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American comedian (1890–1977)

Groucho Marx
Groucho Marx - portrait.jpg

Marx in Copacabana (1947) at historic period 57
Birth proper noun Julius Henry Marx
Born (1890-10-02)October two, 1890
Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Died August 19, 1977(1977-08-19) (aged 86)
Los Angeles, California U.Southward.
Resting place Eden Memorial Park Cemetery
Medium Picture, television receiver, stage, radio, music
Years active 1905–1976
Genres
  • wit
  • wordplay
  • slapstick
Spouse

  • Ruth Johnson

    ​

    ​

    (m. 1920; div. 1942)​

  • Kay Marvis Gorcey

    ​

    ​

    (g. 1945; div. 1951)​

  • Eden Hartford

    ​

    ​

    (one thousand. 1954; div. 1969)​
Children
  • Arthur Marx
  • Miriam Marx
  • Melinda Marx
Parent(s)
  • Sam "Frenchie" Marx
  • Minnie Schönberg
Relative(due south)
  • Chico Marx (older brother)
  • Harpo Marx (older brother)
  • Gummo Marx (younger brother)
  • Zeppo Marx (younger blood brother)
  • Al Shean (maternal uncle)

Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August nineteen, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, author, stage, motion picture, radio, television star and vaudeville performer.[1] He is generally considered to have been a master of quick wit and i of America's greatest comedians.[2]

He made xiii feature films as a team with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the 3rd-built-in. He also had a successful solo career, primarily on radio and telly, about notably as the host of the game testify You Bet Your Life.[1]

His distinctive appearance, carried over from his days in vaudeville, included quirks such every bit an exaggerated stooped posture, glasses, cigar, a thick greasepaint mustache, and eyebrows. These exaggerated features resulted in the creation of i of the most recognizable and ubiquitous novelty disguises, known as Groucho spectacles: a one-slice mask consisting of horn-rimmed glasses, a large plastic nose, bushy eyebrows and mustache.[3]

Early life [edit]

Julius Henry Marx was born on Oct ii, 1890, in Manhattan, New York.[4] Marx stated that he was born in a room higher up a butcher's shop on E 78th Street, "Between Lexington & third", as he told Dick Cavett in a 1969 television interview.[5] The Marx children grew upwardly in a plow-of-the-century building on Eastward 93rd Street off Lexington Avenue in a neighborhood at present known as Carnegie Hill on the Upper Due east Side of the borough of Manhattan. His blood brother Harpo, in his memoir Harpo Speaks, called the building "the first real home they ever knew". It was populated with European immigrants, more often than not artisans. But across the street were the oldest brownstones in the area, owned by people such as the well-connected Loew Brothers and William Orth. The Marx family lived there "for virtually 14 years," Groucho too told Cavett.

The only known photo of all 5 Marx brothers with their parents in New York City, 1915; from left: Groucho (anile 25), Gummo (aged 22), Minnie (female parent), Zeppo (aged xiv), Frenchie (male parent), Chico (anile 28), and Harpo (aged 27)

Marx's family was Jewish.[6] His mother was Miene "Minnie" Schoenberg, whose family came from Dornum in northern Germany when she was 16 years old. His father was Simon "Sam" Marx, who inverse his name from Marrix, and was called "Frenchie" by his sons throughout his life, considering he and his family came from Alsace in France.[7] Minnie'southward brother was Al Schoenberg, who shortened his proper noun to Al Shean when he went into evidence concern every bit half of Gallagher and Shean, a noted vaudeville human action of the early 20th century. Co-ordinate to Marx, when Shean visited, he would throw the local waifs a few coins so that when he knocked at the door he would be surrounded by adoring fans. Marx and his brothers respected his opinions and asked him on several occasions to write some material for them.

Minnie Marx did not have an amusement industry career only had intense ambition for her sons to proceed the stage similar their uncle. While pushing her 2nd son Leonard (Chico Marx) in pianoforte lessons, she found that Julius had a pleasant soprano voice and the ability to remain on key. Julius'southward early on career goal was to become a dr., simply the family's demand for income forced him out of school at the historic period of twelve. Past that time, young Julius had become a voracious reader, particularly addicted of Horatio Alger. Marx would continue to overcome his lack of formal education past becoming very well-read.

After a few stabs at entry-level role work and jobs suitable for adolescents, Julius took to the stage as a boy vocalizer with the Gene Leroy Trio, debuting at the Ramona Theatre in Grand Rapids, MI, on July 16, 1905.[8] Marx reputedly claimed that he was "hopelessly average" as a vaudevillian, just this was typical Marx, wisecracking in his truthful course. By 1909, Minnie Marx had assembled her sons into an undistinguished vaudeville singing group billed as "The Four Nightingales". The brothers Julius, Milton (Gummo Marx) and Arthur (originally Adolph, but Harpo Marx from 1911) and another male child singer, Lou Levy, traveled the U.S. vaudeville circuits to little fanfare. After exhausting their prospects in the East, the family moved to La Grange, Illinois, to play the Midwest.

After a particularly dispiriting performance in Nacogdoches, Texas, Julius, Milton, and Arthur began cracking jokes onstage for their own entertainment. Much to their surprise, the audience liked them better as comedians than as singers. They modified the and then-popular Gus Edwards comedy skit "Schoolhouse Days" and renamed it "Fun In Howdy Skule". The Marx Brothers would perform variations on this routine for the next seven years.

For a time in vaudeville, all the brothers performed using ethnic accents. Leonard, the oldest, developed the Italian accent he used equally Chico Marx to convince some roving bullies that he was Italian, not Jewish. Arthur, the adjacent oldest, donned a curly red wig and became "Patsy Brannigan", a stereotypical Irish gaelic character. His discomfort when speaking on phase led to his uncle Al Shean's suggestion that he stop speaking altogether and play the role in mime. Julius Marx'south grapheme from "Fun In Hello Skule" was an ethnic German, and then Julius played him with a German language emphasis. After the sinking of the RMSLusitania in 1915, public anti-German sentiment was widespread, and Marx's German character was booed, so he quickly dropped the accent and developed the fast-talking wise-guy character that became his trademark.

