Erin Fleming on Being Groucho Marx's Secretary | The Dick Cavett Show

[@TheDickCavettShow]

What modern day movie star would you have liked to see in an interview with Dick Cavett?

[@Setebos]

Philip Seymour Hoffman

[@nataliedelagrandiere4022]

Jude Law.

[@Christopher-zc8cq]

None

[@zovalentine7305]

Rest in powerful peace Julius Henry Marx🙏 2 October 1890 ~ 19 August 1977⚘

[@emilioamaro2790]

Raised Eyebrows is such a great read. Steve Stoliar’s appearances on Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast are required listening for anybody here.

[@Sabbath12345]

Don't know if you've heard, but it's been announced Geoffrey Rush is playing Groucho in the movie version, why? Cuz Chico needed the money.

[@lexvonghoul6996]

I’ve been waiting for a Marx brothers biopic film for years. I can’t wait to see Geoffrey Rush play Groucho.

[@bes03c]

I just finished Raised Eyebrows. The audiobook is excellent. Steve reads it himself and does perfect Groucho impressions. (Steve also does cartoon voice over work.) I will definitely check out the podcast Thanks for the tip.

[@FIREBRAND38]

Later diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, Erin Fleming took her own life in Hollywood on April 15, 2003, at age 61

[@ModMokkaMatti]

Being in the employ of someone like Marx would drive others insane too, undoubtedly. Also interesting that she would say that she was "crazy" about acting...

[@harrodsfan]

Yes tragic ! Good grief !

[@animalsarebeautifulpeople3094]

@@ModMokkaMatti she seemed to be totally disingenuous when she said she wasn't interested in marrying Groucho - since she fought tooth and nail for his assets once he died. She was clearly interested in his money and if he had married her getting her hands on his money would have been quite easy. She only pretended to be not interested in marrying him because he wasn't interested in marrying again and she was probably hoping to work reverse psychology on him

[@markosborne5634]

Who was she married to?

[@FIREBRAND38]

@@markosborne5634 To the best of my knowledge, no one. She was introduced to Groucho in 1971 and stayed with him until his death in 1977.

[@nataliedelagrandiere4022]

Groucho is my favorite. He is so funny.

[@billyshepard5514]

I saw Erin Fleming when she was a bag lady in the early 1990s on Santa Monica Blvd. What struck me was that she was very pretty for a homeless person. I verifed the timings with the book Raised Eyebrows which said the same info and place.

[@ronmackinnon9374]

The only reference to 'The Country Cousin' by Louis Auchincloss that I could find was to a novel, published about seven years after this interview. So it looks like it never got off the ground as a play (3:19). (Wonder if it might have been a different result if Dick had been available.)

[@hr6334]

I have lovely children who loathe me 😂😂😂 Groucho lol

[@johnroberts1141]

Erin Flemming was a monster.

[@toddmuhammad3827]

Her monstrous way backfired on her which is why she ended up homeless living in impoverish conditions This is why we must be careful at how we treat people... You reap what you sow.

[@mikehike596]

Johnroberts1141, What an *atrocious* thing to write, while misspelling her name. (Then look at how "Toddmuhammad3827" *ironically* wrote _"We must be careful at how we treat people.")_ Making snap judgments by listening to one side of a story and then going on to defame another, while feeling good about yourself for being morally superior, is incorrect and shameful behavior. For balance, please seek the comment of "@petesmitt" elsewhere on this page, which begins with, _"A lot of hate for Erin; she was only 30 here.. Groucho was 81..."_ .

[@animalsarebeautifulpeople3094]

@@mikehike596 erin was clearly hanging out with Groucho for the $$$

[@viralbuthow000]

Poor Groucho got used

[@toddmuhammad3827]

Yes, Erin Fleming used poor Groucho but it backfired on her because she ended up homeless and going in and out of psychiatric hospitals because she could not accept the fact that she did him wrong. She refused to hold herself accountable for her actions to what she did to Groucho marx. But hey! That's feminism for you! It does not teach women anything about accountability.

[@MalTheBear64]

So, youd be aware of, "contempt of court" 😎💜

[@thetruth3574]

After Groucho's death Erin Fleming was accused by his children of embezzling $472,000 from the comedian and was ordered by the court to pay restitution. She spent much of the last decade of her life impoverished, homeless, delusional, and in and out of various psychiatric facilities.

[@toddmuhammad3827]

That's what she get for what she had done to Groucho Marx.

[@mikehike596]

@@toddmuhammad3827 How do YOU know what she did to Groucho Marx? Even in his old age, Groucho's mental acuity was sharp, as may be seen in this video. He was not a fragile, defenseless old coot, so why would he have let her take advantage of him? Making snap judgments by listening to one side of a story and then going on to defame another, while feeling good about yourself for being morally superior, is incorrect behavior.

[@davidmorris6443]

Good author Groucho son got rid of her

[@juliegoldman411]

And the poor woman committed suicide

[@b-radsadventures6846]

Lovely, all of them. How things have changed.

[@MothGirl007]

Erin was not "lovely".

[@Chrisfeb68]

Very uncomfortable interview.

[@animalsarebeautifulpeople3094]

She was a gold digger that's why

[@JohnDoe-ip2hx]

@@animalsarebeautifulpeople3094 👍

[@JSB1882]

Boy! That relationship turned ugly in the end. Her voice is very similar to Louise Brooks.

