Chico Marx (as Harpo) on I've Got a Secret 21/04/1954
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- Опубліковано 15 лют 2022
- Original air date: April 21st, 1954
Chico Marx fools the I've Got A Secret panel into thinking he's actually his younger brother Harpo Marx!
Massive thanks to Adam Nedeff at billcullen.net for uncovering the original episode for me after days of struggling to find a copy of this episode.
Enjoy! - Розваги
I feel good about myself. I knew his face didn’t look the same right away. this is awesome
Yeah, I thought he looked odd right away as well. I thought to myself that Harpo in his old age was looking a lot like Chico. I wrote it off as family resemblance until they revealed the secret. 😀
As a “Marxist”, I wasn’t fooled either.
@@GTurch52 ❤️❤️Love this comment
I have a feeling the real Harpo would have been able to remember the “honk once for yes, twice for no” code.
On the other hand, the real Harpo, anarchist that he was, might have reversed them on purpose--making the end result, amusingly, the same.
u gotta remb tho chico was older than harpo too
@@smurfthumper I think Chico was reversing them on purpose. It made the contestants' time run out faster and kept them from catching on as quickly as they might have...assuming it wasn't rigged in the first place.
I wouldn’t expect any of the three main brothers to follow the rules.
They were often known to do the exact opposite.
I think Chico needed the money
All of them were fabulously talented, and even more fabulously missed!
Loved this. I’ve been a Marx Brothers fan since the resurgence of their fandom in the mid 70’s. Harpo is my favorite.
I love how the host Gary Moore is casually takin' a drag on a cigarette now and then! Wow, what a different time it was!
That sure looks like a carton of. cigarettes handed to him at the end.
Unfortunately, Gary Moore, a talented host, was diagnosed with throat cancer in the mid-70s and left television at that time.
Here’s a quarter buy a clue the Commercial Sponsor was Cavalier Cigarettes. A few game shows had Cigarette sponsors at one time or another
@@Renshen1957 I saw a commercial for I think Winston ciggs with FRED and Barney smoking. It was black and white. The Flintstons early 1960's
@@dustervideo The Commercial is on UA-cam in Black and White. Most homes families owned B & W TV’s as Color was expensive and TVs were built to last and be repaired not the land fill electronics, some of the televisions in our home were from 1950…That being said I had watched the Flintstones in 1960-1961 don’t remember the episodes or the Winston Flintstones, but remember once being locked out in the backyard, at age 4, 1961…pounding on the back door of the house with my fists yelling “Wilma!” Fred Flintstone style. My Dad finally purchased a Color TV in 1969 for the Apollo 11 Moon landing…and the most reliable camera for images (after being subjected to the Gs of liftoff was the original B&W Philo T. Farnsworth Camera Electronic Camera System.
I miss the Old CRT
The Brothers did resemble each other in their younger years, but you can tell this is Chico.
Chico, Harpo, and Groucho once played each other's characters on a promotional tour for MGM, and no one knew the difference.
Zeppo once played Groucho's role during their Broadway years when Groucho was out recovering from an emergency appendectomy. Again, the audience did not catch on.
Of course we all remember that classic scene in Horse Feathers where both Chico and Harpo impersonated Groucho.
So this is nothing unusual for the Marx Brothers.
Yeah, I noticed it was chico right away too! Haha, I always just figured back then people didn't have the courtesy of the TV and Internet access we have today, so they didn't have the way that they look burned into their heads like we today do..
@MFPhoto1, you're close!
Zeppo substituted for Groucho in one of their very last vaudeville tours, playing scenes from their Broadway successes. Groucho was very ill with appendicitis. He had missed most of the last two weeks of Animal Crackers, their last Broadway show, and his role of Captain Spaulding was played by his understudy. During this tour of the RKO vaudeville circuit after Animal Crackers ended, Groucho finally had to have an appendectomy. Zeppo took his place, and audiences laughed in all the same places. However, RKO went ballistic, cutting their salary and threatening to cancel and sue. They were paying for four Marxes!
Groucho had to return to performing during his recovery from surgery. His stamina allowed him to do two shows a day of vigorous buffoonery, but they were performing four times a day. Zeppo took his place for two of the performances daily. RKO went crazy. Apparently they would have preferred Groucho's dying on stage to Zeppo playing his part.
