Julius Henry " Groucho " Marx ( October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977 ) was an American comedian and film and television star.

In a 1950 radio episode of You Bet Your Life, Groucho stated that he was born in a room above a butcher's shop on 78th Street in New York City.

By the time the Marxes made their first movie, they were major stars with sharply honed skills, and when Groucho was relaunched to stardom on You Bet Your Life, he had already been performing successfully for half a century.

Groucho glassesIn public and off-camera, Harpo and Chico were difficult to recognize by their fans without their wigs and costumes, but it was almost impossible to recognize Groucho without his trademark eye-glasses, fake eyebrows and mustache.

The absurdity of the greasepaint was never discussed on-screen, but in a famous scene in Duck Soup, where both Chicolini ( Chico ) and Pinky ( Harpo ) disguise themselves as Groucho, they are briefly seen applying the greasepaint, implicitly answering any question a viewer might have had about where he got his mustache and eyebrows.

Groucho exaggerated this fad to a marked degree, and the comedy effect was enhanced by how out of date the fashion was by the 1940s and 1950s.

Groucho was 54 and Kay 21 at the time of their marriage.

She was 24 when she married the 63-year-old Groucho.

Groucho was not allowed to join an informal symphonietta of friends, organized by Ben Hecht, that included Harpo because he could only play the mandolin.

Groucho was allowed to join the symphonietta.

The family was going through customs and, while filling out a form, Groucho listed his name as " Julius Henry Marx " and his occupation as " smuggler.

Later in life, Groucho would sometimes note to talk-show hosts, not entirely jokingly, that he was unable to actually insult anyone, because the target of his comment assumed it was a Groucho-esque joke and would laugh.

Marx & Lennon: The Parallel Sayings was published in 2005 ; the book records similar sayings between Groucho Marx and John Lennon.

In the mid-1940s, during a depressing lull in his career ( his radio show Blue Ribbon Town had failed, and the Marx Brothers as film performers were well past their prime ), Groucho was scheduled to appear on a radio show with Bob Hope.

Annoyed that he was made to wait in the waiting room for 40 minutes, Groucho went on the air in a foul mood.

" Groucho continued to ignore the script, and although Hope was a formidable ad-libber in his own right, he could not begin to keep up with Groucho, who lengthened the scene well beyond its allotted time slot with a veritable onslaught of improvised wisecracks.

Since You Bet Your Life was mostly ad-libbed and unscripted — although writers did pre-interview the guests and feed Groucho ready-made lines in advance — the producers insisted that the network prerecord it ( instead of being broadcast live ).

There were two reasons for this: prerecording provided Groucho with time to fish around for funny exchanges and any intervening dead spots to be edited out ; and secondly to protect the network, since Groucho was a notorious loose cannon and known to say almost anything.

A recording of the song with Groucho and the Ken Lane singers with an orchestra directed by Victor Young was released in 1952.

* August 19 – Groucho Marx, Comedic legend, star of stage and screen dies of pneumonia at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California the age of 86 ( 1890 – 1977 ).

* According to legend, it was in Galesburg, at the Gaity Theatre in 1914 where the four Marx Brothers ( Groucho, Chico, Harpo, and Gummo ) first received their nicknames.

He approached Groucho about doing a quiz show, to which Groucho derisively retorted, " A quiz show?

* In his autobiography, Groucho and Me, Groucho Marx talks about playing whist with an ex-girlfriend during a chapter on her husbands insomnia.

When Groucho Marx was asked about Abbott shortly after his death, his response was that Abbott was " the greatest straight man ever.

His humorous crime and science fiction includes tales about robots and historical Hollywood figures, such as Groucho Marx.

Mid-way through a recreation of a scene from Animal Crackers, Groucho stopped her as she was about to deliver her next line.

In November 2008, Bernie Katz, the Groucho Club's front of house host, wrote a book about his experiences in Soho and at the Groucho Club.

During production, the skin was switched from a gorilla to an orangutan, which perplexed some viewers who would ask Groucho about it if they happened to meet him.

* Groucho Marx responded to an article about him in the magazine with his famous letter -- originally printed in his book The Groucho Letters ( Simon and Schuster, 1967 ) and now in the Library of Congress -- " If you don't stop printing scandalous articles about me, I'll be forced to cancel my subscription.

Groucho Marx remarked about the musical Hair, which had just opened and was notorious for its ground-breaking use of explicit nudity: " I was going to go, but I saw myself in the mirror one morning, and I figured, why waste five and a half dollars?

During the pitch meeting at the Groucho Club, Ptaszynski realised that Moffat was talking passionately about his impending divorce and suggested that he write about that instead of his initial proposal, a school sitcom.

However, Ptaszynski realised that Moffat was talking more passionately at the meeting at the Groucho Club about his impending divorce and suggested that he write about that instead.

According to Groucho Marx, when Erlanger approached Gen. Lew Wallace about acquiring the stage rights to his epic novel Ben-Hur, Wallace asked him fiercely, " Do you believe in our lord, Jesus Christ?

Meanwhile, Wydell calls a movie critic to find out about the names of the Firefly family, later discovering that they are all characters from Groucho Marx's movies.

In this scene, they are both supposed to be Harpo, not Groucho ; he stays the same and Lucille Ball is dressed as him.

In the early Marx brothers films especially, when Groucho levels an insult at her, she can be seen giving an appropriate and fleeting " shocked " response as part of her characterization.

In response to Wills's ad, claiming that all the voters were his " Alamo Cousins ," Groucho Marx took out a small ad which simply said, " Dear Mr. Wills, I am delighted to be your cousin, but I voted for Sal Mineo ," ( Wills's rival nominee for Exodus ).

To promote his first book, Which Way to Mecca, Jack ?, Blatty was a contestant on the Groucho Marx quiz show You Bet Your Life, winning $ 10, 000 :< ref >

Bootzin received national exposure in 1955, when he appeared as a contestant on Groucho Marx's network TV show You Bet Your Life.

If a contestant said the word, a toy duck resembling Groucho with a mustache and eyeglasses, and with a cigar in its bill, descended from the ceiling to bring a $ 100 bill.

Early in his career he appeared as himself as a contestant on You Bet Your Life opposite Groucho Marx, demonstrating a comic barrage of jive talk.

He can be heard as a contestant on the 3rd February 1958 edition of Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life.