Thus it was with great joy that I found Groucho's name appearing in the book A Writer's Eye: Collected Book Reviews by Eudora Welty, edited by Pearl Amelia McHaney. A passing reference to Groucho gives me an excuse to focus once again on the comic genius S.J. Perelman (see previous posts, S.J. Perelman and S.J. Perelman Revivisected), whose books provided fodder for three of Ms. Welty's reviews.

First, here's the how Groucho was mentioned in Welty's review of The Most of S.J. Perelman, which appeared in the New York Times Book Review, October 12, 1958:

Groucho Marx, for whom, of course, Mr. Perelman has done his share of writing, seems imminent here and once appears in person; we get an intimate glimpse of him indulging "his passionate avocation, the collecting and cross-fertilization of various kinds of money."

Ms. Welty gives many other examples of Perelman's devastating humor in this review as well as in her reviews of Westward Ha! Around the World in 80 Cliches and Crazy Like a Fox. From the latter work, she gives these examples:

I may not know much about medicine, but I know what I like.

A Schrafft hostess, well over nine feet tall, with ice mantling her summit, waved me toward a door marked "Credentials."

He caught my arm in a vise-like grip but with a blow I sent him groveling. In ten minutes he was back with a basket of appetizing, fresh-picked grovels. We squeezed them and drank the piquant juice thirstily.

I had gone to the Corn Exchange Bank to exchange some corn.

I could go on and on, padding this post with Perelman lines which Ms. Weldy used to pad her reviews. Why should I bother when you can go read the reviews yourself at Google books?

A Marx Brothers Feud?

2009-11-08T00:30:00.000-08:00

This brief item appeared in the Dunkirk, NY, Evening Observer, in the syndicated column "Harrison's Hollywood," by Paul Harrison on July 10, 1940.

That's it. No further details are given.

A tantalizing little tidbit, no?

Addendum: Before taking this item as fact, please read comments below.

Harpo Rides an Ostrich

2009-10-27T01:35:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Tom at Motion Picture Gems for posting a description of the 1936 cartoon, "Mickey's Polo Team." Harpo makes his first appearance at 1:46.

Groucho Sings on Cavett

2009-10-15T02:45:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my brother Dennis for pointing out this clip from the Dick Cavett Show. Groucho sings "Everybody Works But Father" and "Father's Day."

Links to audio:

Studio Version of Father's Day

An Evening With Groucho - Groucho sings both "Everybody Works But Father" and "Father's Day" live at Carnegie Hall on this album.

Groucho's Name Invoked Against Antisemitic Wackos

2009-10-13T05:59:00.000-07:00

Among the current crop of hateful nut-jobs, few sink lower than the members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka. This group has gained notoriety with their stance that God hates America because God hates homosexuals, and America is "enabling" homosexuality. They have picketed at military funerals, carrying signs with messages like "God Hates Fags," "Thank God for Dead Soldiers," and "America is Doomed." They don't limit their hatred to gays. They also hate Catholics, Swedes, Irish, and Jews.

Recently, they picketed outside the synagogue of Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope, New York. Steven Waldman, Editor-in-Chief of Beliefnet.com wrote on Sept. 29, 2009:

The rabbi, Andrew Bachman, inspired the crowd by blowing the shofar, "in the name of the God of love." But the crowd especially roared when he added, "And in the name of the God of Groucho Marx, we put our thumb on our nose." He then led the crowd in a sort of modified Bronx cheer (photo below) In response to the God Hates Fags placards, one woman put a sign on her canine reading, "Dog Loves Fags."

Read the whole story at:

The God of Groucho Marx & Westboro Baptist Church (The "God Hates Fags" Gang) by Steve Waldman

Marilyn Monroe and Groucho

2009-09-28T05:12:00.000-07:00

A great feature of Google is the Life Magazine photo archive, which has been the source of many pictures on this blog. Now Google and Life have teamed up to offer every issue of Life magazine online. While browsing through issues with Marx Brothers content, I found the April 7, 1952 issue, which featured Marilyn Monroe on the cover. This paragraph about the photo appeared inside the magazine:

Marilyn Monroe had her first brush with fame at the beginning of World War II when she was 16 and working at an aircraft plant. An Army public relations photographer spotted her and, to boost wartime morale, shot her alongside every machine in the factory. These pictures got her work as a model and eventually led to a Marx brothers' film in which her role consisted of walking into a room and out of it. "That's a fine walk," said Groucho. "Now do it again more so." She took the advice and is now among the Hollywood great.

Here is one of the pictures taken by David Conover at the Radioplane factory in Van Nuys, California on June 26, 1945. Nineteen-year-old Norma Jeane Dougherty was then in her first marriage.

The Marx Brothers' film referenced in Life was "Love Happy," released in 1949.

Marilyn and Groucho in publicity still for "Love Happy"

Meeting a Munchkin

2009-09-19T13:36:00.000-07:00

It isn't every day that one gets to meet an actor who appeared in a Marx Brothers movie, let alone one who also played a Munchkin in "The Wizard of Oz." Today, I had that privilege.

Chesterton, Indiana holds an annual Wizard of Oz festival which is quite popular. Since it's only about an hour from my home, I was considering going to Chesterton to get some pictures of the festival parade. As I checked out the festival web site and read about the dwindling cadre of celebrities associated with the film who appear at the festival, I was fascinated by the biography of Jerry Maren. He was the member of the Lollipop Guild who presented Dorothy with the lollipop in this clip.

Jerry has had a long and productive career, as is attested by his lengthy imdb.com listing. Besides being a Munchkin, Jerry later appeared in commercials as Buster Brown, Little Oscar (for Oscar Meyer meats), and for McDonald's as the Hamburgler and Mayor McCheese. He also played numerous roles in film and on TV, including an appearance in the famous "Yada Yada" episode of Seinfeld in 1997.

But the role that motivated me to make the trip to Chesterton occurred in the Marx Brothers movie "At the Circus," released in 1939, the same year as "The Wizard of Oz." Jerry played circus performer Professor Atom. I searched my collection for a movie still or poster that might include a picture of Jerry. As an alternative, I did a screen capture of Jerry and Groucho from the DVD of the movie and printed it out. He seemed pleasantly surprised when I presented the picture to him at this afternoon's autograph session. He and his wife Elizabeth were very cordial, and I salute them for accommodating so many fans.

Dali Drawing on Display

2009-09-17T02:07:00.000-07:00

Detail of Le piano surréaliste, S. Dali, 1937
Click on picture to link to Christie's Auction site for more information
In a previous post, Surrealism or Hello Dali, I explored what seems to me to have been the fairly unrequited adoration that Salvador Dali felt for the Marx Brothers, especially Harpo. Dali wanted to make a Marx Brothers movie, and wrote a screenplay called "Giraffes on Horseback Salads", which was never produced. He also made a number of sketches illustrating his concept for the film.

On June 23, 2009, The Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí purchased one of these drawings, Le piano surréaliste, at Christie's Auction in London for $392,996. According to an article in Artdaily.org, this drawing was "previously owned by the Marx Brothers," without further details of its provenance. The drawing is on display at the Casa-Museu Castell Gala Dali in Púbol, Spain for the month of September 2009.

It's a bit of a surreal experience to read the article at Artdaily.org, which is written in English which is bruised if not fractured outright. I have managed to learn a little more about Dali's encounters with Harpo from the article. Dali traveled to the U.S. in in 1936 to participate in the anthological exhibition Fantastic Art Dada and Surrealism, organized the Museum of Modern Art in New York as well as for his individual exhibition at Julien Levy’s gallery. Dali wanted to paint Harpo, and it appears he made this known through an intermediary, as indicated in this telegram from Harpo to Dali, dated January 31, 1937:

Dear Salvador Dalí: I have received a telegram from Jo Forrestal saying that you are interested in me as a victim. Fascinated by the idea. The movie I am filming will be finished in six weeks. If you come to the West, I would be happy to be painted by you. I have a counteroffer: Will you pose for me while I pose for you? Happy new year from a great admirer of the Persistence of Memory

Dali hotfooted it out to California, as documented in this photo which appeared in the Los Angeles Examiner in February 1937.

Dali sketching Harpo, seated at the surrealistic harp Dali had previously sent him, possibly for Christmas 1936.

I have also learned that in his 1942 autobiography, The Secret Life of Salvdor Dali, the artist reveals this scene from the screenplay:

And on Fifth Avenue Harpo Marx has just lighted the fuse that projects from the behinds of a flock of expensive giraffes stuffed with dynamite. They run in all directions, sowing panic and obliging everyone to seek refuge pell-mell within the shops. All the fire-alarms of the city have just been turned on, but it is already too late. Boom! Boom! I salute you explosive giraffes of New York and all you fore-runners of the irrational -Mack Sennett, Harry Langdon, and you too, unforgettable Buster Keaton, tragic and delirious like my rotten and mystic donkeys, desert roses of Spain.

