-Caveat Lector-
FBI Probed Groucho for Marxist
Ties
Agents Said Famous Comedian Wasn't a Communist
Nov. 28, 2000
By Joe Beaird
NEW YORK (APBnews.com) --
Groucho Marx said he never cared
to belong to any club that
accepted people like him as
members, and as the FBI learned,
he didn't care to join the
Communist Party, either.
Bureau agents sometimes
monitored Marx's television and
radio broadcasts in the 1950s and
early '60s in response to the
concerns of citizen snitches who
wanted the actor and comedian
investigated for his irreverent quips, as when he referred to
the United States as "The United Snakes," according to
declassified FBI files. The documents were obtained by
APBnews.com under a Freedom of Information Act request.
Agents wrote internal memorandums analyzing the
subversive content of Marx's jokes about the FBI. While
agents were not amused by references to "FBI bootleggers,"
they dismissed the comments as harmless to national
security.
"I certainly agree that ... it was in
poor taste, but I do not feel that
any further action is warranted,"
wrote agent W.S. Tavel in a
March 1, 1960, memo.
Vaudeville, Hollywood success
Joking was habitual for Marx, who was born in 1890 with the
given name Julius Henry Marx. His mother steered him and
his brothers onto the vaudeville stage at a young age. And
as one of the mad Marxes, he teamed with his brothers
Harpo, Chico and Zeppo in such classic 1930s films as Duck
Soup and Animal Crackers, helping to define an American
brand of madcap humor. Later, Groucho went on to solo
success in radio and television.
Politics, however, were not in Marx's future. After a thorough
probe in 1953 showed that Marx was not a Communist Party
member or supporter, the FBI's attitude toward him became
quite evenhanded, with the bureau even questioning the
reliability of some of the informants tattling on Marx.
FBI agents, however, continued to
monitor some of Marx's activities in
response to complaints that he
was too critical of the United
States in his comedy.
"In this case, the FBI really had no
evidence and they quickly realized
it, and that was it," said Paul
Wesolowski, a leading expert on
the Marx Brothers who has
reviewed the comedian's FBI file.
"They had a tip, they investigated,
and they cleared him."
At times, the bureau even strongly sided with Marx, who died
in 1977 at age 86. When an investigation into a 1956 death
threat against Marx slowed in California, FBI Director J. Edgar
Hoover fired off a memo urging quick action.
"You should submit a report to the L.A. Bureau at the earliest
possible date," Hoover wrote.
Audience detects 'red stench'
While thousands of viewers delighted in Marx's antics as the
witty host of NBC's televised game show You Bet Your Life, a
few grumpy members of the audience thought they detected
an unmistakable whiff of communism in the program, which
eventually led agents to tune in and analyze his jokes.
An unnamed woman wrote the bureau repeatedly in 1960
and 1961 to complain that Marx's television show gave off "a
Red stench" and that its star was clearly a Marxist. She even
requested the FBI's internal evaluations so that she could
"speak with authority" when discussing Marx's "Red
affiliations" with her friends.
Her request was finally turned down in a letter signed by
Hoover, and she was ultimately dismissed as a crank.
Just trying to be funny
Robert Dwan, the longtime director of You Bet Your Life, which
ran from 1947 to 1961, told APBnews.com there was nothing
political about the program.
"We were out there to be funny and that was all," Dwan
said. "If it wasn't funny or didn't meet the standards of the
'50s, I took it out."
Nevertheless, Dwan said the show
had two brushes with the FBI. One
came when Communist Party
member Jerry Fielding was fired as
band director after he refused to
testify before the House
Committee on Un-American
Activities.
Then in 1959, when the quiz show
rigging scandal exploded, agents
visited the set to make sure that
Marx's program wasn't fixed. It
wasn't, but neither of those
incidents made it into the bureau's
file.
Called a 'Cadillac communist'
When it came to politics, Marx was a liberal Roosevelt
supporter, but not a communist. His son, Arthur, said his
father just was not seriously involved in politics.
"He never was a communist," Arthur Marx told APBnews.com.
"He belonged to some of those Hollywood groups in those
days that were extra liberal. But as soon as he found out he
was being called a 'Cadillac communist,' he quit them all."
What the bureau's file on Marx might offer, however, is some
proof that the FBI had a funny streak. In one gaffe, memos
by the FBI's Los Angeles field office repeatedly referred to
Marx as "Graucho," which was never an accepted variant of
the name.
Among other trivia, the 243-page, two-part file points out
that Marx subscribed to magazines such as The Nation and
The New Republic, and that he was a member of liberal
political groups like the Committee for the First Amendment.
The file offers a personality analysis of Marx, including a
statement from an unnamed informant who thought the
comedian was, at heart, "a very naive person and an
individual who is easily moved emotionally."
Death threat from Elvis fans
The documents detail the 1956 death threat to Marx from
outraged Elvis Presley fans in Brooklyn. Marx had apparently
irritated the singer's fanatics by telling a guest on his show
that "you don't have to see [Elvis] to hate him." That was
enough to set off Presleyites, who demanded an on-air
apology to their hero. When they didn't get one, they
threatened to kill Marx by Christmas of 1956.
As the FBI noted: "The letter contained a crude drawing of a
dagger pointed toward an undistinguishable object which is
labeled [The Grouch]."
The threat was almost laughable, but the bureau
investigated it, anyway. According to one internal FBI memo,
"The death threat letter sent to Groucho Marx ... might seem
ridiculous if it weren't such a serious offense to send such a
threat through the mails."
There is no mention of how the case concluded, and the
investigation had been hampered because the original
envelope the letter was mailed in was lost.
FBI tires of bogus tips
The file also documents a copyright infringement case Marx
lost in the 1930s; leftist news reports that quote Marx as a
source; and a brief history of Marx's career and political
affiliations. But none of it adds up to communist activity.
Informants with access to the records of the Los Angeles
County chapter of the Communist Party "advised [the
bureau's Los Angeles field office] that at no time have they
had any reliable evidence that Graucho [sic] Marx was a
member of or a contributor to the Communist Party," reads a
Dec. 1, 1953, FBI "security matter" report on Marx.
The bureau finally tired of leads that led nowhere. A citizen
informant sent in bogus tips that directed FBI agents to
watch Marx speak Russian on You Bet Your Life. Agents did
watch the show, but as a Feb. 3, 1959, file memo concluded,
"there was nothing on it concerning the Bureau or matters of
any interest to us."
The Bureau recommended internally that nothing could be
accomplished by acknowledging the tipster's letter because
"if we do we will undoubtedly promote further
correspondence."
The last letter urging that Marx be investigated is dated Oct.
23, 1961, the same year You Bet Your Life went off the air.
Joe Beaird is an APBnews.com staff writer ([EMAIL PROTECTED]).
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
