Quotes - The Marx Brothers The Marx Brothers Support this site, shop here: Search: | Disclaimer | Frank Bland's Why A Duck? | Mikael Uhlin's Marxology | Choose your colour: Light Dark Custom Search Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. attributed to Groucho Marx From the moment I picked up your book until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it. Groucho Marx Go, and never darken my towels again. Groucho Marx I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book. Groucho Marx I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception. Groucho Marx I sent the club a wire stating, PLEASE ACCEPT MY RESIGNATION. I DON'T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT ME AS A MEMBER. Groucho Marx I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it. Groucho Marx Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.

Groucho Marx Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana. Groucho Marx He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot but don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot. Groucho Marx It is better to have loft and lost than to never have loft at all. Groucho Marx Margaret Dumont: "Why, that reminds me of my youth!!" Groucho: "He must be a pretty big boy by now." Groucho/Margaret Dumont (Movie) "Come get your ice-cream! Come get your tootsie-frootsie ice cream!" Chico in A Day At the Races (movie) Chico: "Here's the book, it's a dollar" Groucho: "Here's a ten, and shoot the change." Chico: "I don't have change I'd have to give you nine more books" Chico/ Groucho in A Day At The Races (Movie) Man: Are you a man or a mouse? Groucho: Put a piece of cheese on the floor and you'll find out.

Groucho in A Day at the Races (movie) If I hold you any closer I'll be in back of you! Groucho in A Day at the Races (Movie) And stop pointing that beard at me, it might go off! Groucho in A Day at the Races (Movie) Groucho: "Do you like gardinia's?" Woman: " Why Yes I Adore Them. How did you know?" Groucho: " I Didn't so I got you a forget-me-not instead." Groucho/Margaret in A Day At The Races (movie) Chico: "What's the matter, Mister?" Groucho: "Oh, we got into an argument and he pulled a knife on me so I shot him." Chico and Groucho Marx in A Night at the Opera (movie) (introducing Mrs C. to Mr. G) Mrs Claypool, Mr. Gottlieb; Mr Gottlieb, Mrs Claypool; Mrs Claypool, Mr Gottlieb; Mr Gottlieb, Mrs Claypool! If you four people want to play bridge, don't mind me, go right ahead.

Groucho in A Night at the Opera (Movie) Lassparri: "They threw an apple at me!" Groucho: "Well, watermelons are out of season." Groucho in A Night at the Opera (movie) "The party of of the first part..." is hereinafter called: "the party of the first part..." and "The party of of the second part..." is hereinafter called: "the party of the second part... Groucho and Chico in A Night at the Opera (Movie) "Don't you know what duplicates are?" "Sure. There's five kids up in Canada." "Well, I wouldn't know about that. I haven't been to Canada in years." Groucho and Chico Marx in A Night at the Opera Groucho: "Get outta here before I get arrested." Chico: "Nah I'd like to stay and see that." Groucho and Chico Marx in A Night at the Opera (movie) ... and two hard boiled eggs ... Groucho Marx in A Night at the Opera (movie) 9 dollars and 40 cents? Thats an outrage! If I were you I wouldn't pay it!

Groucho Marx in A Night At The Opera (movie) Policeman: "A hermit eh? Then why's your table set for four?" Groucho: "That's nothing. My alarm clock is set for eight." Groucho Marx in A Night at the Opera (movie) Groucho: Do you follow me? Margaret Dumont: Yes! Groucho: Well, you better stop following me, or I'll have you arrested. Groucho Marx in A Night at the Opera (movie) Chico- Can he live in NY on $3? Groucho- Like a prince. Of course he won't be able to eat, but he can live like a prince. Groucho, Chico in A Night at the Opera (Movie) Groucho: "That's in every contract, that's what you call a sanity clause." Chico: "You can't a fool a me there ain't no sanity clause" Groucho/Chico in A Night at the Opera (movie) We've got to speed things up in this hotel. Chef, if a guest orders a three-minute egg, give it to him in two minutes.

If he orders a two-minute egg, give it to him in one minute. If he orders a one-minute egg, give him a chicken and let him work it out for himself. Groucho in A Night in Casablanca (movie) Groucho: You know I think you're the most beautiful woman in the world? Woman: Really? Groucho: No, but I don't mind lying if it gets me somewhere Groucho Marx in A Night in Casablanca (Movie) Hundred aces huh?...Two hundred... thats even better Chico in Animal Crackers (Film) I got his tie what did you get...the birth mark thats great Chico Marx in Animal Crackers (Film) "I came here for a party and what do I get? Nothing. Not even Ice cream." Groucho in Animal Crackers (Movie) I'll do anything you say. In fact I'll even stay. But I must be going. Groucho in Animal Crackers (movie) We must remember that art is art. Well, on the other hand water is water isn't it? And east is east and west is west.

And if you take cranberries and stew them like applesause they taste much more like prunes than rubarb does. Now uh...now you tell me what you know. Groucho in Animal Crackers (movie) Do you mind if I don't smoke? Groucho in Animal Crackers (movie) If I were a man, you would resent that. Groucho in Animal Crackers (movie) I'll show you a thing or three. Groucho in Animal Crackers (movie) quote, unquote, and quote. Groucho in Animal Crackers (movie) Alright, leave it out and put in a windshield-wiper instead. Groucho in Animal Crackers (movie) I'm Captain Scotland of the Spalding Yard. Groucho in Animal Crackers (movie) Captain Yard of the Scotland Spalding Groucho in Animal Crackers (movie) Well, all the jokes can't be good. You've got to expect that once in a while. Groucho in Animal Crackers (movie) That's a date, now, Saturday at three. No, you better make it Tuesday. I'm going to Europe Monday.