The Marx Brothers became the biggest comedic stars of the Palace Theatre in New York, which billed itself as the "Valhalla of Vaudeville". Brother Chico'south deal-making skills resulted in three hit plays on Broadway. No other comedy routine had ever so infected the Broadway circuit. All of this stage work predated their Hollywood career. Past the time the Marxes made their first movie, they were already major stars with sharply honed skills; and by the time Groucho was relaunched to stardom in television on You Bet Your Life, he had been performing successfully for half a century.

Career [edit]

Vaudeville [edit]

Marx started his career in vaudeville in 1905 when he joined upward with an act called The Leroy Trio.[9] He answered a newspaper want ad by a man named Robin Leroy who was looking for a boy to bring together his group every bit a singer. Marx was hired forth with fellow vaudeville actor Johnny Morris. Through this deed, Marx got his first taste of life every bit a vaudeville performer. In 1909, Marx and his brothers had become a group act, at first called The 3 Nightingales and later The Four Nightingales.[9] The brothers' mother, Minnie Marx, was the group's director, putting them together and booking their shows. The grouping had a rocky start, performing in less than adequate venues and rarely, if always, being paid for their performances.[9] Eventually brother Milton (Gummo) would leave the act to serve in Globe War I and was replaced by Herbert (Zeppo), and the group became known equally the Marx Brothers.[9] Their first successful show was Fun In Howdy Skule (1910).[9]

Hollywood [edit]

The Marx Brothers in 1931 (from superlative, Chico, Harpo, Groucho and Zeppo)

Marx made 26 movies, thirteen of them with his brothers Chico and Harpo.[ten] Marx developed a routine equally a wisecracking hustler with a distinctive chicken-walking lope, an exaggerated greasepaint mustache and eyebrows and an ever-present cigar, improvising insults to stuffy dowagers (normally played by Margaret Dumont) and anyone else who stood in his way. Equally the Marx Brothers, he and his brothers starred in a serial of pop stage shows and movies.

Their beginning movie was a silent film fabricated in 1921 that was never released,[10] and is believed to take been destroyed at the time. A decade after, the team made ii of their Broadway hits—The Cocoanuts and Beast Crackers [ten]—into movies. Other successful films were Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, Duck Soup and A Nighttime at the Opera.[x] One quip from Marx concerned his response to Sam Forest, the manager of A Night at the Opera. Furious with the Marx Brothers' ad-libs and antics on the set, Woods yelled in disgust: "You tin can't brand an actor out of dirt." Marx responded, "Nor a managing director out of Wood."[11]

Marx too worked as a radio comedian and evidence host. 1 of his earliest stints was a short-lived series in 1932, Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel, costarring Chico. Though near of the scripts and discs were thought to have been destroyed, all but one of the scripts were establish in 1988 in the Library of Congress. In 1947, Marx was asked to host a radio quiz program You Bet Your Life. It was broadcast past ABC and and so CBS before moving to NBC. It moved from radio to television on October 5, 1950, and ran for 11 years. Filmed before an audience, the show consisted of Marx bantering with the contestants and advert-libbing jokes before briefly quizzing them. The show was responsible for popularizing the phrases "Say the undercover give-and-take and the duck will come downward and give yous fifty dollars," "Who'south buried in Grant's Tomb?" and "What color is the White Firm?" (asked to advantage a losing contestant a consolation prize).[12]

Throughout his career, Marx introduced a number of memorable songs in films, including "Hooray for Captain Spaulding" and "Hello, I Must Be Going", in Animal Crackers, "Whatever It Is, I'yard Against It", "Everyone Says I Dear You lot" and "Lydia the Tattooed Lady". Frank Sinatra, who one time quipped that the only thing he could exercise meliorate than Marx was sing, made a film with Marx and Jane Russell in 1951 entitled Double Dynamite.

Mustache, eyebrows, and walk [edit]

In public and off-camera, Harpo and Chico were hard to recognize without their wigs and costumes, and information technology was almost incommunicable for fans to recognize Groucho without his trademark eyeglasses, fake eyebrows, and mustache.

The blackface mustache and eyebrows originated spontaneously prior to a vaudeville operation in the early on 1920s when he did not have time to utilize the pasted-on mustache he had been using (or, according to his autobiography, simply did non enjoy the removal of the mustache considering of the effects of tearing an adhesive bandage off the same patch of peel every dark). After applying the blackface mustache, a quick glance in the mirror revealed his natural hair eyebrows were too undertoned and did not match the residuum of his face, so Marx added the blackface to his eyebrows and headed for the phase. The absurdity of the blackface was never discussed on-screen, only in a famous scene in Duck Soup, where both Chicolini (Chico) and Pinky (Harpo) disguise themselves every bit Groucho, they are briefly seen applying the greasepaint, implicitly answering whatever question a viewer might have had about where he got his mustache and eyebrows.

Marx was asked to utilize the greasepaint mustache over again for You Bet Your Life when it came to tv, but he refused, opting instead to grow a real ane, which he wore for the rest of his life. By this time, his eyesight had weakened enough for him to really need corrective lenses; earlier then, his eyeglasses had but been a phase prop. He debuted this new, and now much-older, appearance in Love Happy, the Marx Brothers's last motion picture as a comedy team.

