There is few show business figures who would disagree that Julius Henry 'Groucho' Marx was created to make the world laugh.
Born in Manhattan, N.Y., one of four brothers, Marx began life as an entertainer and graduated into vaudeville, a state from which he never recovered.
His humor was in-your-face slapstick. You didn't have to search for the punch line in a Groucho Marx joke. It was always there.
Asked to define the perfect woman -- he was married three times and they all ended in divorce -- he said, 'Someone who looks like Marilyn Monroe and talks like George S. Kaufmann.'
Groucho created himself out of nothing. A mustache, thick eyebrows, nose and even a walk that made people laugh.
For many years, he hosted a popular radio and television show called 'You Bet Your Life,' where he subjected his guests to wisecracks, insults and silly questions like, 'Who is buried in Grant's tomb,' or 'What color is the White House?' with penalties and prizes for the correct and incorrect answers.
Marx made 23 movies, 13 of them with his brothers Chico, Harpo and Gummo. Their titles included 'Cocoanuts,' 'Animal Crackers, 'Monkey Business,' 'Horse Feathers,' 'Duck Soup,' and 'A Night At The Opera.'
He was a prolific letter writer with a brilliant, restless mind. His favorite correspondents were radio comedian Fred Allen, who was a close friend; T.S. Eliot; Carl Sandburg; and Booth Tarkington.
Marx loved to talk to people. He also really enjoyed making them laugh. He would enter a restaurant and say to a waiter or waitress, 'Do you have frog legs?' Regardless of their response, he would retort, 'that's the wrong answer. You were supposed to say, 'No, it's rheumatism that makes me walk this way.'
He and his brothers were all card players, especially Chico who won and lost a lot of money playing poker or gin rummy.
He once planned to make a movie called 'A Night in Casablanca.' Warner Brothers, which had produced the original 'Casablanca' film starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, objected and warned him he would be the target of lawsuits if he made the movie.
Marx got a letter writing tirade with the attorneys for Warner Brothers, reminding them they did not own the rights to a major city like Casablanca. When the lawyers tried to placate him and asked him to describe the plot of his intended film, Marx had fun with them, winging the most outlandish plot ever conceived. The attorneys finally broke off correspondence and dropped the matter.
He formed a poker club with a group of regulars who played for real cash. While the members met regularly for camaraderie and fun, Marx pretended that it was because he wanted to win money. He used some of the poker games in his movies.
In his long-running TV series,'You Bet Your Life,' Marx had a fake duck that would drop down if someone uttered the secret word and the person who spoke it would be paid $50.
One of his favorite correspondents, when it came to writing letters, was the dour-faced comedian Fred Allen. They would critique each other's television shows, jokes and other performances and never tired of trying to make each other laugh.
He once wrote a letter to Howard Hughes. Part of the letter reads, 'I presume you are a fairly busy man. However, I wonder if you could spare a few moments to release a picture that was made some years ago involving Jane Russell, Frank Sinatra and your correspondent. The name of the picture, if memory serves, is 'It's Only Money.' I never did see it, but I have been told that at its various previews it was received with considerable enthusiasm.'
Groucho had a reputation for chasing women. When he married his second wife, he wrote the following to Fred Allen: 'Dear Freddie, It's kind of nice to be married again, except that I can't stop making passes at strange girls. Of course, this will eventually wear off, I imagine about the time I get divorced again. You know, with patience, I may become the next Tommy Manville.'
He and his wife had dinner with author T.S. Eliot, who was not doing well physically, in June 1964. They amused one another and discussed literature, King Lear and some of Marx's movies like 'Animal Crackers ' and 'A Night At The Opera.' Eliot even referred to a courtroom scene in 'Duck Soup,' which Marx couldn't remember, and they had a very pleasant evening together.
Six months later, Eliot died. Groucho wrote a letter to Russell Baker, a journalist, and said, 'I was saddened by the death of T.S. Eliot. My wife and I had dinner at his home a few months ago and I realized then that he was not long for this world.
'He was a nice man, the best epitaph any man can have.'
Groucho Marx was a nice man. He died on Aug. 19, 1977, at the age of 86.
Author: Geno Lawrenzi Jr.
(Geno Lawrenzi Jr. is an international journalist, magazine author and ghostwriter and poker player who lives in Phoenx, AZ. He has published 2,000 articles in 50 magazines and 125 newspapers. If you want to share a gambling story or book idea with him, send an email to glawrenzi@gmail.com ).
