Queen (the band) contacted Groucho to ask if he was ok with them taking his movie names for the titles of their LPs (Night at the opera and Day at the races),Groucho's reply "It's fine by me and I'd be honoured if you'd name your next LP after my latest picture 'the Greatest hits of the Rolling Stones"
I was in Queen's fan club and they published a picture of the band meeting Groucho(at his home).I don't think he really cared too much either way as he was in his 90cs!
I don't want to live in a world that doesn't still find this genius man funny. I laughed throughout this whole bio. Thank you for the upload and thank you Mr. Marx for all the laughs.
Most of my one liners when I was growing up were pinched from the Marx brothers. At 68, I still fall back on them now and again, they still get laughs. God bless boys, you were the best!
time might have been ahead of me I was heading nowhere then time caught up with me by the time I caught up it was behind me! how time flies without leaving feathers!
My father introduced me to Marx Brothers movies. Just loved him. They shared a lower East side sense of humor and puns, which I inherited as one of my greatest gifts. Dad passed away last year and is buried in the same mortuary as Groucho. He would have liked to know that. I always thought Groucho was talking directly to me in his films. I watched Duck Soup again just two days ago. I sure miss you Groucho.
While filming A Night at the Opera, the brothers drove Sam Wood (director) crazy by going off script. “I can’t make a film out of clay!” He yelled. Groucho responded, “nor a director out of Wood.”
mine was when he was sitting with a lady at a restaurant...the bill came ,he grabbed the bill and said to the lady " this bill is outrageous, if I were you, I wouldn't pay it "
@@pavelthedog6939 there was a late Marx bros. picture ,where He's exiting a taxi, and I'd swear Charles Lane is the cabbie, but I'm not sure. he says" 18.75!" Groucho relpies "1875 .just what I thought. the 1940 models run much smoother."
Can't remember the movie, I must have been about 7 or 8yrs old, but Groucho upon walking this lady home after a bad date, left her at her door and said "I've had a wonderful evening. But this wasn't it". Dunno' why, but that got me. There wasn't anyone really playing with words like him. Thanks for posting this. Really enjoyed learning a bit about Groucho.
@ Rhobat Bryn... I heard a story concerning that line... I guess it was during the rehearsal of that scene and Margret Dumont asked what was the meaning of that joke and needed it explained to her... Groucho said they loved Margret and insisted that she be in their movies because she didn't get their humor and couldn't understand why people thought they were funny... she was the perfect straight man er woman
@@carlpen850 if you know anything about comedy and what a straight man or woman is oh, you would immediately know that Margaret Dumont certainly did understand the jokes. Otherwise she wouldn't know how to give those great reactions. Router did tell this story and he told her repeatedly and nobody that knew Margaret Dumont could ever understand why he said it. You have to have brains to have that kind of comedic timing and there are many instances where the straight man or woman is actually making the joke work as opposed to the comedian.
@@carlpen850Yeah unfortunately this isn’t true; not only did she get the jokes, there are many clips where she has to be a less restrained straight man and therefore is able to laugh freely, like the Hollywood Palace episode with her and Groucho
Every time I see one of these biographies I am reminded how blessed I have been to have lived in the lifetime of such men and women. My children and grandchildren will never know the joy of seeing such performers live in their heyday.
@@tonygrowley5275 you're right that people haven't changed much in thousands of years, but I never said they had, so your comment is pointless. What I said was "My children and grandchildren will never know the joy of seeing such performers LIVE IN THEIR HEYDAY [emphasis added]." The pioneers who created the movie and television industry, the Grouchos, Keystone Cops, Errol Flynns, Humphrey Bogarts, Ed Sullivans, Jackie Gleesons, Lucille Balls, Clark Gables, Walt Disneys, and all the rest who built the movie and TV industry are all gone now. I got to see many of them perform live when I was young. The industries are is now mature and actually in decline. Half of what you see is CGI and very little is original. Just look at all the sequels, remakes, and copycats! My children and grandchildren can still watch all those classics I grew up with, but they will NEVER be able to see those performers LIVE, nor when their movies and TV shows were IN THEIR HEYDAY. That's an indisputable fact ... but it didn't stop you from creating a "straw man" to try to dispute it. Hmmmm ........
