VOL. XV, NO. 11
APRIL 5, 1974
Groucho Receives Academy Award
By JEFF SCHWARZ
Many people who watched the Academy Awards presentations last Tuesday were shocked to see a vaguely familiar face receive an Oscar. This person has not made a movie in 25 years or even appeared regularly on television for 12 years. But this man, Groucho Marx, contributed much in making film comedies what they are today.
The Marx Brothers formed the greatest comedy team of the 1920-30 era. Groucho was the main character as he played practical jokes, made puns, talked hilarious nonsense, and mastered the one-liner.
He has a knack for coming up with a line for a certain situation on the spur of the moment that a normal person thinks of hours or days later. For instance, when he bumped into Greta Garbo, who at the time was the most famous starlet in Hollywood, he commented, "Oh, excuse me, I thought you were a fellow I know from Kansas City."
Many people who watched the Academy Awards presentations last Tuesday were shocked to see a vaguely familiar face receive an Oscar. This person has not made a movie in 25 years or even appeared regularly on television for 12 years. But this man, Groucho Marx, contributed much in making film comedies what they are today.
The Marx Brothers formed the greatest comedy team of the 1920-30 era. Groucho was the main character as he played practical jokes, made puns, talked hilarious nonsense, and mastered the one-liner.
He has a knack for coming up with a line for a certain situation on the spur of the moment that a normal person thinks of hours or days later. For instance, when he bumped into Greta Garbo, who at the time was the most famous starlet in Hollywood, he commented, "Oh, excuse me, I thought you were a fellow I know from Kansas City."
Groucho was a nut on and off the screen. In his movies he played such roles as Quincy Adams Wagstaff, J. Cheever Loophole, Otis B. Driftwood, and Rufus T. Firefly; so he must be a nut. Off stage he would start comedy routines at any time or place.
Unlike his brothers, Chico and Harpo, who were compulsive gamblers and playboys, Groucho, born Julius Henry in 1890, loved to be with his son Arthur and daughter Miriam. The inimitable Groucho could get away with things that anyone else could not. When his show, "You Bet Your Life," won the Peabody Award, he freely admitted that he never heard of George Foster Peabody. He than said, "It's a good thing the guy died; otherwise, we couldn't have won any prizes."
If anyone was lucky enough to see "Duck Soup," one of the Marx Brothers' better efforts, you know that the Oscar awarded to Groucho was justified.
Unlike his brothers, Chico and Harpo, who were compulsive gamblers and playboys, Groucho, born Julius Henry in 1890, loved to be with his son Arthur and daughter Miriam. The inimitable Groucho could get away with things that anyone else could not. When his show, "You Bet Your Life," won the Peabody Award, he freely admitted that he never heard of George Foster Peabody. He than said, "It's a good thing the guy died; otherwise, we couldn't have won any prizes."
If anyone was lucky enough to see "Duck Soup," one of the Marx Brothers' better efforts, you know that the Oscar awarded to Groucho was justified.
