Groucho Marx died 30 years ago today, just three days after Elvis’ demise. Being 44 years old when Elvis was born in 1935, and having been in ill health for some time when Elvis died at age 42, Groucho’s death was no surprise.
A brief clip from Duck Soup that I posted is here. The first Marx Brothers movie was The Cocoanuts. It’s old. How old? It was released in August 1929, two months before the stock market crash!
Here are the first 7 or so minutes of The Cocoanuts. Irving Berlin wrote the music. It sounds as though Berlin had been listening to a lot of George Gershwin before writing this score.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/AUG07/Cocoanuts.flv 400 300]
The “why a duck” gag isn’t in this clip. Maybe I’ll post it later.