If you were enthralled by the Harpo voice clip I posted the other day, you oughta pay a visit to www.marx-brothers.org, one of the better Marxian websites out there. Matter of fact, the clip apparently originated there, and they have another Harpo audio file, along with plenty of info on the Brothers Marx. My apologies to the proprietor of that site if he feels I usurped his file but it was e-mailed to me from someone who got it from someone else who got it from someone else, etc. (You've all gotten those e-mails…)
And speaking of those funny boys named Marx, I recently came across a letter that was sent to me in 1972 by Alan Jay Lerner, who was best known for writing the book and lyrics for My Fair Lady, Camelot, Gigi and even a few shows that weren't classics. Here is an excerpt from that letter. The reference to Coco Chanel relates to Coco, a Broadway musical that Lerner had penned about the life of the great designer, the show Arthur Laurents wrote was Gypsy, and the show about the brothers' life was, of course, Minnie's Boys, which debuted in 1970 and didn't last long.
Groucho approached me about becoming involved in the show about his family but I declined, respectfully but with a silent note of terror. Having endured the angst of Coco Chanel approving my version of her life, I had no stomach for the interference he would surely bring to his project. He summoned me to his table one evening in Chasen's, told me that his show was floundering and that only I could salvage it. He also insisted on telling me the plot, which was not wholly flattering to his mother, at least as he described it. To this I replied that Arthur Laurents had just done a perfectly fine musical about a pushy stage mother and vaudeville, so why did the world need another? Groucho's reply was to the effect that the Marx Brothers were important and were loved, whereas Gypsy Rose Lee was a nobody. I did not suggest that the theatre-going public might have more interest in strippers than in vaudeville comedians.
Lerner was also probably the wrong person for Minnie's Boys because of the subject matter…though odder matches have occurred. He came very close to doing the Broadway musical of Li'l Abner, as described here.