Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel
[1] To advertise its new premium grade fuel, Texaco approached vaudeville comic Ed Wynn to star in a radio show titled Fire Chief.
[2][3] Wynn played the fire chief in front of an audience of 700 and the show was aired live over the NBC Red Network, beginning April 26, 1932.
[4] It immediately proved popular with over two million regular listeners[2] and a Co-Operative Analysis of Broadcasting (CAB) Rating of 44.8%.
[6] They turned to the advertising agency McCann Erickson, which developed Five-Star Theater, a variety series that offered a different show each night of the week.
[7] Before this decision was officially reached, early drafts of the scripts featured guest appearances written for both absent brothers, with Harpo being represented through honks of his horn and other trademark sound effects.
[8] Nat Perrin and Arthur Sheekman, who had contributed to the scripts of the Marx Brothers' films Monkey Business (1931) and Horse Feathers (1932), were enlisted to write the comedy show.
Mary McCoy played secretary Miss Dimple, and it is thought that Broderick Crawford also appeared as various characters.
[15] Harpo Marx was paid as a cast member, although the physical, silent nature of his comedy meant that it was impossible to give him an on-air role without forcing him to break character.
[18] The 23rd episode also reused scenes from Animal Crackers, including the stolen diamond plot and Groucho's lines regarding the need for a seven-cent nickel.
Perrin explained, "[Groucho] was in the men's room during a break, and he was complaining to the guy standing next to him, 'Geez, I wish we could find another writer or two to make life easier.'
NBC did not have a studio on the West Coast, so for the next thirteen weeks, between January 16 and April 24, 1933, the show was transmitted from a borrowed empty soundstage at RKO Radio Pictures.
In September 1932, only 40% of radio owners were listening to the radio at 7:00 p.m., whereas 60% listened at 9:00 p.m.[47] The 1932–1933 season's top-rated shows, The Chase and Sanborn Hour, Jack Pearl's Baron Münchhausen, and Fire Chief all aired after 9:00 p.m.[47] Standard Oil decided it could not compete with Texaco in the ratings and Five-Star Theater was not renewed for a second season.
"[48] In his 1976 book, The Secret Word Is Groucho, he writes, "Company sales, as a result of our show, had risen precipitously.
"[49] Although the successful Marx films Monkey Business and Horse Feathers contained plots involving adultery,[20] Variety did not appreciate them in the radio show: That's fine stuff for children!
Chances are that if the Marxes proceed with their law office continuity along lines like this they will never be able to hold a kid listener.
[7]Groucho's 13-year-old son Arthur found the show "extremely funny", albeit conceding that he may have been "a very easy audience".
In 1988, Steve Allen said, "when judged in relation to other radio comedy scripts of the early 30s, they hold up very well indeed and are, in fact, superior to the material that was produced for the Eddie Cantor, Rudy Vallee, Joe Penner school.
Michael Roberts and Frank Lazarus performed the lead roles of Flywheel and Ravelli, wearing make-up and clothing similar to Groucho and Chico.
The regular cast also included Lorelei King in all the female roles and Graham Hoadly as many of the other male characters, and featured Spike Milligan and Dick Vosburgh as guest stars.
[64] The scripts for the BBC series were adapted for a modern British audience by Mark Brisenden and were produced and directed by Dirk Maggs.
BBC Radio Light Entertainment tended to have the effects operator hidden away behind curtains so they wouldn't distract the audience!
Michael Roberts who played Groucho came out with such good ad libs that I was always happy to cut scripted gags to keep them.
One great one was when he and Frank as Flywheel and Ravelli find themselves in a pigsty – the rest of the cast pushed in to make pig voices – and Mike ad libbed, "Imagine – two nice Jewish boys surrounded by ham" – it brought the house down.Six episodes were performed and recorded at the Paris Theatre and aired weekly between June 2 and July 7, 1990.
