Groucho Marx on 'I've Got a Secret' (1959)

From classicvideostreams.com Groucho Marx is a celebrity guest on 'I've Got A Secret' which aired on July 1, 1959. Panelists included: Bill Cullen, Monique Van Vooren, Henry Morgan & Betsy Palmer . The Host is Garry Moore.

[@HAZIDEAD]

Groucho was probably one of the best one-liners improvisers ever.

[@David-yw2lv]

Along with Bob Hope.NBC executives wanted to kill after they appeared on a radio show because they threw the script out the window after the first line & ad libbed the rest of it.

[@micro5033]

He just runs the show. Legendary

[@Veggieman87]

Only Groucho Marx could come onto a TV show and totally take it over.

[@seandeyoung01]

I was born in 67'. What is amazing is that Grocho is making people of all ages laugh around the world even today! He is timeless! One the greatest of all time!

[@LenHummelChannel]

Groucho always had an enormous over-abundance of wit and nerve ! - a wonderful and deadly combination. In his prime: no one EVER topped him on anything at any time.

[@Sarah_Gravydog316]

I love watching him every night on PBS here. He's awesome haha

[@littlemissmello]

except his brothers

[@caryheuchert]

An era when stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood made TV greater.

[@MileyonDisney]

Still my favorite comedian, and I admire his incredible wit. He absolutely took over every show he was on. What a personality!

[@rickrick5041]

Miley onDisney And while he’s there he also goes after the women

[@nealsausen4651]

He sure took over the what’s my line panel when he was on that show look elsewhere on KZbin for an example of this; Groucho on what’s my line he annihilated everyone the entire panel on that show were speechless and even a little pissed off I think that Groucho I mean he made them all look foolish and it was hilarious!

[@gustavefrankfurter6462]

His appearance on This Is Your Life sitting in a booth at The Brown Derby is just as funny as any show he guested on! Groucho was THE GREATEST COMIC EVER!

[@biltom]

Groucho was great.....but the best ever.......??????.....today there are no comics...just filth and not funny, just racist dumbass people.

[@nealsausen4651]

William Baker : Yeah he was the best if not one of the best and yes there are no comedians today alive like him I will agree just a bunch of dumb ass etc. people out there they wouldn’t appreciate Groucho’s kind of humor anyway or any one of the great comedians of America’s past! Unfortunate but true!

[@David-yw2lv]

True.Today's so- called comedians are lewd & obnoxious,or have an act that gets old fast A good example of the lewd obnoxious variety is Any Schumer.I watched a show she made,all she talked about were genitalia & what a slut she is I liked Emo Phillips,but after two or three viewings it was the same old thing over &​ over Both are largely forgotten now @@nealsausen4651

[@racovert1]

Sharp as a tack. A national treasure. I watch the Marx brother’s films and still laugh hysterically. As good now as they were back then.

[@David-yw2lv]

So is You Bet Your Life.

[@christiangibbs8534]

No surprise that he asked the panel AND the host to leave. Groucho dominates the stage, no matter what the circumstances. Genius! Absolute genius!

[@mikec5487]

A brilliant man. He was a voracious reader.

[@yaronkl]

Damn the man was sharp. Brilliant.

[@DavidEzell]

Groucho had an extraordinary mind...a one-of-a-kind entertainer...brilliant and still fun even today.

[@jadeshannon5583]

Groucho is always funny!I love the Marx Brothers

[@johnrettig1880]

I was barely a year old when this first aired . I've only seen these shows in reruns . Nice to know what I've missed .

[@Greg07623]

The Master. He makes you laugh so hard it's almost painful....and then you rewind to hear it again.

[@Carnophobe]

Wow, when he says: "You'll never see this show again." and yet people still watch this 50 years onwards. Utter genius. This is so funny I almost cried.

[@alienhuman]

As George Fenneman said: "The one the only... Groucho!" Truer words were never spoken,

[@poetcomic1]

Notice how Groucho doesn't just make jokes but overturns the whole format and creates a "Marx Brothers' atmosphere of zany anarchy and giddy fun.

[@rickrick5041]

poetcomic1 He just took over lol

[@nealsausen4651]

Yeah! Well he was a genius that way!

[@nealsausen4651]

Rick rick : yeah I know right?! Just look at his antics on those old what’s my line episodes he guessed it on! He drove everybody nuts and I don’t think those uptight broom stick up their ass is panelists appreciate it a lot of it they look kind of bugged? What’s my line panel I mean

[@oldclassics1923]

I love that book! Groucho and Me

[@bashbrannigan]

"If you don't come back, that'll be OK too." Groucho is great!

