Friday, September 28, 2018

Marx Brothers Take It All Off


Oh for the days when stories out of Hollywood had nothing to do with getting arrested or being in rehab.

Take the Marx Brothers, for instance. There was a group of guys who knew how to Make Merry...on screen and off.


My thanks to Stephen Schochet's book, Hollywood Stories, for this tasty tidbit:


In 1934, the Marx Brothers felt insulted by MGM bigwig Irving Thalberg (1899-1936). How dare he say that their movies needed fewer laughs and more romance? And why did this young man keep them waiting when they scheduled meetings? The Marxes were from vaudeville where promptness was demanded. The comics plotted their revenge. One day they barricaded Irving's office door with filing cabinets, and then escaped through the window. Another time, the once again tardy producer entered his workplace to find the comics completely naked and roasting potatoes in his fireplace. The good-humored Thalberg told the brothers to wait; he then called the MGM commissary and asked them to send up some butter.


Hey, Kardashians...I spit in your general direction.

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