@@PellmanSensei Back in their HEYDAY there was no competition, no internet where sad sacks like you could whine all day on RU-vid for entertainment. You are just a cranky old man pining for the past. Today's actors and comedians are just as good. You should have heard the shaman's jokes around the campfire in prehistoric times.. Your facts about the future are only your deluded opinions. HMMM......
There was an episode of "I Dream Of Jeannie" in which Major Roger Healey makes the wish to be "The funniest man in the world" and who pops into the picture? The One And Only - Groucho!
His son didn’t share in the total admiration of his father . When asked why the son said “ We were going thru customs , coming back from a Canadian vacation, when we were asked to step aside. The customs officer asked Groucho what he did for a living. Without batting an eye Groucho replied ‘ Smuggler ‘ “. The family then spent hours being interrogated. They were pissed but Groucho thought it hilarious.
A priest once thanked him for all the joy he brought into the world, without batting an eye Groucho replied “...and I’d like to thank you for all the joy you’ve taken out of it”
it seems that every 50 years or so, a great, legendary and of course hilarious comedy group would arrive. I was an 8-yr old Canadian army brat, posted to Germany. We were on a Cunard ocean liner heading to Rotterdam in the late 1950s. I discovered the Marx Brothers. The ship's theatre would play a Marx Brothers movie for the matinee every day. Saw them all and was mesmerized. Rediscovered them in my 20s and realized how literate their insanity was. "I'd horsewhip you if I had a horse." And about 50 years after the Marx Brothers hit, we got "Nudge nudge, wink wink, know what I mean" and a whole new stream of legendary, hilarious TV, movies, stage and radio.
Yola Montalvan ~Really?! Even here? Is that all you think about? Doesn't it seem a little unhealthy to frame your entire worldview on the whatever jerkoff is occupying the White House? Did you ever think a hobby might be a better choice? I'm starting to think it might be more interesting to know what is NOT ruined because...Trump. bet every month when you get your cramps, you curse Trump.
Juliaflo, Yola, Jeff, Love, and All -- we're all here, we're hoping for a laugh, for obvious reasons, and how funny, I hope, eventually as we discover we're all in the same clown family.
It’s more than a year since your post and I wanted to say I came across this simply because I admire another more recent character actor who has a deep love for the Marx Brothers which just goes to show how incredibly talented Groucho and his other brothers were. I’m 35 and I remember adoring A Night at the Opera when I was a kid.
@@perniciouspete4986 Unfortunately, you're probably right, so thank the censors for leaving Groucho's on youtube I've heard this before, but it's alway refreshing to hear it again.
@knight: that was then. If Groucho were alive today, he would be considered a conservative republican, if not a libertarian. To quote Reagan, "I didn't move away from the democrat party, they moved away from me." I'm 100% certain Groucho would say the same today. To wit, and quoting from Wikipedia: *However, just like some of the other Democrats of the time, Marx also said in a television interview that he disliked the women's liberation movement. On the July 7, 1967 "Firing Line" TV show, Groucho said, "The whole political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence."*
My favorite is the "Trial of Chicolini" from Duck Soup. Groucho: I suggest we give him ten years in Leavenworth or eleven years in Twelveworth. Chico: Tell you what I'll do. I'll take five and ten in Woolworth's.
Two quotes near the end are really descriptive and touching - "He had spent a lifetime planting comic time bombs under our seats", and when Cavett says that he needed a Groucho to cheer him up, and he was the only person in the world who couldn't have one.
Whatever happened to his kids I know that Melinda ran away from Hollywood and that this lady they interviewed seems like a nice ole gal and I think he had a son but I'm not sure if they are still living
And that amazing scene where Chico, grinning maniacally,plays the piano faster and faster, harder and harder, gradually working up to totally destroying the piano!
linshanhsiang YES.... the line of all lines after announcing there is a sanitry clause with the landlord.... the comedy was fast and sharp, Only a few comediens have come close to this quality, Morcambe and Wise......"I am playing all the right notes but not necessarily in the right order. Victoria Wood................."Two Soups" you gota watch this sketch, Julie Walters kills me with her old lady impression... Ricky Gervais..................Anything he does, The Office, Extras, Standup..... There are more....