Groucho in Animal Crackers (movie) Tell me, what do you think of the traffic problem? What do you think of the marriage problem? What do you think of at night when you go to bed, you beast. Groucho in Animal Crackers (movie) "One woman and one man might have been OK in your grandmother's day, but who wants to marry your grandmother? Not even your grandfather!" Groucho in Animal Crackers (movie) One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know. Then we tried to remove the tusks. The tusks. That's not so easy to say. Tusks. You try it some time. As I say, we tried to remove the tusks. But they were embedded so firmly we couldn't budge them. Of course, in Alabama the Tuscaloosa, but that is entirely ir-elephant to what I was talking about. Groucho in Animal crackers (Movie) Groucho: Did you ever see a tree like that? Chico: Tree? That's a spinage. Groucho: That can't be spinage. Where's the egg?

Groucho and Chico in Animal Crackers (movie) Captain Spaulding, talking about his latest trip to Africa: 'We took some pictures of the native girls but they weren't developed. But we're going back again in a couple of weeks !' Groucho Marx in Animal Crackers (movie) GROUCHO:"You know, I'd buy you a parachute if I knew it wouldn't open." CHICO:"Haha you're crazy, I got a pair of shoes." Groucho/Chico in Animal Crackers (movie) Margaret Dumont: I'm not the dummy. Chico: Well, you could be. Margaret Dumond and Chico in Animal Crackers (movie) Crowd: Hooray for Captain Spaulding. The African explorer. Capt. Spaulding: Did someone call me schnorer Crowd: Hooray, Hooray, Hooray. Groucho in Animal Crakers (movie) Cab driver: Hey mister, $18.75 Groucho: 1875? That's what I thought. The 1940 models run much smoother.

Groucho in At The Circus (movie) "I'll teach you to kick me..." "You don't need to teach me I already know how!" Chico in Duck Soup (movie) Sure we shadowed him: Tuesday we sit outside his house all day, but he no home. Wednesday we went to the ball game, he fool us and no show up. Thrusday he go to the ball game, but we fool him and we no show up. Friday it was a double header, nobody show up, so we stay home and listened to it on the radio. Chico in Duck Soup (movie) Attorney: That kind of testimony we can eliminate. Chico: Atsa fine I'll have a nice cold glassa lemonade. Chico in Duck Soup (movie) Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes? Chico Marx in Duck Soup (movie) Attorney: Chicolini, when were you born? Chicolini: I don't remember. I was just a little baby.

Chico Marx in Duck Soup (movie) I could dance with you till the cows come home...But I would rather dance with the cows till you come home Groucho in Duck Soup (Movie) Why a four year old child could understand this. Run out and get me a four year old child, I can't make head or tail out of it. Groucho in Duck Soup (movie) Well, that covers a lot of ground. Say, you cover a lot of ground yourself. You better beat it - I hear they're going to tear you down and put up an office building where you're standing. You can leave in a taxi. If you can't get a taxi, you can leave in a huff. If that's too soon, you can leave in a minute and a huff. You know, you haven't stopped talking since I came here? You must have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle.

Groucho in Duck Soup (movie) I can see you standing over a hot stove, but I can't see the stove Groucho in Duck Soup (movie) If any form of pleasure is exhibited, report to me and it will be prohibited Groucho in Duck Soup (movie) Minister: "We need to take up the tax" Groucho: "I'd like to take up the carpet." Minister: "I still insist we take up the tax." Groucho: "He's right - you've gotta take up the tacks before you can take up the carpet." Groucho in Duck Soup (movie) I danced before Napoleon. No, Napoleon danced before me - in fact, he danced two hundred years before me. Groucho in Duck Soup (movie) Treasury Secretary: "Sir, you try my patience!" Firefly: "Don't mind if I do. You must try mine sometime." Groucho in Duck Soup (movie) Don't look now but there's one man too many in this room and i think it's you. Groucho in Duck Soup (movie) Groucho: How would you like a job at the mint? Chico: Mint? I don't like mint.

What other flavors you got? Groucho and Chico in Duck Soup (movie) Groucho: Just for that I'm not going to give you the job I was going to give you. Chico: What job? Groucho: Secretary of War Chico: Alright, I take it. Groucho and Chico in Duck Soup (movie) Pick a number from one to ten. Eleven. Right! Groucho and Chico Marx in Duck Soup (movie) FIREFLY: To my dentist. Er .. 'Dear Dentist: Enclosed find cheque for five hundred dollars. Yours very truly.' Send that off immediately. BOB:I'll ... er I'll have to enclose the cheque first. FIREFLY: You do and I'll fire you. Groucho and Zeppo Marx in Duck Soup (movie) Remember men, we're fighting for this woman's honour; which is probably more than she ever did. Groucho Marx in Duck Soup (movie) Rufus T. Firefly "My father was a little Headstrong, my mother was a little Armstong.

The Headstrongs married the Armstrongs and that's why darkies were born." Groucho Marx in Duck Soup (movie) I've got a good mind to go out and join a club and beat you over the head with it. Groucho Marx in Duck Soup (movie) Mrs.Teasdale: Your Exellency, I really don't know what to say. Firefly: I wouldn't know what to say either if I was in your place. (to Ambassador Trentino) Maybe you could suggest something. As a matter of fact, you DO suggest something! To me you suggest a baboon! (Ambassador gasps, and looks insulted) Firefly:(afterthought) I'm sorry I said that. It isn't fair to the rest of the baboons. Groucho Marx/Margaret Dumont in Duck Soup (movie) MD "Closer... closer...

closer...." GM "If I were any closer, I'd be in the back of you" Margaret Dumont, Groucho Marx in Duck Soup (movie) CHICO: "I would like the west better if it was in the east" chico in Go West (movie) GROUCHO: "That's a midicine man... can you imagine taking a teaspoon full of him?" Groucho in Go West (movie) GROUCHO: "You love your brother don't you?" CHICO: "No but i'm used to him." Groucho and Chico in Go West (movie) CHICO: "They say the gold is laying all over the tracks eh Rusty all over the tracks." GROUCHO: "The way he looks it's like he's been laying all over the tracks." Groucho and Chico in Go West (movie) Chico: "Who are you?" Groucho: "Im fine, thanks. Who are you?" Chico and Groucho in Horse Feathers (movie) "Members of the faculty, faculty members. Students of Huxley and Huxley's students.

