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Chicago Tribune

Column: Groucho Marx, playing one night only in the Loop

Groucho Marx has been dead since 1977, but to hear his grandson talk about him, one can imagine a smile on his face, those remarkable eyebrows raising 'He and I became very close in his later years,' Andy Marx was telling me Sunday night. 'We spent a lot of time together, working on various projects, every day at his house for two or three years, having lunch. I used to run into a lot of people who knew my grandfather. But that's rare now.' On the telephone with us was Frank Ferrante, who is in a career-long business of being Groucho, whose full name was Julius Henry Marx. For 40 years and counting, he has been Groucho in many foreign countries, in 47 of our 50 states, in theaters large and small. He will be Groucho again on June 11, when he performs his critically acclaimed one-man, two-act show, 'Frank Ferrante's Groucho,' at Teatro ZinZanni, that lively theatrical oasis in the Loop. He has been here before, serving off and on as Caesar, the emcee of Teatro ZinZanni's dinner circus show, since it opened in Chicago in 2019. He's also played Groucho in the suburbs many times. No surprise. He's been almost everywhere. This will be his 3,500 performance as Groucho, give or take, so I wasn't reluctant to ask him to take yet another trip, back to where it all began. He says this 'remarkable experience' started when he was nine and saw the 1937 film comedy, 'A Day at the Races,' the seventh movie to star Groucho and his brothers Harpo (Arthur) and Chico (Leonard Joseph). 'I was entranced and exhilarated by his behavior on screen,' Ferrante told me. 'Remember, I was 9, and so it was real, he was a real person. That mustache, eyebrows, so free and wild, so brash and irreverent. I wanted to be just like him.' And so did he begin (pre-Internet age, remember?) to devour any books or magazine articles he could find, including the dozen of so books that Groucho wrote, even though his formal education stopped after the sixth grade. He watched the Marx Brothers movies (there were some 13) and explored Groucho's time as the host of the game show, 'You Bet Your Life,' from the late 1940s to the 1960s, and everything else he could find about the man. As a theater major at the University of Southern California, he created as his thesis a show, 'An Evening With Groucho,' and, boldly, invited as many of Groucho's relatives and friends as he could find to attend his production. Among the 100 people in the audience were Groucho's daughter, Miriam, and his son, Arthur. 'I would say it went well, very well,' Ferrante told me. 'Arthur told me after the show, 'If I ever put together a show about my father, I'd like you to be in it.'' It didn't take long. Within a year of graduating, the 22-year-old Ferrante was cast as Groucho in Arthur Marx's 'Groucho: A Life in Revue' (written with Robert Fisher). Featuring actors as his brothers and other characters in Groucho's life, it was an off-Broadway smash, playing for more than a year before heading to London, where it was also a hit and earned Ferrante an Olivier Award nomination. Though Ferrante had found a career, he says, 'My friendships with Arthur and his sister Miriam provided me with an understanding of the man beyond the movies. This was a complicated guy and I am passionate about him. I almost feel like I am doing missionary work, moving from town to town, spreading the word.' As well as Ferrante knows Groucho, there is likely no living person who knew him as well as Arthur's son, Andy, who recalled the first time he saw Ferrante as Groucho, saying, 'My father (Arthur) told me there was this guy at USC and I saw Frank and it was mind blowing, incredible. A little freaky but cool.' The two have become friends over the decades as Andy would fashion a fine career as writer, musician and photographer and Ferrante would keep playing Groucho in his own show while sometimes tackling other theatrical roles and ventures. They live in separate California homes but rightly consider Chicago a special place in the Marx story. This is where what would be the Marx Brothers (in addition to Groucho, Chico and Harpo, there were Gummo and Zeppo) lived from 1911 to 1920. Their ambitious and canny mother, Minnie, chose the city because its central location was within the vaudeville circuit, enabling the 'boys' to hone the shenanigans that would make them world famous. That was a long time ago but the movies obviously continue to attract fans, to spread and keep alive the Marx Brothers, Groucho most prominently. That's in large part due to Ferrante's energetic and artful 'missionary' work. Doesn't hurt that for the last few years a filmed version is available on PBS. Or that he is ever expanding the improvisational portion of the performance, interacting with audiences. And Ferrante will be interviewed following his performance by my colleague Chris Jones. How long can he go? Audiences are drawn to characters of the past, especially to those who might be able to evoke memories of good times. Think of all the Elvis impersonators out there. (When Groucho died in 1977, his obituaries were overshadowed by those of Elvis, who died three days earlier.) In the theatrical world, think of Hal Holbrook, who performed his 'Mark Twain Tonight' more than 2,000 times, from 1959 until retiring in 2017 at 92. There's also James Whitmore, who brought to stage life Will Rogers, Harry Truman and Teddy Roosevelt. Closer to home, there's Ronnie Marmo, who has performed his terrific 'I'm Not a Comedian … I'm Lenny Bruce' more than 450 times, many on Chicago stages. Doesn't really mean much, I guess, but I just learned that Groucho and Lenny Bruce are buried near each other in Mission Hills, California, at a place called Eden Memorial Park.