[@poetcomic1]

"What does one finger mean on this show?" Groucho can slip in a double entendre anytime anyplace.

[@postatility9703]

Unmatched delivery of ad libs.Perhaps the G.O.A.T of comedians.(I'm sure Groucho would have a quip about THAT.

[@akiman712]

His wit and charm were beyond the era. I don't think I know of any other comedian(s) other than the Rat Pack who could sway an audience with sheer simple humor alone. His play on words are quick, deadly and precise -- something I can relate to. When the host explained the order in which the contestants would ask questions, Marx responded "Why isn't he after her, I know I would be." Marx was a very good listener before anything else. He definitely enjoyed small-talk, although I think he found everyday phrases and sayings amusing too. He would dissect what was meant to be taken figuratively and throw it back to you with clever sarcasm disguised as childish innocence. But he could also be the aggressor, setting the stage for his wit and jokes. He would wait for you to strike, and then ruthlessly but nonchalantly retort with a simple logic that would leave the audience captivated and entertained.

[@forlandhrdina867]

Thanks.... Now I can hear it there.... Appreciated.

[@ffilchtaeh]

Boy, you can really step in it with Groucho. What a mind and great smart ass mouth! I love it.

[@stevenfanale4553]

Best show that I have ever seen in my life!!!!!

[@Judahthanksgiving]

Miss Groucho like crazy ❤❤

[@mindriot91_96]

Legend!

[@cheeriosinabowl]

The sight of seeing them smoke on the set and the ads for cigs also, just wows me! Boy, have times changed! Drastically.

[@sinaif76]

It ´s said that the bugsbunny character was based on him...

[@markschildberg1667]

Bugs said this, but it could just as easily have been Groucho: “And don’t think it hasn’t been a little slice of heaven - because it hasn’t.”

[@HopeNazir]

He is just hysterical I have seen him on the panel of what's my line and just as chaotic 😂🤣

[@EdWeibe]

he's was so fast with a come back.

[@baxter5431]

There was only ONE Groucho! Not bad for a grade school drop out. He was completely self taught and had a massive personal library from which he educated himself. A brilliant and completely one-of-a-kind wit! Another century and another era: never to be repeated in our lifetime.

[@EdWeibe]

some say some education facilites shunt a person's development

[@EricSchwin22]

Groucho is a smart witty man!

[@whoopit1960]

@Addyson1991 Monique Van Vooren is the blonde with the accent .The other cutsie blonde is Betsy Palmer from Friday the 13th.

[@kiminokami]

Whenever Groucho is anywhere, he can do whatever he wants. I love that man, in a very masculine way.

[@Lockemeister]

never to be repeated ever.

[@Justacoustic79]

I really like how in every interview or in every letter he receceived back people always try to be funny with him.You can read letters to him where politics and important people at that time talked to him in a humoristic tone.Garry more here struggles to keep the level and he can even fit a couple of kwick ones but nobody was sharp enough to reply this man never like he used to do...and making it funny!!! He was born with it,he had it,and thats a gift.

[@gtlfb]

Henry Morgan had a reputation for being suprisingly humorless on some of these shows. You can see him start to boil over, but even he finally gives in.

[@alienhuman]

LOL when the panel is dismissed, Groucho scopes out the ladies as they leave the stage... pure Groucho.

[@PazuzuStalker]

The undisputed champion of the chaotic comedy...

[@MsTimothyswan]

if Groucho were alive today, he could easily promote his book through Amazon

[@davidyu3533]

i don't think he would have to write a book. the man would be worth at least 100 million easy.

[@memorialled_zeppelin-warew1346]

And he'd be still giving us all grief. And we would all happily take it.

[@thegreatbungholio21]

I love the giant Winston block signs they have all over the set.

[@RICH020669]

omg they hardly even get to ask any questions. Groucho just keeps on stealing the spotlight. the man might just have been the funniest man in show business ever!

[@llaneroloco1]

This is the longest cigarette advert I've ever seen, nine minutes of it!!!!

[@Redmow51]

Amazing, eh? This was back in the day when people had a spine. Before the age of political correctness....at least in this country. Funny how people act shocked to see this. 100 years from now people may be shocked at our shockness.

[@toniquix]

Barry Maynard More like ,back then when people didn't know that they could die of cancer from smoking.

[@bobburnitt1411]

Barry Maynard You are as right as rain. TV was so much better then. TV is the only thing I know that started at its peak, and went downhill all the way, BB

[@jimalexander687]

llaneroloco1 This was 5 years before the Surgeon General's warning about tobacco. Although, you'd wonder how people needed the government to explain to them that inhaling toxic fumes was unhealthy. Of course, smokers since the 1964 Surgeon's General warning are even more stupid, because they KNOW it's bad and do it, nonetheless.

