Speaker 1: This is our American Stories, and we've already brought you
Speaker 1: the story of how UCLA undergraduate Steve Stolier saved a
Speaker 1: Marx Brothers movie from extinction. But here's the story of
Speaker 1: how Steve called up Aaron Fleming, Groucho's manager, and landed
Speaker 1: the job of his dreams. In the summer of seventy four,
Speaker 1: I had two or three summer jobs fall through, for
Speaker 1: which I remain eternally grateful, and my dad was pressuring me,
Speaker 1: I don't want you sitting around on your fanny all
Speaker 1: summer long. I want you to find some jobs. They
Speaker 1: may need a bus boy at this restaurant, or you
Speaker 1: could go get interviewed at Taco Bell. And I thought,
Speaker 1: I don't want to do any of that, but he's
Speaker 1: never gonna let up on me. So I called Aaron Fleming,
Speaker 1: figuring I had nothing to lose, and I said, is
Speaker 1: there anything at all that you think maybe I could
Speaker 1: sort of help with? And she said, well, actually, it's
Speaker 1: funny you called because I used to be Grouchow's secretary,
Speaker 1: but now i'm his manager and we need someone to
Speaker 1: handle all of the fan mail that's been coming in,
Speaker 1: and also to organize all of his memorabilia, which is
Speaker 1: going to be donated to the Smithsonian after he's gone,
Speaker 1: and we need someone who really knows their March brothers.
Speaker 1: And I'm thinking, please, please please please please please please
Speaker 1: with you, And in my mind's eye, I have this
Speaker 1: sort of textaver cartoon image of me zipping out of
Speaker 1: the house and instantly appearing on the doorstep of Groucho's
Speaker 1: house while Aaron is still on the phone explaining the
Speaker 1: job to me. It wasn't quite like that, but that's
Speaker 1: how it felt. And I thought that I would be
Speaker 1: working maybe in an office building, maybe twice a month
Speaker 1: he'd come by to sign checks or something. She said, Oh, no,
Speaker 1: you'll have your own room to work in at Graucho's
Speaker 1: house and you can make your own hours. And I thought, there,
Speaker 1: and they're gonna pay me to do this. And so
Speaker 1: I drove to Groucho's house in Beverly Hills, and I
Speaker 1: was so nervous, but it worked out, and sure enough,
Speaker 1: there was a room that had been a painting studio
Speaker 1: that his last wife, whom he had divorced in sixty nine,
Speaker 1: had used, and that came my office, and Groucho would
Speaker 1: often shuffle down the hall to or from his room
Speaker 1: or the living room or dining room, and we would chat.
Speaker 1: And it was a very egalitarian household. I was to
Speaker 1: sit at the lunch table when Groucher would have lunch.
Speaker 1: There wasn't a sense that the help ate in the
Speaker 1: kitchen or anything that haughty, and so I would be
Speaker 1: lucky enough to be there when George Burns would come over,
Speaker 1: or Steve Allen would come over, or some of his
Speaker 1: former writers, or if it was just in quotes, Groucho
Speaker 1: and maybe a nurse, or Groucho and Aaron, it would
Speaker 1: just be us, and I could ask him all these
Speaker 1: questions that I'd had that I thought if I could
Speaker 1: ever meet him, I'd want to know this. And he
Speaker 1: appreciated the fact that I cared about and knew about
Speaker 1: all of the things that he had experienced instant that
Speaker 1: he cared about, and that we had similar you know,
Speaker 1: we both liked Tin pan Alley and George Gershwin and
Speaker 1: Irving Berlin and the humorists of the Algonquin round Table.
Speaker 1: One time he called me into his room and gave
Speaker 1: me a twenty dollar bill, and he said, go down
Speaker 1: to the record store and get me some records, you
Speaker 1: know what I like. And it meant so much to
Speaker 1: me that he had assumed that I would know what
Speaker 1: to get instead of having to explain it. But I mean,
Speaker 1: those days at the lunch table were so rich, and
Speaker 1: I came to appreciate him on three different levels. First
Speaker 1: of all, he was Groucho Marx, the guy in the
Speaker 1: grease paint mustache, swirling around on screen insulting Margaret Dumont
Speaker 1: and in Duck Soup and Night at the Opera. And
Speaker 1: second he was someone who personally knew people that to
Speaker 1: me didn't exist in three dimensions and in color, people
Speaker 1: like well, like George Gershwin and Irving Berlin, James Thurber
Speaker 1: he was friends with WC. Fields. The idea that he
Speaker 1: knew these people personally, you know, and I would get
Speaker 1: insight into what they were like from him firsthand, you know,
Speaker 1: not something he'd read or heard about, but he was there.
