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Marx Brothers

Find out what the Marx Brothers were doing in Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City was chosen as the first of only four cities for a most unusual experiment by the Marx Brothers: road test the movie material before they made their famous “A Night at the Opera” movie.

Salt Lake City was chosen as the premiere city for this experiment because of its reputation for critical audiences. The experiment was to determine audience reaction to jokes, gags, and situations before “shooting” them for screen purposes. In addition to Salt Lake City, the show was tested at Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco. So anxious was producer Irving Thalberg that this picture be an outstanding success, he arranged this tour. One of the authors, Morrie Ryskind, attended every performance making the necessary corrections, eliminations, or additions to the dialogue. With his pencil Mr. Ryskind would “dock” the time of laughs, jotting down the “gags” that Salt Lakers liked, and running a severe blue pencil through the “gags” that were only partially successful. (Salt Lake Tribune, April 13, 1935, read article here)

“Those “gags” which fall flat are “blue-penciled,” so that by the time the organization has been around its four-city circuit the writers and producers will know pretty well just what and what not to include in the final script for a bang-up picture.” (Salt Lake Tribune, April 17, 1935, read article here)

It was thought that if the experiment proved successful other companies might adopt it for similar productions. “We are kicking ourselves we didn’t think of this before,” be-mustached Groucho Marx is quoted as saying. “A successful comedy depends almost entirely upon audience reaction, and if anyone tells you he can sit in Hollywood and judge in advance how much Salt Lake or any other city is going to laugh at any given “gag” …don’t hesitate, put in a hurry call for the psychopathic ward. We expect our greatest help from Salt Lake, for it is our first stop, and while there will be differences between towns, we will get a definite basic idea of the script’s value.” (Salt Lake Tribune, April 13, 1935, read article here)

“Marx Brothers Win Audience in Orpheum Show” stated the Salt Lake Tribune April 14, 1935 headline.

“Groucho, the mustached one, still bombards his audiences with a bewildering rapid-fire of wisecracks while Chico and Harpo continue to perform much the same as they have done in the past. That they are still popular with a vast majority of theater-goers was evidenced by the gales of applause and laughter that greeted them at the opening performance Saturday at the Orpheum theater.” (Salt Lake Tribune, April 14, 1935, read article here)

Playing to “capacity crowds” the “Marx Brothers Hit at Orpheum” stated another Salt Lake Tribune article. (Salt Lake Tribune, April 17, 1935, read article here)

According to Jeff Lunden, of National Public Radio’s Morning Edition, the Marx Brothers were all but washed up, as least as far as their studio, Paramount Pictures, was concerned.

Following the disappointing 1933 release of Duck Soup, now considered a classic, both audiences and critics had been turned off, and the fallout left the team looking away from the silver screen for work. According to Groucho’s son Arthur, MGM’s Irving Thalberg had some thoughts on how the brothers might avoid the pitfalls that had made their previous film less palatable to audiences. Thalberg’s plan involved bringing in several writers to help construct the narrative for the new film, A Night at the Opera. To flesh out the central plot, the writers created some classic set pieces for the film, but the chemistry and timing between the brothers lifted A Night at the Opera into the realm of classic entertainment. Chemistry and timing as it turns out, came from road-testing the material in front of live audiences.

“They would time the laughs that they were getting from a live audience to see how to time it out when they did shoot it,” says actor Frank Ferrante, who has played Groucho on stage. “They would try different words; they would try different phrases. They were consistently honing the materials.”

As Arthur Marx, Groucho’s son, remembers it, the effort paid off in a big way. “I saw that stateroom scene being rehearsed on the MGM lot,” he recalls, “and there wasn’t a laugh in it. When they came back from six weeks on the road with it, they had put a wonderful comedy scene together.” Read Jeff Lunden’s article here 

Harry Guss, a reporter for Variety reviewing the stage version of A Night at the Opera, wrote,

…interesting that everything was timed with a stop watch – they were interested in seeing how long it would take for a gag to move on and off the stage. Everything kept changing – gags in, gags out, etc. During the live stage performances, the writers’ secretaries sat in a box, timing the laughs. Lines would be changed for the daily shows to determine which were the “funniest.” (Linda Harris, “A Night at the Opera,” The Journal of the Alex Film Society, Vol. 3, #3, May 3, 1997)

Which movie scenes were rejected?

Click here to read actual scenes or routines from A Night at the Opera that were eventually removed from the final script. Being a writer for the Marx Brothers undoubtedly brought with it plenty of trial and error. Play the role of producer and see what you think about them...

Award winning movie!

A Night at the Opera was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 1993 as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” (http://www.loc.gov/film/titles.html )

The Marx Brothers are considered one of the “Greatest American Screen Legends” by the American Film Institute, rated 20 on a list of 25 males; and A Night at the Opera is included in their 2007 update of  “100 Years…100 Movies” at number 85, and in their 2000 list of  “100 Years…100 Laughs” at number 12.

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