Well I guess that covers everything" Groucho in Horse Feathers (Movie) "Why don't you bore a hole in yourself and let the sap run out?" Groucho in Horse Feathers (movie) Have we got a college? Have we got a football team?....Well we can't afford both. Tomorrow we start tearing down the college. Groucho in Horse Feathers (movie) (Chico and Groucho on hands and knees) " Thats no way to go into a speakeasy thats the way to go out " Groucho Marx in Horse Feathers (movie) And even when you've changed it all condensed it, i'm against it! Groucho Marx in Horse Feathers (movie) Well, I thought my razor was dull until I heard his speech. And that reminds me of a story thats so dirty, I'm ashamed to think of it myself. Groucho Marx in Horse Feathers (Movie) Zeppo: Dad, I'm proud to be your son Groucho: You took the words right out of my mouth.

I'm ashamed to be your father Zeppo and Groucho Marx in Horse Feathers (movie) Chico: "The garbage man is here." Groucho: "Well, tell him we don't want any." Chico and Groucho Marx in I'll Say She Is (show) "The indians are coming! Put your scalp in your pocket!" (puts man's toupee in his pocket.) in Monkey Business (movie) You pay us a little we be a little Tough... You pay us alot we be alot Tough... Chico in Monkey Business (Movie) "you got it alright, and you can keep it" Chico in Monkey Business (movie) MAN: What's the idea putting your hand in my pocket CHICO: Just a little mistake. I had a suit once just looked like that, and for a moment I thought those were my pants. MAN: How could they be your pants when I've got them on? CHICO: Well, this suit had two pair of pants. Chico Marx in Monkey Business (movie) Either this man is dead or my watch has stopped. Groucho Marx in Monkey Business (movie) If you have ten dollars better see me in the morning.

If you've got six can I lend you four? Groucho in The Cocoanuts (movie) Hammer: Come over here, Rand McNally, and I'll explain this thing to you. Now look, this is a map and diagram of the whole Cocoanut section. ... Hammer: ... Now, here is a little peninsula, and, eh, here is a viaduct leading over to the mainland. Chico: Why a duck? Hammer: I'm alright, how are you? I say, here is a little peninsula, and here is a viaduct leading over to the mainland. Chico: Alright, why a duck? Hammer: (pause) I'm not playing "Ask Me Another," I say that's a viaduct. Chico: Alright! Why a duck? Why that...why a duck? Why a no chicken? Hammer: Well, I don't know why a no chicken; I'm a stranger here myself. All I know is that it's a viaduct. You try to cross over there a chicken and you'll find out why a duck. Chico: When I go someplace I just...

Hammer: (interrupts) It's...It's deep water, that's why a duck. It's deep water. Chico: That's why a duck... Hammer: Look...look, suppose you were out horseback riding and you came to that stream and you wanted to ford over...You couldn't make it, it's too deep! Chico: Well, why do you want with a Ford if you gotta horse? Hammer: Well, I'm sorry the matter ever came up. All I know is that it's a viaduct. Chico: Now look, alright, I catch ona why a horse, why a chicken, why a this, why a that... I no catch ona why a duck. Hammer: I was only fooling...I was only fooling. They're gonna build a tunnel there in the morning. Now is that clear to you? Chico: Yes, everything excepta why a duck. Groucho and Chico in The Cocoanuts (movie) Ice Water? Get some Onions - that'll make your eyes water! Groucho Marx in The Cocoanuts (movie) Who's buried in Grant's tomb?

Groucho in You Bet Your Life (TV) Groucho Marx - Biography - IMDb Groucho Marx Biography Showing all 132 items Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (2) | Spouse (3) | Trade Mark (5) | Trivia (58) | Personal Quotes (58) | Salary (2) Overview (4) 5' 7½" (1.71 m) Mini Bio (2) The bushy-browed, cigar-smoking wise-cracker with the painted-on moustache and stooped walk was the leader of The Marx Brothers . With one-liners that were often double entendres, Groucho never cursed in any of his performances and said he never wanted to be known as a dirty comic.

With a great love of music and singing ( The Marx Brothers started as a singing group), one of the things Groucho was best known for was his rendition of the song "Lydia the Tattooed Lady." - IMDb Mini Biography By: John Nehrenz From the late 1940s through 1961, he was the highly successful host of You Bet Your Life (1950) a quiz show on radio and television. His son, Arthur Marx , is a successful writer of biographies and TV scripts. Arthur complained about his father always being "on". If he asked Groucho about something serious or personal, Groucho would reply with one-liners. - IMDb Mini Biography By: <millerm@henge.com> Spouse (3) ( 4 February 1920 - 15 July 1942) (divorced) (2 children) Trade Mark (5) He is best known for playing characters who were wisecracking sharpies who always sported a cigar, a mustache made of dark greasepaint and walked with a half crouch.

In Marx Brothers movies, he almost always played characters with unusual first names, a middle initial and unlikely last names; i.e.: Rufus T. Firefly, Hugo Z. Hackenbush and Otis B. Driftwood. Smoking a cigar His thick eyebrows, glasses, big nose and mustache Quirkily High-Pitched Voice Trivia (58) Was told by studio executive Walter Wanger to lose the greasepaint moustache as it was an "obvious fake". (Source: Joseph Adamson III in his book Groucho, Harpo, Chico and sometimes Zeppo (1973) He was to have played the title role in a TV movie of L. Frank Baum 's "The Magical Monarch of Mo" with a teleplay by Gore Vidal , which was never produced. Brother of Harpo Marx , Chico Marx , Gummo Marx and Zeppo Marx . Died three days after Elvis Presley . Unfortunately, due to the furor over the former's death, the media paid little attention to the passing of this comic genius.