Speaker 1: And then on the third level, he was a man
Speaker 1: from eighteen ninety. He was a nineteenth century human being,
Speaker 1: literally a Victorian, since she was on the throne when
Speaker 1: he was born, although he was born in New York
Speaker 1: and not in England, and his firsthand memories went from
Speaker 1: before the Right Brothers to after the moon landing, which
Speaker 1: is a staggering chunk of American history, world history. I
Speaker 1: asked him once, what's the earliest you remember? And he
Speaker 1: thought him moment, and he said, I guess probably the
Speaker 1: Spanish American War, which was eighteen ninety eight. And he
Speaker 1: and his brothers had initially started out as a singing
Speaker 1: act in vaudeville in the early nineteen hundreds, before they
Speaker 1: started adding comedy. They would sing harmony popular songs, and
Speaker 1: you know, they did okay at that. But Groucho's career
Speaker 1: went back so far that he actually was one of
Speaker 1: the performers at a special charity benefit performance at the
Speaker 1: Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Enrico Caruso was also
Speaker 1: on the bill that night, and the money was to
Speaker 1: go to the aid of victims of the San Francisco
Speaker 1: earthquake of nineteen oh six. For a history buff like me,
Speaker 1: and as I say, I had been a history major.
Speaker 1: Although I shift did to motion picture television after I
Speaker 1: had been working at Grouchos a while, because it was
Speaker 1: just impossible to ignore how strongly I was drawn to
Speaker 1: that world. You know, he would have health problems now
Speaker 1: and again he'd have a small stroke or something like that,
Speaker 1: and I would think, oh, jeez, this is it. This
Speaker 1: is I think about three weeks into my working there,
Speaker 1: he had a slight stroke and I thought it was
Speaker 1: great while it lasted, but now the coach is going
Speaker 1: to turn back into a pumpkin. And you know that
Speaker 1: that morning that I showed up that he'd had a
Speaker 1: stroke and the housekeeper said, please keep your voice down,
Speaker 1: mister Marx has had a stroke. But the nurse asked
Speaker 1: that you go back to his room because she needs
Speaker 1: some help. And I expected him to be, you know,
Speaker 1: lying on the floor, unable to speak, unable to move,
Speaker 1: and instead he was sitting in bed, propped up in
Speaker 1: his pajamas and mucklucks, reading the La Times. And he said,
Speaker 1: is the ambulance here? Yeah? I said, noah, it figures
Speaker 1: and goes back to his reading and I thought, gee,
Speaker 1: he's really taking this in stride. He's not banging at
Speaker 1: death's door. He's reading the La Times. And it was
Speaker 1: just that the nurse needed help getting him in to
Speaker 1: take a leak in the bathroom because his balance was
Speaker 1: off from that stroke. So I, you know, I was
Speaker 1: happy to help out and he bounced back from that
Speaker 1: and from a lot of other health setbacks, even though
Speaker 1: he was in his mid eighties by then. And you're
Speaker 1: listening to Steve Stoller's story, and in the end, Groucho
Speaker 1: Marks's story too, And what a lucky guy, indeed, that
Speaker 1: those summer jobs fell through. There's what an opportunity, an
Speaker 1: opportunity of a lifetime in Groucho's house, no less his hero,
Speaker 1: so many Americans heroes. By the way, he was a
Speaker 1: child of the Victorian Age, and his comedy was rebuttal
Speaker 1: to the Victorian age. It's properness. And boy, graut Show
Speaker 1: was a revolutionary in his day. He really stretched the
Speaker 1: boundaries of what comedians were allowed to do and not do.
Speaker 1: And my goodness, what we learned listening to this is
Speaker 1: that even people like Groutshow want to be appreciated, right,
Speaker 1: the legends appreciate appreciation, and we can never forget that.