Believe it or not, a lot of rock stars hung out with Groucho. Alice Cooper and his manager Shep Woolley met him once and Shep offered to look at Groucho’s finances and found lots of money he was either owed or checks he hadn’t cashed. At one point, Groucho yelled “Shep! It’s been five minutes, you haven’t sued anybody!” Alice paid Groucho tribute by putting his face on the cover of his Greatest Hits album
I'm 58, I was probably around 13 when I saw my first Marx Brothers movie, and I was enthralled. I always cracked up when Harpo would put his leg into someone's hand. My sister and I would try to do that to others sometimes. I had enjoyed all the Three Stooges movies before, but this was completely different, humor that made you think but was also slapstick. I remember when Groucho died in 1977, just a few days after Elvis Presley. One of my favorite movie scenes was when about 25 people were crammed into a closet and Groucho says, "Call room service and have them send up a bigger room."
64, I have 3 different collections of all their released movies with extra goodies included. An Evening With Groucho (Dick Cavett) LP set. Every time I watch the films, I'm seeing them the first time! I think you might be referring to "A Night At The Opera", aboard the ship where (it was already crowded with the boys) they order room service and proceed to let in everybody that knocks on the door of which finally bursts open, spewing out all of them tumbling akimbo!
I loved Groucho's disdain for hob-snobbery and the satirical mockery he made of it; without hesitation. Perhaps the best American comedic genius to come out of the twentieth century; I adored him. Indeed, we lost a Golden Child when we lost Groucho Marx.
Ha, Groucho was constantly passive aggressive. That was his whole schtick. In other words, anger and hatred through constant verbal sniping and criticism. Plus he was clinically depressed over his lifetime. Nice try!
The MARX BROTHERS WERE GREAT ALL OF MY EARLY LIFE BACK IN THE 1950's on a black & white television. They brought joy and laughter to those who watched them.
I dont think I ever laughed so hard in my life until I discovered old Groucho movies on the tv like 50-55 years ago. The first time I would see one would laugh so hard my side would hurt To a young teen seeing a guy with such crazy moves and zinging fast jokes and comebacks God he was funny
One of the best. Groucho, sitting on the sofa, trying to make out with a married woman, in her hotel room., when there was a knock on the door. " It's my husband " she exclaimed. " Quick, duck behind the sofa", as she stood up to open the door & let him in. Then as she embraced her husband, Groucho stands up, from behind the sofa, saying "NO THERE ISN'T ! ". Anyone know the film ?
I miss these movie documentaries from the VHS/Laserdisc era. These are essential time capsules that captured the people who lived these times and witnessed the history.
The title is indeed apt. Groucho was truly special. Kinda sad, in a way. But one look at Groucho and I start to feel better. He can make make me laugh even when I know the lines as well as he does. I hope he knows, wherever he is, just how much good he did for the world just by being Groucho. Even now, a day with Groucho in it is just a bit better. I'm truly grateful he left us so much that we can continue to enjoy.We still need him. Thanks for posting this.
When challenged to use "innendo" in a sentence: "Love flies out the door when money comes innuendo." That might have been in "Horsefeathers" but don't quote me.
Great program. I used to watch "You Bet Your Life" every week with my parents. My dad used to sometimes laugh hysterically when he watched. Most of the time he was way too quick for me to "get" every time.
Such a fan! When I was a teen I rushed out to buy the double record set, Live at Carnegie Hall and read every book I could get my hands on about the Marx Bros. I never saw this documentary before today. Didnt even know that it existed! Everything I was supposed to do this morning just got put on hold.....
Absolutely brilliant mind. His puns and double entendres were an art form. Even in today's environment, he could get away with political incorrectness without being castigated for it.
I love that man! Ever since I was little, and now that I'm on the dark side of middle age, too. I adore Groucho! He died three days after Elvis; I cried all week long.
Agree. It was sad how little attention was paid to his passing... it was all about Elvis. Will probably get many thumbs down for this, but of the two I always thought Groucho far more talented.
