Algonquin Round Table

[Marc Chevalier]

Interestingly, the Marx Brothers all concur that their youngest sibling, Zeppo, was the funniest and wittiest member of the troupe, by far.[huh]

As opposed to Karl, who was just too serious for the group.

.

 

[Harp]

Interested in having lunch with the "Vicious Circle"? Watch the movie "Mrs. Parker and The Vicious Circle" made in 1994.
Not a bad movie, tells the lives and times of the Algonquin Round Table participants.
So, for you lovers of the literary world, if you haven't already seen it, this might be an enjoyable film for you.

An earlier NEA grant film by Aviva Slesin titled, The Ten Hour Lunch
won the 1987 Academy Award for Best Documentary.
The PBS American Masters series subsequently spliced some of the
Lunch footage with its own The Algonquin Round Table feature.

Famed as it was, and, as enjoyable literary recollection that it remains,
the Table's actual artistic influence is questionable when the postwar
genre is considered on a whole, but its colorful character composition
cannot be denied.

 

[MrNewportCustom]

Harpo Speaks!

Harpo sure looks alot like Groucho in this picture.

The brothers were known to occasionally pretend to be one or another of the brothers. For instance, before they started acting as a troupe, Chico played piano and sang in a dive of a bar for a season, and when he couldn't take it anymore, Harpo took over and the owner of the bar never knew. Out of make-up and costume, there were many startling similarities between them.

The scene with Harpo Marx is pretty fast...and is played like the movies' version of Harpo - running around chasing a girl, honking a horn. 30 seconds or, if even that. But definitely a good movie.

Which, unfortunately, is highly inaccurate of Harpo Marx in real life. He was a very dedicated husband and father, and after he was married, never once chased another woman. (That was Chico's job, hence his name which is pronounced, "Chick-o," not "Cheek-o.")

Harpo wasn't very literary, especially considering that he dropped out of school . . . no, more like thrown out of school. Literally! He was indeed in the second grade when a bully in his class physically threw him out a window. He vowed never to return to school, and kept that promise.

But he was fairly regular at the Round Table, and got along famously with everyone there. And, yes, he did speak in real life. The reason he didn't speak on stage or in their movies is because, while starting out on stage, he'd stumble through his lines. So, he just gave up on them.

fftopic: On a side note: The Marx Brothers would adlib most of their lines, regardless what the writers had given them, each time they performed. (You could go to the same play every night of the week and each would be noticeably different.) During one performance, while standing at the back of the theater, one of their writers (S. J. Perelman, I think) was heard to say, "Wait! I think I heard one of my lines!"

If you're interesting in learning more about Harpo, find his book, Harpo Speaks. It's very good. (So far, the only Marx I haven't found a book about, or by, is Zeppo.)


Lee
________________________

"I've a good mind to join a club and beat you over the head with it." - Groucho Marx (Sorry, but I don't have any Harpo quotes.)

 

[Harp]

fftopic: Just finished reading John Barry's The Great Influenza,
(1918-20) and he remarked the Lost Generation's complete avoidance of this
scourge with the exception of Katherine Ann Porter's Pale Rider.
Considering the epidemic's tragic nature, this facet of the WWI literary class
is all the more noteworthy.

 

[BeBopBaby]

As opposed to Karl, who was just too serious for the group.

.

My husband used to have a t-shirt that said, "I'm a marxist," with a picture of Groucho on it. lol

 

[Harp]

Other Parker witticisms that comes to mind:

Scratch an actor and you'll find an actress.

You can lead a horticulture, but you cannot make her think

There is her quite famous poem on suicide:

Razors pain you
Rivers are damp
Acids stain you
Drugs cause cramp

Guns aren't Lawful
Nooses Give
Gas smells awful
You might as well live

One of my favorite Algonquin anecdotes was when Tallulah Bankhead, a new and rising star, came to visit the Circle one day. Everyone was wondering what, if anything, she would say. Tallulah walked in, glanced around, and said, "There's less to this than meets the eye."

karol

Upon my vow,
I glanced and saw a saint
and a whore.

Dorothy Parker, Inscription writ in Hearst Guest Book, San Simeon

 

[carter]

Personally, I liked it better before the New Yorker cartoons were all over the walls and the drinks were $11 a throw. But it's still an elegant haunt.

Someone please correct me if I am in error, but...
In the late '60s I would take the train from Williamsburg, VA to Washington D.C. with friends from William & Mary. We would board the Metroliner from D.C. to NYC and purchase cheap Broadway tickets from street vendors. We stayed at the Algonquin at least once and I had a tiny room by the elevator.
If we couldn't secure tickets, we'd eat at Sardis once the pre-theatre crowd had departed. This was the slowest part of their evening. I was in Sardi's about two years ago and this is still the case.
Anyway...my understanding is that the bar in the Algonquin is not the same bar nor even in the original location. Is this actually the case?

 

[Harp]

Someone please correct me if I am in error, but...
Anyway...my understanding is that the bar in the Algonquin is not the same bar nor even in the original location. Is this actually the case?

The Algonquin underwent some remodel/rennovation, cannot attest to
the bar, however the Round Table supposedly remains in its original locale.

 

[HadleyH]

Not So Round The Table...

Talking about Dottie Parker ...


In May my heart was breaking -
Oh, wide the wound, and deep!
And bitter it beat at waking,
And sore it slpit at sleep.


And when it came November,
I sought my heart and sighed,
"Poor thing do you remember?"
"What heart was that?" it cried.

 

[carter]

That does it! Now I have to start reading Dorothy Parker!

Meanwhile...a bit of Ogden Nash:

Limerick Two

There was a young lady of Guam
Who peddled her charms, charm by charm,
Inspired, I suppose,
By the classical prose
Of W. Somerset Maugham.

 

[carter]

Originally posted by BegintheBeguine on the favorite poets thread

The folks at Harper Audio provide us all with this: http://town.hall.org/radio/HarperAud..._harp_ITH.html

For those who may be interested in recordins of Dorothy Parker's work, check out the ink above. They sell download audio files.

Gotta go. Time for rye toast and vegamite! Have a g'day.

 

[Harp]

Originally posted by BegintheBeguine on the favorite poets thread


For those who may be interested in recordins of Dorothy Parker's work, check out the ink above. They sell download audio files.

Gotta go. Time for rye toast and vegamite! Have a g'day.

Many thanks, Carter. Vegamite?

 

[carter]

Many thanks, Carter. Vegamite?

Ask Hadley H.

 

[Harp]

I've had vegamite, but with your exquisite poetic taste, I figured you
for organge marmelade, old boy.

 

[carter]

Not the marmalade but I am partial to cranberry-orange scones.
And, beignettes when in New Orleans.
At one time I developed a taste for Bundy Rum. Blame it on some Aussie fighter pilots who were training in Fort Worth and discovered our watering hole. Their wives brought vegimite and Bundy Rum when they came to visit.