Harpo and Chico looked very much alike in their younger years. Occasionally in their early vaudeville days they switched parts for fun, but not often because the harp and piano numbers were important to the act. Chico was ill for several weeks, requiring surgery, during the 1913 season. Harpo took his piano numbers, and George Lee, a supporting comedian (who often got the best notices) and Chico's last vaudeville partner before he joined his brothers' act, was listed as "Leonard Marx" (Chico's real name) in the playbill. But Chico's actual role was dropped temporarily, with Lee playing his own usual role, just using Chico's name.
For their movies A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, Go West and A Night in Casablanca, the brothers took the key comedy scenes out on brief five-shows-a-day vaudeville tours to hone the comedy. During one performance of scenes from A Day at the Races, Chico and Harpo switched parts, just to see if Chico's daughter Maxine, who was supposed to be in the audience, would notice. Sadly, Maxine missed that one performance, having caught the other four that day, to get her hair done.
The movie with the scene in which Chico and Harpo dress as Groucho, and Harpo and Groucho perform a mirror scene, was Duck Soup.
There was a vaudeville notice from the 1910s that said that Groucho played Gummo's part and vice-versa, while Chico played Harpo's role and vice-versa, but when asked about it six decades later Groucho denied it had happened.
@@kevinwachs5905 Yes, it was Duck Soup. Horse Feathers was their spoof on college films. It's not like me to get them mixed up. I really should not post so late at night!
Their on-the-road, pre-production performances of A Day at the Races were performed in movie theaters where MGM films were being shown. They also did this previously for A Night at the Opera. It was Irving Thalberg's solution to a problem -- how do you combine Thalberg's methodical methods of filmmaking with the Marx Brothers' spontaneous style of comedy? Answer: Go on the road before live audiences, vary the timing and dialog, and note how many laughs you get. It worked!
@@MFPhoto1, it may have been Thalberg's idea, and he certainly authorized and arranged for the tours, but the Marxes had always been adamant that audiences were the only reliable editors of their material.
George S Kaufman wrote a magazine piece in the early 30s explaining that the Four Marx Bros taught him to listen to the audience. Before working with them, Kaufman says that he blamed the audience if they failed to laugh at something that he considered funny, and he stubbornly stuck with his own judgment. The attitude of the Bros was if it got a laugh it stayed in, but if it didn't they replaced it with something else-- either by tweaking the line, or by introducing a totally different one.
S J Perelman claimed that Groucho received his funniest lines with the query would it play in Peru? Groucho meant Peru, Indiana, one of the many Midwestern towns that the Bros played regularly in their days in small-time vaudeville. It didn't matter if the writers and Groucho thought it was funny; the true test was a live audience.
Oddly enough, Perelman's brother-in-law, Nathaniel West, gives the "will it play in Peru?" line to Claude Estees in Day of the Locust. Claude is based on Perelman.
Anyway, despite the actual success of Monkey Business, Horsefeathers and Duck Soup (Duck Soup was a hit, although histories say or imply otherwise), Groucho's dour outlook regarded them as failures, and attributed the failure to the fact that they hadn't been performed on stage. He felt that they shouldn't make any more pictures without first having another Broadway success. Chico was more optimistic about movies, which were more lucrative for less work. The vaudeville tryouts of the comedy scenes for A Night at the Opera was a compromise to assuage Groucho's insecurity.
By 1934 all vaudeville was in movie houses. Pure live vaudeville was dead. The Palace closed in 1932.
I've been looking for this for some time, ever since I found out that Chico had immitated Harpo. Glad to have found it.
Many thanks for this. I'm on a mission to watch every bit of the Marx Brothers I didn't know about and you sure have helped.
You and I are in the same boat
@@bombs5050 my all time favorite Marx Brothers film is Night at the Opera.
These men were fantastic!
THANK YOU FOR POSTING THIS. I had never seen this before. The honking confusion kind of reminds me of George and Gracie’s knocking bit on What’s My Line
It does remind me of that too! I'm glad you enjoyed! Thank you
I adore Chico. He was the cleverest and the funniest with the best spontaneous quips.