Now, that's entertainment to rival the stateroom scene in "A Night at the Opera."

Young Groucho

2009-09-13T09:37:00.000-07:00

Today at the web site IN Harmony: Sheet Music from Indiana, I saw a picture of a very young Julius (Groucho) Marx I had forgotten about, until I searched my musty copy of The Groucho Phile (1976), by Groucho and Hector Arce.

Julius appeared as the performer on the cover of the sheet music below, copyrighted in 1906.

The same cover appears on page 16 of The Groucho Phile. After describing getting stranded in Colorado by the promoter Leroy during his first vaudeville tour, Groucho goes on:

Back in New York, I got a job with the Gus Edwards show, Boys and Girls. My picture was on the sheet music for "Farewell Killarney." Edwards, a clever man, thought my present sixteen years weren't callow enough, so he put a picture of me when I was ten or eleven on the sheet music.

Harpo and Children

2009-09-13T03:38:00.000-07:00

How great would it have been to grow up in the household of Harpo Marx?

Title: Harpo Marx and three of his children joking around wearing Harpo wigs in Los Angeles, Calif., 1954

Published caption: IS EVERYBODY HARPO?-- Children of Harpo, the silent Marx brother, don wigs and demonstrate that they, too, have happy gift of pantomime. From laugh to riot, we see Alec, Jimmy (who couldn't help peeking), Minnie and Father Harpo himself.

Publication: Los Angeles Times

Publication date: January 13, 1954

From the UCLA Library digital collection, "Changing Times: Los Angeles in Photographs, 1920-1990"

More Cartoon Marxes

2009-09-04T17:23:00.000-07:00

Warner Brothers' "Hollywood Steps Out" (1941) is another animated short which featured caricatures of many actors and other celebrities, such as FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.

Two of the Marx Brothers make cameo appearances. Harpo appears at 2:40, giving Greta Garbo a hotfoot, and again at 7:20, bursting Sally Rand's bubble. Groucho shows up in the final scene at 7:32.

The Marx Brothers and Disney

2009-09-01T02:17:00.000-07:00

In addition to appearing in the Warner Brothers cartoons Wideo Wabbit and Slick Hare, Marx Brothers caricatures appeared in a few Disney cartoons in the 1930s as well. Details can be found at The Encyclopedia of Disney Animated Shorts by following these links:

Cartoons featuring the four Marx Brothers including "The Bird Store" and "Mickey's Gala Premiere." The latter title reminds me of the scene in Duck Soup when Mrs. Teasdale (Margaret Dumont) says to Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho), "Notables from every country are gathered here in your honor. This is a gala day for you." Firefly responds, "Well, a gal a day is enough for me. I don't think I could handle any more."

Cartoons featuring Harpo, included "Mickey's Polo Team" and "Who Killed Cock Robin?'

Marx Brothers Home Update

2009-08-17T06:05:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Matthew Coniam of The Marx Brothers Council of Britain for reminding us all of the need to pressure the Lord High Muckedy Mucks (LHMM) or New York City to preserve the endangered building at 179 E. 93rd St., which was once home to the Marx family. Here's a video detailing the situation.

Please follow this link for a form letter you can email to the LHMM in charge of the NYC Historic Preservation Commission. Note this is different than the petition you may have signed earlier. If you haven't signed the petition yet, click here.

Wideo Wabbit

2009-08-04T03:54:00.001-07:00

As I pointed out in the previous post about the Warner Brothers cartoon "Slick Hare," Bugs Bunny's character was based, at least to some degree, on Groucho Marx. Occasionally, Bugs resorted to overt impersonation of Groucho, as in the 1956 cartoon, "Wideo Wabbit." Bugs is attempting to avoid appearing as the prey in Elmer Fudd's "Sportsman's Hour" TV show, and dresses up as Groucho. In pursuit of Bugs, Elmer winds up on the set of a show called "You Beat Your Wife"--a parody of Groucho's quiz show, "You Bet Your Life." While the gag might be miscontrued was making light of spousal abuse (indeed, current televised versions of the cartoon have had this scene edited out), I think it was just a clever way to work in an old joke, when Bugs asks Elmer, "Have you stopped beating your wife?"

Elmer even gets in on the act, and appears briefly in Groucho disguise, while Bugs impersonates Ed Norton (Art Carney) of "The Honeymooners."

If you want to read more details about this scene, as well as the rest of the cartoon, check out Wideo Wabbit on Wikipedia.

Slick Hare

2009-08-03T07:16:00.000-07:00

It is often said that the character Bugs Bunny was based on Groucho Marx. Bugs used the carrot as a prop much like Groucho used his cigar, and Bugs used one of Groucho's lines from Duck Soup: "This means war!"

In the 1947 cartoon "Slick Hare," Bugs disguises himself as Groucho in one scene, in an attempt to avoid being served up as Humphrey Bogart's dinner. The cartoon is set in the Mocrumbo Club, a parody of the Mocambo Club in L.A. Cartoon versions of several stars, including Frank Sinatra, Ray Milland, and Bogart are dining and drinking in the club. When Bogart orders fried rabbit, waiter Elmer Fudd is in a panic, until he finds Bugs snacking on a crate of carrots in the kitchen. When Bugs realizes that Bogart wants him for dinner--not as a guest, but as an entree--he escapes the kitchen, and in the next scene is disguised as Groucho and sitting at a table with Harpo and Chico.

The next time he looks Harpo's way, he sees the real Harpo has been replaced by a cleaver-wielding Elmer Fudd in Harpo disguise. Elmer proceeds to hack away at Bugs' cigar with the cleaver.

For a full synopsis of the cartoon, I refer the interested reader to the Wikipedia entry "Slick Hare".

A Lost Marx Brothers Script?

2009-07-28T10:04:00.000-07:00

While trolling the internet for Marx Brothers information, I happened across several references to a play which just completed its premiere run at the 2009 Fringe Festival in Kansas City. The play, "Money Buckets" allegedly is based on a script written for the Marx Brothers while they were at MGM. The web site of the Buran Theater Company, which staged the play, states the following:

The actual source text, "Money Buckets", is the long lost Marx Bros. script. It was written while the brothers were with MGM between 1937 and 1941- but was never produced due to its controversial political overtures (sic). In 2003 artistic director Adam R. Burnett acquired the text from Marx Brothers historian Frederick Allison. In 2005 Burnett co-founded Buran Theatre Company with Alicia Gian and in 2007, after a brief and ultimately painless legal battle, they acquired the rights to perform the script as long as it was not performed in whole....

In an economy turned upside down FDR (Groucho Marx) asserts himself by hiring two new men, outsiders to the Washington System, to take over the cabinets of Finance, Minister Fellini (Chico Marx), and Agriculture (a beard for the War cabinet), Minister Bergman (Harpo Marx). But a villainous pair of Eastern European Socialists have plans to dupe the president and his boisterous wife, Eleanor (Margaret Dumont), and steal all of the money from the U.S. Government - buckets of money.

So far, my usual exhaustive research method (typing words into the Google search box) has not turned up any evidence corroborating the existence of the said long lost script, or the existence of a Marx historian named Frederick Allison. If any readers of this blog have more information or have the gumption to try to track down the facts, let me know.

Four of a Kind

2009-07-22T19:08:00.000-07:00

Fellow blogger #167 Dad has tagged me with a task to come up with sets of four things that have something in common. This is one of those chain-letter type things that happen on the internet, I think. Normally, I abhor such activities, but since #167 invited me politely and didn't threaten death and destruction on me and my family if I don't participate, I'm doing it. As I understand it, there is no restriction on the number of sets. The only requirements are to come up with original topics and not copy those of the tagger, and to then to tag someone else.

So, below are the lists I came up with, all having to do with the Marx Brothers. I am tagging the following blogs:

Urban Sludgewater
Lolita's Classics

4 Women Who Appeared in Marx Brothers Movies and Later Had Regular Roles in TV Series

Kitty Carlisle - Female romantic lead in "A Night At The Opera." Was a regular panelist on the game show "What's My Line?"

Maureen O'Sullivan - Female romantic lead in "A Day At The Races." Hosted a syndicated TV show, "The Children's Hour," and was a cast member of the soap opera, "All My Children" for a season.

Eve Arden - Played acrobat Peerless Pauline in "At The Circus." Starred in the 50s sitcom, "Our Miss Brooks."

Lucille Ball - Appeared in "Room Service." Starred in the sitcom "I Love Lucy" and later "The Lucy Show."

4 Movies In Which Groucho's Character Proposed to Margaret Dumont's Character

Animal Crackers - Groucho proposes simultaneously to Margaret Dumont as Mrs. Rittenhouse and Margaret Irving as Mrs. Whitehead: Yes, I don't think I've ever seen four more beautiful eyes in my life. Well, three anyway. You know, you two girls have everything. You're tall and short and slim and stout and blonde and brunette, and that's just the kind of a girl I crave. We three would make an ideal couple. Why, you've got beauty, charm, money. You have got money, haven't you? 'Cause if you haven't, we can quit right now.

