Groucho Marx

Comedian and actor

• Born: October 2, 1890
• Birthplace: New York, New York
• Died: August 19, 1977
• Place of death: Los Angeles, California

Marx, the most recognizable of the Marx Brothers team, started his career in vaudeville. His first talkie film, The Cocoanuts (1929), solidified his comedic persona as a fast-talking, wisecracking flimflam man.

Early Life

Groucho Marx was born on October 2, 1890, into a multiethnic enclave in the upper East Side of Manhattan. The eldest son in the family died at the age of three; Marx’s two other older brothers, Leonard and Adolph, eventually took the stage names Chico and Harpo; his younger brothers, Milton and Herbert, took the names Gummo and Zeppo. Marx’s mother, Minnie, had a brother in vaudeville who was a star, and she wanted her children to follow in his footsteps. While Chico took piano and Harpo the harp, Groucho was given singing lessons. He was forced to leave school at age twelve to help support his family. He became a voracious reader to compensate for his missing education.

The family moved to La Grange, Illinois, to break into the Midwest vaudeville circuit. While Chico used an Italian accent in the act, Groucho started out with a German accent until World War I, when it became advisable to drop the accent. The Marx Brothers returned to New York as stars for sixty consecutive weeks at the Palace Theatre. They combined comedy and music in such plays as The Cinderella Girl (1918) and I’ll Say She Is (1923). Their play The Cocoanuts(1925), which was a hit on Broadway, helped Marx transition from stage to film.

Life’s Work

The first Marx Brothers film was Humor Risk (1921), which was silent. It was a bust and has since disappeared. While Groucho Marx and his brothers continued to star on Broadway with the playAnimal Crackers (1928), they also began work on their first film, The Cocoanuts, based on their stage play.

The Cocoanuts came out in 1929. Marx played Mr. Hammer, a hotel owner trying to take advantage of the land boom in Florida during the 1920’s. In addition to his brothers (Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo), the film introduces Margaret Dumont as Mrs. Potter. The classic Marx image of thick mustache and bushy eyebrows (both grease-painted), glasses, cigar, tailcoat, and leering look made cinematic history. Marx’s quick and sarcastic banter started the film as he confronted disgruntled employees and continued on with Chico and Mrs. Potter. The film was filled with classic lines such as Groucho stating, “Here’s a viaduct leading over the mainland,” to which Chico replied, “All right. Why a duck?” The conversation deteriorated from there. The film was a social critique of the land boom that fostered great wealth in the 1920’s and ended in the stock market crash of 1929. Although the film was a success, Marx lost a great amount of money in the crash. He was the money keeper for the family, which is how he got his nickname Groucho. The money handler for an acting troupe was in charge of the “grouch” bag, thus Marx adopted the name Groucho. He always felt a sense of responsibility for the loss of family funds in 1929, and money was a bogeyman for him for the rest of his life.

Marx’s next film was based on another of their stage plays, Animal Crackers (1930). The story poked fun at the social elite who were, in the eyes of many, responsible for the crash. Mrs. Rittenhouse (Dumont) threw a party for the returning explorer Captain Spaulding (Marx). The film introduced the song “Hooray for Captain Spaulding,” which became Marx’s theme song in the 1950’s. The plot of an art theft became secondary to Marx’s one-liners, such as, “Well, you’re one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen and that’s not saying much for you,” or, “One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don’t know.” Interspersed among the one-liners and music were references to contemporary literature, the stock market, and other relevant events. Marx also did something unusual for film at the time, when the actors around him froze so he could come toward the camera to speak to the audience. This approach was picked up by Mel Brooks and Woody Allen in their films. Marx and his brothers were also getting a reputation for unpredictability on the set, where many of their best lines were ad-libbed, throwing off their fellow actors and frustrating directors.

The brothers’ next film was Monkey Business, which dealt with gangsters and stowaways on a luxury liner. The film came out in 1931, when organized crime was coming into public awareness. Marx’s female interest in the film was Thelma Todd, who died a few years later. Her death was connected to mob activity. Monkey Business was well received and was the first Marx Brothers script written strictly for film. They followed up their success with Horse Feathers, an attack on colleges and their obsession with football. It was released in 1932, when Americans were shifting their interest from baseball to the football of Notre Dame and Knute Rockne. Marx played Professor Wagstaff, who took over a failing college and decided to revive it through a successful football program. The film also criticized Prohibition and organized crime. Marx sang one of his best songs, “Whatever It Is, I’m Against It,” and the film ended with a totally zany football game. The film was a major hit on college campuses in the 1970’s.