Marx did pigment the quondam grapheme mustache over his existent one on a few rare occasions, including a TV sketch with Jackie Gleason on the latter's variety bear witness in the 1960s (in which they performed a variation on the song "Mister Gallagher and Mister Shean," co-written by Marx's uncle Al Shean) and the 1968 Otto Preminger motion-picture show Skidoo. In his belatedly 70s at the time, Marx remarked on his appearance: "I looked like I was embalmed." He played a mob boss called "God" and, according to Marx, "both my operation and the motion-picture show were God-atrocious!"

The exaggerated walk, with i hand on the modest of his back and his body bent almost ninety degrees at the waist, was a parody of a fad from the 1880s and 1890s.[ citation needed ] Fashionable young men of the upper classes would bear upon a walk with their right hand held fast to the base of their spines, and with a slight lean forward at the waist and a very slight twist toward the right with the left shoulder, allowing the left mitt to swing complimentary with the gait. Edmund Morris, in his biography The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, describes a young Roosevelt, newly elected to the Land Associates, walking into the Firm Sleeping room for the outset time in this trendy, affected gait, somewhat to the amusement of the older and more than rural members.[13] Marx exaggerated this fad to a marked degree, and the comedic result was enhanced by how out of engagement the mode was past the 1940s and 1950s.

Personal life [edit]

The Marx Brothers (clockwise from lesser: Groucho, Chico, and Harpo) by Yusuf Karsh, 1946

Marx's 3 marriages concluded in divorce. His first married woman was chorus daughter Ruth Johnson (m. 1920–1942). He was 29 and she was nineteen at the time of their hymeneals. The couple had two children, Arthur Marx and Miriam Marx. His second married woman was Kay Marvis (one thousand. 1945–1951), née Catherine Dittig,[14] former married woman of Leo Gorcey. Marx was 54 and Kay was 21 at the time of their marriage. They had a daughter, Melinda Marx. His 3rd married woman was extra Eden Hartford (m. 1954–1969). He was 64 and she was 24 at the time of their wedding.

During the early on 1950s, Marx described his perfect woman: "Someone who looks like Marilyn Monroe and talks like George Southward. Kaufman."[15]

Marx was denied membership in an informal symphonietta of friends (including Harpo) organized by Ben Hecht, considering he could play only the mandolin. When the group began its first rehearsal at Hecht'due south dwelling house, Marx rushed in and demanded silence from the "lousy amateurs". The musicians discovered him conducting the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra in a performance of the overture to Tannhäuser in Hecht's living room. Marx was allowed to join the symphonietta.[16]

Later in life, Marx would sometimes annotation to talk testify hosts, not entirely jokingly, that he was unable to actually insult anyone, because the target of his comment would assume that it was a Groucho-esque joke, and would express joy.

On the fix of You Bet Your Life with girl Melinda, 1953

Despite his lack of formal teaching, he wrote many books, including his autobiography, Groucho and Me (1959) and Memoirs of a Mangy Lover (1963). He was a friend of such literary figures equally Berth Tarkington, T. S. Eliot and Carl Sandburg. Much of his personal correspondence with those and other figures is featured in the book The Groucho Letters (1967) with an introduction and commentary on the letters written by Marx, who donated his letters to the Library of Congress.[17] His daughter Miriam published a collection of his messages to her in 1992 titled Love, Groucho.

In My Life with Groucho: A Son's Center View, Arthur Marx relates that in his latter years Groucho increasingly referred to himself by the proper name Hackenbush, referring to the character of that name he played in A Day at the Races (film).[18]

Marx fabricated serious efforts to learn to play the guitar. In the 1932 picture show Horse Feathers, he performs the pic'south love theme "Anybody Says I Beloved You" for costar Thelma Todd on a Gibson Fifty-5.[nineteen]

In July 1937, an America vs England pro-celebrity tennis doubles match was organized, featuring Marx and Ellsworth Vines playing against Charlie Chaplin and Fred Perry, to open up the new clubhouse at the Beverly Hills Tennis Club. Marx appeared on court with 12 rackets and a suitcase, leaving Chaplin – who took tennis seriously – bemused, before he asked what was in it. Marx asked Chaplin what was in his, with Chaplin responding he didn't have one. Marx replied, "What kind of tennis player are you?" Later on playing only a few games, Marx saturday on the court and unpacked an elaborate picnic dejeuner from his suitcase.[20]

Irving Berlin quipped, "The world would non exist in such a snarl, had Marx been Groucho instead of Karl".[21] In his book The Groucho Phile, Marx says "I've been a liberal Democrat all my life", and "I frankly find Democrats a better, more sympathetic crowd.... I'll continue to believe that Democrats have a greater regard for the common human than Republicans exercise".[22] However, just like some of the other Democrats of the time, Marx too said in a tv set interview that he disliked the women's liberation move. On the July 7, 1967, Firing Line Boob tube show, Marx said, "The Democratic Party is the Garden of Eden of incompetence, the whole political left."[23]

Later years [edit]

You lot Bet Your Life [edit]

Marx'due south radio career was not every bit successful every bit his piece of work on stage and in picture, though historians such as Gerald Nachman and Michael Barson propose that, in the case of the unmarried-season Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel (1932), the failure may have been a combination of a poor time slot and the Marx Brothers' returning to Hollywood to make another film.

In the mid-1940s, he weathered a depressing lull in his career. His radio show Blue Ribbon Boondocks had failed, he failed to sell his proposed sitcom The Flotsam Family unit merely to see it become a huge hitting every bit The Life of Riley with William Bendix in the title function. By that fourth dimension, the Marx Brothers every bit film performers had officially retired.

Marx was scheduled to announced on a radio show with Bob Hope. Bellyaching that he was fabricated to wait in the green room for 40 minutes, he went on the air in a foul mood. Promise started past maxim "Why, Groucho Marx! Groucho, what are you doing out hither in the desert?" Marx retorted, "Huh, desert, I've been sitting in the dressing room for forty minutes! Some desert alright ...". Marx connected to ignore the script, ad-libbing at length, and took it well beyond its allotted time slot.