Speaker 1: When we come back more of this remarkable story here
Speaker 1: on our American Stories, And we're back with our American stories,
Speaker 1: and the story of Steve Stoler, a college student who
Speaker 1: saved a long lost Marks Brothers movie and then landed
Speaker 1: the job of his dreams working as Grout show Marks,
Speaker 1: his personal assistant and archivist. Let's return to Steve and
Speaker 1: his story, and it just became this remarkably rich experience
Speaker 1: for me that ended up lasting not three weeks as
Speaker 1: I had thought that morning, but three years, the last
Speaker 1: three years of Groucho's life. And so I was able
Speaker 1: to get to know and you know, talk with and
Speaker 1: with Groucho, my hero. I also got to meet Zeppo
Speaker 1: the night that he came up there for dinner from
Speaker 1: Palm Springs. I had brought the young lady I was dating,
Speaker 1: a nineteen year old blonde who was very bright and
Speaker 1: very personable and very attractive, and he really took a
Speaker 1: liking to her. He sort of picked up where Chico
Speaker 1: left off in terms of having an eye for the ladies.
Speaker 1: And he had recently lost his last wife to Frank Sinatra,
Speaker 1: who dumped him and went for Sinatra, and that was
Speaker 1: Barbara Marx Sinatra. So he was back to being a bachelor.
Speaker 1: And he said, he said, you know, Steve, you and
Speaker 1: Linda should visit me in Palm Spring sometime. And I said, well,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I was there when I was about nine,
Speaker 1: and just it was sweltering and he said, well, when
Speaker 1: were you there in the summer? And I said yeah,
Speaker 1: and he said, well, you know, Steve, it's also cold
Speaker 1: in Alaska in the winter. It was true that Zeppo
Speaker 1: did have a great sense of humor that really didn't
Speaker 1: get a chance to shine on screen. I had heard
Speaker 1: that he could be very funny and had, you know,
Speaker 1: a charm and charisma, and people are always skeptical of
Speaker 1: that because he was sort of wooden and didn't have
Speaker 1: the lion's share of funny stuff to do. In the
Speaker 1: few movies he was in, he was happy as a
Speaker 1: performer and once he once he left the act after
Speaker 1: Duck Soup in nineteen thirty three. He became a very
Speaker 1: successful agent, handling such obscure has beens as Clark Gable
Speaker 1: and Carol Lombard and Barbara Stanwick and Robert Taylor and
Speaker 1: Lucille Ball and Landa Turner. So he did really well
Speaker 1: and never looked back. But anyway, a few months later
Speaker 1: Linda and I broke up. I had a couple of
Speaker 1: photos that I wanted Zeppo to sign, so I mailed
Speaker 1: them to his address in Palm Springs, and in my
Speaker 1: cover letter, I said, by the way, Linda and I
Speaker 1: broke up. So I know you've been around the block
Speaker 1: a few times. If you have any advice for the
Speaker 1: love lorn And a few days later, my phone rings
Speaker 1: save a Zeppo Maks. I hope I'm not inconveniencing. No, no,
Speaker 1: how I got the photos you sent. God I was
Speaker 1: good looking back then. But listen, I have a question
Speaker 1: for you. And I don't want to step on your toes.
Speaker 1: You understand that because the last thing in the world
Speaker 1: I'd want to do would be something to upset you. Oh, okay,
Speaker 1: do you think that Linda would go out with me?
Speaker 1: And I thought, what I mean? She was nineteen, I
Speaker 1: was twenty, and he was seventy four, but a young
Speaker 1: seventy four, but seventy four, And I said, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean she she enjoyed. You know, she got a
Speaker 1: kick out because it really tell me, honestly, Steve, if
Speaker 1: this is at all uncomfortable for no, no, no, no no,
Speaker 1: I said, so let me let me ask her, and okay,
Speaker 1: I would appreciate it. And again if it's any no, no,
Speaker 1: no no no. So I saw her at Cool and
Speaker 1: I asked her about it and she laughed. Also finding
Speaker 1: it strange and funny, but thought, you know, what the heck,
Speaker 1: I want to have the experience of going on a
Speaker 1: date with Zeppo Marx. So they went out once. He
Speaker 1: took her to dinner in San Diego and then drove
Speaker 1: to Tijuana and attended a high A lie game at
Speaker 1: a stadium, and then took her home. And I talked
Speaker 1: to him afterwards, and he said, Steve, I want to
Speaker 1: tell you I never even kissed a good night. You
Speaker 1: should know that she's very nice, but all she did
Speaker 1: was talk about herself. And then I saw her on
Speaker 1: campus and she said, you know, Zeppa was really nice,
Speaker 1: but all he did was talk about himself. And I thought,
Speaker 1: that's a really interesting symmetry there. And then at parties
Speaker 1: at Groucho's, whenever Zeppa would be there, he would make
Speaker 1: a point of introducing to someone and say, this is Steve.
Speaker 1: He's a nice young man. He and I dated the
Speaker 1: same girl, but he got further with it than I did.