And great at the piano!
@@katyluby8735 Very funny when Chico would "shoot the keys." He had his own orchstra for awhile. Mel Torme was his singer.
Groucho was the cleverest and funniest by a long shot...
@@stevefowler5970 They all had their "schtick"! but Groucho was the most gifted comedian. A comedic genius!
I've been looking everywhere for this! Thank you!
I had not seen this before.. Thank you!
No problem!
Wow, I have heard about this episode but it seems to have disappeared on YT or not even been found, based on comments I have read. Thanks so much, love me some Chico!
It is hilarious and so impressive how much personality he conveys with just a horn and a couple honks
I loved both Chico and Harpo. Someone pointed out that, in spite of their costumes, the brothers were almost identical. That was shown in a movie (remember the mirror).
Harpo's eyes were much different
Aww! You ruined the secret for us! Just as well. Having seen pix of the Marx brothers from youth to old age, in and out of costume, one of the things that stands out to me is that ever-present sly smile on Chico's face. That plus his walk in this video is quite distinctively Chico.
I love how the panelists ask in the most confusing manner.
I read that when Harpo and Chico were kids, so many people thought they were twins since they looked so identical. For that the two of them like to play along with it and confused people not realizing who was who. LOL
I could tell it was Chico by looking at him.
This was terrific!
Chico is so dang adorable even in his later years omigoodness i wish i could have given him a big hug hes like "puppy" n "kitties" adorable lol
Gosh, he’s so cute. Even at the age of 135.
@@jessicathethreestoogesfan2635 yes i celibrated his bday all day today
@@AceripXF Yep, I was also aware of his birthday. My "crush" on him has not faded. I see yours and Jessica's hasn't either.
This was fun to watch! Although Chico and Harpo kind of resemble one another I can easily tell the difference between the two. I can tell that was Chico and that is properly pronounced "Chick-O) as any real Marx Brothers fan knows.
This was wonderful! Thank you so much.
When Chico and Harpo were younger, they were supposedly mistaken for each other all the time, so much so that Harpo could sub for Chico at piano jobs and people couldn’t tell the difference - apart from the fact that Harpo’s piano repertoire was minuscule. But to me, he doesn’t much look like Harpo here.
that was Groucho and Harpo, not Chico. One even substituted for the other on stage at least once.
@@jeffdeischer8692 It was Chico and Harpo. Read HARPO SPEAKS, or GROWING UP WITH CHICO, or pretty much any of the books about them.
I think I heard somewhere that Harpo could only play one piece. Substitution would be pretty funny then.
@@dickon728 Harpo knew two songs on the piano and could play them at different speeds, but that was all he had.
This is not the first time that Chico dressed up as Harpo Marx..According to an interview that Chico's daughter..Ms.Maxine Marx did for a documentary about the team..she recalled that..when she returned from the beauty salon..her father was decked out like Uncle Harpo and vice vera.
OMG TY FOR POSTING THIS!!!!! ive only seen pics
No problem!
Chico and Harpo have one of my my favourite dynamics and I know plenty others feel the same, so I was on a mission to make this clip accessible for free.
@@bombs5050 i made an extra copy on my phone in case this gets taken down ive had vids saved in my folders in the past n then theyve gotten deleted or something
@@bombs5050 well u.deff succeeded i love a chico n harpo shipp n 2 of my fav marx bros (just got into them last yr) Chicos my main reason fot taking piano lessons
my ranking:
Chico
Harpo
Groucho
Zeppo
@@bombs5050 i wonder wut chico said the sound cut out
@@AceripXF at the end, when Gary said he thinks he knew Harpo and got fooled by Chico, if you read Chico's lips he says; "I'm not very good at this." Poor guy, putting himself down. I thought he did a wonderful job
I heard Harpo & Chico switched parts in one scene of a movie they made
He did a great job of imitating Harpo . Just think how long ago this was : They gave him a case of cigarettes as a gift ! Would never happen now .
I didn't really register the title coming in and settled down thinking I was watching Harpo. It took at least a minute...
Actually, it was a carton, not a case that he walked out with.
No kidding b&w TV pre colour !