Duck Soup - Groucho: Why don't we get married, and take a vacation? I'll need a vacation if we're going to get married. Married! I can see you now, in the kitchen, bending over a hot stove. But I can't see the stove!

A Day At the Races - Groucho: Emily, I have a little confession to make. I really am a horse doctor, but marry me and I'll never look at any other horse.

The Big Store - Dumont: Oh, I'm afraid after we're married a while a beautiful young girl will come along and you'll forget all about me.
Groucho: Don't be silly. I'll write you twice a week.

4 Abandoned Marx Brothers Projects

Humor Risk - a 1921 silent film featured the Marx Brothers. The film was completed, but never released, and was either lost or destroyed.

Giraffes on Horseback Salads - Salvador Dali wrote the script for this surrealistic film, which was never produced. See earlier post about Dali and the Marx Brothers.

Deputy Seraph - a proposed TV Series featuring Harpo and Chico as angels who periodically came to to earth and occupied the bodies of living humans to help them out. Groucho was to appear intermittently as their supervisor, The Deputy Seraph. A few director's rushes remain from the pilot, but the project never got off the ground.

The New Marx Brothers Show - a cartoon series featuring Harpo, Chico, and Groucho, proposed in the mid60s, but never produced. Not strictly a Marx Brothers project, as Harpo and Chico had died in the early 60s, and it's doubtful Groucho would have participated.

The Three-Headed Marx

2009-07-17T08:55:00.000-07:00

My eccentric obsessions are not limited to the Marx Brothers. I also have an interest in the 1939 New York World's Fair, among other things. In a previous post, I managed to work in a reference to one of the more bizarre attractions at the 1939 Fair--Morris Gest's Little Miracle Town. This exhibit consisted of a village of scaled-down buildings where a troupe of little people were on display and where they performed onstage.

There is a connection, however oblique, between the Marx Brothers and Little Miracle Town. I first noticed this in the picture below, which shows Morris Gest (left) and some of the performers from Little Miracle Town posing with the Westinghouse robot Elektro the Moto Man (another of my obsessions). Elektro is seated on a motorized cart driven by Frank Buck (in the pith helmet), proprieter of the Jungleland attraction at the fair.

Note in the background in the upper right corner of the picture the heads of Chico, Groucho, and Harpo on a single winged, tuxedo-wearing body.

The puzzling nature of this picture remained unsolved until I saw the picture below in the online archives of Life Magazine.

The facade of Little Miracle Town was covered with this odd mural of flying celebrities holding hands. If you click to enlarge the photo, you'll probably recognize a few of the them, like Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, George Bernard Shaw, Clark Gable, and many more.

If you look closely, you can see a portion of Harpo's hair (arrow) to the right of the barker in the detail below.

Further evidence can be seen in the film clip from the Prelinger Archives below. Between 10 and 18 seconds, you can see the three-headed Marx just above the heads of the crowd to the far right.

By the way, any resemblance between the depiction of the Marxes on this mural and the mythical multi-headed hellhound Cerebrus is purely coincidental, though those who had to work with the Marx Brothers might have thought otherwise.

Wouldn't It Be Loverly?

2009-07-16T04:28:00.000-07:00

As I pointed out in the previous post, Matthew Coniam of The Marx Brothers Council of Britain bestowed the "One Lovely Blog" award on this blog. One of the conditions of the award is that it be passed on to other blogs. This presents me with a bit of a dilemma. Am I secure enough in my gender identity to bestow upon another blogger an award with a badge composed of a teacup full of pink roses, wrapped with a matching ribbon? Matthew can be forgiven because he received the award, and its requirement to pass it on, from a female blogger. At least he incorporated the masculine touch of riding a tractor into the conditions of the award.

Then there's the title. "Lovely" isn't a word often heard in male conversation in the U.S. I think the word is less gender specific in the U.K., where Matthew lives. Just this morning, I heard a commentator at the British Open refer to a hole on the course at Turnbury as "lovely." Other examples that come to mind are the British songs "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts" and "Lovely Rita Meter Maid." Well, there is that line in "Lovely Rita":

And the bag across her shoulder
Made her look a little like a military man

But this is later negated by:

Took her home and nearly made it
Sitting on a sofa with a sister or two

I think I would be more comfortable if I could modify the title and badge of the award. I would be happy to give an award with a badge consisting of a foaming stein of beer and a title like "Blog and Suds." How about a "Silent But Deadly" award with an atomic mushroom cloud as a graphic? This would probably be best given as a followup to the "Blog and Suds" award. Perhaps my fellow male bloggers would be more accepting of a "Blog of the Month Foldout Award." I will leave the graphic to the reader's imagination.

I'd Like to Thank All the Little People...

2009-07-15T06:45:00.001-07:00

Actually, the above picture has nothing to do with the current post. Morris Gest's Little Miracle Town was one of the more peculiar exhibits at the 1939 World's Fair--a town with buildings scaled down for little people, who carried on their daily activities while fairgoers walked around and gawked at them. I just thought I'd throw that in along with the hackneyed phrase that actors are supposed to use in acceptance speeches at award shows, although I'd be shocked if anyone actually did say, "I'd like to thank all the little people who made this possible" at the Oscar ceremony.

This blog has just received its first--and likely only--award, from fellow Marxist Matthew Coniam and his blog, The Marx Brothers Council of Britain, an amazing site with all kinds of arcana relating to the Marx Brothers and their movies.

With great honor comes great responsibility. Matthew gives the award with strings attached. The recipent must:

a) name the person that gave it to them, b) post a photograph of themselves driving a tractor in a pinstripe suit,and c) pass on the award to other deserving sites, letting their authors know that they have been chosen.

OK, I have already named my benefactor. As to the second requirement, all photos of me driving a tractor in a pinstripe suit are out to the cleaners at the moment. I hope that this picture of me as a tot in overalls, riding on a tractor with my father, will suffice.

As to the third condition, I'm thinking about other blogs I may bestow this award upon.

Thanks, Matthew!

Groucho's Customs Form

2009-07-11T09:32:00.000-07:00

A story frequently cut and pasted around various websites appears to have some basis in fact. An eyewitness account exists in the book Arthur Marx's Groucho: A Photographic Journey, edited by Groucho impersonator Frank Ferrante, with comments and photography by Groucho's son Arthur, published in 2001. After the Marx Brothers had a run at the Palace Theater in London, they returned to the U.S. on the ship Paris in 1931. Arthur's comments on shipboard pictures from the trip include the following:

When the ship docked, all the passengers went straight through customs--including Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo. But my father, my mother, Ruth, my sister Miriam and I were held up for four hours. They went through all our luggage with a fine tooth comb and made go into separate rooms and take off all our clothes. I think it may have had something to do with the way my father filled out the customs form:

NAME: Julius H. Marx
ADDRESS: 21 Lincoln Road, Great Neck, Long Island
HAIR: Very little
OCCUPATION: Smuggler
PURCHASES: Wouldn't you like to know!

Some internet versions of the episode include the apocryphal detail that Groucho turned to Ruth and said, "What did you do with the opium? Do you still have it on you?" Arthur doesn't mention Groucho asking these questions, so I would take this part of the story with several grains of salt.

How Tall Were the Marx Brothers?

2009-07-11T07:15:00.000-07:00

One of the interesting features of the Feedjit widget (see sidebar at right) is that it supplies information about the words people use when they land here via a search engine. One recent visitor searched on the phrase "how tall were the Marx Brothers." Unfortunately, Google led him to the posts for June 2009, one of which includes a reference to the brothers' Uncle Julius, who was "well over four feet." The information the cyber-seeker was after is actually contained in the post "Passports", dated May 5, 2009. Included there are images of the brothers' 1922 passport applications. The heights they gave on the forms were:

Chico: 5' 6"
Groucho: 5' 8"
Zeppo: 5' 9"
Harpo: 5' 6 1/2"

They seem relatively short by today's standards, but as far as I can tell, the average height of an American male in 1920 was around 5'7" or 5'8".

Harpo's Horn

2009-07-01T20:09:00.000-07:00

Fellow Marx enthusiast Matthew Coniam asked about the object in Harpo's hand in the preceding post. Here's a profile view to show the taxi horn. The astute observer might note that the horn is in Harpo's right hand in the previous post and in the left hand here. The previous picture was a TtV view, which results in reversal of left and right in the Kodak Duaflex viewfinder.

Why a Duck?

2009-06-30T16:19:00.000-07:00

I staged this little tableau with 3 Marx Brothers figurines I bought years ago and a duck from my childhood farm set.

