Remembering Marx and Lennon : The Great Comedian at 100: You Bet Your Life

In his opening monologue of the movie “Annie Hall,” Woody Allen sets the tone of the film with a joke “usually attributed to Groucho Marx . . . ‘I would never want to belong to any club that would have me as a member.’ That’s the key joke of my adult life in terms of my relationships.”

Comedian Richard Lewis identified with Groucho’s classic “club joke” growing up, in neurotic admiration. “That line screamed the low self-esteem I felt about myself, and I thought it was wonderful that Groucho said it with his head held high,” Lewis said.

Julius (Groucho) Marx would have celebrated his 100th birthday last Tuesday, and the current crop of stand-up comedians, although generally considered the sons and daughters of Lenny Bruce, remember Groucho well--from his movies with the rest of the Marx Brothers to his appearance as host of TV’s “You Bet Your Life.” Lewis and others consider his free-associating style, his sly innuendo--even his poor posture--crucial influences on their comedy and careers.

When Lewis was traveling in Europe after college, he found a focus in Groucho. “When I was lonely, I’d check out the newspapers for Marx Brothers movies--Groucho in Spanish was transcendent. Not only was he wonderfully sarcastic, but none of the surreal craziness of his relatives bothered him--he out-crazied them. Which reminds me of my childhood. I should have brought this up with my therapist years ago.”

Lewis estimates that he’s seen “A Night at the Opera” and “Duck Soup” “400 or 500 times. I’ve also shown these films to each of the women I had hoped would be important to my life--about 30 or 40 women. If I could have told Groucho that he helped my performance in bed, he probably would have said, ‘Well, forget the movie.’ ”

“Groucho was the ultimate bad boy, he gave anarchy a good name,” said Richard Belzer, who came to the realization as a teen-ager that “I was getting punished for the kind of wisecracks Groucho was getting paid for--maybe someday I could be like Groucho.”

Jerry Seinfeld was also struck at an early age by the possibilities Groucho presented. “I thought that the great thing about Groucho was that he was a very silly, full-grown man. ‘ ‘What a good idea,’ I thought. If you see one grown man acting silly, the next one does it more easily.”

Paul Reiser agrees. “I had just started getting into comedy as a fan when I discovered Groucho. Here was this comedy father-figure acting adolescent and producing irreverent, hip comedy that was so wonderfully incongruous.”

Reviewed as “abrasive, abusive--and endearing,” Bobby Slayton recently won an American Comedy Award as Best Comedy Club Comedian. Even before Slayton considered becoming a comic, “People would tell me I sounded like Lenny Bruce, but Groucho was more my hero. I’ve spent more time listening to and watching Groucho, and I’ve gotten more enjoyment out of him. Groucho had such a lightning, brutal wit, which was somewhat mean-spirited--and I could identify with that.”

Larry Miller, a comedian who is a regular on the “Tonight Show” and who also improvised the role of the obsequious shop owner in the movie “Pretty Woman,” is certain of Groucho’s place in comedic history. “Did Groucho have an effect on stand-up comedy as we know it today? That’s like asking, ‘Did Roosevelt have an effect on J.F.K.?’ ”

Groucho employed dozens of comedy writers in more than 50 years of performing--including S. J. Perelman, Moss Hart and songwriters Harry Ruby and Irving Berlin. But the shrapnel ripostes Groucho fired off in private life were the forerunners of today’s stand-up’s one-line non-sequiturs.

Bob Saget’s patter moves to a Groucho beat in his live act and (to a lesser degree on “America’s Funniest Home Videos”). “Little did I know that I was raised by him subliminally,” said Saget. “I’ve been told I use free association and twisted world allusions like Groucho, and it’s been nice to be told I’m in the same free association with Groucho. Groucho had a mischievousness combined with a literacy. I’m mischievous and I’m trying to be literary, but I’ve got a lot of Cliff Notes to eat first.”

“Groucho is synonymous with the snappy comeback,” Reiser said. “How many times have you seen even ordinary people raise an imaginary cigar and lift an eyebrow when making a retort?”

“You hear a lot of comics breaking into a Groucho rhythm--whether they realize it or not,” said Saget.

Comedian, writer and actor Robert Wuhl is sensitive to the sound of comedy. “Like all great comics, Groucho was also a musician with a great sense of rhythm. You can hear his influence in the delivery of every stand-up line spoken today and talk shows from Carson to Letterman.”

Pam Stone, the second banana on “Coach,” loved Groucho’s tongue-in-cheek sexual kidding on “Best of Groucho.” “I can’t tell you how liberating I found Groucho’s sneaky sexual innuendo. At 6 I thought that his caustic quickness was sexy--if I had been older, and he had been younger, he could have seduced me in a heartbeat. Of course, I also had a thing for Shemp, the sexiest stooge.”

Groucho had a career that skipped through 60 years--not all of them successful--and included nearly every entertainment media: vaudeville, Broadway, radio, TV, movies and, after retirement age, albums, books, live concerts and even dinner theater. Small surprise that comedians find that comedy span comforting.

Larry Miller is an admirer of Groucho’s longevity. “I loved his ad-libbing on ‘You Bet Your Life.’ It was an event to see someone at that late point in his creative life who was so serene and confident, with such heart, and whose instrument was so finely honed.

“It was a great joy to me to know how much had come before, and that he lived the last 10 years of his life as an elder statesman of comedy. Too many comics today think only of a cheap shot one year.”

Groucho’s movies also provide a school for comedians in the lost art of broad comedy. As Seinfeld points out, “We didn’t get to experience burlesque and vaudeville, us guys today, but we can see the Marx Brothers.”

Judy Tenuta learned the value of staying within character, and a crazy one at that, from Groucho. “The comics who last longest either do Jell-O commercials or smoke cigars. Groucho lives in me. I think he may be my father. I insult rich, aristocratic women-- have you ever noticed my walk? I’m thinking of growing that mustache.”

And speaking of the Groucho slouch, “Groucho Marx was enormously significant to me comedically, and his inspiration is exceedingly evident in my poor posture,” said Stone. Lewis demurs, “I have the worst posture of any ‘living’ comedian--I’m going to have a casket made with a little hunch.”

But, most of all, this generation of comedians misses Groucho. “I just did Dick Cavett’s show, and I told him how much I envied his getting to know Groucho personally,” said Lewis. “To me, Groucho’s up there in the same pantheon with Lenny Bruce and Hendrix.”

“As a comic writer, to have met Groucho would have been like going to Lourdes,” said Miller.