Justin Mory writes…
Regarding facts the late actor Robert Heyges had reported wrong on his website about the Marx Brothers you wrote that Chico and Groucho never exchanged roles when performing on Broadway. But what I'm wondering is if it's true that Zeppo understudied Groucho's roles and filled-in when need arose? I'm thinking specifically of a scene in the movie version of Animal Crackers that, legend has it, has Zeppo performing as Groucho. Is it in fact Zeppo, and did he ever have occasion to impersonate Chico or Harpo?
When the Marx Brothers were on stage, Zeppo understudied all his brothers. He couldn't play the piano like Chico and he couldn't play the harp like Harpo but he apparently could provide a reasonable facsimile of everything else his three performing brothers did. So if one of them was out, Zeppo went on in his place and a member of the chorus filled in for Zeppo. It is said that after Groucho missed an entire week of one play due to illness, he watched at least one performance with Zeppo from out front and remarked, "Well, it looks like I'm not needed." Whether Zeppo was that good or Groucho was just being nice to his brother is open to speculation.
Regarding this scene in the film of Animal Crackers…
Legend has it that's Zeppo playing Groucho's role in the scene where the lights are dim. Is it? I wouldn't be shocked to find out it was the real thing but I've long assumed that yes, that's Zeppo. The voice is just far enough off Groucho's to make that believable.
A bit less believable is the way it's reported, which is that Groucho was ill one day so Zeppo stepped into the job. That's possible but it is quite a coincidence that Groucho should be out the day they had to film a scene in the dark. We'll probably never know for sure but I suspect Groucho was off in his dressing room reading a book when this was shot. I'm thinking it was just an inside joke to deploy Zeppo in the one scene in the movie where he could have pulled off an undetectable impersonation. If Groucho had been too sick to work that day, they probably would have shut down the company until he was better.
There was however a less arguable example of Groucho impersonation a few years later when the Brothers were working for MGM. They were about to go on the road with a touring show to test some of the comedy scenes in Go West, the next film they were to film. Publicity photos were needed and Groucho was for some reason unavailable…so Irving Brecher, who wrote Go West, climbed into a Groucho suit and posed with Chico and Harpo. Apparently, no one noticed that Groucho had somehow gotten 24 years younger. Too bad Frank Ferrante wasn't around in those days…
