Journal Notes

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Straight Lady: The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, “The Fifth Marx Brother”

On October 20, 1882, future actress Margaret Dumont was born in Brooklyn, New York. Her mother was an entertainer who taught music, her father was a sea captain, and stepfather a set decorator for Broadway productions. She was forty-seven when she made her first movie with the Marx Brothers. Tall and regal in bearing, her character provided the perfect foil to wisecracking Groucho Marx.

Almost alone among the wooden heroines and third-rate bit players who peopled the Marx Brothers’ films with victims, she radiated a memorable vulnerability and eternally renewable faith in the chance of sanity in a lunatic world. In doing so she shared their immortality.

Here’s another love scene between Groucho as Rufus Firefly and Margaret Dumont as Gloria Teasdale from the film Duck Soup.

Firefly: Here are the plans of war. They’re as valuable as your life, and that putting ‘em pretty cheap. Watch them like a cat watches her kittens. Have you ever had kittens? No, of course not. You’re too busy running around playing bridge. Can’t you see what I’m trying to tell you? I love you. Why don’t you marry men?

Mrs. T: Why, marry you?

Firefly:  You take me and I’ll take a vacation. I’ll need a vacation if we’re going to get married. Married!

Mrs. T.: Rufus, what are you thinking of?

Firefly: Oh, I was just thinking of all the years I wasted collecting stamps. Oh, uh, I suppose you’ll think me a sentimental old fluff, but, uh, would you mind giving me a lock of your hair?

Mrs. T.: A lock of my hair? Why, I had no idea.

Firefly: I’m letting you off easy. I was going to ask for the whole wig.

To learn more about the talented actress and her life on and off screen with the comedy team read Straight Lady: The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, “The Fifth Marx Brother.”

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Straight Lady: The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, “The Fifth Marx Brother”

Critics praised Margaret Dumont’s performance in A Night at the Opera released in November 1935. The Los Angeles Times noted that “Dumont is poised, dignified, and the perfect foil for the Marx Brothers. She’s is the best dramatic balance for their comedy in every way.” The following is a sample of her banter with Groucho Marx from A Night at the Opera.

Mrs. Claypool: Mr. Driftwood, three months ago you promised to put me into society. In all that time, you’ve done nothing but draw a very handsome salary.

Driftwood: You think that’s nothing, huh? How many men do you suppose are drawing a handsome salary nowadays? Why, you can count them on the fingers of one hand, my good woman.

Mrs. Claypool: I’m not your good woman!

Driftwood: Don’t say that, Mrs. Claypool. I don’t care what your past has been. To me, you’ll always be my good woman. Because I love you. There. I didn’t mean to tell you, but you…you dragged it out of me. I love you.

Mrs. Claypool: It’s rather difficult to believe that when I find you dining with another woman.

Driftwood: That woman? Do you know why I sat with her? Because she reminded me of you.

To learn more about the talented actress and her life on and off screen with the comedy team read Straight Lady:

The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, “The Fifth Marx Brother”

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Straight Lady: The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, “The Fifth Marx Brother”

Harpo wrestled with her. Groucho threw her for a ten-yard loss. Chico rode across a film set on the model train to run her down while she was waiting to say her lines. And, when they couldn’t think of anything else to do, they all climbed on her lap and mauled her.

For several years, the Marx maniacs gave Margaret Dumont a big hand — as well as an occasional foot — in the interest of good, clean fun. It was a rough life, but Dumont loved it because it was never monotonous. If you’ve ever watched the four brothers cavort, that last crack goes without saying.

Groucho called her “Tootsie.” Harpo cut it to “Toots.” But Chico and Zeppo got along with just plain “Maggie,” all much to the stately Miss Dumont’s amusement.

Margaret exchanged great dialogue with Groucho Marx like this from Duck Soup:

RUFUS T. FIREFLY (Groucho Marx): Not that I care, but where is your husband?

MRS. TEASDALE: Why, he’s dead.

RUFUS T. FIREFLY:   I bet he’s just using that as an excuse.

MRS. TEASDALE: I was with him to the very end.

RUFUS T. FIREFLY: No wonder he passed away.

MRS. TEASDALE: I held him in my arms and kissed him.

RUFUS T. FIREFLY: Oh, I see, then it was murder. Will you marry me? Did he leave you any money? Answer the second question first.

MRS. TEASDALE: He left me his entire fortune.

RUFUS T. FIREFLY: Is that so? Can’t you see what I’m trying to tell you? I love you.

To learn more about Miss Dumont read

Straight Lady: The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, “The Fifth Marx Brother.”

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Straight Lady: The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, “The Fifth Marx Brother” 

“I’ll meet you tonight under the moon. Oh, I can see you now – you and the moon. You wear a neck-tie so I’ll know you.” Groucho Marx to Margaret Dumont in The Cocoanuts.

The film The Cocoanuts, starring the Marx Brothers, was well received everywhere it played. Critics praised the production, calling it “tuneful” and “full of beauty and uproariously funny.”  Margaret, a seasoned Broadway veteran, had been singled out in reviews which called her a “stately dowager with refined acting and singing gifts.”

To learn more about Dumont’s work with the Marx Brothers and the making of The Cocoanuts read Straight Lady: The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, “The Fifth Marx Brother.”

