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100-419: Beagle, Shyster, and Beagle was a Monday night comedy program with Groucho Marx as attorney Waldorf T. Beagle and Chico Marx as his assistant Emanuel Ravelli. For the first three episodes, the series was called Beagle, Shyster, and Beagle ; however, a lawyer from New York called Beagle contacted NBC and threatened them with a lawsuit. It was then retitled Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel . The series depicted

200-418: A fall guy ). The series was originally titled Beagle, Shyster, and Beagle , with Groucho's character named Waldorf T. Beagle, until a real lawyer from New York named Beagle contacted NBC and threatened to file a lawsuit unless the name was dropped. Many of the episodes' plots were partly or largely based upon Marx Brothers films . The show garnered respectable ratings for its early evening time slot, although

300-416: 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

400-477: 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

500-464: 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 ,

600-493: 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

700-400: A book titled Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel: The Marx Brothers' Lost Radio Show , edited by Michael Barson and with an interview with Perrin. In October 1988, Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel scenes were broadcast for the first time since the show went off the air in 1933 when National Public Radio , a non-profit media organization that provides content to public radio stations around

800-594: 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

900-467: 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

1000-557: 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

1100-537: A crowd – and were quickly cleared out at the end of each performance so that the stage would be ready for any filming the following day. The last four episodes of the show were performed back at WJZ in New York. Chico was often late for rehearsals, so Perrin would have to stand in for him on the read-throughs. When Chico eventually made his appearance, Perrin remembers, "he'd be reading Ravelli's lines and Groucho would tell him to stop [and make me] 'show him how

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1200-511: A different program each weeknight. Episodes were broadcast live from NBC's WJZ station in New York City and later from a sound stage at RKO Pictures in Los Angeles, California, before returning to WJZ for the final episodes. The program depicts the misadventures of a small New York law firm , with Groucho as attorney Waldorf T. Flywheel (a crooked lawyer) and Chico as Flywheel's assistant, Emmanuel Ravelli (a half-wit whom Flywheel uses as

1300-684: A dramatic anthology, The Esso Theater . Opera was featured on Thursday night with the Aborn Opera Company. On Friday evenings, a radio drama based on the Charlie Chan film franchise was heard, with a cast that included Ray Collins . Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel is a situation comedy radio show starring two of the Marx Brothers , Groucho and Chico , and written primarily by Nat Perrin and Arthur Sheekman . The series

1400-479: 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

1500-531: A fifteen-minute recording of Episode 25. A complete recording of Episode 26 exists and was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2005. In 1990 the British Broadcasting Corporation 's Radio 4 aired a version of Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel . Michael Roberts and Frank Lazarus performed the lead roles of Flywheel and Ravelli, wearing make-up and clothing similar to Groucho and Chico. The regular cast also included Lorelei King in all

1600-642: 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

1700-402: A lawsuit for $ 300,000 alleging his name had been slandered, and that its use was damaging his business and his health. He also claimed that people were calling his law firm and asking, "Is this Mr. Beagle?" When he answered, "Yes", the callers would say, "How's your partner, Shyster?" and hang up the phone. The sponsors and studio executives panicked, and from episode four the title of the show

1800-558: A light polishing." After traveling to New York to perform the first seven episodes, the four men decided to broadcast from Los Angeles instead. NBC did not have a studio on the West Coast , so for the next thirteen weeks, between January 16 and April 24, 1933, the show was transmitted from a borrowed empty soundstage at RKO Radio Pictures . Folding chairs were brought in for the audience of around thirty or forty people – coming from vaudeville, Groucho and Chico preferred to perform to

1900-745: A radio show titled Fire Chief . Wynn played the fire chief in front of an audience of 700 and the show was aired live over the NBC Red Network , beginning April 26, 1932. It immediately proved popular with over two million regular listeners and a Co-Operative Analysis of Broadcasting (CAB) Rating of 44.8%. Upon seeing the success of Wynn's Fire Chief , the Standard Oils in New Jersey, Louisiana and Pennsylvania, and Colonial Beacon, decided to sponsor their own radio program to promote Esso Gasoline and Essolube Motor Oil. They turned to

2000-454: 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

2100-503: A script each week". They found help from Tom McKnight and George Oppenheimer, whose names were passed along to Groucho. Perrin explained, "[Groucho] was in the men's room during a break, and he was complaining to the guy standing next to him, 'Geez, I wish we could find another writer or two to make life easier.' Suddenly there's a voice from one of the stalls: 'I've got just the guys for you!' Having Tom and George did make life easier, although Arthur and I went over their scripts for

