Happy Birthday, Melinda Marx (Groucho’s Groovy Daughter)

Born this day in 1946, Melinda Marx.

Groucho’s youngest child was briefly the most public of her generation of Marxes, by virtue of the fact that she was a performer who appeared in films and television and even released some records. Melinda was the product of Groucho’s marriage to his second wife Kay Gorcey. This was the era when TV audiences were crazy about families, and everyone on television was trotting out their talented and untalented children into the nerve-wracking glare of the spotlights. Some of these kids, like Ricky Nelson and Candice Bergen, became genuine and well-deserved stars in their own right. Fortunately for Groucho, in Melinda he had an ace of his own to play. His daughter could sing and tap dance and be funny. She was around 9 years old when Groucho began bringing her on You Bet Your Lifein 1955. In an early spot she very entertainingly performs the novelty song “Witch Doctor”. She held her own in routines against pros like Gene Nelson and Bobby Van. She appeared with her dad on Kraft Music Hall and in his famous version of The Mikado on The Belle Telephone Hour. She also had small roles in The Story of Mankind(1957) and Bye Bye Birdie (1963).

By 1965, the little bird was ready to leave the nest, i.e. attempt a performing career of her own without her dad. She recorded two pop singles for Vee Jay records, “The East Side of Town” and “What”, both of which sounded more than a little like Petula Clark’s “Downtown”. In support of the records, she did a respectable TV blitz, appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Hollywood Palace, Shivaree, and Hollywood-a-Go-Go. The 19-year-old is totally attractive in these musical numbers (she had the good fortune to favor her mom) but still you can’t stop yourself from going “Wait! That’s Groucho’s daughter…” I can see that spoiling many a date for her. Would YOU want to pick her up from her dad’s house and endure his shellacking at the front door? Worse, can you picture kissing her and – even for a split second – imagine Groucho’s lazy fish eye staring back at you? (Full disclosure, I was once in a serious relationship for three years with a woman who looked like a cross between Minnie and Harpo, and who played a Chico-like character in one of my plays. I could even handle THAT — in fact, as a lifelong Marx freak, I was perversely drawn to it — but the idea of courting the daughter of Captain Spaulding makes me shake in my jodhpurs.)

And yet…

I’ve strayed too far, haven’t I? It has nothing to do with Melinda Marx, I’ve already told you she was talented and takes after her beautiful mother. But my ill-advised interior monologue might go a baby step toward explaining her lack of success as a pop singer. You shouldn’t look at a chick singer in go-go boots on Shivaree and have your first thought be of leering, winking Groucho Marx.

Anyway, whatever the reason, the singles did not chart. In 1967 Melinda appeared in Fernando Lamas’s exploitation film The Violent Ones alongside Aldo Ray,David Carradine, and Tommy Sands, playing a Latin girl named Juanita. An episode of The Dating Game that year, accompanied by Groucho, was her last national TV appearance. In 1972 she starred in a movie called No Deposit, No Return (quite a different one from the film of the same name released by Disney four years later). The film won awards in Europe, but wasn’t distributed in the U.S.

By this time there was a new “Daddy’s Little Girl” in Groucho’s life (Erin Fleming), and Melinda, though only about 27 years old, retired from the big time. Since then, she has chosen to focus on her music in a low-key way. Like her dad, she is gifted on guitar, though she also plays mandolin and bass. She has been involved with the Gloriana Opera Company of Mendocino County, California for many years.

Speaking of the Marx Brothers, I sure do hope you will check out my new book The Marx Brothers Miscellany: A Subjective Appreciation of the World’s Greatest Comedy Team (2024).