@@joeambrose3260 Peanut gallery comments aside, schmuck, Groucho did not lift his act lock stock and barrel from the black musicians of the south. He, along with his brothers, created his own entire category of entertainment. And he did so during the height of the depression when there was little money around, not in the post WWII baby boom when money literally seemed to grow on trees. Marx also managed to survive to a ripe old age without becoming a bloated drug addict. Elvis' music was very good - just like the black musicians of the south he learned it from
We still have a couple of "newer" comics who subscribe to that philosophy, but they are now getting near retirement age, too: Tim Allen and Jay Leno. Each has explicitly stated that they don't do dirty, and for good reason, as you cite. As the documentary says, Groucho didn't have to do dirty, he only had to raise his eyebrows and let your imagination fill in the blanks.
@@demef758 Leno was never funny period. It's easy to be generally clean hosting an old tonight's show, though he still managed to tell 1000 Monica Lewinsky blowjob, cigar insertion, jizz jokes
He enjoyed making us laugh. I’ve heard his jokes many times over and yet when I hear them again I still laugh like it was the first time I heard it. To me that’s the sign of great talent. Thank you for the video!
When Groucho went to Berlin after the War he asked about the location of Hitler's bunker and initial grave. He then danced on and around it doing his Groucho dance ..
The pure folklore is that you DON'T know shit from shinola - it would take anyone who wasn't a lazy sod five seconds to find verifications of Groucho's Hitler dance on the internet.
I started performing as Groucho over 60 years ago, and I couldn't even come close to his fast wit and amazing brain. The Marx Brothers were one of the funniest groups in history. Enough said!
What I remember about Groucho is how much my father enjoyed him. Dad never missed You Bet Your life. Once he had a man on who said that he had been married for seven years and had seven children. Groucho said, "seven children in seven years?" The man replied, '"I love my wife Groucho." Groucho's comeback, "I love my cigar too, but I take it our once in awhile." Dad nearly fell out of the chair laughing. I guess he could relate. At that time we had seven kids in our family.
His books are proof of his accomplishments as a writer! They could stand alone as testaments of his genius if they didn’t have to compete with his stage, movie, radio, and tv careers. His autobiography, Groucho and Me is great!
It makes me so happy to see the number of the Views this video has, what a wonderful contribution to the world of laughter Groucho made. Nothing is more important
This was a fantastic tribute to the funniest artist ever!!! Although he was before my time, I was blessed to have the opportunity to witness the greatness of him through reruns and nostalgia TV. He will ALWAYS be a great!!!
Two Harpo stories: Goucho's son said the only time he ever saw his father cry was at Harpo's funeral. Harpo's wife said, "My heart still leaps when I hear his footsteps."
Groucho Marx was the KING of comedy! He had an incredible ability to take any situation or set of facts and make a funny humorous comment[without giving it too much thought]!
Margaret Dumont who was very beautiful was an amazing and perfect foil for Groucho, and he once reportedly said “ I’ll never belong to a club who would have someone like me as a member” Thank you for posting.
That line or something similar was reputedly in his letter of resignation from the Friar's Club, or some other exclusive club. It's purely apocryphal as the letter itself wasn't saved and his son, Arthur, gave varying accounts of the incident.
He was truly unique, as indeed were the Marx Brothers. We have nothing like those boys today which is very sad because the world desperately needs them.
I recently watched “A Night T the Opera “ on TCM. Groucho’s really amazing bag of tricks was incredible. What a great entertainer he was. Thanks, Groucho, from all of us!
I’ve watched this bio on Groucho many times over the years! He was one of those “once in a lifetime” well-loved comedians/ entertainers. He and his brothers’ comedy will be remembered forever!
The only person I ever compared Robin Williams to was Groucho. And the only who has come close to Robin (for me at least) was Groucho. Think about it: the speed, wordplay, the asides, breaking the fourth wall, the physical comedy, off-color/taboo, political, dark humor, satire, improv, the speed of delivery, as well as the sheer volume of work is incredible. If there is even a third comedian - and I don't know who it could be - that should - be in this list I'd like know who. I will adore of these giants forever. They made the world a better place.