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2200-469: A second season was not produced. It was thought that, like most radio shows of the time, the episodes had not been recorded. The episodes were thought entirely lost until 1988, when 25 of the 26 scripts were rediscovered in the Library of Congress storage and republished. Adaptations of the recovered scripts were performed and broadcast in the UK, on BBC Radio 4 , between 1990 and 1993. In 1996, some recordings of

2300-512: 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 ,

2400-938: A specialist in the Deposit Collection of the Library of Congress (which oversees the Copyright Office). In a section called "unpublished dramas", he came across the Flywheel scripts. Nobody was aware that they still existed; their copyrights had not been renewed. Flywheel had fallen into the public domain. After the rediscovery of the Marx scripts, many of them were adapted by the BBC, new recordings made with contemporary actors, broadcast on Radio 4 in 1990-1992. The Josef Bonime Orchestra aired on Tuesdays, with baritone John Charles Thomas . Wednesday night showcased

2500-438: 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

2600-559: A week. Harpo Marx was paid as a cast member, although the physical , silent nature of his comedy meant that it was impossible to give him an on-air role without forcing him to break character. Five-Star Theater was broadcast from NBC's flagship station , WJZ in New York City. Because Groucho, Chico, Perrin, and Sheekman were living and working in Hollywood , they had to make a three-day train journey from Pasadena each week, and then another three-day trip back. The first episode

2700-419: Is thought that Broderick Crawford also appeared as various characters. "Shyster" and the second "Beagle" (and later, the second "Flywheel") are referred to only once outside of the show's title, when Flywheel explains that he is both Flywheels, while "Shyster ran away with my wife. And I put his name on the door as a token of my gratitude." Groucho and Chico shared a weekly income of $ 6,500 for appearing in

2800-541: 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

2900-644: 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

3000-579: The United States Copyright Office at the Library of Congress , discovered that the scripts for twenty-five of the twenty-six episodes had been submitted to the Office, where they had been placed in storage. Nobody was aware that they still existed and their copyrights had not been renewed. This meant that Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel had fallen into the public domain . The scripts were published that same year by Pantheon in

3100-496: 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,

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3200-510: 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

3300-556: 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

3400-490: The Blue Network announcer and features about fifteen minutes of drama and ten minutes of orchestral music between acts. The episodes end with Groucho and Chico – not in character, but as themselves – performing a 60-second skit promoting Esso and Essolube. Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel was not enough of a success for Standard Oil to continue beyond one season. The CAB Rating for the show was 22.1% and placed 12th among

3500-650: 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

3600-424: 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

3700-445: 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

3800-538: 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

3900-573: 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, the only performers to be included collectively. The brothers are almost universally known by their stage names: Chico , Harpo , Groucho , Gummo , and Zeppo . There

4000-504: 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

4100-765: 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

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4200-524: The United States, aired an 18-minute recreation of Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel in markets that included Chicago, Los Angeles, and Dallas, Texas , using Washington, D.C. -based Arena Stage actors to perform the Chico and Groucho lead roles from the published scripts. After 1996, three recordings of Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel were found, including a five-minute excerpt of Episode 24 and

4300-411: The advertising agency McCann Erickson , which developed Five-Star Theater , a variety series that offered a different show each night of the week. Groucho and Chico Marx , one half of the popular vaudeville and film stars the Marx Brothers , were approached to appear in a comedy show. Harpo and Zeppo were not required, as Harpo's trademark mime artistry did not translate to radio, while Zeppo

4400-411: 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

4500-483: 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

4600-543: 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

4700-492: 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

4800-478: 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

4900-498: 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

5000-472: 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

5100-479: The comedy show. It was titled Beagle, Shyster, and Beagle , and its premise involved an unethical lawyer/private detective and his bungling assistant. Groucho Marx played lawyer Waldorf T. Beagle (later renamed Waldorf T. Flywheel), and Chico played his assistant Emmanuel Ravelli, the same name as the Italian character he played in the film Animal Crackers (1930). Mary McCoy played secretary Miss Dimple, and it

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5200-724: 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

