ATDTDA (17): "Julius" (467-68)

[Tim Strzechowski]

"A boy about fifteen years old crouched wide-eyed against the wall.  'Sure -- just fighting off some bedbugs.'  He worked his eyebrows energetically and pretended to brandish a horsewhip.  'Back!  Back, I say!' " (p. 467)


Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977), was an American comedian, working both with his siblings, the Marx Brothers, and on his own.

[...]

The Marx family grew up on the Upper East Side (E 93rd Street) of New York City, in a small Jewish neighborhood sandwiched between Irish-German and Italian neighborhoods. [...] After a few comically unsuccessful stabs at entry-level office work and other jobs suitable for adolescents, Julius took to the stage as a boy singer in 1905. Though he reputedly claimed that in the world of vaudeville, he enjoyed only "modest success" but was "hopelessly average", it was merely a wisecrack. By 1909, Minnie Marx successfully managed to assemble her sons into a low-quality vaudeville singing group. They were billing themselves as 'The Four Nightingales', Julius, Milton (Gummo Marx), Adolph (Harpo Marx) (later changed to Arthur), and another boy singer, Lou Levy, traveled the U.S. vaudeville circuits to little fanfare. After exhausting their prospects in the East, the family moved to La Grange, Illinois to play the Midwest.

[...]

Marx developed a routine as a wise-cracking hustler with a distinctive chicken-walking lope and an exaggerated greasepaint moustache and eyebrows, improvising insults to stuffy dowagers (often played by Margaret Dumont) and anyone else who stood in his way.

[...]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groucho_marx

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000050/


[...] Because my father was Groucho, I learned to appreciate the aroma of a good Havana cigar when I was still in a crib.[...]

http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Profiles/People_Profile/0,2540,19,00.html


"... pretended to brandish a horsewhip. 'Back! Back, I say!'"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028772/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023027/

Interestingly, in Horse Feathers (1932) Groucho plays Professor Quincy Adams Wagstaff, who has a son named Frank (played by Zeppo).


And for the Marx Brothers fan in your life this holiday season:

http://tinyurl.com/yv4rjk

http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=16-9781117489346-0

http://www.powells.com/biblio/17-9780671214586-0