I REMEMBER GROUCHO by George Fenneman

I REMEMBER GROUCHO

BY GEORGE FENNEMAN                                                                                          PART ONE

Harry von Zell’s column “Memories” will not appear this issue because as we go to press Harry is hosting a Silver Circle cruise to the South Pacific. He’s asked his friend George Fenneman to be the guest columnist and to write about his experiences with Groucho Marx.

Since the recent death of  Groucho Marx , I’ve often been asked what he was like. And I have to say he was unique, and he was fearless. It was a great privilege to work with him for 15 years and to be his friend for 30.

How did I start working with Groucho? I think it was sheer luck. I won the audition for “You Bet Your Life” because I happened to be standing on the corner of Hollywood and vine. A man I’d worked with in San Francisco came up to me and said he was holding an audition for a new show with Groucho Marx. Although 30 other announcers were there, something was on my side. I won the audition, but I was only hired to do commercials for ladies’ compacts.

The last line of the commercial started Groucho and me talking to each other. As violins played, I got close to the microphone and said, “Have you looked at your compact lately?” Groucho said, “Of course I haven’t.” After that he often came over and talked to me. As I started keeping the score for the quiz and began to introduce the guests, my role on the show grew. But there was no plan, no preconceived idea that I would become a straight man for Groucho. I was hired merely to do the commercials.

Groucho paid me a very great compliment at his 84^th birthday party. We were standing in his home with Bob Hope, Jack Lemmon, Elliott Gould and others when Groucho stopped the conversation and said, “You know fellows, without this fellow Fenneman we couldn’t have had a show. He’s the greatest straight man I have ever seen!”

Groucho had been my idol from the time I was a little kid. The Marx Brothers made their first movie around 1929 when I was very young. I saw it, and I fell in love with them. I followed Groucho’s career because he was my favorite Marx brother. So when I wound up on stage with the man who was my idol, I was in awe.

“You Bet Your Life” could have been given to another comedian I guess, but it wouldn’t have been the same show. It was Groucho’s show, and he was on of a kind. His sense of humor and his attacks on the establishment were much ahead of their time. Maybe that’s why the show is so popular with young people today.

In fact, when the show was on the air The New York Times ran a survey of college students asking them to vote on the men they respected most. The top three were Jesus Christ, Albert Schweitzer and Groucho Marx. Groucho said he didn’t mind taking third billing to those two!

Groucho had a running gag about my keeping score on the show. He’d say, “You can’t add or subtract. You must have gone to Stanford to get that stupid.” Well, I didn’t go to Stanford. I went to San Francisco State College where I met my wife Peggy. My friends at State were writing me letters asking if I were ashamed of San Francisco State. So I asked Groucho to tell the audience where I went to school. He said, “Sure, I’ll fix it up.” I should have known better! That night on the show he called me over and said, “George, I understand you’ve been lying about the school you went to.” I said, “No, I haven’t been lying.” “Well,” he said, “Where did you go to school?” I said, “I went to San Francisco State College.” He replied, “No, you just made that up. There is no such school. You had to have gone to Stanford to be that stupid.” And to this day, people come up to me and say, “I think I was in your biology class at Stanford.” I think people overlook the fact that Groucho was not just a comedian. I’m not putting down comedians, but he was much more. He was a wit, and to me that is a step above being a comedian. He was a satirist, he was an actor, he was a musician and he was an irreverent essayist.

He would embarrass me and everyone else on the show, but I had a lot of love for him and a great respect for what he was able to do

I REMEMBER GROUCHO

BY GEORGE FENNEMAN                                                                                       PART TWO

In the previous issue of Silver Circle News I talked about my experiences with Groucho Marx. And frankly one column wasn’t enough to answer the many questions people have asked me about him. So Harry von Zell has loaned me his column once again to “remember Groucho.”

I was Groucho’s straight man on “YouBet Your Life” for fifteen years, and later he said I was the greatest straight man he’d ever seen. Of course he couldn’t resist saying, “In fact Fenneman is so straight, he’s straight on all six sides.”

Comedians can search all their live for someone to work with and play against. That’s what a straight man is. I guess I went on the program all those years not knowing I was a straight man. I just showed up at the program and prayed a lot that I would say the right thing.

One problem was what to say when Groucho called you stupid. I mean, it’s pretty hard to defend yourself against that.

He had a long thing going with me about my stupidity which I talked about in the last column. It was very funny and after the first few times it didn’t bother me. I realized he did this to everyone.

It started when I began keeping score on “You Bet Your Life.” The rules of the quiz changed every 39 shows because our producer felt new quizzes kept the show alive. Well, Groucho never really understood the rules of the quiz.

Each contestant was given $100, and they were allowed to bet any amount of that $100 on the upcoming question. We all thought when we said “any amount” they would bet $10, $20 or $30. But Groucho encouraged them to bet amounts like $27.27. Picture this—I have a piece of paper on which I write $100.00. Then I write down $27.27. I draw a line under the number, and I’m about to add if they answer correctly or subtract if they don’t. they have given the answer, and your brains fall out! It’s hard to add or subtract.

To help me out, they had a girl stand in the wings to keep track of the score. But she and I never agreed on the answers. It got very funny, and that’s when Groucho started accusing me of being stupid.

People asked me if Groucho was as funny in person as on stage. Well, if Groucho and I were one on one, he was funny but not as funny as performers very often are if there’s more than two people—suddenly it’s an audience. For example, when we’d go to lunch at the Brown Derby in Beverly Hills that whole restaurant became his audience. It was little embarrassing to walk in with him sometimes.

I remember one time we were waiting in line to be seated, and there was a very attractive girl standing behind us. I’m not sure if she knew who this funny little man was when he turned to her and said, “Are you alone?” she said, “Yes, I am.” And he responded “there must be something terribly wrong with you.” At time like these you’d like to pretend you aren’t with him. He was fearless!

He did say some terrible things to people. He had a reputation for making innuendos, but in looking at the show I realize that a lot of it was in the beholder’s mind. You would say something semi-innocent, but Groucho would give you a look, raise his eyebrows, wiggle them . . . and your comment suddenly took on another meaning. He was, I think, unfairly branded as being off-color which is so far from what Groucho was. He didn’t have to rely on that kind of humor. I have a reel of outtakes from “You Bet Your Life,” but today no one would bother to censor them.

At the time I wasn’t aware I was working on a semi-historic program. Who would have guessed that this rebirth would take place? It was Groucho’s show, and he was definitely one of a kind. Maybe that’s why “You Bet Your Life” is still popular today.