Vintage Comedy Corner

xx/xx/xx    1  Overture - Medley from Marx Brothers Films
xx/xx/xx    2  Introduction - Dick Cavett
xx/xx/xx    3  Hello, I Must Be Going
xx/xx/xx    4  Violin Solo, Jack Benny Tribute
xx/xx/xx    5  How I Got Started in Show Business
xx/xx/xx    6  My Family, How We Got Our Names
xx/xx/xx    7  Strange Relatives - Uncle Julius
xx/xx/xx    8  Chico at Klauber Horn Co
xx/xx/xx    9  Uncle Herman, Chiropodist
xx/xx/xx   10  Timbuctoo
xx/xx/xx   11  Annie Berger
xx/xx/xx   12  World War One, Vaudeville in Toronto
xx/xx/xx   13  Oh, How That Woman Could Cook
xx/xx/xx   14  Toronto Song
xx/xx/xx   15  London Stories - Polish Officer Story
xx/xx/xx   16  London Stories - Churchill & 2nd World War
xx/xx/xx   17  Tough Chicago Critic Story
xx/xx/xx   18  Palace Theatre - Sarah Bernhardt
xx/xx/xx   19  Palace Theatre - Fanny Brice-Swayne's Rats and Cats
xx/xx/xx   20  Poem from the Play 'animal Crackers'
xx/xx/xx   21  T S Eliot Memorial- Laurence Olivier's Lap
xx/xx/xx   22  2nd World War Bond Tour
xx/xx/xx   23  Houdini Story
xx/xx/xx   24  Music in - Cocoanuts
xx/xx/xx   25   Music in - Cocoanuts- - Stay Down Here Where You Belong
xx/xx/xx   26  Otto Kahn Story
xx/xx/xx   27  W C Fields- Beebee Gun-Prohibition
xx/xx/xx   28  W C Fields- Baby Leroy
xx/xx/xx   29  An Evening with Groucho - 29 - Heaven's Above
xx/xx/xx   30  Everybody Works but Father
xx/xx/xx   31  Father's Day
xx/xx/xx   32  Margaret Dumont, the Dowager in Our Films
xx/xx/xx   33  Thalberg Story - Garbo
xx/xx/xx   34  Sampson and Delilah Story
xx/xx/xx   35  Will Rogers, Baseball in Baltimore
xx/xx/xx   36  Priests' Stories- Plaza Hotel-Montreal
xx/xx/xx   37  Priests' Stories- Rome
xx/xx/xx   38  Show Me a Rose
xx/xx/xx   39  Lydia, the Tattooed Lady
 Groucho Marx Biography

Born: Oct 2, 1890 in New York City, NY 

Died: Aug 19, 1977 in Los Angeles

Groucho was born Julius Henry Marx on Oct 2 1890 in New York. He was the third of the five surving sons of Sam and Minnie Marx. He was the first of the brothers to start stage career aged 15 in an act called The Leroy Trio. Other acts followed, but none of them was a great success. Twice the other members of the act disappeared overnight and left him penniless in a town far away from home.

When his Brothers came on stage the finally has a success with the musical comedy called I'll Say She Is. It was at one of the performances of this show that Groucho got his painted moustache. He arrived late at the theater and used greasepaint to create a moustache. He found this so much easier than a glued on moustache that he insisted on using this technique from then on.

I'll Say She Is is was followed by two more Broadway hits - The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers. The latter of which has the character of Captian Spaulding which remained (with the song Hooray for Captain Spaulding) a trademark for Groucho for the rest of his life.

The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers were also the first movies (except for one unreleased on) made by the Brothers and were filmed in New York. The remaining movies were made in Hollywood.

In the later year of the Brothers movie career Groucho started working on radio. He hosted several programmes and was a guest on many shows. His biggest succes was the comedy quiz show You Bet Your Life which started in 1947. The show later moved to television and was on the air until 1961.

Groucho also appeared in a few movies without his brothers (see below).

Always being a liberal, Groucho sometimes made critical remarks about politics and had friends which were regarded as communist by the US of the 1950s. This let to Groucho being investigated by the FBI.

When Marx Brothers became popular again in the last sixties/early seventies Groucho made a comeback with a show in Carnegie Hall in 1972.

At the film festival in Cannes in 1972 he was made Commandeur des Arts et Lettres and in 1974 he received a special Academy Award for the achievements of the Marx Brothers.

Groucho died on August 19th 1977 at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. His ashes are at Eden Memorial Park, San Fernando, California.

Information for this audio clip came from your 

Audio Series Descriptions Moderator ( Roger Hohenbrink).

This audio clip is provided by The Old Time Radio Researcher Group a group of volunteers dedicated to preserving radio's past. If you are interested in assisting to preserve radio's golden past so that future generations might also enjoy it, we urge you to look into membership in the Old Time Radio Researchers Group.  Visit our home on the web at www.otterprojectonline.info.

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An Evening With Groucho - 44 files - 54.3MB