S.J. Perelman Revivisected

2009-06-26T10:09:00.000-07:00

S.J. Perelman, 1961. Photo by Carl Mydans. From the Life Magazine Archives.
S.J. Perelman, whom I featured in an earlier post, was a brilliant humorist. His relationship with the Marx Brothers in general, and Groucho in particular, was a stormy one. Groucho was a fan of Perelman's prose, including his first book, Dawn Ginsbergh's Revenge, of which Groucho wrote, "From the moment I picked up your book until I put it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Some day, I intend reading it." Groucho subsequently asked Perelman to work on a radio script for the Marx Brothers. His cowriter was W.B. Johnstone, who had written the Marx Brothers' stage show I'll Say She Is. The writers came up with the idea of the Marx Brothers as stowaways on a luxury oceanliner. Groucho liked the idea so much, he convinced Paramount Pictures to hire Perelman and Johnstone to write the next Marx Brothers movie. When Perelman arrived in Hollywood from New York, producer Herman J. Mankiewicz told Perelman that the Marx Brothers were "mercurial, devious, and ungrateful. I hate to depress you, but you'll rue the day you ever took the assignment. This is an ordeal by fire. Make sure you wear asbestos pants." Mankiewicz' words came true when Perelman read the completed script to the Marx Brothers. After he finished, Groucho said (depending on which version of the story you believe) either, "It stinks," or "I think we need a script."

Over the ensuing months, with the input of the brothers and other writers, an acceptable script for Monkey Business was produced. When Monkey Business was released in 1931, Arthur Sheekman received credit for the screenplay. Even though Perelman was uncredited, undoubtedly some of his material remained in the script.

Perelman hated Hollywood, but stayed around long enough to work on the script for Horse Feathers, for which he, along with Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar, did receive screen credit when it was released in 1932.

After he left Hollywood, Perelman resented the fact that much of of his reputation was based on his relatively brief association with the Marx Brothers, of whom he said, "I did two films with them, which in its way is perhaps my greatest distinction in life, because anybody who ever worked on any picture for the Marx Brothers said he would rather be chained to a galley oar and lashed at ten-minute intervals until the blood spurted from his frame than ever work for those sons of bitches again."

The interested reader may want to read a more in-depth and thoroughly engaging profile of S.J. Perelman by Becky Karush at her blog.

Profile of Groucho and the Marx Brothers

2009-06-17T10:37:00.000-07:00

This is one I haven't seen before. It's a nicely-done piece which aired on "CBS Sunday Morning" in 2007 on the 30th anniversary of Groucho's death. I learned a couple new things from Elliott Gould's observations. The final anecdote is quite touching.

Father's Day

2009-06-15T20:19:00.000-07:00

Sam "Frenchie" Marx, Father of the Marx Brothers

As Father's Day approaches this Sunday, it seems appropriate to post a link to Groucho singing the song "Father's Day". This is a studio version, complete with male chorus. Groucho also performs the song live on the album "An Evening With Groucho," which is available for download at Archive.org.

26 Questions for Groucho

2009-06-11T02:19:00.000-07:00

Master of Ceremonies Bud Collyer, rear, poses with the panel of the To Tell The Truth quiz show on CBS in 1957. Panelists from left to right are: Polly Bergen, Ralph Bellamy, Kitty Carlisle and Hy Gardner. Kitty Carlisle, whose long career spanned Broadway, opera, television and film, including the Marx Brothers movie "A Night at the Opera," died at age 96 in 2007.

In addition to being a panelist on To Tell the Truth, Hy Gardner (1908-1989) was a Broadway columnist for the New York Herald Tribune, and hosted a TV talk show called Hy Gardner Calling. In 1959, Gardner decided to start a project on older celebrities--specifically, those over age 50. He sent out a cover letter along with a questionaire consisting of 26 questions. The cover letter stated in part, "I'm doing a series which I think could be inspirational to a great many Americans over the age of fifty. I'm polling national figures in an effort to get the answers to some of the problems that confront the average man or woman past the half-century mark."

The original questionaire Gardner sent to Groucho, complete with his typewritten answers, is now being sold on eBay. The seller transcribed the questions and answers in the item description, and I am reproducing it here:

(1) What is your present age? 200 B.C.
(2) What keeps you looking and feeling so young? Each night before going to bed I rub bear grease between my toes
(3) How much sleep do you get out of the average 24 hours? 23
(4) It is good or fitful sleep? I sleep like a trout
(5) Do you require barbiturates or any other sleep inducing liquid or drug? Heroin ... a spoonful every night.
(6) How much sleep do you think you need? 24 hrs
(7) What about daytime naps? I go to bed right after breakfast and stay there until my cook hollars. "Come and get it!"
(8) Any nervousness in connection with an appearance, important meeting, etc? I meet very few people. I live in a cave.
(9) Do you control your temper more now than when you were younger? I have no temper! Every afternoon I throw a fit and that continues until they throw cold water on me.
(10) What do you worry about most? I don't get enough sleep.
(11) How frequently and thoroughly do you get a physical check-up? Every afternoon
(12) Do any exercise? Every Easter I roll an egg on the lawn
(13) Are you impatient with new friends and prefer the old ones? I have no friends. I sleep alone.
(14) Are you on any special diet? Yes. Raw meat and acorns
(15) How much weight have you lost or gained in the past five years? 100 pounds
(16) What do you do for relaxation? I go to sleep
(17) At what age do you think, if it is financially feasible, the average citizen should retire? Eighteen
(18) Are you bitter about anything? Yes. Having to write this for nothing!
(19) Do you use any alcohol? Just whiskey ... and kerosene for my lamps.
(20) Do you resent younger people coming up in your profession or business? Depends on how high they come up.
(21) Have you any objection to taking directions from these younger people? I love it. I'm always getting lost.
(22) Why is a male star even in his late fifties still attractive to young girls? You'll have to get some young girl to answer this one. And if you're successful, get one for me, too.
(23) Does reading the obituary column slow you down? Are you referring to the standing of the Yankees? (Note: The 1959 Yankees ended the season with a 79-75 record, their worst since 1925)
(24) What younger people coming up in your own special category would you consider might someday be the grand old stars of 1975? Ed Wynn, Ethel Barrymore and Donald Crisp. (Note: Ed Wynn was born in 1886, Ethel Barrymore in 1879 and Donald Crisp in 1880; each older than Groucho, who was born in 1890)
(25) Do you watch TV and, if so, what do you enjoy most? Turning it off.
(26) Do you ever expect to retire? I'm going to bed in about five minutes.

The Marx Brothers and Tobacco - Part II

2009-06-09T11:50:00.000-07:00

George Fenneman and Groucho

All the Marx Brothers were smokers--some more than others. While the relationship of the brothers and tobacco may provide fodder for future posts, in this article, I'd like to focus on someone who wasn't a member of the family. George Fenneman had a long association with Groucho as the announcer for Groucho's quiz show "You Bet Your Life." Groucho described him as the perfect straight man. Fenneman was also a spokeman for Chesterfield cigarettes. Back in the fifties, before tobacco advertising was banned from TV, Mr. Fenneman appeared in a commercial which today seems incredibly outlandish. We must remember, however, that this was an era when outlandish claims about the safety and life-enhancing qualities of cigarettes were common.

The video of this commercial can be seen at Milkandcookies.com. A transcription appears below, but you really have to see the video to appreciate Fenneman's earnest and authoritative air.

Not Adversely Affected by Smoking Chesterfields

A responsible consulting organization reports this study by a competent medical specialist and his staff on the effects of smoking Chesterfields. A group of people smoked only Chesterfields for six months in their normal amount--ten to forty a day. Forty-five percent of the group have smoked Chesterfields from 1 to 30 years, for an average of ten years each. At the beginning and end of the six months period, each smoker was given a thorough examination, including X-rays. The examination covered the sinuses, nose, ears, and throat. After a thorough examination of every member of the group, the medical specialist stated, "It is my opinion that the ears, nose, throat, and accessory organs of all participating subjects examined by me were not adversely affected in the six months period by smoking the cigarettes provided." Remember this report, and buy Chesterfields--regular or king size. Premium quality Chesterfield--much milder.

Wow! Quite a stunning display of BS, isn't it? It is fascinating that the competent medical specialist neglected to examine the hearts and lungs, unless they were considered "accessory organs."

I don't know for sure, but I presume that George Fenneman was a consumer of, as well as a pitchman for, Chesterfields. He died of emphysema at age 77 in 1997.