[@bobburnitt1411]

Jim Alexander Most people have known Smoking is BAD for a LONG TIME. My grandmother was born in 1900 but she NEVER smoked and KNEW it was bad, but ALL of her children smoked but my Mother. Oh they didn't have any "studies" to "cite". But people could see the damage it did. I can look at people that are 40 or better and tell you WHO has smoked and who has NOT and get it right MOST of the time. Especially with WOMEN, but I can do it with MEN as well. It will show in their FACE. People have been getting CANCER for a LONG TIME. People could connect the dots even long ago. People KNOW that tattoos are dangerous TOO, but it has not stopped that terrible epidemic at all. People KNOW "Drugs" are bad, but the War on Drugs will NEVER be won. It is the same problem as Prohibition of Alcohol, it is a FAILURE. People do what they want to do. The tobacco Companies are in no danger of going broke. Hell that moron President we have is a BIG Marijuana and tobacco smoker. I wish we had much less of a Nanny State. You know the MILITARY had a LOT to do with people smoking in WW II. At times Cigarettes were given to Soldiers as a "comfort Aid". Most of the time they had to buy their own, but at certain times, they were given to soldiers for free. Once addicted to Nicotine, let me tell you, that is just about the most POWERFUL addiction there IS. No matter how long you stay off of it, your brain is still wired, death is the only way to cure that. You can quit smoking for 30 years, (or worse Chewing tobacco) and if you EVER pick it back up, you are OFF the WAGON.

[@RW-ob4en]

“Groucho and Me” is a very good read...still. Or maybe more than ever (2022)!

[@AetheriusLamia]

Man, he self-promoted the !@#$ out of this appearance. Mission Accomplished.

[@JazzAnswer99]

Interesting to see Garry Moore puffing on a cigarette, and Groucho on a cigar. Can't do that nowadays. Huh uh.

[@greitje50]

I used to watch this show with my parents. Now the smoking and sponsors seem strange.(cigarettes) Back then it was just normal. Loved these shows!

[@dancebandleader]

@leirbag23 just noticed your comment, and how right you are. If they ever do a movie about 50's TV Matt Damon has got to play Bill Cullen.

[@fromthesidelines]

Very gutsy of the producers to allow Groucho to appear with his cigar when the sponsor was supposed to be R.J. Reynolds' Winston cigarettes (they sustained the show from 1955 through '61). They frowned on ANY other kind of on-air smoking [including pipes] when their cigarette brands sponsored a TV show- especially John Cameron Swayze's "CAMEL NEWS CARAVAN" on NBC in the early '50s {the exception was showing Sir Winston Churchill in news footage with HIS stogie}.

[@marjoriemargel1567]

Barry I. Grauman The cigar was his long time trademark. Just like Churchill smoking a cigar. I’m sure somewhere it might have been brought up by the sponsors, but No Cigar, No Groucho. He had his standards! LOL!

[@bashfulbrother]

The last thing I would want to do would be to spar verbally with him. The man was extremely intelligent and he could pin someone to a wall and they would laugh the whole time it was happening.

[@Joeri20cm]

Well you would probably win right now because he's dead

[@whoopit1960]

@Addyson1991 The sexy blonde with the accent is Monique Van Vooren from Andy Warhol's Frankenstein. The other cutsie blonde is Betsy Palmer from Friday the 13th.

[@EdWeibe]

wow. Well, Groucho , your proof when one door closes another one wants to open with something much better.

[@OrganCat]

Betsy Palmer was a beauty. (She played 'Jason's' mother years later)

[@KevinKomonyi]

@dogshy61 The host's name is Garry Moore. Groucho even says it.

[@stevenfanale4553]

The greatest who ever lived. SMF

[@JSSTyger]

SMF = smell my fart?

[@TheCambrian91]

7:45 was an absolute zinger, soooo funny.

[@cacaoueterealisateur]

all hail the greatest american con man / entertainer

[@bibibabkagirl]

does anyone have the episode where chico marx dressed up as harpo marx? that was a great one!!!! :D

[@forlandhrdina867]

Hey, anybody can help? English is not my first language, I get most of it, but for the zinger at 7:45... What's he saying? Thanks

[@misterkrad]

can't find a clip of chico as harpo on ive got a secret rats

[@cirosuperiore]

how times have changed... this was a time when you were obligated to smoke on TV.

