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Straight Lady:
The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, “The Fifth Marx Brother.”
The wheels on the Southern Pacific’s Coaster pounded along the railroad tracks on a sixteen-hour journey from Los Angeles to San Francisco, California. It was late in the evening, and most of the passengers on board were asleep in their berths. Among those lost in slumber was Margaret Dumont. Margaret and the rest of the The Cocoanuts cast were on their way north to plan an engagement at the Columbia Theatre in the City by the Bay. They had just finished a three-week run of the show at the Biltmore Center in Los Angeles. It was January 9, 1928, and the musical comedy that had opened at the Lyric Theatre in New York on December 8, 1925, had been performed more than two hundred times.
The Cocoanuts, starring the Marx Brothers, had been 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.” Now, resting comfortably in her sleeping quarters, the actress hoped to be well rested for the next series of performances awaiting them in San Francisco.
At 12:15 in the morning, the sound of an alarm clock blaring jarred Margaret awake, and she glanced around her berth to see from where the offensive sound was coming. She located the clock on a small shelf next to her head and tapped it until it silenced. Within a few short moments, she had rolled away from the alarm clock and dropped back to sleep. Harpo ever so gently opened the curtains on her quarters and peered inside. Confident Margaret had fallen asleep again he reset the alarm on the clock and sat it back down. He closed the curtains and disappeared from sight. At 1:15 in the morning the alarm sounded again. Margaret stirred, lifted her head off her pillow, and then reached for the alarm clock. She turned the alarm off and, within a few moments, was asleep again.
Chico appeared shortly thereafter, stealthily reset the alarm on the clock, and vanished quietly. The alarm sounded at 2:15, and this time Margaret examined the clock to try and discover why it kept going off every hour. Satisfied she had resolved the issue, she put the clock back in its place, straightened her covers, and again went to sleep.
Moments passed, and Harpo dared to peer into the curtains a third time. Margaret did not stir. Once more the alarm was reset, and at 3:15 the alarm went off. The scene was repeated with Harpo and Chico alternating setting the alarm until 5:15 in the morning. At that point, Margaret had abandoned the idea of being able to sleep for more than an hour at a time. She got up, got dressed, and spent the rest of the train ride dozing over her coffee in the dining car.
When the cast and crew of The Cocoanuts arrived in San Francisco, all but one emerged refreshed and ready to go to work. Margaret stepped off the train yawning and looking a bit disheveled. Harpo and Chico raced over to her, flanking her on either side. “Rough night, Maggie?” Chico asked, wearing an impish grin that let her know he had a part in what had happened the prior evening. “I know it was the both of you,” she noted sharply. “I wasn’t born yesterday.” Harpo grabbed her around the waist and gave her a hug. “That’s a shame,” Chico told her. “We could have started your personality from scratch.” He pinched her cheek playfully, and he and Harpo hurried along their ways.
“Working with the Marx Brothers is an art both on and off stage,” Margaret told reporters waiting at the Third and Townsend Depot to interview the show’s players. “I adore them,” she added sincerely.
