Gary Owens (born Gary Bernard Altman ; May 10, 1934 – February 12, 2015) was an American disc jockey, voice actor, announcer and radio personality. His polished baritone speaking voice generally offered deadpan recitations of total nonsense, which he frequently demonstrated as the announcer on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In . Owens was equally proficient in straight or silly assignments and was frequently heard on television and radio as well as in commercials.
114-542: Leonard Joseph " Chico " Marx ( / ˈ tʃ ɪ k oʊ / CHIK -oh ; March 22, 1887 – October 11, 1961) was an American comedian, actor and pianist. He was the oldest brother in the Marx Brothers comedy troupe, alongside his brothers Arthur ("Harpo"), Julius ("Groucho"), Milton ("Gummo") and Herbert ("Zeppo"). His persona in the act was that of a charming, uneducated but crafty con artist, seemingly of rural Italian origin, who wore shabby clothes and sported
228-708: A Hollywood Walk of Fame Star in 1980, between those of Walt Disney and Betty White . On August 30, 1983, Owens emceed the unveiling ceremony for the Hollywood Walk of Fame Star for The Three Stooges . Owens, a long-time friend of the Stooges, had been a major driving force in helping the Stooges get the Star. The ceremony was featured on Entertainment Tonight . In the 1980s, he announced on jazz radio station KKJZ (then KKGO-FM) in Long Beach, California . On
342-416: A gumshoe detective . Other sources reported that Gummo was the family's hypochondriac, having been the sickliest of the brothers in childhood, and therefore wore rubber overshoes , called gumshoes, in all kinds of weather. Still others reported that Milton was the troupe's best dancer, and dance shoes tended to have rubber soles. Groucho stated that the source of the name was Gummo wearing galoshes. Whatever
456-477: A "low point", where all seems lost for both the Marxes and the romantic leads. He instituted the innovation of testing the film's script before live audiences before filming began, to perfect the comic timing, and to retain jokes that earned laughs and replace those that did not. Thalberg restored Harpo's harp solos and Chico's piano solos, which had been omitted from Duck Soup . The first Marx Brothers/Thalberg film
570-464: A Mangy Lover (1964) and The Groucho Letters (1967). Groucho and Chico briefly appeared in a 1957 color short film promoting The Saturday Evening Post entitled Showdown at Ulcer Gulch , directed by animator Shamus Culhane , Chico's son-in-law. Groucho, Chico, and Harpo worked together (in separate scenes) in The Story of Mankind (1957). In 1959, the three began production of Deputy Seraph ,
684-493: A TV series starring Harpo and Chico as blundering angels, and Groucho (in every third episode) as their boss, the " Deputy Seraph ". The project was abandoned when Chico was found to be uninsurable (and incapable of memorizing his lines) due to severe arteriosclerosis . On March 8 of that year, Chico and Harpo starred as bumbling thieves in The Incredible Jewel Robbery , a half-hour pantomimed episode of
798-637: A book titled How to Make a Million Dollars With Your Voice (Or Lose Your Tonsils Trying) . In his last years, Owens was the promotional announcing voice for Antenna TV , an over-the-air digital network dedicated to classic shows of the past, like Three's Company , The Monkees , Adam-12 and Gidget . Owens married Arleta Markell on June 26, 1956; they remained married for nearly sixty years until his death in February 2015. Together they had two sons, Scott and Chris. Owens died on February 12, 2015, at age 80, from complications due to Type 1 diabetes ,
912-546: A cameo appearance on Space Ghost Coast to Coast in 1998. Owens' first cartoon-voice acting was performing the voice of Roger Ramjet on the Roger Ramjet cartoons. He later served as announcer of Antenna TV . Owens was born in Mitchell, South Dakota , the son of Venetta Clark Altman, an educator and county auditor, and Bernard Joseph Altman, a county treasurer and sheriff. Owens started his radio career in 1952 as
1026-594: A candle burning at both ends. During this period Chico and Groucho starred in a radio comedy series, Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel . Though the series was short lived, much of the material developed for it was used in subsequent films. The show's scripts and recordings were believed lost until copies of the scripts were found in the Library of Congress in the 1980s. After publication in a book they were performed with Marx Brothers' impersonators for BBC Radio . Their last Paramount film, Duck Soup (1933), directed by
1140-467: A career. Other celebrity fans of the comedy ensemble have been Antonin Artaud , The Beatles , Anthony Burgess , Alice Cooper , Robert Crumb , Salvador Dalí , Eugene Ionesco , George Gershwin (who dressed up as Groucho once), René Goscinny , Cédric Klapisch , J. D. Salinger and Kurt Vonnegut . Salvador Dalí once made a drawing depicting Harpo. The epic graphic novel, Cerebus
1254-413: A comedic look at the history of the telephone, and appeared in the first season of Barnaby Jones , in the episode titled "Twenty Million Alibis", playing the role of Gary Michaels. On the live album Uptown Rulers by the funk band The Meters , Owens can be heard on the first track introducing the band. The live recording took place on March 24, 1975, at Paul and Linda McCartney 's release party for
SECTION 10
#17327725981121368-545: A comedy spoof record album titled Sunday Morning With the Funnies with the Jimmy Haskell Orchestra on Reprise Records. During this period, Owens became more widely known as the voice of the eponymous television cartoon characters in Roger Ramjet and Space Ghost ; the excitable narrator/announcer from The Perils of Penelope Pitstop ; and perhaps most well-known, as the hand-on-the-ear announcer in
1482-488: A condition with which he was first diagnosed at the age of eight. Owens provided the voices for: He also narrated or announced dozens of other cartoons, as well as the fourth and sixth installments of the Space Quest PC game series. When appearing "in character" on camera as "Gary Owens, the announcer", Owens held his right hand up to his right ear while speaking into a gimbaled boom microphone . This
1596-557: A contract with Paramount Pictures and embarked on their film career at Paramount's studios in New York City's Astoria section. Their first two released films (after an unreleased short silent film titled Humor Risk ) were adaptations of the Broadway shows The Cocoanuts (1929) and Animal Crackers (1930). Both were written by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind . Production then shifted to Hollywood, beginning with
