SHORT TAKES : ‘Lost’ Marx Scripts Draw Fans

Fans of the Marx Brothers lined up in the rain to pack a London studio for the first public performance in almost 60 years of radio scripts written by the manic American comedy team.

The scripts for “Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel,” a series about an unscrupulous lawyer, were believed lost until they were discovered a year ago by a researcher in the Library of Congress in Washington.

The British Broadcasting Corp. bought exclusive performance rights. It recorded the first of the series on Tuesday night to rapturous applause from the capacity studio audience and will broadcast it later in the year.

British actor Mike Roberts played Groucho Marx playing lawyer Flywheel, complete with Groucho’s trademark boot-polish mustache and large cigar. Another Briton, Frank Lazarus, played Chico Marx playing Flywheel’s sidekick Ravelli. Because it was a radio show, there was no part for brother Harpo, who was always mute in the Marx films.

The series, made for Standard Oil, was broadcast in 1932 in the United States but was not recorded.

BBC producer Dirk Maggs said: “They have never been heard since they were first produced and finding the scripts was like finding Tutankhamen’s tomb.”