Listening in on the show was producer John Guedel, who had a brainstorm. He approached Marx virtually doing a quiz show, to which Marx derisively retorted, "A quiz show? Only actors who are completely washed up resort to a quiz show!" Undeterred, Guedel proposed that the quiz would be only a properties for Marx's interviews of people, and the storm of ad-libbing that they would elicit. Marx replied, "Well, I've had no success in radio, and I tin can't hold on to a sponsor. At this bespeak, I'll try annihilation!"[ citation needed ]

Marx as host of You lot Bet Your Life, 1953

You Bet Your Life debuted in October 1947 on ABC radio (which aired it from 1947 to 1949), sponsored by costume jewelry manufacturer Allen Gellman;[24] and so on CBS (1949–fifty), and finally NBC. The prove was on radio only from 1947 to 1950; on both radio and telly from 1950 to 1960; and on television set simply, from 1960 to 1961. The evidence proved a huge striking, existence one of the virtually popular on television by the mid-1950s. With George Fenneman equally his announcer and directly man, Marx entertained his audiences with improvised conversation with his guests. Since You lot Bet Your Life was mostly ad-libbed and unscripted — although writers did pre-interview the guests and feed Marx prepare-made lines in advance — the producers insisted that the network prerecord it instead of it being circulate live. There were 3 reasons for this: prerecording provided Marx with time to fish around for funny exchanges, whatsoever intervening expressionless spots could be edited out; and most chiefly to protect the network, since Marx was a notorious loose cannon and known to say virtually annihilation. The television set show ran for 11 seasons until information technology was canceled in 1961. Car marque DeSoto was a longtime major sponsor. For the DeSoto ads, Marx would sometimes say: "Tell 'em Groucho sent you", or "Try a DeSoto before you make up one's mind". In 1975, episodes of the evidence were rebroadcast equally The Best of Groucho.[25]

The plan'due south theme music was an instrumental version of "Hooray for Captain Spaulding", which became increasingly identified as Marx's personal theme song. A recording of the song with Marx and the Ken Lane singers with an orchestra directed by Victor Young was released in 1952. Another recording made by Marx during this menstruum was "The Funniest Song in the World", released on the Young People's Records label in 1949. It was a series of five original children'due south songs with a connecting narrative nearly a monkey and his fellow zoo creatures.

One of Marx's most oftentimes-quoted remarks may have occurred during a 1947 radio episode. Marx was interviewing Charlotte Story, who had borne 20 children. When Marx asked why she had called to raise such a large family unit, Mrs. Story is said to accept replied, "I dear my husband"; to which Marx responded, "I love my cigar, but I take it out of my mouth once in a while." The remark was judged likewise risqué to be aired, according to the anecdote, and was edited out earlier circulate.[26] Charlotte Story and her husband Marion, indeed parents of 20 children, were real people who appeared on the plan.[27] Audio recordings of the interview exist,[28] and a reference to cigars is made ("With each new kid, do you go around passing out cigars?"), simply there is no evidence of the claimed remark. "I become credit all the time for things I never said," Marx told Roger Ebert in 1972. "Y'all know that line in You Bet Your Life? The guy says he has seventeen kids and I say, 'I smoke a cigar, but I take information technology out of my mouth occasionally'? I never said that."[29] Marx's 1976 memoir recounts the episode equally fact,[30] simply co-writer Hector Arce relied mostly on sources other than Marx himself—who was by then in his mid eighties, in ill health and mentally compromised—and was probably unaware that Marx had specifically denied making the observation.[31] However, caput writer Bernie Smith related that he kept notes on all the shows and that the remark was indeed fabricated.[32] Another anecdote that may or may not exist counterfeit recounts how Warner Brothers threatened to sue Groucho when they learned that the next Marx Brothers movie was to be called A Night in Casablanca, contending that that title was as well like to their own movie Casablanca. Groucho is reported to have replied: "I'll sue you lot for using the give-and-take 'Brothers'."[33]

Other piece of work [edit]

Past the fourth dimension You Bet Your Life debuted on TV on October v, 1950, Marx had grown a real mustache (which he had already sported earlier in the films Copacabana and Love Happy).

During a tour of Germany in 1958, accompanied by then-wife Eden, daughter Melinda, Robert Dwan and Dwan's girl Judith, he climbed a pile of rubble that marked the site of Adolf Hitler's bunker, the site of Hitler'due south decease, and performed a two-infinitesimal Charleston.[34] He later remarked to Richard J. Anobile in The Marx Brothers Scrapbook, "Not much satisfaction afterwards he killed 6 million Jews!"

In 1960, Marx, a lifelong devotee of the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, appeared as Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner, in a televised product of The Mikado on NBC's Bell Telephone Hr. A clip of this is in rotation on Classic Arts Showcase.

Another Television receiver show, Tell It to Groucho, premiered Jan 11, 1962, on CBS, merely only lasted five months. On Oct 1, 1962, Marx, afterwards acting every bit occasional guest host of The This evening Show during the six-calendar month interval betwixt Jack Paar and Johnny Carson, introduced Carson equally the new host.

In 1964, Marx starred in the "Fourth dimension for Elizabeth" episode of Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, a truncated version of a play that he and Norman Krasna wrote in 1948.

In 1965, Marx starred in a weekly evidence for British Idiot box titled Groucho, broadcast on ITV. The program was along similar lines to You Bet Your Life, with Keith Fordyce taking on the Fenneman role. However, it was poorly received and lasted merely 11 weeks.