When talking about Margaret Dumont , the actress who frequently played the dowager who acted as a punching bag for Groucho's verbal insults, he claimed the secret to their chemistry is that she never understood what he was saying. Once during the run of "I'll Say She Is" (the brothers' first Broadway play), his brother Harpo Marx tried to play a practical joke on him by chasing a chorus girl onto the stage while Groucho was in the middle of his act. Not to be outdone, he simply pulled out his watch and said "The Five Fifteen is right on schedule". Had a fifth brother, Gummo Marx , who performed with the other brothers in vaudeville. He left the act before the brothers started to make movies. He remained close to Groucho for the rest of his life. He suffered from insomnia, which he claimed was due to a financial loss in the stock market. When he suffered from insomnia, he used to call people up in the middle of the night and insult them. The FBI had a file on him after he made some jokes about communism. Shortly after his death, his children found a gag letter written by Groucho that stated that he wanted to be buried on top of Marilyn Monroe .

Father of Arthur Marx , Miriam Marx , and Melinda Marx . A famous gag toy was modeled after his face - the dark black glasses with big orange nose and mustache "disguise" toy (known as the "Beagle-Puss" in the gag shop market.). There are at least two versions of how Julius Henry Marx got his more famous nickname. One is that it came from his general disposition. The other, that, during the Marx Brothers' early days in vaudeville, he was the keeper of the act's "grouch bag" or money purse. Groucho, himself, said, on one occasion, "my own name, I never did understand." George Fenneman , Groucho's announcer on You Bet Your Life (1950), was once asked if Groucho ever embarrassed him on the air. "Each and every show," Fenneman replied. Nephew of actor Al Shean . In the 1950s Groucho was invited to take a tour of the New York Stock Exchange. While in the observation booth, he grabbed the public address system handset and began singing "Lydia the Tattooed Lady".

Upon hearing silence coming from the trading floor, he walked into view, was given a loud cheer by the traders, and shouted, "Gentlemen, in 1929 I lost eight hundred thousand dollars on this floor, and I intend to get my money's worth!" For fifteen minutes, he sang, danced, told jokes, and all this time, the Wall Street stock ticker was running blank. Groucho's show "You Bet Your Life" (on radio from 1947 to 1956 over ABC, CBS, and finally NBC) was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1988. At the time of his death he was not aware that his brother Gummo Marx had passed away four months earlier. His family believed that it was a kindness not to tell him. Son of Sam Marx and Minnie Marx (nee Schoenberg). In 1989, the Republic of Abkhazia (in the former Soviet Georgia) proclaimed independence. To show the world they were rejecting their Communist past, they issued two postage stamps of Groucho Marx and John Lennon (as opposed to Karl Marx and V.I. Lenin ). Long-time companion of Erin Fleming .

There's a famous club in London called the Groucho, frequented by actors and celebrities. It got its name from the famous Groucho quote that he would not join any club that would accept him as a member. Smashed a violin onstage at Carnegie Hall, in a mock "tribute" to Jack Benny . Father-in-law of Sahn Berti His double album "An Evening with Groucho" (A&M: 1972), recorded at a sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall, was a surprise best-seller and a Grammy nominee for Best Comedy Recording. His accompanist on that occasion was the then unknown Marvin Hamlisch . Grandfather of actress Jade Marx-Berti . Was the quiet, introverted middle brother of 5, and suffered the middle sibling condition. He never got as much attention as his older brothers ( Chico Marx & Harpo Marx ), who were wild and charming, or his two younger brothers ( Zeppo Marx & Gummo Marx ), who were cuter. The plus side of this outsider status was that he developed a cutting wit to get attention.

Was never much of a womanizer in real life (as were his older brother, Chico Marx & Harpo Marx ), having joked later in life about his disastrous attempts at courting as a young man. Was good friends with rock star Alice Cooper , often inviting him over at 11:00 pm to watch TV. A drawing of Groucho can also be seen on the cover of "Alice Cooper's Greatest Hits" album. In 1978, when the original giant white letters of the famous "HOLLYWOOD" sign were auctioned off in order to raise money for new replacement letters, Alice bought an "O" in memory of Groucho. His cremated remains are entombed at Eden Memorial Park, San Fernando, California, USA. He was voted, as one of The Marx Brothers , the 62nd Greatest Movie Star of all time by "Entertainment Weekly". Was a close friend of "The Exorcist" author William Peter Blatty . Was intended to make a joke on the set of William Friedkin 's The Exorcist (1973) by appearing in Father Merrin's clothes when Ellen Burstyn opened the door.

However, the idea was dropped due to scheduling conflicts. He was portrayed by Lewis J. Stadlen in the Broadway show "Minnie's Boys," which ran at the Imperial Theatre for 80 Performances from Mar 26 to May 30, 1970. Stadlen won a 1970 Theatre World Award for his performance. Was named, as The Marx Brothers , the #20 Greatest Actor on The 50 Greatest Screen Legends List by The American Film Institute. Was a big fan of Gilbert & Sullivan ( W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan ) operettas and used to stage Gilbert & Sullivan sing-along evenings at his home. During the 1950s he appeared as Ko-Ko on NBC-TV in an acclaimed abridged version of "The Mikado.". Carried on extensive correspondence with such literary giants as T.S. Eliot and Carl Sandburg . He also was well-known for attaching a hilarious P.S. to his most serious letters. According to Dick Cavett , Groucho added this P.S.

to a lengthy account of his memories of Charles Chaplin from vaudeville days: ""Did you ever notice that Peter O'Toole has a double-phallic name?" The success of The Marx Brothers at MGM was due to the genius of Irving Thalberg . Upon his untimely death, the quality of their films declined mainly because studio chief Louis B. Mayer did not care for them or their act. The famous phrase "Well, who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?" is often referred to as a Groucho quote, but it was actually delivered by Chicolini ( Chico Marx ) in Duck Soup (1933) while impersonating Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho). Great-uncle of Gregg Marx , Laura Guzik and Brett Marx Knew Charles Chaplin during his vaudeville days. Was in attendance at The Beatles 1964 Hollywood Bowl concert, and there is existing footage of him applauding. His son Arthur Marx was once smoking a corncob pipe in his room when he heard his father coming down the hall. In a panic, he stuffed the still-lit pipe into a drawer.

