MARX GROUCHO: (1890-1977)

MARX GROUCHO: (1890-1977) American film comedian, one of the Marx Brothers, and the recipient of an Honorary Academy Award. A good T.L.S., Groucho, one page, 4to, New York, n.d. (1933/34), to ´Dear Svensk, Kids and Mother´, on the printed stationery of the Hotel Elysee. Marx writes a social letter, largely concerning his friend Harry Ruby and their first wife Chloe ´Cleo´ Carter, commencing ´You certainly are full of that Ruby - Cleo case. Possibly because you are there on the ground. I don´t care anything about it one way or another. I regret it happening, I am sorry for both of them, outside of that, the hell with it. I am glad you befriended Cleo, whether she is guilty of sexual indescretions (sic) or not, I don´t think that´s important, most everyone goes a little cockeyed on the little matter of sex, and I think it was poor judgement and bad taste for Harry to shout if (sic) from the housetops, if that is what he did´, further adding ´I don´t believe he is responsible for what he is saying, I think he is temporarily deranged. I privately think he is making all the noise because he fears that if he doesn´t Cleo will nick him financially´. Marx further writes of his current work, ´We are scheduled to audition next Thursday, but we as yet haven´t an idea that is going to make a sponsor throw his hat up in the air with glee. We are meeting again this morning to see if we can´t work out something that will be worth hearing, if we don´t the thing will fall through, and us with it´, before concluding ´I went to the fights last night and had a pretty good time. The night previous when you phoned me, I was very nervous and couldn´t sleep, finally winding up with a five grainer, the first in weeks. Last night I took a pine needle bath right after the fights and slept pretty well. I wrote you all the news yesterday and this is just velvet´. A letter of particularly candid content. Two small tears to the edges, otherwise VG Harry Ruby (1895-1974) American pianist, composer, songwriter and screenwriter. A close friend of Groucho, Ruby composed the scores and provided musical numbers for the Marx Brothers´ films Animal Crackers (1930), Horse Feathers (1932) and Duck Soup (1933), as well as also contributing to the screenplays of all three movies. Chloe Carter (1903-1993) American showgirl and Music Hall dancer, also known by her stage name Cleo Cullen. Carter had married Ruby in 1930 and the couple moved to Beverly Hills where, in 1933, Cleo was introduced to the actress Jean Acker (1892-1978) who had been divorced from Rudolph Valentino in 1923. The two women fell in love and in 1934 (presumably around the time of the present letter) Carter obtained a dvorce from Ruby. Carter and Acker would spend the rest of their lives together living in an apartment within a building they owned in Beverly Hills. The fights that Marx refers to attending are likely to have involved Primo Carnera, either in his Heavyweight victory over Jack Sharkey on 29th June 1933, or his subsequent loss to Max Baer on 14th June 1934. Both events took place at the Madison Square Garden Bowl in Queens, New York.