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Straight Lady: The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, “The Fifth Marx Brothers”

Straight Lady: The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, “The Fifth Marx Brother”  focuses on Dumont and her role in the production of the comedy teams’ most successful films.

Here’s what critics say about Straight Lady.

“Great stars of Hollywood often have multiple books written about them, but the marvelous character actors who support them are mostly ignored. An exception is “Straight Lady: The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont” by Chris Enss and Howard Kazanjian, a prodigiously researched biography of the actress who played the stalwart victim of the Marx Brothers’ comedy of assault.” Wall Street Journal Review

“Informed and informative, Straight Lady: The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, “The Fifth Marx Brother” is must for the personal reading lists of motion picture enthusiasts, cinematic film historians, and the legions of Marx Brothers’ fans.  Midwest Book Review

“While comedy fans will enjoy the reprised storylines and biographical vignettes, this multileveled work also offers media scholars a deeper look into Marx Brothers films in which Dumont was epochal and reflective of the era’s gender standards and mannerisms.” Library Journal

“Margaret Dumont had a complete life; Enss and Kazanjian’s research fill in all the voids. “The Straight Lady” digs deep and produces a revealing chapter in the amazing early success of the movie business. For those readers who enjoy a fascinating story, this book will fit the bill. For those who love Hollywood history, it is a must read.”  Arizona Daily Star

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Mochi’s War: The Tragedy of Sand Creek

“I said a prayer for the spirits that are still at Sand Creek because of the genocide that was forced upon them. The treaty they made with the Cheyenne and other tribes in 1851 included Denver, Wyoming and other areas. But, when gold was discovered they needed to move the Indians out of the way, so in 1861 they moved the Cheyenne and Arapahos to the Sand Creek area. When the massacre occurred on November 29, 1864, the Cheyenne were on the reservation the U.S. government had given them, and the government condoned all this action resulting in the killing of these innocent people.” Laird Cometsevah

This week marks the 160th anniversary of the Sand Creek massacre.

Read about this event in the book Mochi’s War: The Tragedy of Sand Creek

Ten percent of all sales of the book go to the Sand Creek National Monument site

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Mochi’s War: The Tragedy of Sand Creek

“When the people were running there was hardly any place to hide, but there were ravines and there was one old lady who was getting children. She was getting children but she had medicine so they couldn’t see her and she would go back and forth getting children. There were more women holding the children down. Where it happened had to have shelter and some ravines. Land changes over the years through men tilling, farmers, and the wind, rain—it changes subtly. Those ravines might be buried now. To find anything you’d probably have to dig. But at the time there were hiding places, ravines. They were camped close to water for cooking and things.” Lettie June Shakespeare

This week marks the 160^th anniversary of the Sand Creek massacre.

Read about this event in the book

Mochi’s War: The Tragedy of Sand Creek.

Mochi’s War is available everywhere.

Ten percent of all sales of the book go to the Sand Creek National Monument site.

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Mochi’s War: The Tragedy of Sand Creek

Dog Soldiers participated in a second raid on Julesburg on February 2, 1865. According to George Bent’s account of the attack, a small band of Indians first tried to lure the soldiers out of their stockade. The plan was to get the troops in the open, overtake them, and ride into the unguarded stage station. The soldiers did not fall for the Indians’ ploy. The warriors regrouped and descended on the stockade together. George Bent noted in his memoirs that the Dog Soldiers rode past eighteen graves of men killed in the first attack on Julesburg. Six hundred Indians fought their way to the warehouse at the stage station and broke into the store on site. Mochi was one of the Cheyenne who helped gather the food and other provisions together and herded the horses away from the war-torn stockade. When there was nothing left to plunder, the Indians set fire to the buildings.

Mochi and the other Indians left Julesburg and headed across the Great Divide between the South Platte and North Platte Rivers. Telegraph poles lining the path they followed were destroyed. They were either burned or chopped down, and the wires were cut and carried away or tangled up and tossed into the brush. Regiments of cavalry troops from Mud Springs, Nebraska, and Camp Mitchell, Wyoming rallied and pursued the Indians, but the warriors would not allow themselves to be easily driven from the valley. Because of the Sand Creek Massacre, raid upon raid was enacted on soldiers and settlers from February to October 1865. Many warriors and white men lost their lives. Like other Dog Soldiers, Mochi would have taken part in the killing and the ritual mutilation of her enemies.

Somewhere in the midst of the fighting and retreating and fighting again, Mochi met a warrior named Mihuh-heuimup or Medicine Water. He had lost his wife at Sand Creek and was raising his young daughter Tahnea alone. Medicine Water and Mochi shared a strong desire to eliminate the white man from their homeland and to preserve the traditions and lifestyles of the Cheyenne people. If not for the Treaty of the Little Arkansas, Mochi and Medicine Water might not have considered marriage. They would have continued their attacks on United States troops and buffalo hunters until one or the other were killed, but a remission in the weekly fighting gave them the chance to rest and consider life beyond the battle.

To learn more about the driven Dog Soldier Mochi read

Mochi’s War: The Tragedy of Sand Creek

Ten percent of all sales from the book

Mochi’s War: The Tragedy of Sand Creek

go to the Sand Creek National Monument site.

Mochi’s War is available on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com,

and everywhere books are sold.