Bennett Wong writes…
I read with great interest your account of Groucho's visit to the set of Welcome Back, Kotter. I see that Robert Hegyes, who played Epstein on the series and who passed away recently, told the story on his website but his account differed in many details. Would you care to comment?
Sure. As politely as I can, I'll state that I stand behind my version and I'll wager that others who were there that night will back me up. Bobby Hegyes was a great guy and a fine performer but he got this one wrong, especially the part where he has Groucho insisting he wants to do the scene.
Elsewhere on his site, writing about the Marxes, Bobby said that Chico and Groucho sometimes exchanged roles when performing on Broadway. Not so. He also says that Zeppo was named because he used Zippo lighters. The first Zippo lighter came out in 1933 and Zeppo had been Zeppo for more than a decade by then, including in the first few Marx Brothers movies. Zeppo told several different versions of how his name was coined but that was not among them.