5300-462: 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

5400-423: 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

5500-453: 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

5600-452: The female roles and Graham Hoadly as many of the other male characters, and featured Spike Milligan and Dick Vosburgh as guest stars. The scripts for the BBC series were adapted for a modern British audience by Mark Brisenden and were produced and directed by Dirk Maggs . Each episode incorporated material from two or three different original episodes, and occasionally included additional jokes from Marx Brothers' films. Commenting on

5700-592: 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

5800-402: The highest rated evening programs of the 1932–33 season. The CAB Rating was not disappointing – popular established shows such as The Shadow and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes did not perform as well – but it was less than half of Texaco's Fire Chief , which got a 44.8% CAB Rating and was the third highest-rated program of the season. One reason for the lower ratings may be because of

5900-482: 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

6000-463: The house down. Six episodes were performed and recorded at the Paris Theatre and aired weekly between June 2 and July 7, 1990. The success of the first series led to another two being commissioned. The second series aired from May 11 to June 15, 1991, and the third from July 11 to August 15, 1992. The first series was made available by BBC Enterprises on a two-cassette release in 1991, but

6100-471: 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,

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6200-471: The line should be read'. My Italian accent was better than Chico's, you see. But Chico didn't care." Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel aired Monday nights at 7:30 p.m. on the NBC Blue Network to thirteen network affiliates in nine Eastern and Southern states. Twenty-six episodes were made, which were broadcast between November 28, 1932 and May 22, 1933. Each episode is introduced by

6300-507: The material that was produced for the Eddie Cantor, Rudy Vallee, Joe Penner school. The rapid-fire jokes [...] run the gamut from delightful to embarrassing." George Burns also found it "funny". Modern reviews of Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel have also been positive. The New York Times ' Herbert Mitgang described it as "one of the funniest [...] radio shows of the early 1930s", adding that "the radio dialogue

6400-580: The misadventures of a small law firm , with Groucho playing attorney Waldorf T. Flywheel, and Chico playing Emmanuel Ravelli, a character lifted directly from the 1930 film Animal Crackers . The 1980 discovery of scripts for this 1932–33 series led to publication by Pantheon Books, as described in The New York Times in 1988: Now, one of the funniest "lost" radio shows of the early 1930s — Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel, Attorneys at Law , starring Groucho and Chico Marx — has been unearthed. Not

6500-419: 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

6600-481: 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

6700-414: 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

6800-481: The need for a seven-cent nickel . Monkey Business influenced two skits in Episode 25, and The Cocoanuts gave Episode 19 its plot. Episode 26, The Ocean Cruise , lifted some scenes virtually unchanged from the Marx Brothers' film Animal Crackers (with Zeppo Marx and Harpo Marx ). Despite reusing some scripts from other sources, Perrin said that he and Sheekman "had [their] hands full turning out

6900-483: The network." In his 1976 book, The Secret Word Is Groucho , he writes, "Company sales, as a result of our show, had risen precipitously. Profits doubled in that brief time, and Esso felt guilty taking the money. So Esso dropped us after twenty-six weeks. Those were the days of guilt-edged securities, which don't exist today." Although the successful Marx films Monkey Business and Horse Feathers contained plots involving adultery, Variety did not appreciate them in

7000-410: 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

7100-428: The original show were discovered (all recorded from the final three episodes), including a complete recording of the last episode to air. In 1932 Texaco introduced its "Fire Chief" gasoline to the public, so named because its octane rating was 66, higher than the United States government's requirements for fire engines. To advertise its new premium grade fuel, Texaco approached vaudeville comic Ed Wynn to star in

7200-463: 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

7300-405: The radio show: That's fine stuff for children! Chances are that if the Marxes proceed with their law office continuity along lines like this they will never be able to hold a kid listener. Firstly because parents don't want their children to hear about bad wives and divorces, and this isn't an agreeable theme to kids. Which means that if the Marxes don't look out, whatever kid following they have on

7400-623: 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

7500-650: 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

7600-626: 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 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 ,

7700-501: 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

7800-414: The screen will be totally lost to them on the air. It's quite likely the Marxes can make themselves on the air. But they will have to use more headwork than their first effort displayed. Groucho's 13-year-old son Arthur found the show "extremely funny", albeit conceding that he may have been "a very easy audience". Following the airing of the first episodes, a New York attorney named Morris Beagle filed

7900-430: The second and third series were not. Marx Brothers#Filmography 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 the American Film Institute (AFI) as among the top 100 comedy films , with two of them, Duck Soup (1933) and A Night at