Groucho came in, sniffed the air and left without a word. A moment later he was back with a briar pipe and a pouch of tobacco. "This will be better than that corncob you're using," he said. Arthur asked if his father was angry and Groucho said, "Nonsense. Smoking won't hurt you. I've been smoking for years, and aside from the fact that I feel terrible all the time it hasn't hurt me, either!". Came fifth in a Channel Four (UK) poll in 2005 to find the all-time favourite comedians' comedian. In the Broadway play "A Day in Hollywood--A Night in the Ukraine," which opened on May 1, 1980, and closed on Sep 27, 1981 (for 588 performances), a Groucho-type character, Moscow lawyer Serge B. Samovar, was played by David Garrison . Came to regret never going beyond grammar school. To compensate, he became a voracious reader in adulthood, famed for his literary knowledge. Furthermore, in addition to the aforementioned regular correspondence to noted authors, he wrote several books himself.

When he died in 1977, he left an estate valued at $2 million. His father was a tailor. He sang "Everybody Works But Father" in both English and German on The Dick Cavett Show (1968). He was awarded 2 Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: for Radio at 6821 Hollywood Boulevard and for Television at 1734 Vine Street. W.C. Fields said that The Marx Brothers was the only act he couldn't follow on the live stage. He is known to have appeared on the same bill with them only once, during an engagement at Keith's Orpheum Theatre in Columbus, OH, in January 1915. At the time the Marx Brothers were touring "Home Again", and it didn't take Fields long to realize how his quiet comedy juggling act was faring against the anarchy of the Marxes. Fields later wrote of the engagement (and the Marxes), "They sang, danced, played harp and kidded in zany style. Never saw so much nepotism or such hilarious laughter in one act in my life. The only act I could never follow . . . I told the manager I broke my wrist and quit".

Appears on a 44¢ USA commemorative postage stamp, issued 11 August 2009, in the Early TV Memories issue honoring You Bet Your Life (1950). Appeared as Johnny Carson 's very first guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962) where he introduced Carson to his newfound audience (October 1, 1962). Maternal grandfather, Lafe Schonburg, was a magician and ventriloquist who toured Germany for over 50 years with his wife and three children, one of whom was Groucho's mother Minnie. The Schonburgs emigrated to the United States in 1860. Lafe Schonburg died in Chicago, IL in 1919 at the age of 101.

He along with his brothers star in five of the American Film Institute's 100 Funniest Movies: Duck Soup (1933) at #5, A Night at the Opera (1935) at #12, A Day at the Races (1937) at #59, Horse Feathers (1932) at #65 and Monkey Business (1931) at #73. His famous quote, "I don't want to belong to any club that would accept me as one of its members," first appeared in the gossip column of the Hearst newspaper's Erskine Johnson on October 20, 1949. Johnson claimed it came from Marx's resignation letter to the Friars Club. Personal Quotes (58) [on resigning from the Friars Club] I do not care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members. [when told that a swimming pool was off-limits to Jews] My son is half-Jewish; can he wade in up to his knees? Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.

Marriage is a wonderful institution. But who wants to live in an institution? I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury. While shooting elephants in Africa, I found the tusks very difficult to remove. But in Alabama, the Tuscaloosa... I started smoking as soon as I went on the stage. I'd make cigars out of the Morning World when I was a kid. Eventually I smoked Havanas. A cigar makers' organization once said that I was the most famous cigar smoker in the world. I don't know if that's true, but once while visiting Havana, I went to a cigar factory. There were four hundred people there rolling cigars, and when they saw me, they all stood up and applauded. Because we were a kid act, we traveled at half-fare, despite the fact that we were all around 20. Minnie insisted we were 13. "That kid of yours is in the dining car smoking a cigar," the conductor told her, "and another one is in the washroom shaving." Minnie shook her head sadly. "They grow so fast . . . " You're only as young as the woman you feel.

If you want to see a comic strip, you should see me in the shower. Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms. It looks as if Hollywood brides keep the bouquets and throw away the grooms. I drink to make other people interesting. There's one way to find out if a man is honest: ask him. If he says "Yes", you know he is crooked. Behind every successful man stands a woman. And behind her stands his wife. I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book. My mother loved children--she would have given anything if I had been one. From the moment I picked your book up until I put it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it. Politics doesn't make strange bedfellows--marriage does. In America you can go on the air and kid the politicians, and the politicians can go on the air and kid the people. The only game I like to play is Old Maid...provided she's not TOO old. A moose is an animal with horns on the front of his head and a hunting lodge wall on the back of it.

[in the late 1960s, on how it felt to be an elder statesman of comedy] Like an old jerk. When I heard about [the Broadway play] "Hair", I was kind of curious about the six naked primates on stage. So I called up the box office and they said tickets were $11 apiece. That's an awful price to pay. I went into the bathroom at home and took off all my clothes and looked in the mirror for five minutes. And I said, 'This isn't worth $11'. People are most likely to listen to reason when in bed. Military justice is to justice what military music is to music. Quote me as saying I was misquoted. Why should I care about posterity? What's posterity ever done for me? [asked in 1975 if he'd seen any recent movies] I saw Jaws (1975). But I think it would have been funnier if a guppy had swallowed the boat instead of a shark. One of the best hearing aids a man can have is an attentive wife. I was so long writing my review that I never got around to reading the book.

She got her good looks from her father--he's a plastic surgeon. Wives are people who feel that they don't dance enough. The husband who wants a happy marriage should learn to keep his mouth shut and his checkbook open. [on Samson and Delilah (1949) starring Hedy Lamarr and Victor Mature ] Well, there's just one problem. No picture can hold my interest where the leading man's tits are bigger than the leading lady's. Alimony is like buying hay for a dead horse. A woman is an occasional pleasure, but a cigar is always a smoke. He [Groucho's father] had absolutely no training, and if you had ever seen one of his suits, you'd realize what an accurate statement that is. You see, Pop never used a tape measure. He didn't believe in it. He said he could just look at a man and tell his size, with the result that frequently he'd make a pair of pants with one trouser leg seven or eight inches longer than the other. I'd have liked to have gone to bed with Jean Harlow . She was a beautiful broad. The fellow who married her was impotent and he killed himself.