1710-480: A curly-haired wig and Tyrolean hat . On screen, Chico is often in alliance with Harpo, usually as partners in crime, and is also frequently seen trying to con or outfox Groucho. Leonard was the oldest of the Marx Brothers to live past early childhood, the first-born being Manfred Marx who had died in infancy. In addition to his work as a performer, he played an important role in the management and development of
1824-479: A family of artists, and their musical talent was encouraged from an early age. Harpo was particularly talented, learning to play an estimated six different instruments throughout his career. He became a dedicated harpist, which gave him his nickname. Chico was an excellent pianist, Groucho a guitarist and singer, and Zeppo a vocalist. They got their start in vaudeville , where their uncle Albert Schönberg performed as Al Shean of Gallagher and Shean . Groucho's debut
1938-539: A few years prior. At around this time, the rest of the Marx brothers, finally aware of Chico's out-of-control gambling, took full control over his finances; they took all money away from Chico as he earned it and put him on an allowance to curb his constant betting and gambling. Chico stayed on the allowance until his death. Chico had a reputation as a world-class pinochle player, a game he and Harpo learned from their father. Groucho said Chico would throw away good cards (with
2052-698: A guest appearance to introduce the Tonight Show's new host, Johnny Carson . Around 1960, acclaimed director Billy Wilder considered writing and directing a new Marx Brothers film. Tentatively titled A Day at the U.N. , it was to be a comedy of international intrigue set around the United Nations building in New York. Wilder had discussions with Groucho and Gummo, but the project was put on hold because of Harpo's ill health, and abandoned when Chico died on October 11, 1961, from arteriosclerosis , at
2166-527: A gun, as part of the act. Other examples of his keyboard flamboyance are found in Go West (1940), where he plays the piano by rolling an apple over the keys and A Night in Casablanca (1946), where he performs a rendition of " The Beer Barrel Polka ". Chico became the unofficial manager of the Marx Brothers after their mother, Minnie , died in 1929. As manager, he negotiated with the studios to get
2280-408: A highly distinctive stage persona. After the group essentially disbanded in 1950, Groucho went on to a successful second career in television, while Harpo and Chico appeared less prominently. The two younger brothers, Gummo and Zeppo, never developed their stage characters to the same extent as the elder three. Both left the act to pursue business careers at which they were successful, and for a time ran
2394-495: A large theatrical agency through which they represented their brothers and others. Gummo was not in any of the movies; Zeppo appeared in the first five films in relatively straight (non-comedic) roles. The early performing lives of the brothers owed much to their mother, Minnie Marx (the sister of vaudeville comic Al Shean ), who acted as their manager until her death in 1929. The Marx Brothers were born in New York City ,
SECTION 20
#17327725981122508-958: A news reporter at KORN in Mitchell, South Dakota, and two years later was promoted to news director. In 1956, he left KORN for a newscaster job at KMA , Shenandoah, Iowa , before moving on to a disc jockey job at KOIL , Omaha, Nebraska . He also worked in Dallas , New Orleans , St. Louis , and at KIMN in Denver before relocating to California in 1959, working at KROY in Sacramento and KEWB in Oakland before finally settling in Los Angeles . Owens moved to KEWB's sister station 980 KFWB in Los Angeles in 1961. From there, he joined
2622-704: A premium pay channel on cable to a standard channel. Owens guest starred on one episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! From 1987 to 1992, Owens was the voice of Lt. Dirk Niblick of the Math Brigade, the protagonist of an animated series which was part of PBS's Square One TV . Owens was the voice narrator on the ABC Saturday morning animated series Mighty Orbots in 1984. In 1989 Owens appeared in Night Court , season 7 episode 7, entitled "Auntie Maim". Owens played DJ Bobby Bumgartner. In
2736-608: A respected art collector: In A Night at the Opera , which begins in Italy, his character, Fiorello, claims not to be Italian, eliciting a surprised look from Groucho : A scene in the film Go West , in which Chico attempts to placate an Indian chief of whom Groucho has run afoul, has a line that plays a bit on Chico's lack of Italian nationality, but is more or less proper Marxian wordplay: There are moments, however, where his characters appear to be genuinely Italian; examples include
2850-454: A runaway mule. The audience hurried out to see what was happening. Groucho was angered by the interruption and, when the audience returned, he made snide comments at their expense, including "Nacogdoches is full of roaches" and "the jackass is the flower of Tex-ass". Instead of becoming angry, the audience laughed. The family then realized that it had potential as a comic troupe. (However, in his autobiography Harpo Speaks , Harpo Marx stated that
2964-512: A short film that was included in Paramount's twentieth anniversary documentary, The House That Shadows Built (1931), in which they adapted a scene from I'll Say She Is . Their third feature-length film, Monkey Business (1931), was their first movie not based on a stage production. Horse Feathers (1932), in which the brothers satirized the American college system and Prohibition ,
3078-462: A shorter version. In 2001, TV Land released two computer games titled Blast from the Past , hosted by Owens and featuring other TV celebrities including Florence Henderson , Ed Asner , Davy Jones , Bob Denver , Don Adams , Barbara Eden , Todd Bridges , Alan Young , and Marion Ross , among others. The games spoofed a game show and the prize for winners was an interview with the chosen celebrity
3192-495: A similar fashion to Batman's utility belt with an endless supply of weapons and other devices. Owens would provide the voice of the Blue Falcon from 1976 through 1977 in 20 half-hour episodes. The 1977 episodes were broken into two parts that ran 11 minutes each — 16 episodes in 1976 and four in 1977. Also, he narrated Yogi's Space Race in 1978 and announced for Disney's Wonderful World, starting in 1979. Owens received
