JHaft

....neither would anyone else who was in attendance at the Film Forum. They show wonderful movies, but there's not a good seat in the house. If someone moves their head in Brooklyn, your view is obstructed...

I once caught PDQ in a live performance. Around 1979(?) at the Coconut Grove Playhouse [sic] in Miami....(where, incidentally, Burt Lahr opened in the inaugural US performance of Waiting For Godot many years hence)...Schickele was late and the orchestra sat on the stage twiddling their thumbs until they broke into some familiar air....suddenly, PDQ comes climbing into the theatre by way of the balcony...he literally scaled the wall of the theater, in wrinkled tails and desert boots...what an entrance! I also love Schickele Mix (his radio show). He's a rare talent in a world where radio stations (like the one stoneyburke grepses about) are all turning pop, etc...

rag in yiddish Heh heh...yes that does sound like a Peter Schickele-ism....who by the way is wonderful...

...that would be an interesting study for the Endowed Chair for Higher Marx Brothers Research at Univ of Alaska Southeast: the intersection of Russian Immigrants, Humor, and the Woman's Cloak and Suit business....Gummo was not the only funny man to have entered that business....(he entered the shmata business before he joined Zeppo at the agency...)

I did know that Zeppo was the Marx Bros' agent. So, too, was Gummo, after a stint in the dressmaking biz. Gummo I think went on to represent Groucho personally. Did NOT know that wonderful fact about Alan/Jack Jones. THANK YOU for sharing that.

Zeppo owned a company which machined parts for the war effort during World War II including the Marman clamps used to hold the Hiroshima bomb inside the Enola Gay.

Al-ooooone. Alone with a song of romaaaaance, for you.....Aloooooone. Good grief.

Did Zeppo have any kind of a singing voice, do you recall? Maybe he could have replaced Alan Jones in those later pics, whom I always kind of tolerate but have never been that fond of....

Of course you may correct! And of course you're right....got my movies confused there for a second..... Yeah, I wonder if Univ of Alaska Southeast has some sort of endowed Marx Brothers Studies chair.....

Dan?l Griffin, film critic for the University of Alaska Southeast, on Zeppo: "Zeppo?s parts were always intended to be a parody of the juvenile role often found in sappy musicals of the 1920s-30s era. Sometimes, he would just have a few lines, and he would otherwise be reduced to standing in the background with a big smile on his face. In these roles, he was a lampoon of the infamous extra, always grinning widely as a needless decoration, and always stiff and wooden. In other films, Zeppo would have a more significant role as the romantic lead, but he would still always be stiff, wooden, and, yes, with a big smile on his face. Either way, he could never be considered a real straight man. He was a sappy distortion of the real thing, and sort of the gateway through which we connected with the other Brothers. We perceived him as the ?normal, good-looking? one of the bunch, but was he really? Wasn?t there something about that line from The Cocoanuts, 'You can depend upon me, Mr. Hammer,' that was a little too ... happy? Roger Ebert called Zeppo 'superfluous,' and that is the point of his character in the six Paramount films. He was the straight man only in pure Marxian sense ? while his Brothers spat on movie clich?s, he imitated them, proving in his own way to be quite a brilliant comedian." ....well, I wouldn't go that far, but perhaps there's something in that, anyway.... movieman1957, great Grouch lines. I also LOVE that song you cite in Monkey Business.

FredCDobbs, I think Sellers was actually parodying Henry Kissinger...Schell may have indeed been the source material (you're right, they sound alike) but the intent was more overtly political...

BTW, Molly Haskell is a brilliant academic and is a big net postive to the world of film, but the interviews between Bob Osborne and Ms. Haskell on the Essentials have thusfar been an unmitigated DISASTER. (in my humble opinion.)

movieman1957, www.groucho.com just features the priceless letter to Warner Bros...no other content...fyi...

Did you see her intro to Duck Soup? "Women don't like the Marx Brothers." That's how this whole thread got started. But Molly wrote back to apologize and all is forgiven. The rest has been just a celebration of Marxism. ....and exploding herring....