I would have done the same thing. [on Bob Hope ] Hope? Hope is not a comedian. He just translates what others write for him. [on Margaret Dumont ] She was a wonderful woman. She was the same off the stage as she was on it -- always the stuffy, dignified matron. And the funny thing about her was she never understood the jokes. At the end of Duck Soup (1933) Margaret says to me, "What are you doing. Rufus?". And I say, "I am fighting for your honor, which is more than you ever did." Later she asked me what I meant by that. Jerry Lewis hasn't made me laugh since he left Dean Martin . [on Charles Chaplin ] The greatest compliment I ever got was from Chaplin. He came up to me and said, "I wish I could talk like you on the screen". I said, "I think you're doing alright". He had made $50 million by that point. He was the best comedian we ever had. There has never been a good comedian that didn't have a good straight man. Audiences don't *think* the straight man means anything, but it's very important.

[on Harry S. Truman 's upset defeat of Thomas E. Dewey in the 1948 Presidential elections] The only way a Republican will get into the White House now is to marry Margaret Truman . Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies. [after a visit to W.C. Fields ' home] He had a ladder leading up to his attic. Without exaggeration, there was $50,000 worth of liquor up there. Crated up like a wharf. I'm standing there and Fields is standing there, and nobody says anything. The silence is oppressive. Finally, he speaks: "This will carry me for twenty-five years". Those are my principles, and if you don't like them . . . well, I have others. I've been around so long, I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin. [Telegram to Judy Garland after losing the Best Actress Award to Grace Kelly ] Dear Judy, This is the biggest robbery since Brink's.

[on the passing of his brother Harpo Marx ] Having worked with Harpo for 40 years, which is longer than most marriages last, his death left quite a void in my life. He was worth all the wonderful adjectives that were used to describe him. He was a nice man in the fullest sense of the word. He loved life and lived it joyously and deeply, and that's about as good an epitaph as anyone can have. I've always been terrified of dying broke or of being a failure. I've never taken a bit of success for granted. When it came, I was always sure it wasn't going to last. [Feuding with Warner Bros. Pictures, which had objected to the use of "Casablanca" in an upcoming Marx Brothers movie] I just don't understand your attitude. Even if you plan on re-releasing your picture, I am sure the average movie fan could learn in time to distinguish between Ingrid Bergman and [ Harpo Marx ]. I don't know whether I could, but I certainly would like to try. You claim that you own "Casablanca" and that no one else can use that name without your permission. What about "Warner Brothers"?

Do you own that, too? You probably have the right to use the name "Warner", but what about "Brothers"? Even before us there had been other brothers--the Smith Brothers, the Brothers Karamazov . . . [about Charles Chaplin ] He was a strange little man--this Charlie Chaplin. The first time I met him he was wearing what had formerly been a white collar and a black bow tie. I can't quite explain his appearance, but he looked a little like a pale priest who had been excommunicated but was reluctant to relinquish his vestments. The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made. [After a fan tells him how excited he is to meet the famous Groucho Marx] I have known him for years and I can tell you, it's no pleasure. Sex at my age is like trying to shoot pool with a rope. [After being advised he should wear a frock coat and a painted mustache for every broadcast of "You bet your life"] The hell I will, that character is dead.

Salary (2) Groucho Marx - IMDb IMDb 31 December 2016 6:09 PM, UTC NEWS Soundtrack | Actor | Writer The bushy-browed, cigar-smoking wise-cracker with the painted-on moustache and stooped walk was the leader of The Marx Brothers . With one-liners that were often double entendres, Groucho never cursed in any of his performances and said he never wanted to be known as a dirty comic. With a great love of music and singing ( The Marx Brothers started ... See full bio » Born: a list of 32 people created 06 Nov 2011 a list of 30 people created 04 Dec 2011 a list of 33 people created 11 months ago a list of 43 people created 5 months ago a list of 45 people created 4 months ago Do you have a demo reel? Add it to your IMDbPage How much of Groucho Marx's work have you seen? User Polls Won 1 Primetime Emmy. Another 3 wins. See more awards » Known For Duck Soup Rufus T.

Firefly (1933) Animal Crackers Captain Jeffrey Spaulding (1930) 2013 Breaking Bad (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode) - Felina (2013) ... (performer: "Lydia The Tattooed Lady" - uncredited) 2012 Hello I Must Be Going (performer: "Hello I Must Be Going" (a/k/a/ "Hooray For Captain Spaulding")) 2009 Whatever Works (performer: "Hello I Must Be Going") 1986 Hannah and Her Sisters (performer: "Freedonia's Going To War" - uncredited) 1976 That's Entertainment, Part II (Documentary) (performer: "Sing Ho! for the Open Highway! Sing Ho! for the Open Road!" - uncredited) 1970 Music Scene (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode) - Episode #1.17 (1970) ...

(performer: "Father's Day") You Bet Your Life (TV Series) (performer - 13 episodes, 1950 - 1960) (lyrics - 1 episode, 1956) - Episode #10.30 (1960) ... (performer: "Waiting For The Robert E. Lee" - uncredited) - Episode #9.8 (1958) ... (performer: "I'm 94 Today") - Episode #8.34 (1958) ... (performer: "Play A Simple Melody") - Episode #8.22 (1958) ... (performer: "'O Sole Mio") 1952 A Girl in Every Port (performer: "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" - uncredited) 1951 Double Dynamite (performer: "It's Only Money", "Stone Walls", "Jesse James" - uncredited) 1950 Mr.

Music (performer: "Life Is So Peculiar") 1947 Copacabana (performer: "Go West, Young Man", "Let's Do the Copacabana" (uncredited)) 1941 The Big Store (performer: "Sing While You Sell" (1941)) 1940 Go West (performer: "Ridin' the Range" (1940), "You Can't Argue with Love" (1940), "Oh! Susanna" (1848) (uncredited), "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" (uncredited), "My Bonnie (Lies Over the Ocean)" (1881) (uncredited)) 1939 At the Circus (performer: "Lydia, the Tattooed Lady" (1939), "Oh! Susanna" (1848) - uncredited) 1937 A Day at the Races (performer: "An der schönen, blauen Donau, Op.