3306-438: A stooped walk. Harpo stopped speaking onstage and began to wear a red fright wig and carry a taxi-cab horn. Chico spoke with a fake Italian accent, developed off-stage to deal with neighborhood toughs, while Zeppo adopted the role of the romantic (and "peerlessly cheesy", according to James Agee ) straight man . The on-stage personalities of Groucho, Chico, and Harpo were said to have been based on their actual traits. Zeppo, on
3420-496: A tailor and his mother was from East Frisia in Germany . Billing himself as Chico (pronounced as "Chicko"), he used an Italian persona for his onstage character. Stereotyped ethnic characters were common with vaudevillians. His questionable Italian ethnicity was specifically referred to twice on film: In their second feature, Animal Crackers , he recognizes someone he knows to be a fish peddler from Czechoslovakia impersonating
3534-484: Is entombed in the mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California . Chico's brother Gummo is in a crypt across the hall from him. Actor Michael Tucci portrayed Chico alongside Gabe Kaplan as Groucho in the play Groucho (later released on home video under the title Gabe Kaplan as Groucho ) originally broadcast on HBO in 1982. Actors who have portrayed Chico Marx in stage revivals of
Chico Marx - Misplaced Pages Continue
3648-423: Is virtual nil." After reviewing the test results, producer Connell advised that the segments be shelved, referring to them as "Connell's Folly". The segments never aired on Sesame Street . Owens was a scriptwriter for Jay Ward Productions , appeared in many series for Walt Disney , and did over 30,000 commercials. He was also a guest star on The Munsters , I Dream of Jeannie , and McHale's Navy . During
3762-541: The General Electric Theater on CBS. Groucho made a cameo appearance (uncredited, because of constraints in his NBC contract) in the last scene, and delivered the only line of dialogue ("We won't talk until we see our lawyer!"). According to a September 1947 article in Newsweek , Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo all signed to appear as themselves in a biographical film entitled The Life and Times of
3876-640: The Sesame Street pilots in a sketch called "The Man from Alphabet" as the title character, a bumbling spy in a trench coat who, with the help of a young paperboy called H.B., tried to catch the villainous Digby Dropout and his henchman Dunce using clues from H.B.'s "Alphabet Book". Initially, the Man was also to have had a chief, "Teacher". The segments were created by Sesame Street executive producer David Connell and referenced such tongue-in-cheek spy series as Get Smart and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. . Despite
3990-505: The Venus and Mars album held aboard the RMS ; Queen Mary . Owens did the humorous news blurbs that are interspersed throughout the 1975 film The Prisoner of Second Avenue . In 1976–77, he hosted the first season of the nighttime version of The Gong Show ; he was replaced by the show's creator, Chuck Barris . In that same year, Owens became the voice of a new cartoon character,
4104-553: The American Film Institute (AFI) as among the top 100 comedy films , with two of them, Duck Soup (1933) and A Night at the Opera (1935), in the top fifteen. They are widely considered by critics, scholars and fans to be among the greatest and most influential comedians of the 20th century. The brothers were included in AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars list of the 25 greatest male stars of Classical Hollywood cinema,
4218-644: The Selective Service caught up with Marxes, and each was rejected except Gummo, who was drafted; he spent the war serving in Illinois. Following this, Zeppo (the youngest brother) joined the team. By this time, "The Four Marx Brothers" had begun to incorporate their unique style of comedy into their act and to develop their characters. Both Groucho's and Harpo's memoirs say that their now-famous on-stage personae were created by Al Shean . Groucho began to wear his trademark greasepaint mustache and to use
4332-418: The " Music of Your Life " adult standards station. Owens in the morning and Dick Whittinghill in afternoon drive was an inversion of Owens' KMPC years. When Roger Barkley surprisingly walked out of the long-running Lohman and Barkley Show on KFI in Los Angeles, Owens briefly teamed with Al Lohman for the successful morning commute show. Jeff Gehringer was brought on as producer. The program ended after
4446-496: The 'establishment', [and] at his hilarious biting best with his film soundtrack one-line zingers on his love life, his son, politics, big business, society, etc.". Village Voice critic Robert Christgau was less enthusiastic, however, grading the LP a C-plus and recommending it only to fanatics of the comedy group, also expressing displeasure with the interspersing of small portions of "annoying music" and Owens's commentary. In 1970,
4560-447: The 1920s, the Marx Brothers had become one of America's favorite theatrical acts, with their sharp and bizarre sense of humor. They satirized high society and human hypocrisy, and they became famous for their improvisational comedy in free-form scenarios. A famous early instance was when Harpo arranged to chase a fleeing chorus girl across the stage during the middle of a Groucho monolog, to see if Groucho would be thrown off. However, to
4674-491: The 1930s and 1940s, Chico led a big band . Crooner Mel Tormé began his professional career singing with the Chico Marx Orchestra. Through the 1950s, Chico occasionally appeared on a variety of television anthology shows and some television commercials, most notably with Harpo (and a cameo appearance by Groucho) in "The Incredible Jewelry Robbery", a pantomime episode of General Electric Theater in 1959; This
Chico Marx - Misplaced Pages Continue
4788-484: The 1940s onward Chico and Harpo appeared separately and together in nightclubs and casinos. Chico fronted a big band , the Chico Marx Orchestra (with 17-year-old Mel Tormé as a vocalist). Groucho made several radio appearances during the 1940s and starred in You Bet Your Life , which ran from 1947 to 1961 on NBC radio and television. He authored several books, including Groucho and Me (1959), Memoirs of