The Marx Brothers and Tobacco - Part I

2009-06-06T05:36:00.000-07:00

I believe a couple items in my collection of Marx Brothers memorabilia must be relatively rare. Several years ago I purchased two old Parade Magazines from the 1950s. For those who might not know, Parade Magazine is a national supplement to Sunday newspapers which is still around today. The ones I bought happened to be distributed with the Wisconsin State Journal of Madison, Wisconsin. One magazine featured Harpo in a baseball uniform on the cover, and the other, dated Feb. 17, 1952, is shown above. The associated article describes the photo session which resulted in the cover photo. Groucho didn't blow his own smoke rings, so two "smoke ring experts" were brought in. For reasons not entirely clear to me, one smoke ringer blower was, as Groucho said of his Uncle Julius "well over four feet," and the other was six feet tall. Groucho was in fine form during the session, and you can click to enlarge the article below to read his wisecracks.

Click to enlarge

Harpo Sells Vodka

2009-06-03T19:01:00.001-07:00

This is another item from my collection--a 1961 magazine ad for Smirnoff Vodka, featuring Harpo. Harpo wasn't much of a drinker, but I suppose he saw this as an opportunity to publicize his autobiography, not to mention garnering a few bucks from Smirnoff for the endorsement. The fine print under the picture reads, "Harpo Marx, noted comic and musician, authors a new best-seller, 'Harpo Speaks' at book stores."

In his book, Harpo said the only alcohol problem he had was that he didn't much care for the stuff. Early in World War II, Chico gave Harpo a hot tip that liquor would be rationed, prompting Harpo to go to a wholesale distributor and order a cellar full of booze. He then realized at his rate of consumption of about "three mild social drinks per week," his supply should last "until the year 2419 A.D." He further noted, however, that "it was a commodity I had no trouble getting rid of."

Zeppo and Gambling

2009-05-29T10:01:00.000-07:00

Zeppo Marx talking with newsmen after testifying at the grand jury gambling investigation, Terre Haute, IN, August 1958. Photographer: Frank Scherschel

Chico is known as the gambler among the Marx brothers, but Zeppo also did his share of gambling. The difference is that Zeppo was able to pay his debts, while Chico usually was in financial straits. The brothers did what they could to help him out. The last movie featuring the three Marx Brothers was "Love Happy" (1949). It started out as a vehicle for Harpo, then Chico was added to the cast because he needed the money. The producers were having trouble financing the picture. A small role was written in for Groucho, so the movie could be promoted as a Marx Brothers film. Even that wasn't enough, and the producers had to resort to product placement to raise enough cash to finish the picture.

Zeppo's gambling made the news on a couple occasions. In 1958, he was subpoenaed as a witness in a federal grand jury investigation of a nationwide betting syndicate headquartered in, of all places, Terre Haute, Indiana. Zeppo wasn't accused of a crime, but he had placed bets with the syndicate via telephone from Las Vegas or from his home in Palm Springs during the 1957 football season. During his testimony, when asked how he got the syndicate's number, he replied, "You can ask any little girl coming out of a kindergarten in Las Vegas, and she'll tell you how to find a bookie." Ah, the good old days before Vegas became "family friendly!"

Ten years later in 1968, five mobsters were convicted of cheating members of the Friars Club and their guests out of more than $400,00 in a scam carried out in 1962 and 1963. Among those losing money were Zeppo Marx, comedian Phil Silvers, and singer Tony Martin. As reported in Time Magazine, December 13, 1968:

Gin rummy, as played in Hollywood, is not always a gentleman's game. Even so, the games at the Friars' Club over a ten-month period during 1962 and 1963 were something out of the ordinary. Camera Industrialist Theodore Brislcin, for example, lost $220,000, Shoe Millionaire Harry Karl dropped $80,000, and such cool hands as Phil Silvers, Zeppo Marx and Tony Martin lost heavily. An investigation by the FBI followed, and last week five players in the games (two real estate developers, an art collector, an investor and a professional card shark) were found guilty on 49 counts of conspiracy, face sentences of from five to 130 years. Their gimmick: to station a confederate at a ceiling peephole in the Friars' card rooms; the "peeper" would then transmit electronic signals about opponents' hands. But was it necessary? Not really, said Martin. "I'm a pretty poor player anyway. My wife beats me all the time."

Groucho considered Zeppo to be a good player. In the Marx Brothers Scrapbook, which was put together by Richard Anobile from interviews with Groucho and those who knew him, Groucho said, "Zep wants to have the odds in his favor. He is a good gambler and Chico was a bad gambler." Groucho also said Harpo was a good gambler. "He was apparently fearless but was also a very conservative fellow." When asked why he didn't seem to get along with Zeppo, Groucho said, "Because he's always playing cards. That's why his wife walked out on him." When Anobile pointed out to Groucho that Chico also always played cards and Groucho was fond of him, Groucho replied, "But Chico was sort of a rascal and Zeppo isn't. He's just cold-blooded."

The Divorce of Zeppo and Barbara

2009-05-23T02:31:00.000-07:00

Zeppo and Barbara
On the day of their Las Vegas wedding, Sept. 18, 1959

In an earlier post, Zeppo Marx: FAQ, I indicated that Zeppo and his second wife Barbara, who later married Frank Sinatra, were divorced in 1972 or 1973. This was the best I could do at the time, based on information on the internet. Now, I can state unequivocally that the couple separated in 1972 and divorced in 1973. From the Press-Telegram (Long Beach, California), Wednesday, May 2, 1973:

Zeppo Marx wife wins divorce

Mrs. Zeppo Marx, wife of the youngest of the Marx brothers comedy team, has been granted a dissolution of her marriage to the 72-year-old comedian.

Superior Court Judge Frank Moore awarded Barbara Marx $1500 a month for 19 years in granting the dissolution Tuesday in Palm Springs. The woman filed for dissolution of the 14-year-old marriage last December after a five-week separation from her husband.

Zeppo, whose real name is Herbert, succeeded brother Gummo as a member of the famed comedy team of Groucho, Harpo, and Chico. He played mainly romantic roles in film and stage shows of the 1920s and early 1930s.

The vaudeville stage and screen star became an actors' agent in 1933. Zeppo was divorced from Marion Marx in 1954.

I wonder if Zeppo had to continue alimony payments after Barbara married Sinatra.

Mendel Picasso

2009-05-20T08:55:00.000-07:00

The first post of this blog explains, in excruciating detail, the people, places, and events depicted on the skin of "Lydia the Tattooed Lady," in the song written by Harold Arlen and E.Y. "Yip" Harburg for the Marx Brothers movie "At the Circus." The one mystery that remains unsolved is the name "Mendel Picasso," as in

Come along and see Buff'lo Bill with his lasso.
Just a little classic by Mendel Picasso.
Here is Captain Spaulding exploring the Amazon.
Here's Godiva but with her pajamas on.

Let's look at the last name first. It seems safe to assume that this is a reference to the great Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, shown to the left in 1962. Although he painted in a number of different styles, its unlikely that he was a tattoo artist. As far as I can tell, he never depicted Buffalo Bill in any medium.

And what of the first name? Picasso's given name was Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso. There is no sign of "Mendel" in there.

So where did Mendel Picasso come from? I have consulted no less an authority than Ernie, the son of lyricist Yip Harburg. Ernie didn't know, but said he would put out feelers to see if anyone does know. So far, as we approach the first anniversary of the original publication of my article "Lydia the Tattooed Lady Revealed," no one has come forward with an answer.

Even though the song "Peasy Weasy" was a favorite of Groucho, and the priest Gregor Mendel performed his genetic experiments with pea plants, it seems unlikely that Yip Harburg was thinking of Gregor Mendel when he wrote the lyrics to "Lydia."

Through intensive research (i.e., typing "Mendel" in the Google search box), I have learned that in Yiddish, Mendel is the pet form of the Hebrew name Menahem. So, was Yip somehow implying that Picasso was Jewish? Well...it's not impossible.

Apparently, there is some speculation that Pablo Picasso's maternal grandmother was Jewish. In a speech made by Gary Schwartz at the opening of the exhibit, "The 'Jewish' Rembrandt" at the Jewish Historical Museum on 9/11/2006:

Not long ago I was surprised to read the following sentence about Picasso's grandfather in John Richardson's monumental biography of the artist: "Next to nothing is known about this bizarre gentleman...beyond the fact that he married a plump young woman from the province of Málaga, Inés López Robles, rumoured to be a Maranna (of Jewish descent)" (p. 22). This was thus Picasso's mother's mother. If the rumour about Inés López Robles were true then even the great goy Pablo Picasso was in fact Jewish according to Jewish law.

Rumors about a woman who lived a couple centuries ago aren't much to go on, but then, wars have been launched on less substantial evidence.

In the end (or at the end of the day, as the talking heads on TV are so fond of saying these days), it really doesn't matter. Maybe Yip just threw Mendel Picasso into the song because it sounded funny, or because he knew it would drive people like me crazy through the ages, and that's good enough for me. I am reticent to pursue this topic any further for fear of being classified as that most unamusing of writers--the "humor analyst."