Marx appeared every bit a gangster named God in the comedy picture show Skidoo (1968), directed by Otto Preminger, and starring Jackie Gleason and Ballad Channing. Information technology was released past the studio where the Marx Brothers began their film career, Paramount Pictures. The picture received almost universally negative reviews. Writer Paul Krassner published a story in the February 1981 issue of High Times, relating how Marx prepared for the LSD-themed motion picture past taking a dose of the drug in Krassner'southward visitor, and had a moving, largely pleasant experience.[ citation needed ]

Marx adult friendships with rock star Alice Cooper—the ii were photographed together for Rolling Stone mag—and television host Dick Cavett, becoming a frequent guest on Cavett's late-night talk show, even appearing in a one-human being, 90-infinitesimal interview.[5] He befriended Elton John when the British singer was staying in California in 1972, insisting on calling him "John Elton". According to writer Philip Norman, when Marx jokingly pointed his index fingers as if holding a pair of six-shooters, Elton John put up his hands and said, "Don't shoot me, I'm only the piano player," thereby naming the album he had just completed. A picture show poster for the Marx Bros. movie Go West is visible on the album cover photograph as an homage to Marx. Elton John accompanied Marx to a performance of Jesus Christ Superstar. Equally the lights went down, Marx called out, "Does it have a happy catastrophe?" And during the Crucifixion scene, he alleged, "This is certain to offend the Jews."[ citation needed ]

Marx's previous piece of work regained popularity; new books of transcribed conversations were published by Richard J. Anobile and Charlotte Chandler. In a BBC interview in 1975, Marx called his greatest achievement having a book selected for cultural preservation in the Library of Congress. In a Cavett interview in 1971,[35] Marx said existence published in The New Yorker nether his ain proper name,[36] Julius Henry Marx, meant more than all the plays he appeared in.[5] As a man who never had formal schooling, to have his writings declared culturally of import was a bespeak of bang-up satisfaction.

As he passed his 81st altogether in 1971, Marx became increasingly frail, physically and mentally, as a event of a succession of minor strokes and other wellness issues.[37] [38] In 1972, largely at the behest of his companion Erin Fleming, Marx staged a alive one-man prove at Carnegie Hall that was later released as a double album, An Evening with Groucho, on A&One thousand Records. He also fabricated an appearance in 1973 on a curt-lived variety show hosted by Pecker Cosby. Fleming's influence on Marx was controversial. Some shut to Marx believed that she did much to revive his popularity, and the human relationship with a younger woman boosted his ego and vitality.[39] Others described her as a Svengali, exploiting an increasingly senile Marx in pursuit of her own distinction. Marx'south children, specially Arthur, felt strongly that Fleming was pushing their weak begetter beyond his physical and mental limits.[38] Writer Mark Evanier concurred.[forty]

On the 1974 Academy Awards telecast, Marx'due south last major public appearance, Jack Lemmon presented him with an honorary Academy Award to a continuing ovation. The laurels honored Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo as well: "in recognition of his brilliant inventiveness and for the incomparable achievements of the Marx Brothers in the art of movement picture comedy". Noticeably frail, Marx took a bow for his deceased brothers. "I wish that Harpo and Chico could exist here to share with me this great honor," he said, naming his two deceased brothers (Zeppo, still live, was in the audience). He also praised the tardily Margaret Dumont as a smashing straight woman who never understood any of his jokes.[5] [41] Marx's final advent was a cursory sketch with George Burns in the Bob Hope television special Joys (a parody of the 1975 movie Jaws) in March 1976.[42] His health continued to pass up the post-obit yr; when his younger brother Gummo died at historic period 83 on April 21, 1977, Marx was never told for fear of eliciting notwithstanding further deterioration of his health.[43]

Marx maintained his irrepressible sense of sense of humor to the very stop, nevertheless. George Fenneman, his radio and TV journalist, good-natured foil, and lifelong friend, oftentimes related a story of i of his terminal visits to Marx's home: When the time came to cease the visit, Fenneman lifted Marx from his wheelchair, put his arms around his torso, and began to "walk" the fragile comedian backwards beyond the room towards his bed. As he did, he heard a weak vox in his ear: "Fenneman," whispered Marx, "you always were a lousy dancer."[44] When a nurse approached him with a thermometer during his terminal hospitalization, explaining that she wanted to run into if he had a temperature, he responded, "Don't be silly—everybody has a temperature."[39] Actor Elliott Gould recalled a similar incident: "I recall the last time I saw Groucho, he was in the hospital, and he had tubes in his nose and what have you," he said. "And when he saw me, he was weak, but he was in that location; and he put his fingers on the tubes and played them like it was a clarinet. Groucho played the tubes for me, which brings me to tears."[45]

Death [edit]

Niche at Eden Memorial Park

Marx was hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre with pneumonia on June 22, 1977, and died at that place nearly ii months later at the age of 86[46] on August xix, four months after Gummo's death.[ane] Media coverage of Groucho's death and legacy was somewhat overshadowed by the sudden death of Elvis Presley three days previously.

His body was cremated and the ashes are interred in the Eden Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. He was survived by his three children Groucho Marx Jr and younger brother Zeppo, who outlived him by ii years. His gravestone bears no epitaph, but in one of his last interviews he suggested one: "Alibi me, I can't stand up."[47]

Litigation over his estate lasted into the 1980s. Eventually, Arthur Marx and his sisters were awarded the majority of the estate, and Erin Fleming was ordered to repay $472,000.[48]

Legacy [edit]

Groucho Marx was considered the about recognizable of the Marx Brothers. Groucho-like characters and references have appeared in popular culture both during and subsequently his life, some aimed at audiences who may never have seen a Marx Brothers movie. Marx'southward trademark eyeglasses, nose, mustache, and cigar have go icons of one-act—glasses with faux noses and mustaches (referred to as "Groucho glasses", "nose-glasses," and other names) are sold by novelty and costume shops around the world.

The cover of The Firesign Theatre's 1969 album, How Can You Exist in Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All, subtitled All Hail Marx and Lennon, features images of Groucho Marx and John Lennon.