8000-409: The series, Maggs has said it was his favorite among the comedies he had directed, and described how they were performed. The great thing about audience shows is doing the effects live on stage. BBC Radio Light Entertainment tended to have the effects operator hidden away behind curtains so they wouldn't distract the audience! A few Light Entertainment Producers like me have reasoned over the years that

8100-568: The show. During the Great Depression , this was considered a high sum for 30 minutes' work, especially since radio scripts required no memorization and only a few minutes were needed for costume, hair and makeup. By comparison, Greta Garbo 's weekly salary from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during the same period was also $ 6,500, though this was for a 40- or 50-hour week. Wynn was paid $ 5,000 a week for Fire Chief . In contrast, almost two-thirds of American families were living on fewer than $ 26

8200-528: 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

8300-501: The spot effects are part of the entertainment so we brought the operator out front. And in the case of Flywheel we dressed him or her up as Harpo! Michael Roberts who played Groucho came out with such good ad libs that I was always happy to cut scripted gags to keep them. One great one was when he and Frank as Flywheel and Ravelli find themselves in a pigsty – the rest of the cast pushed in to make pig voices – and Mike ad libbed, "Imagine – two nice Jewish boys surrounded by ham" – it brought

8400-409: The time slot the show aired. In September 1932, only 40% of radio owners were listening to the radio at 7:00 p.m., whereas 60% listened at 9:00 p.m. The 1932–1933 season's top-rated shows, The Chase and Sanborn Hour , Jack Pearl 's Baron Münchhausen , and Fire Chief all aired after 9:00 p.m. Standard Oil decided it could not compete with Texaco in the ratings and Five-Star Theater

8500-415: 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

8600-575: The voices; in those years radio programs were not regularly recorded. But the transcripts of 25 of the original Flywheel episodes have been found in the archives of the Library of Congress. For viewers and listeners who want to discover — or rediscover — what comedy was all about in those more slaphappy days, the actual scripts of Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel , edited by Michael Barson, will be published in October by Pantheon Books. It happened that in 1980, as part of his Ph.D. studies, Mr. Barson worked as

8700-400: 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

8800-416: 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

8900-549: 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

9000-591: 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

9100-515: 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 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

9200-428: Was changed to " Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel ", and Walter T. Beagle was renamed Waldorf T. Flywheel. It was explained in the episode that the character had divorced and reverted to his "maiden name". The show was later praised by other comedians of the time. In 1988, Steve Allen said, "when judged in relation to other radio comedy scripts of the early 30s, they hold up very well indeed and are, in fact, superior to

9300-561: 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

9400-411: 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

9500-405: Was not renewed for a second season. In his 1959 autobiography, Groucho and Me , Groucho comments, "We thought we were doing pretty well as comic lawyers, but one day a few Middle East countries decided they wanted a bigger cut of the oil profits, or else. When this news broke, the price of gasoline nervously dropped two cents a gallon, and Chico and I, along with the other shows, were dropped from

9600-446: Was on the verge of leaving the act. Before this decision was officially reached, early drafts of the scripts featured guest appearances written for both absent brothers, with Harpo being represented through honks of his horn and other trademark sound effects. Nat Perrin and Arthur Sheekman , who had contributed to the scripts of the Marx Brothers' films Monkey Business (1931) and Horse Feathers (1932), were enlisted to write

9700-759: Was originally broadcast in the United States on the National Broadcasting Company 's Blue Network , beginning on November 28, 1932, and ending on May 22, 1933. Sponsored by the Standard Oil Companies of New Jersey , Pennsylvania and Louisiana and the Colonial Beacon Oil Company , it was the Monday night installment of the Five-Star Theater , an old-time radio variety series that offered

9800-571: Was so witty and outrageous, [an] innocent form of original comedy – as well as serious drama". Rob White of the British Film Institute said the show "glitter[s] with a thousand-and-one sockeroos." The episodes of Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel were recorded, but for many years it was thought the recordings had not been preserved. At the time of the broadcasts, pre-recorded shows were frowned upon by advertisers and audiences. However, in 1988, Michael Barson, who worked in

9900-404: 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")

10000-501: Was written as they took their first train ride to New York. A number of Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel ' s scripts reused plots from Marx Brothers films. The plot of Episode 17 was suggested by the stolen painting plot in Animal Crackers , though it was a "Beauregard" in the film, not a Rembrandt . The 23rd episode also reused scenes from Animal Crackers , including the stolen diamond plot and Groucho's lines regarding

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