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CHICO MARX
Marx used an Italian accent for his on-stage character; stereotyped ethnic characters were common with Vaudeville comedians. All the Marx brothers at some point in their careers performed "dialect characters," but Chico was the only one to continue this into his films.
Chico was a talented pianist. He originally started playing with only his right hand and fake playing with his left, as his teacher did so herself. Chico eventually got a better teacher and learned to play the piano correctly. As a young boy, he got jobs playing piano to earn money for the Marx family.
Groucho Marx once said that Chico never practiced the pieces he played. Instead, before performances he soaked his fingers in hot water. He was known for 'shooting' the keys of the piano. He played passages with his thumb up and index finger straight, like a gun, as part of the act. (He appears in the film A Year to Remember (1948) playing a "pistol shot" version of the Australian folk song "Waltzing Matilda" to a group of Australian soldiers.) Another example of his keyboard flamboyance is found in A Night at the Opera, wherein he plays the piano for a group of delighted children.
Chico became manager of the Marx Brothers after their mother, Minnie, died. As manager, he cut a deal to get the Marx Brothers a percentage of a film's gross receipts—the first of its kind in Hollywood. Furthermore, it was Chico's connection with Irving Thalberg of MGM that led to Thalberg's signing the Brothers when they were in a career slump after Duck Soup (1933), made at Paramount Pictures.
Chico was the first Marx Brother to die, passing away on October 11, 1961, from cardiovascular disease. During his lifetime, his year of birth had commonly been given as 1891 instead of the true year of 1887, so obituaries tended to report his age at death as 70 rather than 74. He is entombed in a crypt in the Freedom Mausoleum in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
For more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chico_MarxBCnU......
Finally, this has nothing to do really with TV, except that I always liked the original music video which I featured here a few weeks ago.
I also like me some bluegrass, which is an added bonus to this cover song. I would have loved to have seen the Darling Family play this in Mayberry......
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to find the original so that I may drink in Susanna Hoffs' eyes.....
BCnU!
While doing research on videos involving Eddie Cantor for last week's Video Sunday, I found this listed among the related videos - the Bil Baird Puppets as they performed on Martha Raye's old variety show....
BCnU!
My alma mater, UConn, is known for its puppetry courses - if you look into the educational background for many puppeteers in the last thirty years you just may find UConn listed.
I didn't take any of those course when I was in the Drama Department, but I was still influenced by puppetry when it came to my still-gestating Toobworld novel. One of the major characters has a puppet doppelganger over in the TV Universe, and several groups of characters are living puppets - the Rogue Cheddars, the Puppetrees of Twigganum, and the patrons of the Splinters nightclub.
This past Wednesday, I went to see Roger Waters at Madison Square Garden, where he performed "The Wall" in its entirety - something not done for nearly thirty years. And a big highlight during the show was the use of giant marionettes.
Here's the best example of those puppets, from "Another Brick In The Wall", as performed up in Canada early on in the tour:
BCnU!
A friend of mine made the effort to quit smoking, only to pick right up again once he got back from a trip to Europe. And somehow he got his boyfriend back into the habit, even though he stopped years ago.
I think he's way past the point where these classic anti-smoking PSAs would be of any help, but as they say in the lottery commercials - "Hey, you never know....."
BCnU!
Time for a musical interlude......
BCnU!
The other day we featured Larry Fine for the "As Seen On TV" showcase, in which vocal artiste Billy West portrayed the "Middle Stooge".
Here's West talking about William Shatner when the 'Star Trek' star was asked to appear on 'Futurama' as his own head......
BCnU!
10/10/10!Okay, first up for Video Sunday here at Inner Toob, a little something that is just so wrong:
As the king of crossover websites Thom Holbrook pointed out, it does need some return to actual video from the show by the end. Surely there must have been a time in 'Little House On The Prairie' when Charles noted that Caroline was late getting home and wondering where she had been?
Nevertheless, heh heh heh heh heh....
BCnU!
If there's any one TV character I'd like to be, it would Number Two from 'The Prisoner' - but the one played by Leo McKern. (It's a Toobworld Central theory that he's the identical twin brother to Horace Rumpole, but Horace never liked to speak of him.....)
This scene goes a long way to showing why I like his performance so much. It's broad strokes and subtle gestures and the timbre and cadence of his speech......
As Number Two himself says:
BCnU!
PARIS HILTON
'Brothers & Sisters'
AS PLAYED BY:
Unknown
In the episode "Brief Encounter", Sarah Walker Whedon's daughter Paige thought she saw Paris Hilton at the Chad Ricardo "underwear party" held for Sarah's boyfriend Luc (the new advertising model). That was all we saw of Paris Hilton - if that was her......
Luc offered to take Paige over for a closer look, but we never did find out if it was really her.
I'm going with the assumption it was really supposed to be her - or at least her televersion.
Let her feel what it's like to be impersonated on TV. After all, she played Barbara Eden in an episode of 'American Dreams' (and badly).......
BCnU!
CHICO MARX 
Chico was a talented pianist. He originally started playing with only his right hand and fake playing with his left, as his teacher did so herself. Chico eventually got a better teacher and learned to play the piano correctly. As a young boy, he got jobs playing piano to earn money for the Marx family.
