Groucho Marx: actor, author, comedian
The king of today’s standup comedy was undoubtedly Groucho Marx. Groucho got his start performing with his brothers in the seediest of vaudeville circuits. Initially, The Marx Brothers weren’t even comedians. They tried singing for a bit, because Groucho (and his brothers) loved to sing (Groucho was fond of saying "Never trust a man who can't sing harmony"). At least three of the brothers had musical talent (Groucho was a competent amateur guitarist, Harpo was obviously a harpist, and Chico was a funny amateur pianist who made music a big part of his “shtick”). After many runs of seedy vaudeville houses as singers, The Four Marx Brothers (then a singing and variety group) were in Nagadoches, TX, in a seedy vaudeville house (around 1915). During their performance, a bull ran into the theatre (anything’s possible in Texas, I guess), and it sent the audience scurrying out of the theater. This incident prompted Groucho to say Nagadoches is full of roaches” (it was his first public joke as a professional entertainer. Cut him a break!). And he got laughs. They all started in on Texas as part of the act, and realized that their true calling was as a comedy team. Their first play was a schoolhouse romp (had songs in it too, I believe) called “Fun In Hi Skule”. (Groucho reprised that type of character in Horsefeathers.). It was a moderate success. It led to their next play “I’ll Say She Is” written by the Brothers’ uncle Al Shean (of the famous vaudeville team Gallagher & Shean). They debuted with I’ll Say She Is in 1918, and it was a smash. Around this time, before they got to Broadway, they started to tour in vaudeville's Keith circuit-a much higher class of vaudeville theaters, with better pay.Of course the Marx Brothers first achieved international fame through their films. In 1929, two years after talkies had begun, the Marx Brothers adapted “The Cocoanuts“-one of their long-running Broadway plays, to a feature film. The stage play, and subsequently the screen play, were written by Irving Berlin (wrote the music and songs) and George S. Kaufman.
The most amazing thing about Groucho is that despite being a star of stage, and screen, he managed to be much funnier in his own words than he ever was when saying the words of (other) great comedians and playwrights. For about seventeen years Groucho was the host of a game show called You Bet Your Life. You Bet Your Life was on radio, and then later on television. Earlier in his life, he had proven himself to be a great humorist and ad-libber. He was no slouch with the written word either. Groucho wrote books such as Beds and Memoirs of a Mangy Lover. A book of his correspondence-The Groucho Letters was published. Several of the letters in The Groucho Letters are now in the Library Of Congress.
In addition to being a great extemporaneous comedian, Groucho had another wonderful side to him. He worked “clean”. Groucho did ,of course,use innuendo to great effect, but he never had to say anything outwardly “dirty” to get a laugh. For example, on his television show, Groucho once had a female contestant on who was a mother and an aspiring actress. Groucho asked her if she could balance being both an actress and a mother. The actress replied that “if you have your feet on the ground you can be both an actress and a mother”. Groucho’s ad-lib at that moment was “if you keep your feet on the ground, you’ll never be a mother”. That was considered far too racy for television in 1955. Groucho, later in life did television talk show appearances and some concerts, including one at Carnegie Hall in 1972, which was recorded and released by A&M Records in 1973. Groucho Marx died in August 1977 (only a few days after Elvis passed away...I guess that’s what must have been what killed him.)). Groucho was 86, and left behind a tremendous legacy for many comedians and writers. Woody Allen was one of many who were directly influenced by the great funny man, Groucho.
The musical snippet heard here is from the song Hooray for Captain Spalding from the Marx Brothers' film Animal Crackers. Groucho used an adaptation of it (arranged/co-composed by Jack Meakin, Groucho's longtime musical director) as his theme song on his television and radio shows after the Marx Brothers ceased making films. At Groucho's concert at Carnegie Hall in 1972, Marvin Hamlisch served as Groucho's accompanist. Marvin arranged and performed (solo at the piano) a beautiful medley of Marx Brothers' music for Groucho's concert. In an attempt to combine some of my favorite musical and comedic influences, I've inserted a bit of Mozart into this arrangement of Hooray for Captain Spalding. Can you spot it? Let me know!
This is one of the last pictures of Groucho, taken only a few weeks before his death in 1977