[@mariozondag2576]

Even better: they give everyone in the show a pack of sigarettes when they go. Remarkeble.😉

[@miroslavtomic7038]

Where is the rest of this? What happened was that Harpo came out and everybody had to guess what his secret was. Nobody, not even Groucho, managed to guess. The thing was that it was NOT Harpo that came to the show at all. It was Chico dressed as Harpo. Out of their costumes, Chico and Harpo were almost identical. Even Groucho was fooled.

[@torchkit]

"What does one finger mean on this show?" LOL

[@thefools]

does anyone have chico dressed as harpo on 'I've Got a Secret'?

[@brucer12]

A real kick---Groucho was so quik!!

[@theaussiebackflipboy]

Interesting to note the heavy cigarette advertising on the set - people knew where the money was coming from to produce the shows back in the day.

[@RisingSon011]

what is up with all these sanctimonious chumps in the comment section complaining about the smoking? TV shows before 1960 or so showed it all the time. anyway to each his own why do you care

[@Monkofmagnesia]

Wow! Betsy Palmer is the same Betsy Palmer who played Pamela Voorhees in the first "Friday the 13th"!

[@comfibold]

A genius and a gentleman.

[@VicMartino]

LMAO at Groucho Marx LOL!

[@fluffydolly]

the master.

[@miguelmouta]

Despite smoking being hazardous, the cigar in Groucho´s hand is charm. But the interviewer, smoking at the same time , and the nondiscrete logo, deserves a work of social behaviour history.

[@xenafan234]

They wre all so sweet!

[@marjoriemargel1567]

xenafan234 Groucho Sweet?? Never!

[@yushis1]

lol at the cigarette ads

[@joshuaa3075]

Has a movie been based on groucho’ life?

[@miguelmouta]

@D0g63rt . I agree, concerning Grouchos jokes ( You may not sustain enough breath ) .

[@tarz96]

I love the 50s

[@jensmickey]

never thought of it, but now that you mention it, it sounds right.... maybe he did...

[@JJJBRICE]

Monique Van Vooren, AKA the Belgian Bulge.

[@jublicqohnp.61]

Groucho Marx... the greatest entertainer of all time.

[@ky-gp4sz]

Bess Mires?

[@cicalone70]

It was a phrase with reference to the type of sponsor.

[@DigitalInsurgent]

Wow, the cute panelist Groucho hits on is Mrs Voorhees from Friday the 13th.

[@bloodgrss]

Someone like Groucho was always trying to be funny-which can tend to dominate a show and, if he is off, make things insufferable-like often was Hal Block on the first years of What's My Line... Fortunately, Groucho WAS a comic genius-and this taking over here, and when he was on the panel of Whats My Line in 1959, were these shows funniest segments ever!

[@nealsausen4651]

I totally agree with you he “OWNED” what’s my line! He totally dominated that show much to the chagrin of the panel and John Daly as well! Look elsewhere on KZbin for examples of this!

[@colinstl]

Groucho Marx was a comic who was so far ahead of his time. I'd LOVE to see how he'd handle things today. Chances are he'd own guys like O'Reilly, Beck, Limbaugh, etc.

[@TheRecordSaver]

Harpo, Chico, Zeppo and Gummo.. those were the nicknames of the other four Marx Brothers

[@Bren3485]

"Why isn't he after her? I know I would be if If was there!"

[@JackstonePictures]

he's so good at being himself did he hurt anyone while doing this xD i wonder, but hes so good!

[@TraxNYCDiamondJewelry]

Damn i need a Winston

[@baxter5431]

Mayor Bloomberg agrees with you and so does the mayor of San Francisco. HOWEVER, they turn a blind eye to public usage of smoking Pot and shooting up heroin. So which is worse? Smoking a cigarette or taking dope???

[@marymarysmarket3508]

Yep..no plastic straws allowed but the place and the needles are supplied to shoot up.

[@harryputang5352]

" I flew without a plane " 😆🏌️‍♂️

[@pfflyer3381]

Glad I lived in the period of the time machines. And toilet paper!

[@byHexted]

Why do they think he’s going to do something? I don’t get it it’s a secret it’s always a secret, why do they think he’s like gonna do something now

[@torchkit]

"What does 'one finger' mean on this show?" LOL

[@c3542]

I don't know about you, but doesn't seem like John Lennon has a little of Groucho Marx's in a way? Maybe He followed Him?

[@fromthesidelines]

...and because Garry Moore was a lifelong smoker, often "lighting up" on camera for Winston on "I'VE GOT A SECRET" AND the various daily and prime-time shows he appeared in under R.J. Reynolds' sponsorship, he eventually died of lung cancer in 1993.

[@momo0451]

5:50 what edward cullen was doing 50 years ago.

[@Nikifuj908]

Yakko from Animaniacs definitely was.