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| Groucho poses in front of world's first pixelated image! |
In 1972 [reminisces Steve Shark - Ed.] Carnegie Hall hosted An Evening With Groucho. With Harpo and Chico now gone, Groucho filled his one man show with anecdotes about his family and show business, and also songs from the films that made the Marx Brothers famous.Then 81, he still displayed the same arch wit, surrealist humour, word play and self-deprecating silliness that set him aside from other comedians of his generation.
Host Dick Cavett - who is quoted below - visited Marx in his dressing room before the performance and saw a frail old man. "I thought, how in hell are we going to get through this? I just thought this is going to be a theatrical nightmare. It wasn't."
The fact that he needed some help with his lines appears not to have hampered his performance.
"They seemed to see no difference between the old and tired gentleman on the stage who read his evening off 3x5 cards — which I thought might even turn off that audience — they ate it up."
It's a tribute to his comic genius that his ability to entertain a crowd didn't appear to have diminished with the years. Yes, he sounds old and tired, but that old spark is still in evidence.
"He seemed no different than the cavorting madman on the screen in the Marx Brothers' movies."
Anyway, here's the recording of the gig, which was selected in 2018 for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant".
Whatever its significance, it's well worth hearing!
Farq adds: Here's something you might not have seen - the last/lost Marx Brothers movie, The Incredible Jewel Robbery! With added minuses of canned laughter, irritating score, and an introduction by Ronnie Raygun!
Steve's linkage du jour o' th' day?
ReplyDeleteJust a click away!
early 30's paramount oozed unparalled madness. the marx brorother, wc fields, mae west, and so much more. being constantly exposed to them on tv was a major part of my upbringing.
DeleteDoes anyone not find Dick Cavett to be an insufferable bore and terrible host? They play reruns nightly here but despite the incredible roster of guests he somehow got to sit down with him, I can't watch more than five minutes without wanting to hurl something at the screen.
ReplyDeleteGlad that Dick only plays an MC role here (now who's the Groucho?). Anyway, thanks for sharing -- Groucho was one of the best!
The talkshow format never really took off in the UK - so, obviously, neither did the hosts! There have been some very popular shows - mainly Parkinson, Ross and Frost - but the talkshow is not a contant fixture in UK "terrestrial" TV schedules. Perhaps the US has more channels.
DeleteFrom what I've seen, Letterman seems OK - plus he was a massive Warren Zevon fan.
Listening to other people talk is just about my least favorite thing in the world (aside from talking to them) so my hate is only partially directed at Dick I guess. I find other talk show hosts only marginally less intolerable. Letterman, Carson, and John Stewart were bearable. I would probably like Steve Allen's show if it were on too. Cavett is just one of the bigger Dicks in a Dickish genre I guess; but he really does get my blood boiling.
DeleteCurrently BBC are re-running some classic Parkinson. Ross is awful, I don't remember Frost. Best talkshow on BBC at the moment is Graham Norton imo, he genuinely seems interested in his guests, Ross make me want to hurl something at the screen.
DeleteFrom what I've seen of them, "Between Two Ferns" and "The Eric Andre Show" may be the exceptions to the rule that all talk shows are boring and stupid. But I think that my opinion is based on me being a neurotic introvert with social anxiety.
Delete@Farquhar: I would be curious to know the Briggs-Meyers "personality types" of the isle inhabitants if you are willing to consider suggestions for discussion topics on future posts (INFJ-A here). Another suggestion for a discussion topic would be "suggestions for discussion topics"
Imma gonna crawl back into my isolation chamber now.
INFP-A
DeleteENTJ-A
DeleteI can totally see those traits in both of you! My daughter is INFP and if there were ever an ENTJ-A, Babs is it! (based on nothing but incidental evidence but still ... it totally "adds" up, lol)
DeleteMrDave - re. Cavett - the question he makes me ask is - why? Why him? Wiki tells us "he worked as a caddie at the Lincoln Country Club", and that's exactly his level. Polite, subservient, slightly amusing when encouraged.
DeleteI haven't heard An Evening with Groucho in a long time. It was very popular, when released.
ReplyDeleteMy parents saw Chico Marx's stage show in a New York nightclub. Chico had a series of mirrors setup over his piano, so the audience could see his technique of glissandi, "shooting” the keys with his right index finger and his other tricks.
Groucho: "sailor, what's the difference between a submarine and a blond?"
ReplyDeleteSailor: "I don't know"
Groucho: "I've never been in a submarine."
A man's only as old as the woman he feels.
ReplyDeleteGroucho Marx
I'm not crazy about reality, but it's still the only place to get a decent meal.
ReplyDeleteGroucho Marx
Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.
ReplyDeleteDali never met Groucho, but he met Harpo.
ReplyDeletehttps://dangerousminds.net/comments/when_dali_met_harpo_read_salvador_dalis_script_for_the_marx_brothers
"Well, what is the password?"
ReplyDeleteI was 13 when Groucho took a variation of this show on the road to Evanston, IL. His friend Prof. Bergen Evans talked him into appearing at Northwestern University. The event was held in a performance venue not befitting a legend: a dead-end hallway tucked inside Dyche Stadium. The place was under renovation, if I recall, and there was scaffolding in the corner. He wore a styrofoam-ball golf hat similar to the one he wore on "Dick Cavett." He wasn't in the best of moods. During the Q&A he was asked to say, "Say the secret woid and the duck will come down..." "What is this, plate night?" he barked back. "No giveaways!" It was over 50 years ago and much of the evening is a blur. But, if the grandchildren I never had were to have asked, "Pappy, were you ever in the same room with Groucho, I'd jiggle my brows and say, "You bet your life!"
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