Sing along with me now:

La la laaa
La la la
La la laaa
La la la

Save The Marx Brothers Home

2009-05-13T15:34:00.000-07:00

179 E. 93rd Street, NYC, where the Marx Brothers spent their formative years, is at risk of being torn down by developers. Please sign the petition to save the building.

For more information, see this article at the New York Times.

A Marx Sister?

2009-05-06T05:48:00.000-07:00

In 1972, 81-year-old Groucho Marx performed at Carnegie Hall. Introduced by Dick Cavett and accompanied by Marvin Hamlisch on piano, Groucho told stories of his life and sang. Out of this show came a two-record album called "An Evening With Groucho," which I still have. It's been a couple decades since I've had a turntable hooked up, so I haven't listened to it for many years. Now, thanks to the internet, transcriptions are available and the recording itself can be downloaded in digital format.

In discussing his family, Groucho said:

Then we had a sister. She wasn't really our sister, she was an adopted sister. The father of that sister had gotten a look at this girl and fled to Canada, and we never saw him again. But the girl stayed with us, and her name was Polly. Polly didn't... She wasn't a bad looking girl, but her rear end stuck a-way out. You could play pinochle on her rear end.

Polly, or Pauline, was the daughter of Groucho's aunt Hannah, who was Minnie Marx's sister. The paternity of Polly is uncertain, but she was probably conceived after the death or disappearance of Hannah's first husband. It is likely that Sam and Minnie Marx adopted Polly, and it appears they fibbed about the date of their marriage to make it look like Polly was was their own legitimate child. The record shows Sam and Minnie were married January 18, 1885, but they moved the date back a year to 1884 in future records, to accommodate the January, 1885 birth of Polly.

Passports

2009-05-05T18:46:00.000-07:00

Riding a wave of success on stage, in 1922, the Marx Brothers were about to embark on a tour of England. In preparation for the trip, they had to apply for passports. The images below are taken from their passport applications. The application process required someone to swear to the identity of the applicant. Harry Billings, of Milwaukee, attested on each form that he knew the brothers for five years, and gave his occupation as "Manager," so I assume he was the act's manager.

The application form also required a description of the applicant. From the handwriting, it looks like the boys filled in some of the blanks themselves, and Mr. Billings filled in the others.

We find Harpo describing his nose as "regular," and his chin as "firm." Groucho, always playing for laughs, described his nose as "Jewish," and his mouth as "pretty good."

Click to enlarge any of the images below.

Betty and Chico

Arthur, Ruth, and Groucho

Zeppo

Harpo

Gummo's Draft Card

2009-05-05T17:53:00.000-07:00

Gummo in Uniform

In 1916, Milton (Gummo) Marx was ready to leave the Marx Brothers act, and joined his father Sam in selling boxes to grocery stores during the day, performing with the brothers at night. When WWI came along, their mother Minnie realized one of her five sons would have to enter the service. Chico was married, and Zeppo, the youngest, would not be expected to go. Harpo and Groucho were essential to the act. Gummo, who later admitted he was the worst actor among the brothers, was told by his mother Minnie, "We can do without you." So he enlisted in the Air Force. There was a shortage of planes, and so Gummo's induction was delayed. In the meantime, his number came up and he was drafted into the Army. He didn't have to go overseas, and had a pretty good time in the Army.

Zeppo Marx: FAQ

2009-05-03T18:32:00.000-07:00

Zeppo Marx

In comupterspeak, FAQ is an acronym for "Frequently Asked Questions." This clever diversionary device was created by tech support people to trip up unsuspecting consumers seeking help with computer problems. Let's say your computer freezes up any time you press the tilde key. A more plausible example may be that you don't know what the tilde key is. You go to the tech support page of the computer manufacturer, as you were too cheap to buy a service contract which would permit you to talk to a nice Indian person whose real name is Paramvir, but who identifies himself as "Larry" at work in an effort to put American callers at ease. Arriving at the tech support page, you click on "FAQ," only to find a list of questions and answers that have nothing to do with your problem. Giving up in disgust, you vow never to use the tilde key again--a goal which is surprisingly easy to achieve.

By the way, this is the tilde: ~. If instead of a wavy line, you see the characters &#-126, you may be using the HTML-4 standard. Please go to our tech support page and click on "FAQ."

In keeping with the spirit of Marx Brothers comedy, this post is based on the absurd premise that questions about Zeppo Marx are frequent. Zeppo is the third most obscure of the Marx Brothers. The most obscure is Manfred, who didn't live long enough to acquire a nickname; he died in infancy. Second would be Milton (Gummo), who left the stage act when he was drafted into the army during WWI, and never returned to performing.

Since interest in Zeppo isn't sufficient to generate frequent questions, we might adjust the acronym "FAQ" to stand for "Fairly Asinine Questions," or "Far Afield Queries," or any number of phrases unsuitable for a PG rated site such as this blog.

Without further ado, let us proceed to the questions.

Where and when was Zeppo born?
The youngest of the Marx Brothers, he was born in New York City on February 25, 1901.

What was Zeppo's real name?
Herbert.

Why did he change his name?
Research has shown that Herbert is one of the least humorous names in the English language. With the exception of Herb Shriner, nobody with the name has had a successful career in comedy.

When did he start performing with his brothers?
Herbert briefly joined the act in 1915, when Julius (Groucho), Arthur (Harpo), Leonard (Chico), and Milton (Gummo) were performing the show written by their Uncle Al Shean, Home Again. Thus Home Again is the only show featuring all five Marx Brothers at once. When Gummo left to join the service in 1918, Zeppo became a permanent member of the act.

How did he get the name Zeppo?
The answer to this is uncertain. Groucho, in his old age, claimed it had to do with the fact that the zeppelin was introduced around the time Zeppo was born. This isn't totally impossible, since the first zeppelin was built in 1898 and Zeppo was born in 1901. It seems unlikely, however. Harpo, in his autobiography, claimed that Herbert was originally called Zippo, after the Mr. Zippo, the star of a famous chimpanzee act, because Herbie was "always chinning himself and practicing acrobatics." He didn't like being named after a chimp, and insisted on being called Zeppo. However it happened, he became Zeppo for good. Occasionally, one finds on eBay cancelled checks from his account signed "Zeppo Marx."

In how many movies did he appear?
Five--The Cocoanuts, Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, and Duck Soup.

Why did he stop performing?
His stated reason was that he did not enjoy acting. His acting ability has been called into question, although some critics believe his wooden style was intended as a parody of the junevile romantic leads of the day. He proved his acting ability in the stage version of Animal Crackers, when Groucho has hospitalized with appendicitis and Zeppo stepped into the role of Captain Spaulding. Although he played the role at least as well as Groucho, smoking cigars in five shows a day made Zeppo sick.

What did he do after he stopped performing?
He started a talent agency, which was very successful. In 1941, he founded the Marman Products Company, Inc., which produced clamping devices and straps. Marman clamps were used to secure the atomic bombs on the Enola Gay during WWII. The company also built a motorized bicycle, the Marman Twin. Zeppo was also an inventor, and held three patents:
-Vapor Delivery Pad for Delivering Moist Heat
-Method and Watch Mechanism for Actuation by Cardiac Pulse
-Cardiac Pulse Rate Monitor

Was he married?
Twice. First to Marian Benda in 1927. They adopted two boys and divorced in 1954. In 1959 he married Barbara Blakeley. She had a son by a previous marriage, who took the last name of Marx, but was not formally adopted by Zeppo. Zeppo and Barbara divorced in 1972 or 1973, and Barbara then married Frank Sinatra in 1976. They remained married till Ol' Blue Eyes died in 1998.

When did he die?
The last surviving Marx Brother, Zeppo died of lung cancer in 1979 at age 78.

S.J. Perelman

2009-05-02T07:42:00.000-07:00

This post appeared originally at Lugubrious Drollery on February 9, 2009.

S.J. Perelman at his office in Greenwich Village
Date taken: October 26, 1961
Photographer: Carl Mydans
From the Google Life Magazine Image Archives

This morning I was listening to recent podcasts of Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac on the way to work. February 1 was the birthday of comic genius S.J. Perelman, who, among other things, wrote for the Marx Brothers. The sketch of Perelman which Keillor read on his birthday was so good, I'm quoting it here in its entirety:

It's the birthday of humorist S.J. Perelman, born Sidney Joseph Perelman in Brooklyn, New York (1904). His father was a Russian immigrant who tried to make a living as a poultry farmer. Perelman said his father believed "that if you had a few acres and a chicken farm there was no limit to your possible wealth. I grew up with and have since retained the keenest hatred of chickens."

At this point, alone in my truck, I laughed out loud. Having started life as a third-generation duck farmer, I loved Perelman's statement. Keillor goes on:

He worked as a cartoonist when he was in college, but he switched to writing humorous essays, which he published in The New Yorker. His first collection of essays, Dawn Ginsbergh's Revenge, came out in 1929. Groucho Marx wrote him a letter that said: "From the moment I picked up your book until I put it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it."