4902-558: The Aardvark , by Dave Sim , includes a character Lord Julius who is based on Groucho's stage persona. Peter Sellers imitates Groucho in Let's Go Crazy (1951). Gary Owens He was best known, aside from being the announcer on Laugh-In , for providing the voices of the titular superhero on Space Ghost and of Blue Falcon in Dynomutt, Dog Wonder . He also played himself in
5016-592: The Atlantic Auction [Atlantic Ocean]!" Chico's character is often assumed to be dim-witted, as he frequently misunderstands words spoken by other characters (particularly Groucho). However, he often gets the better of the same characters by extorting money from them, either by con or blackmail; again, Groucho is his most frequent target. Chico was a talented pianist . He originally started playing with only his right hand and fake playing with his left, as his teacher did so herself. Although he took lessons, Chico
5130-407: The Blue Falcon, a character who fought crime in fictional Big City with the "help" of his clumsy sidekick, Dynomutt, also known as Dynomutt, Dog Wonder . The series was a parody of Batman , specifically the live-action version starring Adam West . It was not uncommon to see the Blue Falcon use various "falcon gadgets", much like Batman used various "Bat-Equipment" items. The falcon belt was used in
5244-650: The Marx Brothers . In addition to being a non-fiction biography of the Marxes, the film would have featured the brothers re-enacting much of their previously unfilmed material from both their vaudeville and Broadway eras. The film, had it been made, would have been the first performance by the Brothers as a quartet since 1933. The five brothers made only one television appearance together, in 1957, on an early incarnation of The Tonight Show called Tonight! America After Dark , hosted by Jack Lescoulie . Five years later (October 1, 1962) after Jack Paar's tenure, Groucho made
5358-424: The Marx Brothers musical plays include Peter Slutsker, Les Marsden and Matt Roper . Frank Lazarus played Chico in a 1990 radio adaptation of Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel . Marx Brothers The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville , on Broadway , and in 14 motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. Five of the Marx Brothers' fourteen feature films were selected by
5472-424: The Marx Brothers' Paramount films were collected and released on an LP album, The Original Voice Tracks from Their Greatest Movies , by Decca Records . The excerpts were interspersed with voice-over introductions by disc jockey and voice actor Gary Owens . The album was praised by Billboard as "a program of zany antics"; the magazine highlighted the excerpts of Groucho, who was "way ahead of his time in spoofing
5586-445: The Marx Brothers. Most of the comedians provided their own voices for their animated counterparts, except for Fields and Chico Marx (both of whom had died) and Zeppo Marx (who had left show business in 1933). Voice actor Paul Frees filled in for all three (no voice was needed for Harpo). The Marx Brothers' segment was a re-working of a scene from their Broadway play I'll Say She Is , a parody of Napoleon that Groucho considered among
5700-538: The Marx family wondered whether he was real, but Manfred's death certificate from the Borough of Manhattan reveals that he died, aged seven months, on July 17, 1886, of enterocolitis , with " asthenia " contributing, i.e., probably a victim of influenza. He is buried in Washington Cemetery (Brooklyn, NY) , beside his grandmother, Fanny Sophie Schönberg (née Salomons), who died on April 10, 1901. During
5814-504: The Paramount contract Zeppo left the act to become an agent. He and brother Gummo went on to build one of the biggest talent agencies in Hollywood, working with the likes of Jack Benny and Lana Turner . Groucho and Chico did radio, and there was talk of returning to Broadway. At a bridge game with Chico, Irving Thalberg began discussing the possibility of the Marxes joining Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer . They signed, now billed in films before
SECTION 50
#17327725981125928-706: The Races , leaving the Marxes without an advocate at the studio. After a short experience at RKO ( Room Service , 1938), the Marx Brothers returned to MGM and made three more films: At the Circus (1939), Go West (1940) and The Big Store (1941). Prior to the release of The Big Store the team announced they were retiring from the screen. Four years later, however, Chico persuaded his brothers to make two additional films, A Night in Casablanca (1946) and Love Happy (1949), to alleviate his severe gambling debts. Both pictures were released by United Artists . From
6042-567: The Surf" fame in 1963), and Jim "Weather Eyes" Hawthorne. Owens appeared on eight episodes of the 1966-67 television series The Green Hornet . Owens also did his famous "Good Evening Kiss" on KMPC when he was on from 9 p.m. to midnight, by saying, "Now I'll just snuggle up to a nice warm microphone, and embracemoi ", making a big wet kiss sound effect followed by the sound effect of a gong striking. In 1966, Owens collaborated with Bob Arbogast, June Foray , Daws Butler , Paul Frees , and others on
6156-455: The act in its early years. Marx was born in Manhattan , New York City, on March 22, 1887. His parents were Sam Marx (called "Frenchie" throughout his life), and his wife, Minnie Schoenberg Marx . Minnie's brother was vaudeville comedian Al Shean , best known as one half of Gallagher and Shean . The Marx family was Franco-German Jewish . His father was a native of Alsace who worked as
6270-500: The advance publicity, and Connell's investment in the series, "The Man from Alphabet" proved to be a failure with test audiences. The Man from Alphabet's constant bungling and problem-solving attempts confused kids and the lessons never came across. H.B.'s role as the true problem-solver was not clearly understood, a fact exacerbated by the child actor's stilted delivery and poor diction. As assessed by Edward L. Palmer, "The amount of truly effective educational content, relative to our goals,
6384-411: The age of 74. Three years later, Harpo died on September 28, 1964, at the age of 75, following a heart attack one day after heart surgery . In 1966, Filmation produced a pilot for a Marx Brothers cartoon. Groucho's voice was supplied by Pat Harrington Jr. and other voices were done by Ted Knight and Joe Besser (of The Three Stooges fame). In 1969, audio excerpts of dialogue from all five of
