Cable Choice and Competition Act

[A. Joseph Ross]

On 12 Jun 2007 Rick Kelly wrote:

> I thought Gummo was a lot older than the others, too, but could be
> mistaken.  Did they ever have a regular radio show, I wonder (just to
> keep this the subject at hand...)

Gummo was actually fourth.   Chico was the oldest, then Harpo, then 
Groucho, then Gummo, then Zeppo.   Gummo left the act to go into the 
Army during World War I and never returned.

There were a number of radio shows, mostly either Groucho alone or 
Groucho with Chico.  Harpo made very few radio appearances for 
obvious reasons.  Groucho and Chico did a short-lived comedy called 
"Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel," about a law office.  Few of those 
episodes exist now, but the BBC re-created them from the scripts a 
few years back.  It was originally called "Beagle, Shyster & Beagle," 
but a real-life attorney Beagle threatened to sue, so they changed 
the name.  They explained the name change by having the secretary 
tell someone over the phone that her boss got a divorce and returned 
to his maiden name.

There was also an even shorter-lived news parody, modeled after Time 
Magazine's "The March of Time."  It was called "The Marx of Time," 
with Groucho and Chico, and you can use your imagination to guess 
what it was like.

Groucho hosted a variety show called the Pabst Blue Ribbon Hour for 
maybe one season.  Finally, John Guidel pursuaded him to do a quiz 
show, so that he would have a vehicle for his ad-libbing.  That was 
the highly successful "You Bet Your Life," which ran for 14 years on 
radio and television.

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                   617.367.0468
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