314 (Blue Danube Waltz)" (1866), "La Cucaracha", "Down by the Old Mill Stream" (1908), "A Message from the Man in the Moon" (1937) - uncredited) 1935 A Night at the Opera (performer: "Sing Ho for the Open Highway!

Sing Ho for the Open Road!", "When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain" (1931) - uncredited) 1933 Duck Soup (performer: "These Are the Laws of My Administration" (1933), "The Country's Going to War" (1933) - uncredited) 1932 Horse Feathers (performer: "Whatever It Is, I'm Against It" (1932), "I Always Get My Man" (1932), "Everyone Says I Love You" (1932) - uncredited) 1931 Monkey Business (performer: "You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me" (1930), "Sweet Adeline" (1903) - uncredited) 1930 Animal Crackers (performer: "Hello, I Must Be Going" (1930), "Hooray for Captain Spaulding" (1928), "Gypsy Chorus" (1852), "My Old Kentucky Home" (1852) - uncredited) Hide Groucho Marx by Lee Siegel review – apparently, he

 wasn’t funny | Books | The Guardian Biography Groucho Marx by Lee Siegel review – apparently, he wasn’t funny This provocative biography argues that the man who is the ‘central intelligence’ of the Marx Brothers indulged in radical, nihilistic truth-telling that masked his insecurity.

Seriously? Siegel does not see Groucho as a nice, avuncular figure. Photograph: Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar Wednesday 20 April 2016 11.00 EDT Last modified on Tuesday 20 September 2016 05.49 EDT Share on Messenger Close In 1967 Groucho Marx made what now seems an unlikely appearance on conservative pundit William F Buckley ’s TV show Firing Line . The show typically consisted of Buckley, a starchy, uncomfortable screen presence, who gave the impression of looking down his nose at the camera, politely putting what were often quite barbed questions to that week’s guest. Whatever Buckley’s politics, it was serious television, with a solemn atmosphere somewhere between a civics lesson and a Sunday mass. To add to the formality, the discussion was moderated by a chairman. The subject Buckley and Marx would discuss: “Is the world funny?” The programme was an hour long, and began amiably, if stiffly, as Buckley introduced his guest.

Then in his mid-70s, Groucho, whose casual attire of a blue jacket, polo neck and grey plaid trousers contrasted with Buckley’s businesslike suit and tie, was still recognisable from his heyday, when as a member of the Marx Brothers he had leered and delivered comic non sequiturs (“One morning I shot an elephant in my pyjamas. How he got in my pyjamas I don’t know”) over the course of vaudeville shows, Broadway productions and a run of classic, and some not so classic, comedy movies. When he sat down to debate with Buckley, the greasepaint moustache and bushy eyebrows were long gone, but he was smoking his trademark cigar. He began to answer questions quite seriously, and it turned out that Groucho didn’t think the world was funny after all. Was he serious or funny? Where did the persona stop and the real Groucho begin? Lee Siegel wrestles with these questions in his provocative and perverse short critical biography of the man he calls the Marx Brothers’ “central intelligence”. Siegel identifies a moment in the Buckley interview where Groucho goes on the attack by pointing out that the host blushes “like a young girl”.

Groucho’s comedy, Siegel insists, is actually radical, nihilistic truth-telling that masks the great comedian’s insecurity; its origins lie in his childhood, with his domineering mother and weak father, and his thwarted intellectual ambitions. A quiet middle child born as Julius Marx to European Jewish emigrants, who lived on the upper east side of Manhattan, Groucho wanted to be a doctor, but instead had to leave school young to join his brothers in show business. You might think that consistently arguing that the Marx Brothers aren’t funny is a difficult trick to pull off, and you’d be right, but it is central to Siegel’s theory that the Marxes were the same onscreen as they were off, that there was “a seamless continuity between their actual personas and their stage personas … fusing their entertainment selves with their real selves”. Instead of making riotous film comedies that seemed to fizz from the screen, they “dissolved the boundary between life and art, public and private”. It is difficult to decide whether his is a strongly held belief or a confrontational pose.

Putting aside the obvious differences between Groucho, Chico and Harpo in and out of character (Groucho’s moustache was fake; Chico, of course, wasn’t Italian; and Harpo could speak), there is considerable evidence that elements of the stage personae – Groucho’s stinginess, Chico’s gambling and womanising, and Harpo’s, well … harp playing – were the brother’s real-life attributes. After all, the stage names originated as nicknames reputedly given to them by the performer Art Fisher during a card game in 1915. The names stuck, onstage and off. Pinterest I have been a fan of the Marx Brothers since I was a child, in the early 1980s, when television stations used to fill blank spaces in the schedule with Duck Soup or Animal Crackers or A Night at the Opera , and I am as guilty of idealising their act as anyone. But even I can see the plausibility of Siegel’s version of Groucho as not a nice, avuncular figure but rather an asshole telling everyone what he really thinks of them.

Where I would differ from Siegel would be in finding an asshole telling everyone what he really thinks of them funny, especially within the structure of a 1930s comedy movie. As a child I loved the Marx Brothers’ wild energy, the way they bounced around the creaky confines of their films, intersecting awkwardly with banal, romantic subplots and subverting the musical numbers through bad dancing and off-key singing. There is no doubt that something about them had an effect on me that was more potent than the spell cast by Chaplin or, say, Abbott and Costello. Could that something have been the “shocking truthfulness” that Siegel identifies in their work? Perhaps. But Siegel’s insistence on their unfunniness leads him into some fairly reductive and unconvincing analyses. In one memorable scene from Duck Soup, Harpo, playing a peanut vendor, teams up with Chico to infuriate a rival lemonade seller, driving him to the brink of madness.

