The Groucho Letters:
Letters From and To Groucho Marx

A Life of Laughter – I’ve the Warner Brothers to thank for many of the earliest laughs I recall. My brother and I grew up watching Looney Tunes cartoons on Saturday morning TV. Our favorite was “Bugs Bunny,” whose character, I didn’t know at the time, was lifted largely from Groucho Marx’s movie persona. After the cartoons, we found ourselves laughing to The Three Stooges and Get Smart and The Dick Van Dyke Show. Years later, like seemingly everyone else in the United States, I loved the TV show “M*A*S*H,” especially Alan Alda’s portrayal of Hawkeye Pierce, another comedy king whose persona owed a large debt of gratitude to Groucho. Of course, I had many other pop culture influences shaping what I considered funny and how I, myself, tried to make people laugh. One childhood summer in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, vacationing with our family, our cousins Bob and Billy Froberg turned my brother and I on to a parody album by Spike Jones and His City Slickers. We played it over and over and over again. Later, in college, the album my dormmates and I all memorized was National Lampoon’s “That’s Not Funny, That’s Sick!” Sometime also in childhood, most likely while watching WGN-TV’s Family Classics, I found myself kid-chortling at the Marx Brothers movies. So, Groucho hooked me early. His wit made me laugh – and the absurdity of his banter made clear sense to me growing up at a time – the 1960s and 1970s – that was increasingly absurd. (One might argue we’ve moved now from absurdity to inanity.) Reading Groucho Marx’s letters brings back the joy of the absurd and the thrill of his wit. I highly recommend reading this book. Who couldn’t use a good laugh or two?