6498-483: The audience's delight, Groucho merely reacted by commenting, "First time I ever saw a taxi hail a passenger." When Harpo chased the girl back in the other direction, Groucho calmly checked his watch and ad-libbed, "The 9:20's right on time. You can set your watch by the Lehigh Valley ." The brothers' vaudeville act had made them stars on Broadway under Chico's management and with Groucho's creative direction, with
6612-543: The audience," Groucho recalled. (Zeppo stood in for Groucho in the film version of Animal Crackers . Groucho was unavailable to film the scene in which the Beaugard painting is stolen, so the script was contrived to include a power failure, which allowed Zeppo to play the Spaulding part in near-darkness.) In December 1917, the Marx brothers were noted in an advertisement playing in a musical comedy act "Home Again". By
6726-504: The booth on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In , all the while continuing his show on KMPC. He also hosted its daily game show spin-off, Letters to Laugh-In , during its brief run in 1969. Capitalizing on Owens' Laugh-In fame, Mel Blanc Audiomedia , an audio production company based in Beverly Hills , developed and marketed The Gary Owens Special Report , a 260-episode package of syndicated radio comedy shows. Owens appeared in
6840-459: The brothers a percentage of a film's gross receipts—the first deal of its kind in Hollywood which has become common practice today. Furthermore, it was Chico's connection with Irving Thalberg , head of production at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , that led to Thalberg's signing the Brothers when they were in a career slump after Duck Soup (1933), the last of their films for Paramount . For a while in
6954-492: The brothers cause mayhem in a sanitarium and at a horse race. The film features Groucho and Chico's famous "Tootsie Frootsie Ice Cream" sketch. In a 1969 interview with Dick Cavett , Groucho said that the two movies made with Thalberg were the best that they ever produced. Despite the Thalberg films' success, the brothers left MGM in 1937; Thalberg had died suddenly on September 14, 1936, two weeks after filming began on A Day at
SECTION 60
#17327725981127068-478: The brothers' funniest routines. The sketch featured animated representations – if not the voices – of all four brothers. Romeo Muller is credited as having written special material for the show, but the script for the classic "Napoleon Scene" was probably supplied by Groucho. On January 16, 1977, the Marx Brothers were inducted into the Motion Picture Hall of Fame. With
7182-416: The brothers' last film, Love Happy , Chico plays a piano and violin duet with 'Mr. Lyons' ( Leon Belasco ). Lyons plays some ornate riffs on the violin; Chico comments, "Look-a, Mister Lyons, I know you wanna make a good impression, but please don't-a play better than me!" In a record album about the Marx Brothers, narrator Gary Owens stated that "although Chico's technique was limited, his repertoire
7296-498: The brothers' personalities and Gus Mager 's Sherlocko the Monk , a popular comic strip of the day that included a supporting character named " Groucho ". As Fisher dealt each brother a card, he addressed them, for the first time, by the names they kept for the rest of their lives. The reasons behind Chico's and Harpo's stage names are undisputed, and Gummo's is fairly well established. Groucho's and Zeppo's are far less clear. Arthur
7410-472: The city fathers wrote to Paramount and asked the studio to remove all references to Freedonia because "it is hurting our town's image". Groucho fired back a sarcastic retort asking them to change the name of their town, because "it's hurting our picture". On March 11, 1933, the Marx Brothers founded a production company, the "International Amalgamated Consolidated Affiliated World Wide Film Productions Company Incorporated, of North Dakota". After expiration of
7524-453: The crowded freeways of Los Angeles. During this time Owens was also known as "Superbeard", because like his contemporary radio icon Wolfman Jack , he sported a goatee-beard, Hawaiian shirts, baggy Bermuda shorts, and his "1941 wide necktie with a hula girl on it". Often during these comedy sketches on the air, he would have the assistance of other radio comics, most notably Bob Arbogast (known as "Arbo" to his fans), Stan Ross (of "Drowning in
7638-724: The deaths of Gummo in April 1977, Groucho in August 1977, and Zeppo in November 1979, the brothers were gone. But their effect on the entertainment community continues well into the 21st century. Among famous comedians who have cited them as influences on their style have been Woody Allen , Alan Alda , Gabe Kaplan , Judd Apatow , Mel Brooks , John Cleese , Elliott Gould , Spike Milligan , Monty Python , Carl Reiner , as well as David Zucker , Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams . Comedian Frank Ferrante made impersonations of Groucho
7752-462: The details, the name relates to rubber-soled shoes. The reason that Julius was named Groucho is perhaps the most disputed. There are three explanations: I kept my money in a 'grouch bag'. This was a small chamois bag that actors used to wear around their neck to keep other hungry actors from pinching their dough. Naturally, you're going to think that's where I got my name from. But that's not so. Grouch bags were worn on manly chests long before there
7866-423: The early 20th century, Minnie helped her younger brother Abraham Elieser Adolf Schönberg (stage name Al Shean ) to enter show business; he became highly successful in vaudeville and on Broadway as half of the musical comedy double act Gallagher and Shean , and this gave the brothers an entrée to musical comedy, vaudeville and Broadway at Minnie's instigation. Minnie also acted as the brothers' manager, using
7980-453: The elder brothers Chico, Harpo, and Groucho, leaving little room for the younger brothers. Gummo and Zeppo both became successful businessmen: Gummo left the act early and gained success through his talent agency activities and a raincoat business, Zeppo stayed with the act through its Broadway years and the beginnings of its film career, but then quit and later became a multi-millionaire through his engineering business. The brothers were from
8094-474: The film The Big Store , in which his character Ravelli runs into an old friend he worked with in Naples (after a brief misunderstanding due to his accent), the film Monkey Business , in which Chico claims his grandfather sailed with Christopher Columbus , and their very first outing The Cocoanuts , where Mr. Hammer (Groucho) asks him if he knew what an auction was, in which he responds "I come from Italy on