Nat Perrin, close friend of Groucho Marx and author of several Marx Brothers films, inspired John Astin's portrayal of Gomez Addams on the 1960s Tv serial The Addams Family with similarly thick mustache, eyebrows, sardonic remarks, backward logic, and ever-nowadays cigar (pulled from his chest pocket already lit).[50]

Minnie's Boys, a 1970 Broadway musical, focused on the younger years of Marx (played by Lewis J. Stadlen), his brothers, and his mother (played past Shelley Winters). Marx received credit as the show's advisor and appeared on The Dick Cavett Evidence to promote the product.[51] [52]

As Groucho Marx one time said, 'Anyone tin get erstwhile—all you have to practise is to live long enough'.

 —Queen Elizabeth II speaking at her 80th birthday celebration in 2006.[53]

In 1972, at Cannes, Marx was made a Commander in the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, an honor he was very proud of.[54] In a TV episode of MASH titled: "Yaknkee Putter Doctor" Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda) portrays Marx in a parody movie along with Trapper John (Wayne Rogers) portraying Harpo Marx.

A coming together with Elton John led to a press photo of Marx pointing both of his index fingers and thumbs at Elton similar revolvers. John's spontaneous response of holding up his easily and replying, "Don't shoot me! I'm only the pianoforte role player!" was so amusing that Elton John reused information technology as the title of a 1973 album. An added Marx homage was that a poster for the Marx Brothers' motion-picture show Go West was included on the encompass fine art.[55]

Newspaper ad for Fauna Crackers (1930) with Lillian Roth paragraph.

Marx was also known to influence the Warner Bros. cartoon character Bugs Bunny, who would recite his famous line "Of course you lot realize this ways war!" in two of his cartoons in the Looney Tunes serial, Long Haired Hare and Bully for Bugs, when his adversary has offended him.

Two albums by British rock band Queen, A Night at the Opera (1975) and A Day at the Races (1976), are named after Marx Brothers films. In March 1977, Marx invited Queen to visit him in his Los Angeles domicile; there they performed "'39" a cappella.[56]

A long-running advertizing campaign for Vlasic Pickles features an animated stork that imitates Marx's mannerisms and vocalisation.[57] On the famous Hollywood Sign in California, i of the "O"due south is dedicated to Marx. Alice Cooper contributed over $27,000 to remodel the sign, in retentivity of his friend.[58]

Thespian Frank Ferrante has performed as Groucho Marx on stage since 1986. He continues to tour under rights granted by the Marx family in a evidence entitled An Evening with Groucho in theaters throughout the U.s.a. and Canada with supporting actors and piano accompanist Jim Furmston. In the late 1980s, Ferrante starred as Marx in the off-Broadway and London testify Groucho: A Life in Revue penned by Marx'due south son Arthur. Ferrante portrayed the comedian from age 15 to 85. The show was afterward filmed for PBS in 2001. In 1982, Gabe Kaplan filmed a version of the aforementioned show, entitled Groucho.[59]

In the Hungarian dubbed version of Woody Allen'south film Annie Hall, a famous quotation told by Alvy Singer (Allen) at the starting time of the picture is not attributed to Groucho Marx as in the original, simply to Buster Keaton. The reason was that in communist Republic of hungary, the name 'Marx' was associated with Karl Marx and it was not immune to use it in such a lite, humorous context.[60]

Woody Allen's 1996 musical Anybody Says I Love You lot, in addition to existence named for one of Marx's signature songs, ends with a Groucho-themed New year's day's Eve party in Paris, which some of the stars, including Allen and Goldie Hawn, attend in total Groucho costume. The highlight of the scene is an ensemble song-and-dance functioning of "Hooray for Captain Spaulding"—done entirely in French.

In 2008, Minnie'south Boys was remounted Off-Broadway with Erik Liberman as Groucho and Pamela Myers as Minnie Marx.[61] Liberman after played Marx in a musical based on Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel called The Nigh Ridiculous Thing Yous E'er Hoid (2010) and at the Obama White Business firm.[62] [63]

Groucho, a supporting graphic symbol in the Italian horror comics series Dylan Dog, is a Groucho Marx impersonator whose grapheme became his permanent personality, and he works with Dylan Dog equally his professional person sidekick. In the English language-language version, to avert legal complications regarding Groucho Marx's estate, the fine art was altered so that Groucho no longer sports the Marx brother'south signature moustache, and was renamed Felix.[64]

Filmography [edit]

Features [edit]

Brusque subjects [edit]

  • Hollywood on Parade No. eleven (1933)
  • Screen Snapshots Series xvi, No. 3 (1936)
  • Sunday Night at the Trocadero (1937)
  • Screen Snapshots: The Great Al Jolson (1955)
  • Showdown at Ulcer Gulch (1956) (voice)
  • Screen Snapshots: Playtime in Hollywood (1956)

Bibliography [edit]

Books by Groucho Marx [edit]

  • Beds (Farrar & Rinehart, 1930)
  • Beds: revised & updated edition (Bobbs-Merrill, 1976 ISBN 0-672-52224-i)
  • Many Happy Returns: An Unofficial Guide to Your Income-Tax Bug Illustrated by Otto Soglow (Simon & Schuster, 1942)
  • Groucho and Me (B. Geis Associates, 1959)
  • Memoirs of a Mangy Lover (B. Geis Associates, 1963)
  • The Groucho Messages: Letters From and To Groucho Marx (Simon & Schuster, 1967, ISBN 0-306-80607-Ten)
  • The Marx Bros, Scrapbook with Richard Anobile (Darien Firm/Due west W Norton, 1973, ISBN 0-393-08371-3)
  • The Clandestine Give-and-take Is Groucho with Hector Arce (Putnam, 1976)
  • The Groucho Phile: An Illustrated Life past Groucho Marx with Hector Arce (Galahad, 1976, ISBN 0-88365-433-4)

Essays and reporting [edit]

  • Marx, Julius H. (April 4, 1925). "Boston over again". New York, Etc. The New Yorker. Vol. 1, no. 7. p. 25.
  • — (April 11, 1925). "Vaudeville talk". New York, Etc. The New Yorker. Vol. 1, no. viii. p. 25.