Groucho Marx persuaded Perelman to move to Hollywood to write screenplays. He worked on Marx Brothers movies such as Monkey Business (1931) and Horse Feathers (1932), but he hated Hollywood. So he went back to writing essays for The New Yorker. His many essay collections include The Ill-Tempered Clavichord (1952) and Chicken Inspector No. 23 (1966).

One of his essays begins: "I guess I'm just an old mad scientist at bottom. Give me an underground laboratory, half a dozen atom-smashers, and a beautiful girl in a diaphanous veil waiting to be turned into a chimpanzee, and I care not who writes the nation's laws."

George Seaton

2009-05-02T03:28:00.000-07:00

George Seaton
Photo by Allan Grant, date unknown
From the Google Life Magazine Image Archives

Wondering if perhaps the Marx Brothers had played a local theater in their vaudeville days, I indulged in exhaustive research by typing "Marx Brothers" and "South Bend" into the Google search thingamabob. I didn't find any accounts of the boys playing here. If I put forth a little more effort, I wouldn't be surprised to find they performed here, as they did live in Chicago for a while, and Chicago is only about a hundred miles away.

What I found is that a South Bend native was responsible for some of the Marx Brothers comedy. George Seaton was born in South Bend, Indiana in 1911. After college, he moved to Detroit, where he was the second actor to portray the Lone Ranger on the radio. He claimed he originated the phrase, "Hi-yo, Silver" when he was unable to whistle for his horse as was called for in the script. Seaton signed on as a contract writer for MGM in 1933, and contributed uncredited material for the 1935 Marx movie A Night at the Opera, then was asked by Groucho to co-write A Day at the Races (1937), for which he received screen credit. Seaton went on to have a fairly successful career, including writing and directing the holiday classic, Miracle on 34th Street(1947), for which he won an Oscar for best screenplay. He won a second Oscar for the screenplay A Country Girl (1954). In later years, his success was limited, but he was nominated for an Oscar for 1970's Airport. Seaton died in Beverly Hills in 1979.

Under the Summer Moon

2009-04-27T16:43:00.000-07:00

This is the oldest piece of Marx Brothers memorabilia in my small collection. It is the sheet music for the song "Under the Summer Moon," written for the vaudeville show "Home Again" by Leonard (Chico) Marx and Lem Trombley. At the time, Milton (Gummo) was performing with Julius (Groucho), Arthur (Harpo), and Leonard.

The boys began performing the show in 1914. The sheet music was copyrighted in 1916. I haven't been able to find documentation that the song was actually performed in the show. It may have been written for the show but not used, or maybe its use just isn't documented.

The photo shows, left to right, Harpo, Gummo, Chico, and Groucho

See the inside of the sheet music at the Archives of Michigan Digital Collection.

Groucho and the Guitar

2009-04-26T03:27:00.000-07:00

In 1954, Groucho Marx and his daughter Melinda were featured on Edward R. Murrow's "Person to Person" TV show. The format of "Person to Person" consisted of Murrow smoking cigarettes in a studio in New York and interviewing celebrities in their homes through the magic of television. In those days before Sputnik and Telstar, there were no communication satellites, and the signals between New York and Hollywood had to travel on transcontinental cables. During the interview, Groucho picked up a guitar and did a nice job of accompanying himself and seven-and-a-half-year-old Melinda as they sang the Irving Berlin counterpoint song, "You're Just in Love."

This was one of the few recorded guitar performances by Groucho. The others occurred in the movies. In Monkey Business, Groucho strummed a few chords in Thelma Todd's stateroom. How Groucho wound up in her stateroom is another matter altogether. In Horse Feathers, Groucho accompanied himself on guitar as he serenaded the selfsame Thelma Todd with the song "Everyone Says I Love You." As the couple sat in a canoe, Groucho finished the song with the lyics:

Everything that ever grew
The gooose and the gander
And the gosling too
The duck upon the water
When he feels that way too
Says I love you

Except instead of Groucho singing "I love you," a duck which had been following the canoe finished the song with "Quack, quack, quack." To which Groucho responded, "That's a wise quack. You keep your bill out of this. How would you like it if I butted into your affairs and laid an egg?" and tosses his guitar into the lake.

At the conclusion of the scene, Thelma Todd falls in the lake as she and Groucho struggle over the Huxley College football signals she has just taken from his jacket pocket. When she begs him for a lifesaver, Groucho pulls a pack of Lifesaver candies from his pocket and throws her one.

In Go West, Harpo plays harmonica and Groucho provides guitar accompaniment for the song "Ridin the Range," sung by romantic lead John Carroll, Groucho, and Chico. The song included such forgettable lyrics as

Where men are men
And the life is free
And there's nothing breakin
The mo-not-o-ny
Of clippedy clop
Just clippedy clop clop clop clop clop clop

In real life, Groucho was a dedicated student of the guitar and owned two Gibsons. He would drive his family to distraction with his practicing. He once had the opportunity to meet the great classical guitarist Andres Segovia after a concert. Segovia agreed to come to Groucho's house for dinner on the condition that there would be no guitar playing by either party. However, after dinner, Groucho brought out his Gibson guitars and prevailed upon the master to accompany the comedian as he played Rachmaninoff’s “Prelude in C-Sharp Minor.” Groucho's performance of this piece had once prompted his wife to say, “Why don’t you go back to playing by ear? You used to be so much better before you knew what you were doing.” Segovia finally said he could play no more because the steel strings of Groucho's guitar hurt his fingers.

For more on Groucho the guitarist, see these articles:

The Surprisingly Serious Tale of Comedian Groucho Marx and His Lifelong Quest to Master Guitar by Jerry McCulley

Groucho Marx the musician? Screen legend, but...? by Stephen Murray

And also check out Everyone Says I Love You performed on YouTube by Fret Killer

Surrealism or Hello Dali

2009-04-03T23:20:00.000-07:00

Harpo Marx Painting. Photo by Allan Grant, February 1948. From the Life Magazine Archives.

During the 1930s, the Marx Brothers were adored by the surrealists. Antonin Artaud, a surrealist writer and thinker had this to say about the Marx Brothers' film Animal Crackers:

If there is a definite characteristic, a distinct poetic state of mind that can be called surrealism, Animal Crackers participated in that state altogether.

Philippe Soupalt, who proved to the world he was a surrealist by doing things like walking into cafes and shouting "Everybody switch drinks," or stopping strangers on the street to ask them for the address of Philippe Soupalt, wrote after seeing Horse Feathers:

The comedy of the Marx Brothers lifts us out of reality by exaggerating our peculiarities and aggravating our habits. The real quality of the Marx Brothers and of this extravagant, excessive comedy remains human. They are exactly like ordinary people and act just as we should act if social regulations did not prevent us from behaving in that way. I believe that , though most films rapidly go out of style, this satiric comedy will make us laugh for a long time to come.

No one can dispute that last statement, but the rest of Soupalt's dissertation leaves me a bit irritated, as I'm sure I would have been if I were sitting in a Parisian cafe when he burst in yelling for people to exchange drinks. Attempting to analyze humor tends to destroy humor, with the possible exception of Robert Benchley's essay, "Why We Laugh--Or Do We?" In this piece, Benchley lists the five cardinal points of a joke:

1. The joke must be in a language we understand.

2. It must be spoken loudly enough for us to hear it, or printed clearly enough for us to read it.

3. It must be about something. You can't just say, "Here's a good joke" and let it go at that. (You can, but don't wait for the laugh.)

4. It must deal with either frustration or accomplishment, inferiority or superiority, sense or nonsense, pleasantness or unpleasantness, or, at any rate, with some emotion that can be analyzed, otherwise how do we know when to laugh?

5. It must begin with the letter "W."

The adulation of the Marx Brothers by the surrealists reached its zenith with Salvador Dali in the late 1930s. Dali was especially fascinated with Harpo. As Groucho said, "Dali was in love with my brother--in a nice way." Dali visited Harpo in Hollwood in 1937, and Dali later wrote that when he arrrived in Harpo's garden,

(Harpo) was naked, crowned with roses, and in the centre of a veritable forest of harps (he was surrounded by at least 500 harps). He was caressing, like a new Leda, a dazzling white swan, and feeding it a statue of the Venus de Milo made of cheese, which he grated against the strings of the nearest harp.

Did it really happen? Who knows?

It does not appear that Harpo was quite as impressed with Dali, although he did pose for him. In his autobiography, Harpo Speaks, he included the resulting sketch, which shows Harpo sporting an apple and one of Dali's favorite crustaceans--a lobster--on his head, and a tongue hanging over the top of the harp.

Harpo noted in the caption that the sketch was a prize of his art collection, but makes no mention of Dali in the text of his book.

