Ferrante’s Making His Marx : Groucho’s Family Members Among Fans of Actor Who Plays Comedian in Various Shows

Back in 1985, Frank Ferrante gave a performance that changed his life. He was playing the title role--the only role--in “An Evening With Groucho” as a senior project at USC.

In the audience were some very special people: Miriam Allen Marx and Arthur Marx, Groucho’s daughter and son, and writer Morrie Ryskind, who had collaborated on such Marx Brothers gems as “The Cocoanuts,” “Animal Crackers” and “A Night at the Opera.”

Miriam Allen Marx was charmed and wrote him a fan letter. They became fast friends who share holidays and a love of ice cream. Arthur Marx extended Ferrante an open invitation to play Groucho in any play he might write.

Within three months, they were working together on “Groucho: A Life in Revue,” which subsequently played New York and London, garnering awards for its young star. And Ryskind, in one of his last public appearances, saluted Ferrante as “the only actor aside from Groucho who delivered my lines as they were intended to be.”

Ferrante has been playing Groucho ever since, off and on: in the one-man show, which comes to the Yorba Linda Forum on Saturday; in Arthur Marx and Robert Fisher’s play, which will be in San Bernardino on March 18-28; and in various other theatrical and television programs. But then, his fate has been tied up with Groucho Marx since childhood.

“I was a fan of Groucho’s as a boy,” Ferrante said during a recent phone interview from Denver, where he was playing “An Evening With Groucho.”

“I loved him, Jack Benny, W.C. Fields, Charlie Chaplin--all those guys. In fact, it was my hobby of researching these comedians’ lives that led me to performing onstage in high school and college.”

The Marx Brothers were 20-year stage veterans. Reared in vaudeville, even after their movie careers were well established they would take key scenes from films-in-progress and try them out on the road, performing live as a curtain-warmer before the daily feature.

When Ferrante learned that, he decided to emulate his heroes.

He since has played leads in well-known musical comedies on stages all over the United States. But it was the Groucho role that took him to London, where he won a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for “Comedy Performance of the Year,” and it’s Groucho to whom he returns to again and again.

So what’s the appeal of this old-time comic, famous for his stogies and his insults?

“His comedy still makes people laugh,” Ferrante answered. “It made me laugh when I was young, and kids still respond to his material. I think young audiences can really relate to the rebelliousness of Groucho’s humor. He poked fun at everyone. He broke all the rules and made fun of society, of doctors, lawyers and politicians. . . .

“And the Marx Brothers’ stage performances were very improvisational. I do a lot of ad-libbing myself in performance.”

Years of research and a devotional affection for Groucho Marx allow Ferrante to improvise in character during performances with his onstage partner, Gus Pappelis, who is the musical director and accompanist for “An Evening With Groucho.”

The show portrays Groucho in his heyday during the 1930s, and includes 12 songs, including his signature numbers “Hello, I Must Be Going” and “Lydia, the Tattooed Lady.”

In addition to the jokes and songs, Ferrante is showcasing Groucho, the human being. A man of confidence, intelligence and wide-ranging interests, according to Ferrante.

“A wonderful, homebody father,” according to his daughter.

“He was very much the focal point of our lives when we were growing up,” Miriam Marx Allen said by phone from her residence in San Clemente. “He was there for us.”

Their intensely loving relationship has been chronicled in the correspondence she recently compiled and published as a book entitled “Love, Groucho.”

Hundreds of letters encompassing the years 1938-67 attest to the extraordinary closeness of Groucho and his daughter.

“Of course people know who Groucho Marx was,” she said. “They know him from the Marx Brothers movies and especially from ‘You Bet Your Life’ (the TV quiz show that Groucho hosted for 14 years). But I wanted to share my father with the world.”

And so the letters have been published, and an audiocassette has been made of the book, with Ferrante reading some of Groucho’s letters, written so long ago to this woman who is now Ferrante’s friend.

“Miriam gave me a wonderfully generous gift on the occasion of my 1,000th performance in ‘Groucho: A Life in Revue’: one of Groucho’s original letters. Knowing the kind of deeply caring person he was supports everything I do in performance.

“I met Groucho once, in 1976, a year before he died. He was still very sharp, but once in a while, when you said something, he would say ‘What?’

“He wasn’t hard of hearing. He was buying time so that he could think of a witty rejoinder. Even at 86 years old, he was trying to find a way to get a quick laugh.”

* Actor Frank Ferrante portrays comedian Groucho Marx in “An Evening With Groucho” on Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Yorba Linda Forum, 4175 Fairmont Blvd., Yorba Linda. $12. (714) 779-8577.