American comedian, actor and radio personality, a writer and playwright, the winner of radio’s Peabody Award, 1948 and TV Emmy Award for his game show “You Bet Your Life.” Master of the tongue-in-cheek irreverent sidecrack, Marx was the author of “Beds,” 1930, “Many Happy Returns, An Unofficial Guide to Your Income Tax Problems,” 1942, “Groucho and Me,” 1959 and “Memoirs of a Mangy Lover,” 1963.
Groucho was the third of five sons born to Samuel and Minna Palmer Schoenberg Marx. Sam Marx, a tailor, also known as “Misfit Sam,” was as unsuccessful at his trade as his nickname implied and likewise in providing a steady income for his family. Mother “Minnie” had a brother who had lucrative career in vaudeville, as well as her son Groucho with an excellent voice. Reasoning from the example of her brother that show business offered steady work, she encouraged her son to answer an ad for $4 a week as a male singer in a vaudeville act. Thrilled with his first job in show biz, he was hired by Robin Larong, who employed him as a member of the vaudeville act “The Larong Trio.” After performing in Cripple Creek, Colorado for a two week engagement, Larong and the third member of the Trio disappeared with Groucho’s pay, leaving the adolescent alone and destitute. Minnie had to wire train fare back to New York.
Determined to put her sons on the stage, Minnie, after much trial and error, organized a singing group called “The Four Nightingales,” composed of her four sons, nicknamed Chico, Harpo, Zeppo and Groucho. Lax musical training coupled with the transient nature of the teenage male voice resulted in a loosely structured musical comedy act. Touring from Texas to Broadway with an act entitled “Fun In Hi Skule,” they parodied the classroom antics of secondary education. Additional acts such as “On The Mezzanine” and “Home Again” won applause from Chicago to London. By 1924, vaudeville was on the wane and the Four Nightingales had developed their talents beyond the confines of their art. A producer admired their work and decided to build a musical around them with leftover scenery in his theater. With Groucho collaborating with playwright Will Johnstone, a show entitled “I’ll Say She Is” opened on 5/19/1924 at the Casino Theater in New York to enthusiastic audiences. Broadway critic Alexander Woolcott wrote a rave review. With comedic talent that defied expression, Woolcott asked his readers to take the show’s hilarity on faith from “one who, at the conclusion, had to be picked up out of the aisle and placed gently back in his seat.”
“I’ll Say She Is” was followed by “The Cocoanuts,” a satire on the Florida land boom, opening on 12/08/1925 at the Lyric Theater in New York. “Animal Crackers,” their third straight Broadway hit, opened on 10/23/1928, with Groucho creating his famous character Captain Spaulding. With the arrival of sound pictures these plays were made into films on Long Island’s Paramount Studio while the Marx Brothers were simultaneously appearing on Broadway.
Weary of the daily grind of Broadway, Groucho moved to Hollywood in 1931 to continue his screen career including “Monkey Business,”1931, “Horsefeathers,” 1932, “A Night At the Opera,” “A Day At The Races,” 1937, “Room Service,” 1938 “A Night In Casablanca,” 1948 and “Love Happy,” 1949. Among Groucho’s many contributions to film comedy were his rapier wit, illogical chain of deductive reasoning and the visual pun. His standard persona of eyes rolled upward under wiggled brows with painted mustache and poised cigar created an classic comic insouciance. In addition to his comedy films he appeared alone in later films including “Copacabaña,” 1947, “Double Dynamnite,”1951, “A Girl In Every Port,” 1952 and “The Story of Mankind,” 1957.
In 1934 Groucho ventured into radio with his brother Chico on a show called “Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel.” After the show lost its sponsor, Groucho appeared as a guest on many other entertainers’ radio shows, securing his own spot in 1947 with the premiere radio broadcast of his signature show “You Bet your Life.” In 1950 it was transferred to television where it remained for 11 years. The program’s unique format showcasing Groucho’s unparalleled humor won a Peabody Award for radio and an Emmy for TV. Success in television continued with the series “Tell It To Groucho” in 1962.”
After a decade of semi-retirement, Marx began appearing in one-night solo concert performances. The show, a pastiche of jokes, stories and song classics such as “Lydia the Tattooed Lady” was joyously received nationwide, culminating in a sold-out performance in New York’s Carnegie Hall entitled “An Evening with Groucho” in 1972. Groucho’s outstanding comeback created a sensation that revived an international interest in his films, and the Cannes Film Festival made him a Commander of the French Order of Arts and Letters in May, 1972.
By the time that Groucho broke up with his brothers, his wit continued but not his humor; he became a crabby miser, shamefully manipulative of his wives and kids.
Marx made three marriages, the first to Ruth Johnson from 2/04/1920 to 7/15/1942. His second wife was Catherine Mavis Gorcey from 7/21/1945 to 5/15/1951 and the third was Eden Hartford from 7/17/1954 to 12/03/1969. He had three children, Arthur and Miriam from his first marriage and Melinda from his second. His last live-in-caretaker was 30-year-old Erin Fleming when he was 80. Toward the end of his life he had dreadful battles over his property in a sad diminishing of capacity.
Groucho Marx died of pneumonia on 8/19/1977 at 7:25 PM in Los Angeles, CA.
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