[BITList] Groucho Marx and Charlie Chaplin

[John Feltham]

From a correspondent ...

 


Poster for ‘Duck Soup’ (1933)
 
 
In July 1937, Charlie Chaplin and Groucho Marx arrived at the Beverly Hills Tennis Club. The occasion was the opening of a new clubhouse, and an America vs England pro-celebrity doubles match in which Chaplin and Fred Perry were to play Marx and Ellsworth Vines.
 
Chaplin, grimly serious about his tennis, saw Marx step on court with 12 rackets and a suitcase, and inquired what was in it.
 
Groucho asked in turn what was in Chaplin’s. Chaplin said he didn’t have one.
 
“No suitcase?” Marx replied. “What kind of tennis player are you?”
 
Chaplin fumed that he hadn’t come here to be a straight man but it was already too late. After a few haphazard games, Groucho sat down on court, opened the suitcase, and unpacked a picnic lunch. 
 
 
(FT, January 2, 2015)
 
 

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