Gloria Stuart (b. July 4, 1910) played “Old Rose” in James Cameron’s Titanic (1997) and was nominated for Best Actress in A Supporting Role. She did not win.
This is what Gloria Stuart looked like in the early 1930s.
Vivacious and pretty, Gloria Stuart was a movie star throughout the 1930s appearing in 43 films. Continue reading
SUCH IS FAME
Los Angeles – The four Marx Brothers, film comedians are now among the famous whose foot and hand prints now grace the foyer of the Chinese Theater in Hollywood. Enduring cement holds the imprint and the lobby of the theater is beginning to look like a Who’s Who in Movieland. Among the notables who are represented there are Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, William S. Hart, Ann Harding, Diana Wynward, and now the Marx Brothers. Photo shows (left to right) Jean Klossner cement contractor; Harpo, Groucho, Zeppo, and Chico Marx. Sid Grauman (standing). Photo: Acme; 2/17/1933
One thing to note about this news photo Continue reading
For anyone who has read extensively about Groucho Marx’s life, the name Erin Fleming will elicit a strong reaction.
There are two views of Fleming’s relationship with Groucho. People who spent time with Groucho and Fleming were split as to their opinion of Groucho’s muse. Continue reading
Groucho Marx in 1931 photo Eugene Robert Richee for Paramount
There are at least five comedians I wish were alive now to comment on the state of the world. If interviewed they could put current events into perspective. They are George Carlin, Sam Kinison, Bill Hicks, Richard Pryor and Groucho Marx.
Each humorist was intelligent, sardonic and biting in their outlooks on life.
My all-time favorite was Groucho Marx.
Julius Henry “Groucho” Marx was born on October 2, 1890.
There are literally thousands of stories about Groucho and the Marx clan. Rather than rehash his life I’ll throw out one little known fact about Groucho from brother Harpo’s autobiography, Harpo Speaks! (1961, Bernard Gies Associates). Continue reading
Just before posing for a formal photograph, an unnamed Globe photographer captured this informal moment. This photograph was unpublished until now. Flanking the seated Lucille Ball are (l-r) Milton Berle, George Burns, Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Groucho Marx and longtime Lucy co-star Gale Gordon.
The only one who seems ready for this photo is Lucy. Everyone else is completely distracted.
The photo below Continue reading
U.S. Naval Air Station, Wold-Chamberlain Airport, Minneapolis, MN: Chico Marx was flying high back stage in the Orpheum Theater when three Aviation Cadets and one WAVE from the U.S. Naval Air Station called on him to make arrangements for his appearance at the Station Recreation Hall. Chico is bringing his entire show to the Air Station Tuesday to entertain the Naval Personnel. The Cadets are Lowell H. Conrow, Richard W. Hildebrand and Donald D. Bosold. The WAVE is Ensign Mary J. Withrow, USNR. Photo: U.S. Navy
When author Charlotte Chandler wrote her entertaining book about Groucho Marx, Hello I Must Be Going (Doubleday, 1978), it was mentioned by Groucho’s friends that someone should write or compile a book about Groucho’s eldest brother, Chico Marx.
Eventually a book was written about Chico by his daughter Maxine Marx. As interesting as that book is, it was not the sort of book that captured Chico’s flamboyant and incredible life.
Maxine had left out a good deal of the salacious parts of her father’s life by purposeful omission. Many other anecdotes were left out of her book simply because Maxine was unaware of them. There were hundreds of great stories known and shared only by show business veterans and insiders who Chico associated with, that went untold. Now those stories are lost forever, as all of Chico’s friends, contemporaries and acquaintances are long dead.
What is widely known is that Chico was a notorious womanizer and gambler who went through money as quickly as he made it or borrowed it.
Groucho famously said, “You know, somebody asked Chico how much money he lost gambling, and he said, ‘Find out how much money Harpo has. That’s how much money I lost.'”
The brothers had to bail Chico out countless times. There were even a couple of instances where had they not paid Chico’s debts, the gamblers he owed money to would have killed him.
Harpo wrote in Harpo Speaks! (Bernard Geis Associates, 1961) of his older brother when they were both teenagers, “Chico was a devout believer in the maxim, ‘Share and share alike.’ The way he shared my possessions was to hock them as fast as he got his hands on them, and then give the pawn tickets to me as my share.” Continue reading
Harpo Marx with Shirley Temple in the studio commissary during the filming of Duck Soup 1933
Maybe today this would be considered kind of creepy, but anyone who knew Harpo Marx would have said it was not, because it was “so Harpo-like.”
The story sounds apocryphal, but according to Groucho Marx as told to Richard Anobile in The Marx Brothers Scrapbook it is true.