Siegel, rather unexpectedly, points out that the lemonade salesman “has done nothing wrong”, and claims that Duck Soup, supposedly an anti-fascist satire, is “actually a tour de force of undemocratic, even antidemocratic, sentiments”. He compares their comedy unfavourably with the satire of Jonathan Swift , finding in their work no moral framework, “no stable point … from which the satire is made. Every position is invalidated, exposed to derision”. But surely such unstable, hedonistic and destructive derision is the fuel that drives their comedy? Morality seems irrelevant. Pinterest Groucho, Chico and Harpo Marx in A Day at the Races (1937). Photograph: Channel 4 After the relative commercial failure of Duck Soup, which cut back on musical numbers and romantic subplot, the brothers moved from Paramount to MGM, where they made A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races – crowd-pleasing, well-made films that embedded the brothers in a social situation and prioritised the dreaded boy-girl storyline. One would think Siegel, who criticises Groucho’s general inability to appear “in a specific social context”, would be happy. But, no: “unfunny”.

Yet he is extremely sharp on why the Marxes were so successful as a comedy team: “at a time of rapid transition from vaudeville to silent film to talkies, [they] comprised an original synthesis of all three styles”. He is also good when addressing Groucho’s tetchiness about his origins, and his prickly relationship with high culture, especially the literary world (he conducted a passive-aggressive correspondence with TS Eliot ). There is a joke that dates back to the Marx Brothers’ Broadway play I’ll Say She Is! . Chico says: “The garbage man is here”, and Groucho replies: “Well, tell him we don’t want any.” Siegel writes that it’s “not funny”, but when, during his interview with Groucho, Buckley repeats the gag, the previously silent Firing Line audience laughs. Surely the joke is bombproof if even the staid Buckley can raise a chuckle with it? Groucho began the show by admitting that he is a “sad man”, but as the discussion progressed, he started to arch his back, wave the cigar, joke with the chairman and play to the audience.

It is as if a switch has been flipped, and the old Groucho character has come to life again. Perhaps the Groucho persona was just an act. In the late 1940s, as the Marx Brothers’ film career ground to a halt, Groucho began to host the quiz show You Bet Your Life , first on radio and then on TV. Siegel sees this as the point at which his personality and persona “merged comfortably, definitively, in full public view”. Yet when the producers of the show asked Groucho to wear the greasepaint and frock coat, he told them “the hell I will. That character’s dead. I’ll never go into that again.” • Karl Whitney is the author of Hidden City: Adventures and Explorations in Dublin (Penguin). To order Groucho Marx for £12.99 (RRP £16.99) go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99.

The Marx Brothers | Jewish Virtual Library • Gummo- Milton, 1892-1977 • Zeppo- Herbert, 1901-1979 All of the boys were encouraged from an early age to play musical instruments. Harpo’s main musical focus was the harp (from which he derived his nickname), Chico was an excellent pianist, and Groucho played the guitar. In 1905, Groucho made his debut as a singer in vaudeville. By 1907 he and Gummo were singing together as part of The Three Nighingales with Mabel O’Donnell. The next year, Harpo became the fourth Nightingale. By 1910, the group expanded to include their mother, Minnie, and their Aunt Hannah; the troupe was renamed The Six Mascots. Slowly, the group’s act evolved from singing to a comedy with some music. By 1912, Chico had joined the group. Nevertheless, around this time, Gummo left the group to fight in World War I; Zeppo would replace him for their final vaudeville years.

During World War I, the brothers changed their stage name to “The Four Marx Brothers” (including Chico, Harpo, Groucho, and Zeppo). By 1919, they were playing the most famous venue in vaudeville, the Palace Theatre in New York City. They also began to develop their famous on-stage personas. Groucho began to wear his trademark greasepaint moustache and to use a stooped walk, Harpo began to wear a red fright wig, carried a taxi-cab horn and never spoke, Chico started to talk in a fake Italian accent, and Zeppo adopted the schleppy, juvenile role of the straight man. The Marx Brothers made their next claim to fame, by becoming successful stars on Broadway. Their first musical revue, I’ll Say She Is, debuted in 1924. A year later they followed up with the musical comedy, The Cocoanuts and then in 1928 with Animal Crackers. The brothers next struck a contract with Paramount Pictures and embarked on their career in films. Their first two films were adaptation of their former Broadway shows: The Cocoanuts (1929) and Animal Crackers (1930).

In 1931, they made a short film, The House That Shadows Built, which was included in Paramount’s twentieth anniversary documentary. In 1932, the brothers filmed Horse Feathers, their most popular film to date, and the film which won them the cover of Time magazine. Their last Paramount film, Duck Soup (1933), is the only Marx Brothers film on the American Film Institute’s “100 years… 100 Movies” list. The team left Paramount due to creative disagreements and financial issues. The Marx Brothers in action After Zeppo left the act to become an agent, the three remaining brothers moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Under the leadership of Irving Thalberg, the team changed their formula; stronger plots, more musical numbers, and using the brothers' characters as comic foils to serious romance. The first film that the Marx Brothers shot with MGM was A Night at the Opera (1935); the film was a great success, and for many years considered their best work. It was followed two years later by the even bigger hit A Day at the Races (1937).

The Marx Brothers made three more films before leaving MGM, At the Circus (1939), Go West (1940), and The Big Store (1941). Although the brothers seemed ready to retire, Chico was in dire financial straits and to help settle his gambling debts, the group made another two films, A Night in Casablanca (1946) and Love Happy (1949), both of them released by United Artists. In 1959, they did a television special, The Incredible Jewel Robbery. Chico and Harpo went on to make nightclub and casino appearances, sometimes together. Groucho began a career as a radio and television entertainer. From 1947 to the early 1960s, he was the host of the humorous quiz show You Bet Your Life. In 1970, the Four Marx Brothers had a brief reunion in the ABC animated television special The Mad Mad Mad Comedians; the Marx Brothers’ segment was a reworking of a scene from their Broadway play I’ll Say She Is. On January 16, 1977, The Marx Brothers were inducted into the Motion Picture Hall of Fame.

Sources: “The Marx Brothers." American Jewish Historical Society,” American Jewish Desk Reference , (NY: Random House, 1999). pg. 467-8, Wikipedia Picture of Marx Family , Picture of Groucho, Chico and Harpo: Photo by Yousuf Karsh, December 5, 1948; Library and Archives Canada

Question: In which film did Groucho Marx say, "Either this man is
Answer: 'A DAY AT THE RACES'