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| Mikael Uhlin's Marxology @ marx-brothers.org
[Main Page] | [History] | [Vaudeville] | [Misc.] | [Films & Film Projects] |
History"One
for all and two for five..." Art
Fisher and Groucho the Monk VaudevilleStreet
Cinderella / Cinderella Girl Misc. |
 Who Was Sammy Brown?Zeppo opened the successions of imitations at the Theatrical Agency, the opening scene of both On The Balcony and I'll Say She Is, with the line "My name is Sammy Brown and I just came into town" but who was Sammy Brown? In an interesting e-mail sent in May 2010, signature Oilyfool writes: The "Sam Brown" reference in the German WWII cartoon refers to the Sam Browne belt issued as standard officers' kit in the British army. It is eponymously named after the actual Sam Browne, a British officer who served in India in the 1890s. He suffered in battle an amputative sword cut to his left arm, which left him unable to draw his sword. He designed the belt to provide stability, allowing him to draw his sword one-handed. It became official officers' gear in both the British and US Armies around 1900 (see Wikipedia for further details). When the sword was replaced by the pistol as a standard officers sidearm (except ceremonially), the belt was retained; you can see Peter O'Toole wearing one in the film Lawrence of Arabia, and in photos of the real T.E. Lawrence from during WWI. How does this link to Zeppo? As you know from your research, Zeppo replaced Gummo in the Marx Brothers stage act in 1918, when Gummo joined the US Army prior to the end of WWI. It is my considered guess that Zeppo's "I'm Sammy Brown, and I'm back in town" was a catch phrase popular immediately after WWI, when the soldiers, including his brother Gummo, returned home. Monkey BusinessThere are several differences between the final script and the finished film. The most interesting is the scaled-down conclusion. Instead of Zeppo and Briggs fighting in the barn, the fisticuffs was to take place at a warehouse brewery with Briggs ending up being socked into a vat of beer. The Monkey Business topper scene had Harpo enjoying a swim in another vat of beer, his head coming up with a smile, spurting a little beer out of his mouth before diving again after honking his horn. The scripted finale was probably scrapped for cost and technical reasons - in addition to the bootlegger setting, the warehouse also had a steam hoist whose moving long arm and attached pincher figured prominently in the final comedy battle. Also lost was an artistically symmetrical fade out with Groucho, Harpo and Chico once again singing in barrels (as they do in the film's beginning), this time on the private yacht of Joe Helton (named Joe Farina in the script), while Zeppo and Mary Helton kissed nearby.  |
Films & film projects |
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