On this day in 1893, vaudevillian/agent/businessman Gummo Marx was born in New York City. When I met him at Groucho's, I asked him to sign this 3x5 card. As he wrote his name, he said, "If this were at the bottom of a check, it might actually be worth something." Very nice man.

On this day in 1942, Michael Crichton was born in Chicago. I met this versatile renaissance man through mutual friends, who gifted me with this 1st edition of his latest novel. I was told only about a dozen had the "official stamp." He was gone too soon, at 66 from cancer....

I've listed some new signed books and lowered the prices of others, in case that's of interest to you. Peter Cook & Dudley Moore, Howard Stern, Frank Sullivan, Virgil Partch, Mickey Spillane, Thurber, Hellman, etc. Please share with kindred spirits... ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fs…

Groucho spying on a group of attractive Nazi spies. This is from a series of photos taken by famous photographer Bob Landry for a 1946 LIFE magazine article called "How To Be A Spy." It was part of the promotion for "A Night In Casablanca."

A couple of days ago, I came to a stop at a residential intersection at the same time as the car to my right. I was about to gesture to the driver to go ahead when I noticed it was a Waymo car! What's the etiquette?!? I just sorta inched across and we were fine, but -- ?

Hillcrest Round Table, early 1950s: From left to right (skipping over the Hillcrest staffers and some of the more obscure names) you can see Jimmy Ritz, Groucho, Gummo, George Burns, Al Ritz, Walter Woolf King (in back), Lou Holtz, Harpo, and Harry Ritz (seated).

Here's a handy graphic:

Groucho posing with "You Bet Your Life" contestant Esther Bradley in 1956. She was far and away the staff's (and Groucho's) all-time favorite contestant - a hapless housewife from Burbank who was so naturally, inadvertently funny, she was asked to return and play the game again.

A very happy 94th (!) birthday to my pal, Hank Garrett of Harlem, New York. My favorite performance of his is as the malevolent mailman who menaces Robert Redford in "Three Days of the Condor," so I asked him to sign this original still from the film. He complied. Remarkable guy.

Puck stops here: Harpo - entertaining wounded Korean War vets - encounters President Truman - whose plane stopped to refuel - at Fairfield Air Force Base in California, October 12, 1950. Harpo has inscribed the photo, "I'm just wild about Harry - Harpo."

A very happy 86th(!) birthday to John Cleese of Weston-Super-Mare, England! I had the great good fortune to have a tantalizingly brief chat with Mr. Cleese after a 2018 screening of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." He was intrigued by my dual Groucho/Cavett connection.

Uncommon color (not colorized) magazine photo of Groucho and George Fenneman greeting a pair of contestants on a 1954 episode of "You Bet Your Life."

The wicked wit of Barry Blitt:

I got to enjoy Groucho singing this in his living room in 1974. youtube.com/watch?v=Sje6Dh…

"Formal" portrait of Harpo as "The Professor" in the 1928 Broadway version of "Animal Crackers." He's wearing the bright red wig he used onstage and in other live appearances, but which didn't photograph as red on film, so he switched to a strawberry blond variant for movies.

A very happy 78th birthday to Richard Dreyfuss of Brooklyn, NY! He signed this great "Jaws" portrait in 1978 when he was at Universal making "The Big Fix." Then, in 2023, we ran into each other at the TCM Classic Film Festival, where we were both participants. Interesting fellow.

At the Hillcrest Country Club Round Table in 1953, Groucho, George Jessel, Milton Berle, and Buddy Lester belt out a song, while Eddie Cantor prepares to belt Milton Berle.

And yet somehow, the Nobel Committee snubbed him for the Peace Prize. How is that possible? reuters.com/world/china/tr… via @GoogleNews

Harpo and Chico challenged bridge champ Ely Culbertson to a game for Paramount's newsreel cameras in February of 1933. He accepted - but failed to show, later explaining that he thought they were kidding. The boys posed for photographers anyway, so it wouldn't be a total loss.

My annual Halloween video: Boris Karloff, Art Carney and Betty Hutton guest-starring on "The Dinah Shore Chevy Show" in 1957. Their rendition of "Little Darlin'" sounds a lot better than you might expect! youtu.be/Z6Mi4pm_h9k?si… via YouTube