I wrote this piece...I hope you get a chance to read it and hopefully enjoy it :)
We are of the same era, and your article brought back many fond memories. I wish my kids would watch those old shows and movies, but when I put them on, they are not interested. They connected me to the people who lived in the 30s and 40s and help me understand better where we came from. One of the social problems that is developing is the loss of a common culture based on common experiences, which has paradoxically developed due to the myriad of choices that we have when we choose entertainment.
The only problem I have with the piece is the fact that you left out a Hungadunga! You've left out the main one, too. I'm pretty sure Srdja Trifkovic will back me up on this.
But overall, That's a fine letter, Diocletian. That's an epic. That's dandy. Now I want you to make two carbon copies of that letter and throw the original away. And when you get through with that, throw the carbon copies away. Just send the stamp, airmail. That's all. You may go, Diocletian. I may go too.
Excellent, well done. There’s a really cool DVD called “The Unknown Marx Brothers”, something like that, which has footage, history, interviews with kids, etc.
I loved seeing the Groucho Marx TV shows when I was a kid.........................every once in a while one may be lucky to catch an old Marx brother film on TV.
Very nice article - I love reading about them (Duck Soup is my favorite).
Zeppo made no mention of Margaret Dumont? That’s too bad - I always felt she was a big part of the act in their films.
Excellent article on my favorite comedy team (besides the Three Stooges of course.) You know you’ve grown old when your points of reference and your icons mean nothing to today’s generation.
This is true. I'm old enough to remember what it was like before cable tv, before DVDs, before VCR's were common (I'm talking about the 1970s). I grew up watching syndicated reruns of classic tv shows and classic old hollywood movies (some not so classic, but still entertaining). I recall watching not only the Marx Brothers, The Three Stooges, The Little Rascals, but also Jerry Lewis, Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, etc. The list is endless.
I recall when cable tv finally came to my area. It started out as only a couple of channels, and grew with more channels over time. This caused them to grab with both hands all of the classic tv shows and movies, taking them away from the local stations. I couldnt afford cable tv at the time and so I had to do without for many years. The local tv stations became barren as a desert. Replacing their old wonderful programming with infomercials, local or syndicated talk shows, syndicated episodes of more recent tv shows, movies that were recent and junk, etc. Sometimes I'd open the tv guide to compare the cable channels to the local tv stations to see what I was missing. What was airing on cable tv would make my mouth water. On a weekend afternoon I'd be watching some boring animal documentary on PBS, meantime TBS would be airing an Andy Griffth show marathon, AMC would be airing a Bob Hope or Jerry Lewis marathon, and so on.
When I at long last got cable tv (in 1996), I finally got to see all those wonderful movies and tv shows all over again. But now I'm witnessing the cable channels (AMC, Nick at Vite, TV Land, etc) go downhill as they replace their classic movies and tv shows with garbage that cannnot hold a candle in comparison.
“Isn’t Zeppo hysterical? The way he just stands there without expression or reaction. Boy! That cracks me up!” - Lilith Sternin Crane, Cheers
My gosh, doesn't your computer have a spell check? :-)
Nice work.
Ljubivoje
- Groucho Marx
Very nice. Thanks for posting this. I remember when Groucho died, when I was a child. Many years later, when I was a cute young college student at UCLA, I found a treasure trove of books by and about him, watched all his films, and I fell completely in love with him. I had this mad crush on Groucho for years. I like to think we would have been a good match, except for a couple generations...