Speaker 1: That was like my official introduction. So anyway, I have
Speaker 1: the distinction of being able to say that Zeppo Marx
Speaker 1: and I dated the same girl. I also got to
Speaker 1: meet the other living Marx brother, Gummo who. To those
Speaker 1: who aren't that familiar with the Marx brothers, it's even
Speaker 1: more obscure because Gummo was the straight man before Zeppo
Speaker 1: on the stage, and then he was drafted during World
Speaker 1: War One and left the act. So at the time,
Speaker 1: seventeen year old Zeppo took his place, and Gummo also
Speaker 1: became an agent and did very He became Groucho's agent, actually,
Speaker 1: and did very well. He was never that much interested
Speaker 1: in performing. So I got to meet three out of
Speaker 1: five of the March brothers, which is, you know, approximately
Speaker 1: three more March brothers than most people ever got a
Speaker 1: chance to me. Harpo and Chico had died in the
Speaker 1: early sixties, unfortunately, so I was never able to meet them.
Speaker 1: But when I would watch Groucho and Zeppo and Gummo
Speaker 1: talking amongst themselves, which was great, I thought, what must
Speaker 1: it have been like with all five brothers in their
Speaker 1: youth sitting around the table. It must have been hysterical.
Speaker 1: Groucho had a cook named Robin, who was tall and
Speaker 1: thin and blond and young. When Zeppo and Gummo had
Speaker 1: come up for dinner and I was there for that dinner,
Speaker 1: Zeppo said Robin said she'd marry me, but I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think she's too tall for me. Groucho said, well,
Speaker 1: what part of it do you want? And Zeppo said,
Speaker 1: I'll take as high up as I can read, and
Speaker 1: Gummo said, what do you want with their feet? So
Speaker 1: there's a Gummo anecdote, which is extremely rare, but evidence
Speaker 1: of the kind of goofy humor they had amongst themselves,
Speaker 1: that quickness. It was just it was all still there
Speaker 1: under various layers of rust. I was very fortunate because
Speaker 1: of my Groucho association, I became friends with Dick Cavot.
Speaker 1: That was another case where because of my insecurities, I
Speaker 1: thought when Groucho was gone, my link to Dick Cavot
Speaker 1: would be over. But instead he called me from New
Speaker 1: York the week Groucho died and he said, listen, I
Speaker 1: hope just because Groucho's gone, we're not going to lose touch.
Speaker 1: And by the way, I hope you don't mind, but
Speaker 1: I've shown some of your letters to Woody and he
Speaker 1: says they're very well written. And I sort of had
Speaker 1: to empty the urine out of my shoes that Cabot
Speaker 1: was calling me to say hey, don't drop me as
Speaker 1: a friend, and saying I hope you don't mind, but
Speaker 1: Woody Allen thinks your letters are well written. So that
Speaker 1: was something. And in fact I did end up moving
Speaker 1: to New York in nineteen eighty two and spending a
Speaker 1: few years there writing for Dick Cabot at HBO, and
Speaker 1: had many remarkable adventures in Manhattan, including getting to meet
Speaker 1: Woody Allen and Katherine Hepburn and lots of other stuff
Speaker 1: before I returned to LA to take another job. And
Speaker 1: it was so great when I was working at Groucho's
Speaker 1: to be able to comfortably meet these people and converse,
Speaker 1: because I think they figured since I was inside the house,
Speaker 1: I must be okay, whether I'm Groucho's grandson or something
Speaker 1: like that. If I'm sitting at Groucho's lunch table, it
Speaker 1: must be okay. So there wasn't any nobody, There were
Speaker 1: no star trips. There. There was people that were very
Speaker 1: down to earth, and I tended to find that the
Speaker 1: old people who were legends were much more down to
Speaker 1: earth and personable than some of the people who had
Speaker 1: recently become famous. Aaron Fleming tended to have younger friends
Speaker 1: Elliott Gould and George Siegel and Bud Court and Sally
Speaker 1: Kellerman and streisand to a lesser degree, and I found
Speaker 1: myself instantly drawn to Groucho's old gang. I felt much
Speaker 1: more that I belonged there, even though I was nineteen
Speaker 1: and they were in their seventies and eighties. Then I
Speaker 1: did towards Aaron's sort of quirky group of nouveaux stars,
Speaker 1: and especial thanks to Robbie for superb production and great storytelling,
Speaker 1: and especial thanks to Steve Stolier as well. Steve Stolier's
Speaker 1: story rout Joe Marks's story here on our American Stories