Episode Details

"Raised Eyebrows" author Steve Stoliar joined me to discuss silent film comedians; Universal horror monsters; The Three Stooges; how The Marx Brothers were the best; becoming his secretary and archivist; meeting Groucho's friends; going to UCLA to study history and hanged to television; saw decline and fall of Groucho in person as well as rage-ridden Erin Fleming; saving all his witticisms; his book comes out and is now going to be a motion picture; 1972 - he tries at UCLA to get Animal Crackers rereleased; does a press conference and meets Groucho for the first time; Universal rereleases it; a year later, Steve asks for a summer job; becomes secretary and archivist; worked seven days a week; Groucho was a personal history capsule; Groucho worked a benefit concert for the 1906 earthquake and performed the night Pres. Harding died; Groucho's Long Island home on the market; friendship with Alice Cooper; first two films made in Kaufman Astoria Studios; then family moved to Hollywood; their lost silent film "Humor isk" will never be found, but there are censored scenes that might; The Day the Clown Cried; going with Groucho to the set of Bob Hope's Joys; not going to Welcome Back, Kotter; he conservatorship trial; not taking part in the estate trial; gets a job typing scripts for Universal; hired by Dick Cavett based on his humorous correspondence; becomes a freelance TV writer; now his book is becoming a movie; CBS takes a sitcom starring Frank Zappa's children written by Steve and tries to make it "Normal Life"; TV & movies are better and worse than they've ever been; "blue humor"; "objectionable" humor; his other works "Imperfect Storm" abut Howard Storm and "Salami's and Swastikas" based on his fathers letters home.