References [edit]

  1. ^ a b c "Groucho Marx, Comedian, Expressionless. Movie Star and Boob tube Host Was 86. Primary of the Insult. Groucho Marx, Film Comedian and Host of 'Y'all Bet Your Life,' Dies". The New York Times. August xx, 2007. p. one.
  2. ^ Billboard Magazine May 4, 1974 pg 35: "Groucho Marx was the all-time comedian this land e'er produced – Woody Allen"
  3. ^ Giddins, Gary (2001). The New York Times Book Reviews 2000, volume one. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. ISBNane-57958-058-0. "The most indelible masks of the 20th century—likely to take their place aslope Comedy and Tragedy or Pulcinella and Pierrot"
  4. ^ The WWI draft registration of 1917 as Julius Henry Marx in Chicago, Illinois uses October ii, 1890. The 1900 census has him born in Oct of 1890.
  5. ^ a b c d "The Dick Cavett Bear witness - six/thirteen/1969". Dickcavettshow.com . Retrieved 21 September 2018.
  6. ^ Gary Baum (June 23, 2011). "Fifty.A.'south Power Golf game Clubs: Where the Hollywood Elite Play". The Hollywood Reporter.
  7. ^ Bland, Frank. "The Marx Brothers Family". Retrieved xv May 2012.
  8. ^ Bader, Robert S. (2016). Four of the Three Musketeers: The Marx Brothers on Phase. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. p. 31. ISBN9780810134164.
  9. ^ a b c d eastward DesRochers, Rick (2014). The New Sense of humor in the Progressive Era. New York, New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 83, 84, 85. ISBN978-1-137-35742-vii.
  10. ^ a b c d "Groucho Marx Biography". Groucho-marx.com. Archived from the original on 2012-01-xix. Retrieved 2008-06-25 .
  11. ^ Boller, Paul F.; Davis, Ronald L. (1988). Hollywood Anecdotes (reprint ed.). Ballantine Books. p. 220. ISBN0-345-35654-3.
  12. ^ Kanfer, Stefan (2000). The Essential Groucho: Writings by, for and about Groucho Marx. New York: Random House. p. 209. ISBN037570213X.
  13. ^ Morris, Edmund (2001). The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (Mod Library Paperback ed.). New York: Modern Library. pp. 143–144. ISBN0-375-75678-7 . Retrieved 9 Baronial 2016.
  14. ^ Boxoffice, 3 June 1939, p. 89.
  15. ^ Life With Groucho . Arthur Marx. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1954. p. 294.
  16. ^ Friedrich, Otto (1997). City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940s (reprint ed.). Berkeley and Los Angeles: Academy of California Press. p. 43. ISBN0520209494.
  17. ^ "Groucho Marx papers, 1930-1967". Library of Congress Online Catalog . Retrieved June eighteen, 2017.
  18. ^ Marx, Arthur (June 1991). My Life with Groucho: A Son's Eye View. Robson Book Ltd. ISBN 978-0-86051-494-7.
  19. ^ Jerry McCulley, The Surprisingly Serious Tale of Comedian Groucho Marx and His Lifelong Quest to Master Guitar.
  20. ^ "The Marx brothers on moving picture: souped-up comedy". Financial Times . Retrieved March 21, 2019.
  21. ^ Irving Berlin, Robert Kimball, Linda Ant. The Complete Lyrics of Irving Berlin, p. 489. Hal Leonard Corporation, 2005. ISBN 1-55783-681-7
  22. ^ Marx, Groucho. The Groucho Phile, p. 238. Wallaby, 1977.
  23. ^ "Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr.: Is the Earth Funny?". YouTube.
  24. ^ Charlotte Chandler. Hello, I must be going: Groucho and his friends. Doubleday, 1978, p 190
  25. ^ Kleiner, Dick (August 23, 1975). "Groucho'southward direct human back". The Anniston Star. Anniston, Alabama. Retrieved September 1, 2021.
  26. ^ Dwan, R. As Long As They're Laughing : Groucho Marx and You Bet Your Life. Baltimore, Midnight Marquee, 2000, p. 129. ISBN 188766436X
  27. ^ Kanfer, S. Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx. New York, Vintage, May 2001, p. 136. ISBN 0375702075
  28. ^ "The Surreptitious Words". Snopes.com . Retrieved 13 Apr 2015.
  29. ^ Ebert, R. A Living Legend, Rated R. Esquire, July 1972, p. 143. Retrieved 4 October 2013.
  30. ^ Marx, G. and Arce, H. The Secret Word is Groucho. New York, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1976, pp. 33–4. ISBN 0399116907.
  31. ^ Kaltenbach, C. Also twenty Years Dead: Groucho. Baltimore Sun, 19 August 1997, p. E-1.
  32. ^ Stoliar, S. Raised Eyebrows: My Years Within Groucho's Business firm. New York, BearManor Media, October 2011, pp. 124–five. ISBN 1593936524
  33. ^ Clifton Fadiman (ed), Little Dark-brown Book of Anecdotes, Boston 1985, p. 387
  34. ^ Hallett, Judith Dwan. "What'southward And then Funny & Why?". Sarah Lawrence Higher. Retrieved 2007-07-29 .
  35. ^ "The Dick Cavett Evidence - 5/25/1971". Dickcavettshow.com . Retrieved 21 September 2018.
  36. ^ "Groucho Marx - Contributors". newyorker.com . Retrieved 22 November 2016.
  37. ^ Point of View Archived 2006-x-21 at the Wayback Automobile, Mark Evanier, 1999-06-04, retrieved, 2007-08-09.
  38. ^ a b Point of View Archived 2012-07-17 at the Wayback Machine, Mark Evanier, 1999-06-11, retrieved, 2007-08-09.
