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Groucho Marx

Julius Henry “Groucho” Marx (October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977), was an American comedian and film star. He is famed as a master of wit. He made fifteen feature films with his siblings, the Marx Brothers, and also had a successful solo career, most notably as the host of the radio and television game show, You Bet Your Life. ^[1] He had a distinctive image, which included a heavy greasepaint moustache and eyebrows and glasses.

The greasepaint moustache and eyebrows originated spontaneously prior to a vaudeville performance when he did not have time to apply the pasted-on moustache he had been using (or, according to his autobiography, simply did not enjoy the removal of the moustache every night because of the effects of tearing an adhesive bandage off the same patch of skin every night). After applying the greasepaint moustache, a quick glance in the mirror revealed his natural hair eyebrows were too undertoned and did not match the rest of his face, so Marx added the greasepaint to his eyebrows and headed for the stage. The absurdity of the greasepaint was never discussed on-screen, but in a famous scene in Duck Soup, where both Chico and Harpo are disguising themselves as Groucho, they are briefly seen applying the greasepaint, implicitly answering any question a viewer might have had about where he got his moustache and eyebrows.Marx was asked to do the greasepaint moustache once more for “You Bet Your Life,” but refused, opting instead to grow a real one, which he wore for the rest of his life.

© 2008 The Speach Pit.