Dali had given Harpo, possibly for Christmas 1936, a harp with barbed-wire strings and festooned with spoons--perhaps a reference to Harpo's schtick where stolen silverware, and finally a coffee pot, fall from the sleeve of his coat as a policeman shakes his hand. The silverware which fell from Harpo's sleeve in Animal Crackers comprised some 400 knives and no spoons or forks, but maybe Dali missed that detail, or maybe the spoons had nothing to do with the scene in the movie.

Harpo responded by sending Dali a photo of himself with bandaged fingers. In 1937, Dali wrote a surreal screenplay, Giraffes on Horseback Salads, for the Marx Brothers. The film was never produced. The script included a 60-foot long bed, dwarves, a drowned ox, bicyclists balancing stones on their heads, burning giraffes, Chico wearing a diving suit while playing the piano, and so forth.

In the book Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Sometimes Zeppo, Joe Adamson states that Harpo "got a big kick out of Dali" and "struck up a lasting friendship that lasted until Dali went home." Of a potential collaboration between Dali and Harpo, Groucho said, "It would have been a great combination. Dali didn't speak much English and neither did Harpo." Groucho also pointed out in his book The Groucho Phile that Dali's script wouldn't play and neither would the harp with barbed-wire strings. And speaking of the barbed-wire harp, Adamson writes that "Harpo and his wife...were so pleased that they stuck it in a remote corner of the house and finally threw it away."

Here are a few drawings which Dali did in connection with his script.

Dinner in the Desert Lighted by Giraffes on Fire

Groucho as Shiva of the Business World

Surrealist Gondola Above Burning Bicycles

In this, the movie's finale, note Chico at the piano in a diving suit, bicyclists balancing stones on their heads, and Harpo playing the harp.

In the unlikely event that the reader wants to learn more about Dali's script, thought to be lost until a copy was discovered among the artist's papers in the 1990s, here's a link to a synopsis published in Harper's in 1996.

Marxism

2009-04-03T01:31:00.000-07:00

Karl Groucho Marx

Photo manipulation by Roberto Rizzato, 2008. Used under Creative Commons license. See the original at Flickr.com

Ah, those glorious days of McCarthyism! In its pursuit of citizens with ties, however tenuous, to the Communist Party, the FBI was hot on the trail of desperados like convicted criminal Julius H. Marx, AKA Graucho Marx. Yes, the comedian was "indicted and convicted" of copyright violation in 1937, according to the report, and yes, the brilliant agent filing the report in 1953 consistently misspelled the name one of the most famous entertainers in the world as "Graucho."

You can read a ten-page excerpt from
Groucho's FBI file at The Smoking Gun.

Marx Brothers Through the Years

2009-03-30T09:15:00.000-07:00

A really cool feature available via Google is an archive of pictures from the files of Life Magazine. I have downloaded a couple here to show the five Marx Brothers out of costume in their later years. The first picture comes from Wikipedia Commons and shows the whole Marx family around 1913.

Groucho, Gummo, Minnie (mother), Zeppo, Frenchy (father), Chico and Harpo, at about the time of their act "Fun in Hi Skule" of 1913.

The Marx Brothers, --(Fore L-R) Harpo, Chico, Groucho and (Rear L-R) Zeppo and Gummo, standing outside together. Photo by Peter Stackpole, 1938

The Marx brothers (L to R) Harpo Marx, Zeppo Marx, Chico Marx, Groucho Marx, and Gummo Marx at Civic Playhouse for opening of "The Fifth Season" in which Chico stars. Photo by Allan Grant, 1957

Lydia the Tattooed Lady Revealed

2009-03-29T00:22:00.000-07:00

This post originally appeared on my other blog, Lugubrious Drollery, June 18, 2008.

Image courtesy of the Yip Harburg Foundation

A lot of landmark events occurred in 1939. The New York World's Fair opened. Hitler invaded Poland. The movie The Wizard of Oz premiered, and the Marx Brothers movie At the Circus was released. Harold Arlen and lyricist E.Y. "Yip" Harburg wrote songs for both the Wizard of Oz and At the Circus. Groucho's performance of "Lydia the Tattooed Lady" is a classic.

As I pointed out in an earlier post about the song Cuban Pete, the internet is littered with inaccuracies. The World Wide Web abounds in multiple copies of a mistaken transcription of Groucho's introduction to "Lydia." What shows up in this transcription is:

My life was wrapped around the circus.
Her name was Lydia.
I met her at the World's Fair in 1900,
marked down from 1940.
Ah, Lydia.
She was the most glorious creature under the sun.
Guiess. Dubarry. Garbo.
Rolled into one.

If you watch the above clip from the movie, you'll see that when Groucho lists the three beauties that were all rolled into Lydia, the first one sounds like it rhymes with "vice". According to Nick Markovich, administrator/archivist of the Yip Harburg foundation, this was Thaïs, an Athenian courtesan who allegedly convinced Alexander the Great to burn the palace of Persepolis. Jules Massanet wrote an opera called Thaïs. The Scottish soprano Mary Garden made her American premiere in the title role. The other two women were Madame du Barry, mistress of Louis XV, and famed actress Greta Garbo. Interestingly, Yip Harburg also wrote lyrics for a song ("Salome") which was sung by Virginia O'Brien in the 1943 movie Du Barry Was a Lady.

Mary Garden as Thaïs

Madame du Barry

Greta Garbo

The joke about the World's Fairs in Groucho's intro refers to the Expositon Universelle in Paris in 1900, and the New York World's Fair, 1939-1940.

Exposition Universelle, Paris 1900

New York World's Fair, 1939

There are many historical and topical references in the song itself:

Battle of Waterloo - Napolean's final defeat by the Duke of Wellington

Wreck of the Hesperus - a poem by Longfellow, based on events that occurred during a blizzard off the east coast of the United States in 1839. In the poem, a sea captain's daughter is tied to the mast of a ship to keep her from being washed overboard during a storm, but both she and her father die.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Kankakee - a town in Illinois

Paree - the one in France. You've heard of it--it's been in all the papers

Lisa Fonssagrives on the Eiffel Tower, Paris 1939. Photo by Erwin Blumenfeld

Washington Crossing the Delaware - the famous painting by Emanuel Leutze of the beginning of the surprise attack on the Hessians in Trenton, New Jersey, Decemeber 25, 1776

Andrew Jackson - colonel in the Tennessee militia in the War of 1812 and later President of the U.S.

mazurka - a Polish dance

Niagara - the Falls--you know, the big ones between New York and Canada

Alcatraz - the island in San Francisco Bay that used to be a prison

Buffalo Bill - William F. Cody, of Wild West Show fame

Just a little classic by Mendel Picasso - This is the most puzzling phrase in the song, and one for which I can't find an explanation. The abstract artist Picasso's given name was Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruiz y Picasso. That's quite a mouthful, but I don't find anything that looks like Mendel in there.

Captain Spaulding - Groucho's character in Animal Crackers

Godiva - the lady who, according to legend, argued with her husband, Lord Leofric, about the oppressive taxes he levied on the citizens of Coventry in the eleventh century. He challenged her to ride naked through town, and promised to lift the taxes if no one looked at her. She rode, no one looked, the peasants cheered, and the taxes were lifted, or so one version of the legend goes.

Lady Godiva by John Collier

Grover Whalen unveilin' the Trylon - a great turn of phrase. Whalen was President of the World's Fair Corporation, which planned and built the 1939 World's Fair on the site of what was up to that time an ash dump in Flushing Meadow. The symbols of the fair were the Trylon and Perisphere--a big pointy tower next to a big round building.

Treasure Island - another topical reference. Treasure Island is an artificial island in the San Francisco Bay. It is connected by a small isthmus to Yerba Buena Island. It was created out of fill dredged from the bay in 1936 and 1937 for the 1939-1940 Golden Gate International Exposition.

Nijinsky adoin' the rhumba - a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer doing "the dance of Latin romance" (see Cuban Pete).

Vaslav Nijinsky not doing the rhumba

In their book, Who Put the Rainbow in the Wizard of Oz: Yip Harburg, Lyricist, Harold Meyerson and Ernie Harburg point out a couple interesting facts about "Lydia." The song was censored and in order to get it into the movie, Yip Harburg had to add the last stanza:

Oh, Lydia, the champ of them all
She once swept an Admiral clear off his feet
The ships on her hips made his heart skip a beat
And now the old boy's in command of the fleet
For he went and married Lydia

I guess the censors could accept the rest of what they considered a risque song as long as Lydia became an "honest woman" and got married in the end.

Myerson and Harburg also point out that Yip tried his best to make "Lydia" sound like Gilbert and Sullivan, because Groucho was a big fan and would have parties at his house where he would play recordings of Gilbert and Sullivan operas and sing along with them.

As I close this post, I must note a spooky coincidence(?). The Muzak coming out of the speaker in the office at the MRI Center where I am finishing this up is "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by Arlen and Harburg!