8208-592: The four Marx Brothers had a brief reunion of sorts in the animated ABC television special The Mad, Mad, Mad Comedians , produced by Rankin-Bass animation (of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer fame). The special featured animated re-workings of various famous comedians' acts, including W. C. Fields , Jack Benny , George Burns , Henny Youngman , the Smothers Brothers , Flip Wilson , Phyllis Diller , Jack E. Leonard , George Jessel and
8322-407: The highly regarded Leo McCarey , is the highest rated of the five Marx Brothers films on the American Film Institute 's "100 years ... 100 Movies" list. It did not do as well financially as Horse Feathers , but was the sixth-highest grosser of 1933. The film sparked a dispute between the Marxes and the village of Fredonia, New York . "Freedonia" was the name of a fictional country in the script, and
8436-485: The introduction of the nonsense word "insegrevious", which was briefly included in the Funk & Wagnalls Dictionary. His regular on-air radio terms included "krenellemuffin", as in "We'll be back in just a krenellemuffin." Gary always credited his radio engineer at the end of his broadcast: "I'd like to thank my engineer, Wayne Doo, for creebling at the turntables" (referring to KMPC engineer Wayne DuBois). He also created
8550-471: The jump to Broadway , and then to Paramount films. During World War I, anti-German sentiments were common, and the family tried to conceal its German origin. Upon Minnie Marx learning that farmers were excluded from the draft, she purchased a 27-acre (11 ha) poultry farm near Countryside, Illinois ; Stefan Kanfer wrote that "Each night, rats made off with the day’s eggs." During this time, Groucho discontinued his "German" stage personality. In 1917,
8664-491: The knowledge of spectators) to make the play "more interesting". Chico's last public appearance was in 1960, playing cards on the television show Championship Bridge . He and his partner lost the game. Chico was married twice. His first marriage was to Betty Karp in 1917. They had a daughter, Maxine (1918–2009). His first marriage was affected by his infidelity, ending in divorce in 1940. He was very close to his daughter Maxine and gave her acting lessons. Chico's second marriage
8778-604: The late 1960s, when the films of 1930s comedians such as the Marx Brothers , W. C. Fields , and Mae West were finding a new audience, Owens narrated phonograph records containing sound clips from the films. Owens appeared as the racing correspondent in Disney's The Love Bug (1968). In 1972, he released the comedy LP Put Your Head On My Finger for the MGM-Pride label. In 1973, Owens wrote The (What to Do While You're Holding the) Phone Book ( ISBN 0-87477-015-7 ),
8892-541: The late 1990s, Owens hosted the morning show on the Music of Your Life radio network, where he later had the evening shift and hosted a weekend afternoon show until 2006. He also announced pre-recorded station IDs for Parksville, British Columbia radio station CHPQ-FM (The Lounge), and for humorist Gary Burbank 's long-running afternoon show on WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio (Burbank took his stage name from Owens). Owens
9006-419: The musical revue I'll Say She Is (1924–1925). Its success helped secure playwright George S. Kaufman and songwriter Irving Berlin —two of Broadway's best talents—for the musical comedy The Cocoanuts (1925–1926) and later Animal Crackers (1928–1929). Out of their distinctive costumes, the brothers looked alike, even down to their receding hairlines. Zeppo could pass for a younger Groucho and played
9120-481: The name "Gummo" never appeared in print during his time in the act. Other sources reported that the Marx Brothers went by their nicknames during their vaudeville era, but briefly listed themselves by their given names when I'll Say She Is opened because they were worried that a Broadway audience would reject a vaudeville act if they were perceived as low class. The Marx Brothers' stage shows became popular just as motion pictures were evolving to " talkies ". They signed
9234-775: The name Chico because he was a "chicken-chaser" (early 20th century slang for womanizer). As well as being a compulsive womanizer, Chico had a lifelong gambling habit. His favorite gambling pursuits were card games, horse racing, dog racing, and various sports betting. His addiction cost him millions of dollars by his own account. When an interviewer in the late 1930s asked him how much money he had lost from gambling, he answered, "Find out how much money Harpo's got. That's how much I've lost." Gummo Marx, in an interview years after Chico's death, said: "Chico's favorite people were actors who gambled, producers who gambled, and women who screwed." In reference to Chico's well-known promiscuity, George Jessel quipped, "Chico didn't button his fly until he
9348-414: The name Minnie Palmer so that agents did not realize that she was also their mother. All the brothers confirmed that Minnie Marx had been the head of the family and the driving force in getting the troupe launched, the only person who could keep them in order; she was said to be a hard bargainer with theater management. As the comedy act developed, it increasingly focused on the stage characters created by
9462-522: The narrator for the 1992 voiced CD-ROM version of Sierra On-Line 's Space Quest IV . He again assumed the role in the series' final installment, 1995's Space Quest 6 . From 1994 to 1995, Owens narrated the opening and interstitial bumpers of Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad . In 1998, he appeared on Sabrina the Teenage Witch (episode: "Good Will Haunting"; Season 3, Episode 6) as "Guy Who Thinks He's Gary Owens". In 2004, Owens co-wrote
9576-533: The nickname, but Chico does not correct them. As late as the 1950s, Groucho used the wrong pronunciation for comedic effect. A guest on You Bet Your Life told the quizmaster she grew up around Chico (California) and Groucho responded, "I grew up around Chico myself. You aren't Gummo, are you?" In most interviews, Groucho is heard correctly pronouncing it "Chicko", as in a Dick Cavett episode with Groucho talking to Dan Rowan . During Groucho's live performance at Carnegie Hall in 1972, he states that his brother got