@@echoecho3108 I was going to say… (I don't know if people know that expression. My mother used to use it to great effect. It's an expression of incredulity as in
"whaaaaaa...?").
If I was given a case I'd take up smoking again. (Not really.)
Now you get a trip to the Marijuana dispensary! You know what's funny is all the "wonders MJ can do for the body" is the same things they said about tobacco 100 years ago. I don't know about you but I'm tired of going through neighborhoods smelling like @$$.
That's just too smart and yet hilarious. First off, That's one of the most insanely crazy things I've ever seen. Secondly, Who doesn't love Chico? Last but not least, This is hilarious.
Edit: Coincidentally, My birthday is April 21st and this episode is technically older than me.
i love how Chico acts like hes gonna back hand the host (like harpo does lol) Now....I wanna see this reversed: Harpo dressed like Chico! LMAO!
I'm glad you enjoyed! I don't have any content of that sort to upload, but I do have plans to upload some clips of Harpo that are impossible to find online.
@@bombs5050 awesome! ^_^ im so glad i got to see this!! 💓
@@AceripXF I just uploaded some harder to find clips of Harpo! Check my channel to view them!
@@bombs5050 i read an article that Harpo used to double for Chico since they look a lot alike
@@AceripXF According to Harpo's autobiography, when he was young he got a job at a speakeasy/brothel playing piano and was immediately insulted by the proprietor, who thought that he was Leonard (Chico) -- who the proprietor had just recently fired from the same job.
chico is the impasta
Like amogus...
Is that a reference to him usually playing an Italian?
@@bombs5050 What's amogus?
When young they looked far closer to each other, but as they aged Harpo and Chico looked very different. It's easy to tell here. Harpo would also whistle and do other stuff.
When I first saw him, as Harpo, I thought he looked different. I just thought it was age.
When he first came on, I didn’t think it was him.
he use to give my aunt a ride to work in Hollywood,,
Chico definitely lookedd more like Harpo. Don’t think Groucho could’ve gotten away with this.
Wow! How times have changed! Shows sponsored by cigarette/tobacco companies even have the celebrities and host smoking on the set! How revolting!
when they were younger and used to do stage shows, they frequently all changed get ups...because they all really looked alike
which means that harpo did sometimes speak in public when he dressed like chico or groucho
If there are any forensic lip readers out there, I'd love to know what they were saying after the big reveal when the audio cut out @ 06:20.
Bill Cullin was the first host of the Price is Right
I was in 5-6 grade and remember watching the show.
And Dennis James did the nighttime version of The Price is Right.
My gosh, he looks just like his brother!
Soon as he showed up and they said it was Harpo.... I was not it's not that's Chico. And Chico was more than capable of talking. And Harpo was neither deaf or mute.
Harpo not harper
@@AceripXF ... That's what I said
but chico was trying to be harpo so he COULDNT talk bc Harpo didnt talk in any of the films in order to be a good actor n trying to portray someone as accurately as possible then u wanna do everything THEY do
70 years ago. Holy cow
Wow, six months before I was born.
Took me a few seconds then a said wait a second here.... thats CHICO !!
Isn't that Chico wearing Harpo's wig? Laugh, I thought I'd never start
I knew it as soon as I saw Chico
It's amazing that he was there and not playing pinochle.
Or betting.on a Horse.
Holy Geez! Did he just hand Chico a carton of cigarettes at the end there?
Oh! The humanity!!
This was fun but too bad the audio kicked off toward the end.
If I didn't see the title of video I swear that was Harpo instead of Chico
Chico is 67 there. Looks younger.
RIP Chico Marx (1887-1961)
What a career/life John Charles Daly had! I always liked him from "What's My Line" when I was a child in the late '50s. I had forgotten about him hosting "I've Got a Secret". Found out today that he was the first reporter to announce the attack on Pearl Harbor. And that his second wife of thirty years until his death was the daughter of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Earl Warren.
Thats Garry Moore
GRANDISSIMI I RATELLJ MARX . IMMENSI !
I thought it was that prankster, Friedrich Engels?!😊
He kinda reminds me of Cosmo Kramer, except he's quieter.
This could've been called "I've Got a Cigarette".
I was having an asthma attack, just watching it.
Still, all good fun.