In the midst of the Great Depression during the production of the Marx Brothers film Horse Feathers in 1932, Harpo Marx would see this adorable girl who was about four-years-old along with her parents watching the Marx’s work on the set. During breaks in the filming, Harpo starting talking to the child and her parents. Groucho says, “Harpo was crazy about this girl.” He became so enchanted with this little girl, that he offered to adopt her and give her parents $50,000 as compensation. They of course refused.
Shirley Temple with Shirley Temple doll 1934
This all happened before the little girl was in a single film and would go on to become the biggest child movie star of all-time – Shirley Temple.
The photograph at the top of this article was taken a year after Harpo’s offer. By that time, Shirley Temple had still not made a feature film, but appeared in many ten minute shorts. Shirley was just beginning to become known to the public when she revisited Harpo while in the studio commissary.
Shirley Temple died in Woodside, CA, Monday February 10, 2014 of natural causes. She retired from motion pictures at the age of 21 in 1949. Shirley was happily married for 55 years to Charles Black. She became a United States ambassador and by all accounts had a very happy and fulfilling life.
Because Harpo’s wife Susan Fleming was unable to have children, Harpo did eventually adopt four children who all say he was the most wonderful father in the world.
A Marriage Not Made To Last
On July 17, 1954 Groucho Marx married Eden Hartford at Sun Valley, Idaho. It was his third marriage, it was her second. He was 63, she was 24.
This was the beginning.
This was the end.
The look on both of their faces in this photo from around 1962 says it all about the state of their marriage after eight years.
Groucho and Eden are dining at the famous Brown Derby restaurant and apparently not enjoying each other’s company. Groucho and Eden displayed similar expressions during the 1960’s anytime they were photographed together.
Even though the love affair was apparently over, the official end wouldn’t come until 1969 after 15 years of marriage when Groucho and Eden were divorced.
Six years after Groucho died, Eden passed away from cancer at the age of 53 on December 15, 1983.
What’s My Line 1950 – 1967
A few years ago my Tivo was tuned into the Game Show Network weeknights at 3:00 a.m., taping every episode of the greatest TV game show ever made, What’s My Line.
Let me state it was not just a great game show, but one of the best television shows ever.
Unfortunately the series is not being broadcast now, but many segments of the show are available on Youtube.
To describe the brilliance of the show better than I ever could, we will refer to The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows 1948 – Present by Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh (Ballantine 1988), an indispensable television reference book.
What’s My Line was the longest-running game show in the history of prime-time network television. It ran for 18 seasons, on alternate weeks from February to September 1950, then every Sunday at 10:30 p.m. for the next 17 years. The format was exceedingly simple. Contestants were asked simple yes-or-no questions by the panel members, who tried to determine what interesting or unusual occupation the contestant had. Each time the contestant could answer no to a question, he got $5, and a total of 10 no’s ended the game. The panel was forced to don blindfolds for the “mystery guest,” a celebrity who tried to avoid identification by disguising his voice.
That little game, by itself, hardly warranted an 18-year run, when other panel shows of the early 1950’s came and went every month. But What’s My Line was something special, both for the witty and engaging panel, and for a certain élan which few other shows ever captured. There were no flashy celebrities-of-the-moment or empty-headed pretty faces on this panel; they were obviously very intelligent people all, out to have some genteel fun with an amusing parlor game. Like (moderator) John Daly with his bow tie and perfect manners, it reeked of urbanity [“that’s three down and seven to go, Mr. Cerf?”]
The panelists who created this special atmosphere were an elite group. Continue reading
W.C. Fields or Bill Fields to his friends, was one of the most talented comedians of the first half of the 20th century. He began his show business career in vaudeville as a juggler and worked his way up to top billing in the Ziegfeld Follies for a ten year stretch. From there he went on to become a major film star during the 1930’s and early 1940’s. Today, upon viewing his films, many people do not understand why he was considered funny. But I assure you there is a subtle brilliance in Fields’ portrayals of the henpecked husband, disreputable man and misunderstood misanthrope.
One of the more popular, yet apocryphal stories about Fields, was that he had hundreds of bank accounts spread across the country, many under ridiculous pseudonyms such as Otis Criblecoblis; Mahatma Kane Jeeves; Aristotle Hoop; Ludovic Fishpond; Figley E. Whitesides and so on. After Fields died in 1946, his mistress Carlotta Monti claimed that there was over $1.3 million in unclaimed funds in banks under the fake names. An assistant hired to solve the dilemma of Fields estate found only 24 accounts all under Fields real name. Continue reading