9690-410: The nicknames. He asked them why they used their real names publicly when they had such wonderful nicknames, and they replied, "That wouldn't be dignified." Woollcott answered with a belly laugh. Woollcott did not meet the Marx Brothers until the premiere of I'll Say She Is , which was their first Broadway show, so this would mean that they used their real names throughout their vaudeville days, and that
9804-409: The only performers to be included collectively. The brothers are almost universally known by their stage names: Chico , Harpo , Groucho , Gummo , and Zeppo . There was a sixth brother, the firstborn, named Manfred (Mannie), who died in infancy; Zeppo was given the middle name Manfred in his memory. The core of the act was the three elder brothers: Chico, Harpo, and Groucho, each of whom developed
9918-463: The other hand, was considered the funniest brother offstage, despite his straight stage roles. He was the youngest and had grown up watching his brothers, so he could fill in for and imitate any of the others when illness kept them from performing. "He was so good as Captain Spaulding [in Animal Crackers ] that I would have let him play the part indefinitely, if they had allowed me to smoke in
10032-410: The previously non-existent colors "veister" and "krelb". In the early 1960s, like punster-TV star comic colleagues Ernie Kovacs , Steve Allen , and Jonathan Winters , Owens created a few comic characters of his own, such as the gruff old man Earl C. Festoon and his wife Phoebe Festoon, the stuffy old businessman Endocrine J. Sternwallow, and the goofy good ol' boy, Merle Clyde Gumpf. Another character
10146-623: The role of Groucho's son in Horse Feathers . A scene in Duck Soup finds Groucho, Harpo, and Chico all appearing in the famous greasepaint eyebrows, mustache, and round glasses while wearing nightcaps; the three are indistinguishable, enabling them to carry off the "mirror scene" perfectly. The stage names of the brothers (except Zeppo) were coined by monologist Art Fisher during a poker game in Galesburg, Illinois , based both on
10260-650: The runaway mule incident occurred in Ada, Oklahoma . A 1930 article in the San Antonio Express newspaper stated that the incident took place in Marshall, Texas.) The act slowly evolved from singing with comedy to comedy with music. The brothers' sketch "Fun in Hi Skule" featured Groucho as a German-accented teacher presiding over a classroom that included students Harpo, Gummo, and Chico. The last version of
10374-501: The school act was titled Home Again and was written by their uncle Al Shean . The Home Again tour reached Flint, Michigan , in 1915, where 14-year-old Zeppo joined his four brothers for what is believed to be the only time that all five Marx Brothers appeared together on stage. Gummo then left to serve in World War I , reasoning that "anything is better than being an actor!" Zeppo replaced him in their final vaudeville years and in
10488-528: The sons of Jewish immigrants from Germany and France. Their mother Miene "Minnie" Schoenberg (professionally known as Minnie Palmer, later the brothers' manager) was from Dornum in East Frisia . She came from a family of performers. Her mother was a yodeling harpist and her father a ventriloquist ; both were funfair entertainers. Around 1880, the family emigrated to New York City, where Minnie married Sam Marx in 1884. Samuel ("Sam"; born Simon) Marx
10602-506: The staff of 710 KMPC in 1962, where he remained for the next two decades, replacing previous afternoon host Johnny Grant , working the 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. shift Monday through Friday. A gifted punster, Owens became known for his surrealistic humor. Among his trademarks were daily appearances by "The Story Lady" (played by Joan Gerber ); the Rumor of the Day; myriad varieties of "The Nurney Song"; and
10716-591: The station changed its format to all-talk. Owens had a bit part as an emcee for "Pimp of the Year", a dream scene in the 1988 comedy I'm Gonna Git You Sucka . Owens also co-starred in a number of documentaries about dinosaurs in the 1980s alongside Chicago's Eric Boardman. These documentaries were distributed by the Midwich Entertainment group for the Disney Channel before it went from being
10830-415: The title as "Groucho — Chico — Harpo — Marx Bros", with the same ordering in the cast list. Unlike the free-for-all scripts at Paramount, Thalberg insisted on a strong story structure that made the brothers more sympathetic characters, interweaving their comedy with romantic plots and non-comic musical numbers, and targeting their mischief-making at obvious villains. Thalberg was adamant that scripts include
10944-448: The two deceased brothers (Zeppo was still alive at the time and in the audience). Groucho also praised the late Margaret Dumont as a great straight woman who never understood any of his jokes. Chico died of arteriosclerosis at the age of 74 on October 11, 1961, at his Hollywood home. He was the eldest brother and the first to die. He was survived by his second wife Mary and daughter Maxine (from his first marriage to Betty Karp). Chico
11058-496: The weekend of September 12–13, 1981, Owens substituted for his old KEWB station partner Casey Kasem on American Top 40 . This was his only appearance on radio's first nationally syndicated countdown show. In that same year, Watermark Inc. chose Owens to replace Murray "The K" Kaufman as permanent host of Soundtrack Of The Sixties , an oldies retrospective show that ran in syndication through 1984. Immediately afterward, he hosted Creative Radio's Gary Owens' Supertracks , which
11172-400: Was A Night at the Opera (1935), a satire on the world of opera, where the brothers help two young singers in love by throwing a production of Il Trovatore into chaos. The film, including its famous scene where an absurd number of people crowd into a tiny stateroom on a ship, was a great success. It was followed two years later by an even bigger hit, A Day at the Races (1937), in which
11286-416: Was Pauline, or "Polly". Leonard Joseph "Chico" Marx was the eldest of the brothers, born in 1887. Adolph "Harpo" Marx was born in 1888, Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx in 1890, Milton "Gummo" Marx in 1892, and the youngest, Herbert Manfred "Zeppo" Marx, in 1901. Family lore told privately of the firstborn son, Manny, born in 1886 but surviving for only three months, and dying of tuberculosis. Some members of
11400-549: Was a Groucho. Herbert was not nicknamed by Art Fisher, since he did not join the act until Gummo had departed. As with Groucho, three explanations exist for Herbert's name "Zeppo": Maxine Marx reported in The Unknown Marx Brothers that the brothers listed their real names (Julius, Leonard, Adolph, Milton, and Herbert) on playbills and in programs, and only used the nicknames behind the scenes, until Alexander Woollcott overheard them calling one another by
