STAN FREBERG HERE...The One, The Only...Groucho!
Stan Freberg here. I see where a letter from Groucho Marx was read at the Library of Congress. My own Groucho story, after this. [:60 SPOT BREAK]
I was fortunate enough to have known Groucho Marx. I can still see him in his black beret. He never wore a hat, because a beret could be neatly folded up inside of his coat.
Groucho hated joining anything; but once, for the sake of his daughter, when he applied to a snobbish club in Santa Monica, he was told he couldn't join because he was Jewish. Groucho told the man at the desk that he only wanted to join so his daughter would have a place to swim. "Uh...ahem...sorry, Mr. Marx."
Okay. Here's how Groucho dealt with anti-semitism. Instead of making a big protest, he merely said, "But my wife isn't Jewish; therefore, my daughter is only half-Jewish. How 'bout you let me join and my daughter will only go into the water up to her waist?"
Oh, boy - the stupidity of intolerance, exposed by the rapier wit of a great satirist.
We miss you, Groucho.
Stan Freberg here.
Copyright (C)1997, Stan Freberg/Freberg, Ltd. (but not very) Distributed by Dick Brescia Associates and Radio Spirits, Inc.