When picturing Hollywood’s first comedic legends, it’s impossible not to include the Marx Brothers. Between the pantomiming, sticky-fingered, musical genius Harpo, piano-playing Italian conman Chico, motormouthed Groucho, or perpetual straight-man Zeppo, this quartet set a new standard for incredible creative talent. That influence lives on today throughout the world…namely in the infamous costume glasses based on Groucho’s signature bushy eyebrows and painted-on mustache.
Andrew Nickerson explains.
The Marx Brothers. Top to bottom: Chico, Harpo, Groucho and Zeppo.
Given how crazy they got on-screen, it shouldn’t be any surprise that their off-screen behavior could get just as insane. However, they hit a new zenith (even by their standards) with an infamous incident during their early days at MGM, one which many would think so over-the-top it’d be impossible. Instead, it’s the definition of truth being stranger than fiction, and it’s time more people knew about it. For the record, this is sourced from the famed documentary Remarks on Marx, as well as a famous 1961 interview with Groucho on The Hy Gardner Show, both of which are quite fascinating.
The Beginning
In the 1930s, the Marx Brothers worked at Paramount Pictures, where they’d had great success with their first four films. Sadly, their fifth, Duck Soup (ironically now called their best work by the American Film Institute), flopped. Worse, they lost their contract due to a money dispute, and many were convinced they were finished; moreover, Zeppo stopped performing, and Groucho even considered leaving too.
Thankfully, they were saved by an unlikely champion: Irving Thalberg at MGM Studios, which was Hollywood’s biggest movie maker at the time. Thalberg, in turn, was a legend himself: he’d become an executive producer at age 30, hence his nickname “The Boy Wonder of MGM”. Furthermore, as Groucho said, “Thalberg, like Sinatra…he was the most feared man of any producer at any Hollywood studio. And people weren’t afraid of Thalberg because he wasn’t a nice guy or anything. He was so powerful because he was so talented…even Mayer (MGM Executive Louis Mayer) was afraid of him.” Apparently, Thalberg knew the brothers through Chico because they played Bridge together, and they’d become very close. So, when the brothers lost their contract at Paramount, Thalberg convinced them to sign on at MGM. After agreeing, he told the brothers to come by his office the next morning at 11 o’clock, and they’d have an initial story conference.
Setting the scene
To understand what happened next requires a little background. Thalberg was working on three projects at that time. He had one director/producer in one room, another such in a second room, and finally the brothers, who were waiting outside his office. Basically, he spent the day running between these locations, having very important meetings each time. However, in the process, he also left the brothers dangling: 11:30 passed, then noon, then 1 p.m. (which is when the brothers left for an hour to eat lunch), and so on. Ultimately, Thalberg’s assistant contacted the brothers at 5 p.m., told them he was sorry he’d been so busy, and they should try to meet again at the same time tomorrow.
Naturally, this didn’t go over well, and it registered even harder the next day, when Thalberg made them wait again. However, around 2 p.m., they got into his office, which not only was enormous, plus had a massive fireplace on the side. At this point, Groucho said, “Look, Mr. Thalberg, we starred in two plays on Broadway, we’ve done five pictures at Paramount. We’re considered very good comedians. So, if you ask us to show up for a story conference at midnight, we’ll be here at midnight. But when you ask us to show up at 11, we want you to see us at 11 or there’s no deal with you at all.” He completely stunned Thalberg. No one ever spoke to him like that because they were all so afraid of him. Thankfully, he took it in stride and made a concession: from then on, when he scheduled a meeting, he’d see them right away. However, they’d start talking about a project, but then, after around twenty minutes, he’d say, “I’ve got to go talk to someone for a few minutes, I’ll be back”…and he’d be gone for three hours. Thus, now they were waiting inside his office. However, it backfired again: the third or fourth time Thalberg did this, the brothers took his file cabinets and stacked them against the two doors to his office so he couldn’t get in—and wouldn’t let him in until 5 p.m. Thankfully, he laughed about it because, as Groucho said, “Now he respected us.”
The Grand Finale
Yet, this was only the prelude to the brothers’ shining moment of glory. The next time he left them like that, they called the cafeteria and had them send up eight baked potatoes. They then lit a roaring fire in the office’s fireplace and took off all their clothes. Thus, when Thalberg came back, there the brothers were, sitting around the fireplace in the buff, toasting the potatoes on the fireplace spits; they even offered one to Thalberg, who ate it. After that, as Groucho said, “He loved us, because no one ever cracked a joke around him because they were all so afraid of him.”
Tragically, their partnership would only last two films (A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races) before Thalberg died from pneumonia, but they’d go on down in history as the brothers’ highest grossing work. Moreover, it cemented the brothers’ legacy, gave Thalberg a truly novel experience…and Hollywood gained one of its greatest backstories.
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