  39. ^ a b "They Dressed like Groucho" NY Times Opinionator (April 20, 20120 Retrieved v/i/2012.
  40. ^ Erin Fleming, R.I.P., Mark Evanier, vii March 2004
  41. ^ "Groucho Marx receiving an Honorary Oscar®". Oscars.org. 2009-eleven-24. Archived from the original on 2021-10-thirty. Retrieved 2013-09-25 .
  42. ^ "Bob Hope Special: Bob Hope in Joys". Hope Enterprises. 1976-03-05. Archived from the original on 2017-02-10. Retrieved 2016-11-10 .
  43. ^ "Gummo Marx, Managed Comedians". The New York Times. Palm Springs, California, April 21, 2007 (Reuters) Gummo Marks, an original member of the Marx brothers' comedy team, died here today. He was 84 years former.
  44. ^ "George Fenneman, Sidekick To Groucho Marx, Dies at 77" The New York Times (June 5, 1997). Retrieved 2010-06-21.
  45. ^ Famed Role player Elliott Gould Recalls Groucho Marx's Final Days (July 10, 2013). Compassion & Choices Magazine archive Archived 2014-01-06 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved January 5, 2014.
  46. ^ "Groucho Marx Dies at 86 After Two-Calendar month Illness". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. twenty Baronial 1977. Officials at Cedar-Sinai Medical Heart, where Marx had been hospitalized for the past ii months with a respiratory ailment, said he died at 7:25 p.m. PDT of pneumonia
  47. ^ Groucho the Cracking. legacy.com. Retrieved April 20, 2015.
  48. ^ Los Angeles Times, April 15, 2011, Obituary of Arthur Marx, "In his father's failing years, Marx became a central figure behind a successful legal boxing to wrest dorsum command of Groucho'due south affairs from his late-in-life companion, Erin Fleming."
  49. ^ Philatelists Just Wanna Have Fun, The New York Times, 1995-04-28.
  50. ^ "The return of Gomez Addams". Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  51. ^ "Minnie's Boys". Internet Broadway Database . Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  52. ^ Jones, J. R. (22 September 2014). "The Marx Brothers TV Collection follows the legendary comedy team into the 1950s, '60s, and '70s". Chicago Reader . Retrieved 2020-10-21 .
  53. ^ "Groucho marks Queen's 80th". SBS. Retrieved June 27, 2017
  54. ^ "Attempted Bloggery: Groucho's French Order of Arts and Letters". Attemptedbloggery.blogspot.com. 11 March 2014. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
  55. ^ Buckley, David (2007). Elton The Biography. Chicago Review Press. ISBN978-1556527135.
  56. ^ Queen: The Ultimate Illustrated History of the Crown Kings of Stone. p.96. Voyageur Printing, 2009
  57. ^ Stuart Elliott, Pink or Blue? These Bundles of Joy Are Always Green, The New York Times, 2007-05-30.
  58. ^ "A Sign is Reborn: 1978". The Hollywood Sign. 2017-06-29. Retrieved 2020-06-03 .
  59. ^ Erickson, Hal (2013). "Gabe Kaplan As Groucho". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 21 May 2013. Retrieved eleven July 2012.
  60. ^ "Már 40 éve nem szeretnénk olyan klubhoz tartozni, amelyik elfogadna tagnak". hvg.hu. 20 April 2017. Retrieved xviii December 2019.
  61. ^ Gans, Andrew (May 16, 2008). "Liberman Volition Join Myers in Mufti Minnie'southward Boys". Playbill . Retrieved 2020-10-21 .
  62. ^ "Erik Liberman To Star As Groucho In IN MOST RIDICULOUS Thing YOU Ever HOID ix/31". Broadway World . Retrieved 2020-10-21 .
  63. ^ Markowitz, Joel (2012-04-02). "Erik Liberman on Playing The Baker in Centerstage'south 'Into the Wood' by Joel Markowitz". DC Metro Theater Arts . Retrieved 2020-10-21 .
  64. ^ "Groucho (character)". Comic Vine. twenty July 2020. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  65. ^ "Groucho Marx on Television Part Two - The Sixties and Seventies". TVparty.com . Retrieved June 18, 2017.

Farther reading [edit]

  • Miriam Marx Allen, Love, Groucho: Messages From Groucho Marx to His Daughter Miriam (1992, ISBN 0-571-12915-3)
  • Charlotte Chandler, How-do-you-do, I Must Exist Going! (1979, ISBN 0-xiv-005222-four)
  • Stefan Kanfer, Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx (2000, ISBN 0-375-70207-5)
  • Simon Louvish, Monkey Business: The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers (2001, ISBN 0-312-25292-7)
  • Arthur Marx, Life With Groucho (1954, revised as My Life with Groucho: A Son's Heart View 1988, ISBN 0-330-31132-8))
  • Arthur Marx, Son of Groucho (1972, ISBN 0-679-50355-two)
  • Harpo Marx, Harpo Speaks (1961, revised as Harpo Speaks! 1985, ISBN 0-87910-036-ii)
  • Glenn Mitchell, The Marx Brothers Encyclopedia (1996, ISBN 0-7134-7838-1)
  • Steve Stoliar, Raised Eyebrows: My Years Within Groucho'due south Firm (1996, ISBN 1-881649-73-3)
  • Julius H. (Groucho) Marx v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 29 T.C. 88 (1957)

External links [edit]

whittenroques.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx

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