Marx’s next film wasDuck Soup, which came out in 1933, the same year that Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. Marx played Rufus T. Firefly, the new leader of Freedonia, which was under threat from its neighboring country. Marx dealt with devious diplomats and inept spies. It was a scathing attack on the world’s rush toward war and included the rapturous musical piece “To War,” which portrayed a national hysteria for destruction. Audiences at the time did not appreciate the film’s criticism, but Duck Soup found appreciative audiences on college campuses during the Vietnam War era.

Marx and his two brothers (Chico and Harpo) waited two years before their next film. They moved from Paramount Pictures to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and were given a new start with Night at the Opera (1935), which became their iconic film. Marx played Otis P. Driftwood, a questionable theatrical agent who got involved in opera. The film comprised a series of classic scenes, such as the contract signing with the sanity clause, the overstuffed stateroom, and the turning of the opera house into a baseball field. Although there was the usual criticism of the upper class and its snooty entertainment, the emphasis was more on good-natured absurdity and fun. Night at the Opera was Marx Brothers’ biggest financial success.

Marx’s later films would never match the success of Night at the Opera. A Day at the Races (1937) came close, with Marx as a horse doctor who is mistaken for a medical one. The brothers tried to go back to their roots by taking a story first to the stage and then to film. The strategy met with mild success. The following year they tried a new approach by adapting a play not written for them, Room Service (1938). The film was widely praised by critics but it met with a lukewarm response from audiences.

Over the next ten years, from 1939 to 1949, Marx and his brothers appeared in five more films, which continued to decline in audience interest and made the Marx brothers undistinguishable from other comics, such as Bud Abbot and Lou Costello or the Three Stooges. In 1949, the Marx brothers released their last film, Love Happy, with an appearance by the young Marilyn Monroe, and their film career as a group came to an end.

While Chico and Harpo never moved beyond films, Marx reinvented himself, and he made several films without his brothers, including one with Frank Sinatra. Marx’s future success, however, was not to be in cinema but in radio and television. While appearing on a radio program with Bob Hope, Marx showed a knack for ad-libbing that one producer saw as a gold mine. Marx was approached to host the quiz showYou Bet Your Life, which ran on radio from 1947 to 1959 and on television from 1950 to 1961.

Marx was a staple of 1950’s television, and, in the 1960’s, he made random appearances in film and on television. He did not fade into history; he made a comeback in 1972 with a one-man show at Carnegie Hall, which was released as an album, An Evening with Groucho, and which received a Grammy Award for best comedy album. In 1974, he was awarded an honorary Academy Award, which he accepted on behalf of his brothers and Dumont as well as himself. His last television appearance came in 1976 on a Bob Hope special. Marx died the following year on August 19, 1977, from pneumonia.

Significance

Marx’s face and voice have become iconic. Marx glasses and with attached nose and mustache appear every Halloween. He has been impersonated by everyone from television actors Alan Alda in M*A*S*H and Gabe Kaplan in Welcome Back, Kotter to the animated characters of Bugs Bunny and the Vlasic Pickle stork. Marx’s influence on comedians such as Woody Allen and others was pivotal. To put it in Marx’s words, “I never forget a face, but in your case I’ll be glad to make an exception.” Marx and his wiseacre mustached character, however, will never be forgotten.

Bibliography

Adamson, Joe. Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Sometimes Zeppo. New York: Touchstone, 1974. A good biography of all four brothers.

Anobile, Richard. Hooray for Captain Spaulding! New York: Darien, 1974. An overview of Animal Crackers.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Why a Duck? New York: Darien, 1971. A look at almost all the Marx Brothers’ films.

Gardner, Martin. The Marx Brothers as Social Critics. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2009. The book puts the Marx Brothers and their films in the context of American history.

Marx, Groucho. The Groucho Phile. New York: Wallaby, 1977. A Groucho history and photo album.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Memoirs of a Mangy Lover. New York: Bernard Geis, 1965. His last autobiography.

Zimmerman, Paul, and Burt Goldblatt. The Marx Brothers at the Movies. New York, Putnam, 1968. A study in filmmaking.