Kitty Carlisle, on working with the Marx Brothers on “A Night at the Opera” (1935): “Groucho would come up to from time to time to ask me, ‘Is this funny?” Then, totally deadpan, he’d try out the line.
I’d say, ‘No, I don’t think it is funny,’ and he’d go away absolutely crushed and try it out on everyone else in the cast.
Chico was always playing cards in the back room and had to be called on the set.
Harpo would work well until about eleven o’clock.
Then he’d stretch out on the nearest piece of furniture and start calling at the top of his voice, ‘Lunchie! Lunchie!'”
Carlisle initially refused to take the part when she was asked to mime to someone else’s voice.
She won, and the song she performs, “Alone,” later became her signature tune.
The first sneak preview for this film, held in Long Beach, California, is generally considered one of the greatest bombs in Hollywood history. The Marx Brothers and Irving Thalberg wanted to survey the public’s reception to the film, which contained greater continuity and a lengthier side-story romance than the troupe’s previous films with Paramount.
The audience at Long Beach, the first stop on the preview tour, despised the film and barely uttered a laugh.
Cast members reported that Groucho Marx was despondent, and nearly suicidal, immediately following the poor Long Beach reception, while Chico Marx suggested that the crowd may have simply been feeling the after-effects of the recent death of the town’s mayor.
The reasons for the cool reception in Long Beach is unclear, but Thalberg urged the brothers to continue with the tour, and the next night’s preview in San Diego produced riotous laughter that called the nerves of everyone involved. (IMDb)
Happy Birthday, Kitty Carlisle!