11514-427: Was a largely self-taught pianist. As a young boy, he gained jobs playing piano to earn money for the Marx family. Sometimes Chico even worked playing in two places at the same time. He would acquire the first job with his piano-playing skills, work for a few nights, and then substitute Harpo on one of the jobs. (During their boyhood, Chico and Harpo looked so much alike that they were often mistaken for each other.) In
11628-591: Was a native of Mertzwiller , a small Alsatian village, and worked as a tailor. His name was changed to Samuel Marx, and he was nicknamed "Frenchy". The family lived in New York City's Upper East Side in the Yorkville district centered in the Irish, German and Italian quarters. The Marx Brothers also had an older sister (actually a cousin, born in January 1885) who had been adopted by Minnie and Frenchy. Her name
11742-454: Was also the announcer for America's Funniest Home Videos from 1995 to 1997, the last three years of Bob Saget 's hosting tenure, replacing Ernie Anderson . The cartoon SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron featured Owens as the voice of Commander Ulysses Feral, a police chief constantly butting heads with the two main protagonists. Owens guest starred on The Ren & Stimpy Show as the voice of Powdered Toast Man. He lent his voice as
11856-456: Was an oldies retrospective show similar to Soundtrack Of The Sixties , except it presented the fifties, sixties, and seventies. He was the narrator of Walt Disney World 's EPCOT Center pavilion, World of Motion , which operated between 1982 and 1996. His television special was "The Roots of Goofy", which aired from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s. Owens moved from KMPC to another Los Angeles station, 1150 KPRZ , in 1982, hosting mornings at
11970-484: Was crotchety old cantankerous Mergenthaler Waisleywillow. Owens also did amusing radio promotions, such as sending in for "Yours", which turned out to be a postcard from him at the radio station which simply said "Yours" on it; autographed pictures of the Harbor Freeway in Los Angeles; and his famous "Moo Cow Report", in which Gary and his character Earl C. Festoon would describe where cows were moving inbound on
12084-490: Was done in imitation of the announcers in the early days of radio, who had to rely upon the acoustic feedback of their cupped hand to hear how they sounded to the audience. Owens used this as a running gag and gave various outlandish reasons for this pose: On his KMPC radio show in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he claimed that this was because a piece of shrapnel took off his ear during the war; sometimes it would come loose and he had to hold it on; at other times he said that he
12198-564: Was given a wooden ear, and was keeping the termites warm. This gag was later parodied by Les Lye on the Canadian children's sketch-comedy show You Can't Do That on Television . Owens coined the phrase "Beautiful downtown Burbank ", which was later used on Laugh-In and The Tonight Show . His trademark self-introduction was "This is Gary Owens, friend of those who want no friends, going places and losing things", or occasionally, "Hello, and also hi; but not necessarily in that order", as
12312-561: Was in 1905, mainly as a singer. By 1907, he and Gummo were singing together as "The Three Nightingales" with Mabel O'Donnell . The next year, Harpo became the fourth Nightingale and by 1910, the group briefly expanded to include their mother Minnie and their Aunt Hannah. The troupe was renamed "The Six Mascots". One evening in 1912, a performance at the Opera House in Nacogdoches, Texas , was interrupted by shouts from outside about
12426-411: Was named Harpo because he played the harp, and Leonard became Chico (pronounced "Chick-o") because he was, in the slang of the period, a "chicken-chaser". ("Chickens" – later "chicks" – was period slang for women. "In England now," said Groucho, "they were called 'birds'.") In his autobiography, Harpo explained that Milton became Gummo because he crept about the theater like
12540-436: Was not." The opposite was true of Harpo, who reportedly could play only two tunes on the piano, which typically thwarted Chico's scam and resulted in both brothers being fired. Groucho Marx once said that Chico never practiced the pieces he played. Instead, before performances he soaked his fingers in hot water. He was known for 'shooting' the keys of the piano. He played passages with his thumb up and index finger straight, like
12654-470: Was seventy." Chico's lifelong gambling addiction compelled him to continue working in show business long after his brothers had retired in comfort from their Hollywood income, and in the early 1940s, he found himself playing in the same small, cheap theater halls in which he had begun his career 30 years earlier. The Marx Brothers' penultimate film, A Night in Casablanca (1946), was made largely for Chico's financial benefit since he had filed for bankruptcy
12768-496: Was the final appearance of the three Marx Brothers. His nickname (acquired during a card game in Galesburg, Illinois in 1914) was originally spelled Chicko . A typesetter accidentally omitted the 'k', so his name became Chico but the Marxes still pronounced it "Chick-oh", although others sometimes mistakenly pronounced it "Cheek-oh". Numerous radio recordings from the 1940s exist in which announcers and fellow actors mispronounce
12882-404: Was their most popular film yet, and won them the cover of Time magazine. It included a running gag from their stage work, in which Harpo produces a ludicrous array of props from inside his coat, including a wooden mallet, a fish, a coiled rope, a tie, a poster of a woman in her underwear, a cup of hot coffee, a sword and (just after Groucho warns him that he "can't burn the candle at both ends")
12996-427: Was to Mary De Vithas. They married in 1958, three years before his death. In the 1974 Academy Awards telecast , Jack Lemmon presented Groucho with an honorary Academy Award to a standing ovation. The award was also for Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo, whom Lemmon mentioned by name. It was one of Groucho's last public appearances. "I wish that Harpo and Chico could be here to share with me this great honor," he said, naming
#111888