Hooray for Captain Spaulding The African explorer Did someone call me schnorer?! Hello, I must be goo-ing....

Hooray for Capt Spaulding! The African Explorer Did someone call me schnorer?! Hello, I must be gooo-ing....

Hooray for Capt Spaulding! The African Explorer. Did someone call me schnorer?! Hello, I must be gooo-ing....

Hooray for Capt Spaulding! The African explorer. Did someone call me schnorer?! Hello, I must be gooo-ing....

Hooray for Capt Spaulding, the African explorer. Did someone call me schnorer?!? ....Hello, I must be gooo-ing....

Hooray for Capt Spaulding, the African explorer. Did someone call me schnorer?!? Hello, I must be going....

Hooray for Capt Spaulding, the African explorer. Did someone call me schnorer?!? Hello, I must be going....

Hooray for Capt Spaulding, the African explorer. Did someone call me schnorer?!? Hello, I must be going....

quite a coincidence. any funny questions? i bet this group would have aced the category!

The following letter was written by Groucho Marx to Warner Brothers after being warned that the title of the film "A Night in Casablanca" infringed on the name "Casablanca." It was read aloud during the 1997 bicentennial celebration for the Library of Congress, along with letters by Jefferson and Lincoln. The text was then printed in the New York Times. ******************** Apparently there is more than one way of conquering a city and holding it as your own. For example, up to the time that we contemplated making a picture, I had no idea that the city of Casablanca belonged to the Warner Brothers. However, it was only a few days after our announcement appeared that we received a long, ominous legal document warning us not to use the name "Casablanca." It seems that in 1471, Ferdinand Balboa Warner, the great-great grandfather of Harry and Jack, while looking for a shortcut to the city of Burbank, had stumbled on the shores of Africa and, raising his alpenstock, which he later turned in for a hundred shares of the common, he named it Casablanca. I just can't understand your attitude. Even if they plan on re-releasing the picture, I am sure that the average movie fan could learn to distinguish between Ingrid Bergman and Harpo. I don't know whether I could, but I certainly would like to try. You claim 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. Professionally, we were brothers long before you were. Even before us, there had been other brothers -- the Smith Brothers, the Brothers Karamazov; Dan Brouthers, an outfielder with Detroit, and "Brother, can you spare a dime?" This was originally "Brothers, can you spare a dime," but this was spreading a dime pretty thin, The younger Warner Brother calls himself Jack. Does he claim that, too? It's not an original name -- it was used long before he was born, Offhand, I can think of two Jacks -- there was Jack of "Jack and the Beanstalk" and Jack the Ripper, who cut quite a figure in his day. As for Harry, offhand I can think of two Harrys that preceded him. There was Lighthorse Harry of revolutionary fame and a Harry Appelbaum, who lived on the corner of 93rd Street and Lexington Avenue. This all seems to add up to a pretty bitter tirade but I don't mean to. I love Warners -- some of my best friends are Warner Brothers. I have a hunch that this attempt to prevent us from using the title is the scheme of some ferret-faced shyster serving an apprenticeship in their legal department. I know the type -- hot out of law school, hungry for success and too ambitious to follow the natural laws of promotion, this bar sinister probably needled Warner's attorneys, most of whom are fine fellows with curly black hair, double-breasted suits etc. in attempting to enjoin us. Well, he won't get away with it! We'll fight him to the highest court! No pasty-faced legal adventurer is going to cause bad blood between the Warners and the Marxes. We are all brothers under the skin and we'll remain friends till the last reel of "A Night in Casablanca" goes tumbling over the spool.

re: your recommendations here, THANKS! i'll check them out. "advantages of sleeping alone"....a blank...that's a gem. have you checked out the link: www.groucho.com? it features a letter that groucho wrote to warner brothers in response to their cease and desist letter over the title "a night in casablanca," claiming that the title infringed on their copyright It was read aloud during the 1997 bicentennial celebration for the Library of Congress, along with letters by Jefferson and Lincoln. a real hoot.