[@petesmitt]

A lot of hate for Erin; she was only 30 here.. Groucho was 81; she lived with and looked after him for 6 years up to his death in 1977 and was treated abysmally by his family in court chasing her for a relatively small amount of the remuneration she received, causing the rest of her life to be miserable until she committed suicide at 61.

[@RobjS-y8o]

Erin was Groucho's love interest? ❤

[@anton1990]

Sadly, she abused Groucho. It’s a long and sad story.

[@dilly2000]

2:46 Look at that tiger sexy time face.

[@samp.8099]

Which face, Groucho's?

[@ModMokkaMatti]

I was looking for the tiger, but I didn't see any. Not sure what you were referring to as sessy. 🙄🤔

[@sunnyhill5119]

With that particular hair color ...and her eyes, she does remind me of a tiger. And I don't mean that as an insult, quite the opposite.

[@bodeine454]

I'm here because I stumbled on the Marx bros. movie "A Night at the Opera" on Tubi TV. I don't know that much about Groucho, never really researched him that much and I'd never seen nor heard of this women until reading a bit about her on Groucho's Wikipedia page but just my personal opinion here and watching this video they both act really weird in my opinion. He comes across extremely arrogant and acts as if he doesn't have an ounce of humulity or humanity. Like he has an extremely one track mind. It's as if all that matters to him is fame and money. I'm glad my grandparents didn't have his personality, of course they didn't have his money either but that's ok, I still wouldn't trade. And her, she's just really weird here. I don't have much of an opinion about her, yet anyway.

[@numako999]

Whoever can ping the pill that shall not be named, please let me know. Got a long drive hauling ass in a few days.

[@ronmackinnon9374]

My best guess would be Alka Seltzer Plus.

[@Gannooch]

do have nothing against the other celebs that were on this show but is this channel ever going to show the Dick Cavett shows where he interviews Jackie Gleason or Art Carney? How about any Honeymooners actors that were part of the main cast? These are rare much like all the other Dick Cavett interviews

[@bjohnston3659]

New Liskeard???

[@DeltaForce3594]

Sad she didn't even sit next to Groucho

[@papagreenemusic]

Noticed that, very weird... She was being "the secretary", phony baloney...

[@55sinatra]

She committed suicide

[@toddmuhammad3827]

That's because she never held herself accountable for what she did Groucho Marx . What Erin Fleming did to Groucho Marx is no different from what Bernard Lafferty did to Doris Duke.

[@rkomgm3932]

Evil Woman !

[@thefakenewsnetwork8072]

Long live communism and freedom

[@soroushbahrami438]

Oh shut up, will ya?

[@samp.8099]

You got your Marx confused

[@jasonhood2453]

While those two may indeed have long lives, they are mutually exclusive and cannot exist in the same space. You may have one or the other but not both.

[@sullivanspapa1505]

the two terms are oxymorons, look at present day China!

[@irvingmicheaux2761]

Shut up, you

[@marbury2403]

He seemed so arrogant.

[@juanmonge8]

She is Canadian.

[@herr_crustovsky]

It's an act

[@mangore623]

Perhaps the most tediously boring woman on the planet at that time.

[@mikehike596]

A few comments on this page (e.g., users "@johnroberts1141" and "@toddmuhammad3827") were *appalling* in the way they defamed this woman, who comes across in the interview as quite a nice person. A Feb. 3, 1983 UPI story on the court case Erin Fleming had to face points out _"Marx was in his 80s and Miss Fleming in her 30s during the six years they lived together and she worked for him."_ Her lawyer. David Sabih, explained that the money she was accused of having taken _"was used by her to promote Groucho and to pay expenses for the household,"_ and added, _"'Whatever she got was a sorry limit for a woman to give up her career."_ _"Any man would have gladly given a woman her age a million dollars to look after a man his age."_ That makes overwhelming sense. She wasn't just any woman either, but a *beautiful* woman. (I just saw her bikini-clad self in the 1965 film, _Legend of Blood Mountain,_ what led me to want to learn more about her, finally winding up on this page.) She evidently did have mental problems, and perhaps they were exacerbated by the court case brought against her by Groucho's children, or what she called _"an abortion of justice."_ She was accused of cheating the comedian of $400,000 _("Miss Fleming received a total of $428,000 in salary, expenses, commissions and other payments from Marx from 1971-77";_ that works out to $71,000 a year, not unreasonable for being his "secretary" - she explains in the interview that answering a hundred fan mails a day involved enormous work - and apparent career manager later, and according to Groucho in this interview after the 1:34 mark, specifically his "euphemism" joke, probably his *lover* as well, at least in the beginning. At the 4:34 mark, Groucho even referenced the possibility of marriage between them), and then the Marx estate sued her for $1.4 million! That could make anyone lose their mind (a comment by "@thetruth3574" on this page claims she lost the case, and had to pay restitution; her bad behavior in court likely led to prejudice against her from the judge and others). From her perspective (she may have felt the one making the sacrifice was her, and what she needed to deal with was tremendously unfair), the outcome perhaps contributed to why Erin Fleming took her life at age sixty-one,, after becoming homeless. Commentators who make snap judgments by listening to one side of a story and then going on to defame another, while feeling good about themselves for being morally superior, exhibit incorrect and shameful behavior. For balance, please seek the comment of "@petesmitt" elsewhere on this page, which begins with, _"A lot of hate for Erin; she was only 30 here.. Groucho was 81..."_ .

[@anton1990]

Are you related to Erin Fleming?

[@MOMO41837]

Are you still waiting for your cut? 😂