Reminds me of the "What's My Line" show (-which, due to my age, I only know due to UA-cam also-).
i know he's probably forgetting how many honks for yes and no, but the fact that it keeps switching back and fourth while they are losing money almost makes it like a chico bit 😂😂😂
Aww everyone knows there ain't no Sanity Claus
I thought there was something not quite right but just imagined it was due to old age!
Damn, I was just 1 yr old when this was on. And Chico got a carton of cigarettes and $50.
They were sure obsessed smoking on those game shows back then.🤣
6:06 Pulls his wig down
When he came on screen, I thought...gawd...Harpo got old and looks just like Chico, weird?? Jokes on me.
Still pronounced CHIK-o, guys, not CHEEK-o.....
The hosts and panelists pronounce Chico’s name “Cheeko,” as do most people, but the Marx Brothers themselves pronounced it “Chick-o.” He is said to have acquired the nickname as a young man, in reference to his relentless pursuit of “chicks” (women).
Besides the womanizing, Chico had alcohol and gambling problems. After a certain point, his brothers doled out his pay a little at a time, because he would blow it all almost immediately.
68 YEARS AGO 2 NITE
To viewers not familiar with Harpo, hard to tell, but for those of us who are, easy to tell that it was Chico
When they died we lost great actors.
This is worrying for me, I was 3 days old when this was broadcast. Old or what?
3.39 he gives his name away the panel didn’t twig
I kept thinking he looked odd for Harpo.
took me less than 10 secs to recognise him!
Too bad the sound quality was so poor on this transfer. Man, I'm a huge fan of the Marx Brothers. If I were forced to pick my favorite of the main three, it would take me months to decide. They were absolutely brilliant.
I thought it looked like Chico.
👏👏👏👏👏👏
He a fool me good. Atts'a pretty good tricka, huh boss?
The nose gave it away!
i dont know how the contestants DIDNT know it wasnt harpo right away lol
I know. I recognized him as Chico right away.
@@texasmimi5566 me too only cos pics b4 i saw the vid
how u been
Maybe they did know.
@@bernardbrenner6088 if they knew it was chico why would it have taken them so long to guess
@@AceripXF The host knew it would be obvious to the contestants that it was Chico, but he told them to pretend they didn't know. You can tell from the questions ("Does it involve one of your brothers?") that they probably did know. It really didn't take them very long.
That's Chico.
Chico could whisper the secret as Harpo...he could have done it quietly.
You could tell it was Leonard "chico" Marx and not Adolph "Harpo" marx
All geniuses in their own right. How could anyone not love the Marx Brothers? Chicos mind was failing in these late 1950’s.
FUNNY, YIDDISHA MIME SCHTIK. MY JEWISH GRANDFATHER, MR. PHIL FRADKIN OF WALL ST WAS ON I'VE GOT A SECRET TOO
Chico is my favorite of the Marx brothers!
Mine too. Streets ahead.
Harpo is mine, but I love them all!
Hey, that’s Jamie Raskin.
I can tell that is Harpo.
Gilbert, why did he do this show? Because Chico needed the money. RIP Gilbert.
You beat me. I miss gilbert. And funnily I recognized it was Chico. because on the Gilbert show, I heard that the the brothers would swap roles for each other when one was ill.
My first thought was Harpo didn't look himself! I was right!🤣😜👍
Lol he had to put his fake hair on before the hat. ( he's bald as hell )
Chico had.me fooled
boy, he sure fukked this up
You know I didn’t think that was Harpo lol.
I think the real winner here is Canel Cogarettes.
Atsa some joke, eh boss?
Groucho:
It’s something. I don’t know what, but it’s something.
lol! the smoking!
His prize was a carton of cigarettes. You don't see that any more.
It's easy to fool actors. Like it's easy to con a con man, or sell to a salesman. Agents do it all the time.
Is there any type of recording of Chico not using an Italian accent? I've wondered this for a while but I've never come across anything.
He made an appearance on the TV show "I've got a secret", he speaks with his real accent there. I believe you can find a recording on UA-cam for free (:
If you search UA-cam for Chico Marx Championship Bridge you’ll see Chico’s last TV appearance and he speaks in his normal voice for the whole half-hour.