I suspect any person who writes more than a weekly shopping list also jots down snips, trivia and other useless comments and bits of information. When my stack of notes becomes too high to manage, I, at least, have the option of turning them into fodder for a column.
An example: Just about anyone who has seen an old movie can identify the three Marx Brothers, Groucho, Harpo and Chico. Who, though, remembers the names of the other two brothers who once were part of the act in their early vaudeville days? If I remember to, I’ll leave the answer at the end of this column.
To paraphrase a comment often made by TV’s Mr. T, I pity the poor fool who has never been exposed to the gentle humor of Robert Benchly. He was one of a group of brilliant writers in the ’30s who gathered daily at the Algonquin Hotel to do battle with their wits. Just Google “Algonquin Round Table” and you’ll find page after page of information about the sharpest and most lethal wits in New York, and, indeed, the nation.
Would it surprise you to know that Harpo Marx — the silent one — was considered to be one of their most literate and intelligent members? And let us not forget Dorothy Parker, who once reviewed a play by saying acidly that Katharine Hepburn ran the entire gamut of emotions from A to B.
There are times when I get the feeling that I’m in the middle of a soap opera. The more I find out about the Moeller family the more I’m convinced of it.
An example: Have you ever had the thought that your grandmother may have had an affair, and with the pastor of her church? I confess it’s occurred to me and I may write about it some day. A line from “Othello” comes to mind, that they may have “loved, not wisely, but too well.”
Few things bring a broader smile to my face than the annual feature in this newspaper showing the faces of children born in the preceding year. I can’t open to any page in that publication without feeling happier and a better man afterward. This year the babies will be in the Life section on March 24. Look for it.
That same reaction was repeated in the recent front-page story of the forthcoming marriage of Lee Coumbs and Bonnie Canaday. That two such good friends found happiness together produced a smile that darn near tore my face apart.
Can anyone who attended any one in the series of “Sky River Rock Festivals” look back on them with anything but nostalgia? I managed to sneak off to Sky River IV down in Washougal, and didn’t come back even slightly corrupted by the experience.
Sleeping occasionally on the grassy hillside between acts that performed all night long, while breathing air that was liberally tainted by a certain burning-grass aroma, did not turn me into a slobbering maniac, as was predicted by the propaganda at the time. There are those who might accuse me of having already achieved that state.
Concerning those missing Marx brothers, Gummo was the first to leave; he became a successful Hollywood agent. Zeppo can be seen in the earlier films. All the brothers were musical in one way or another, and, being the only handsome one of the bunch, he usually sang a romantic ballad.
For what it’s worth, their mother, Minnie, was part of their early act, and there was a sixth brother who died in infancy.
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Bill Moeller is a former entertainer, mayor, bookstore owner, city council member, paratrooper and pilot living in Centralia. He can be reached at bookmaven321@comcast.net.
