America After Dark "Marx Brothers Reunion" (lost episode of NBC late night talk show; 1957)

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Marx Brothers America After Dark Reunion.jpeg

One of several photos taken in Chico's dressing room during the reunion. From left: Harpo, Zeppo, Chico, Groucho and Gummo.

Status: Lost


America After Dark was a late-night live news/talk show that aired on American network NBC for only a few months across 1956-7, and is now mostly famous as a failed attempt to retool the original Tonight Show after the original hosts departed. [1] One AAD episode, however, gained notoriety on its own for unexpectedly hosting the reunion of all five Marx Brothers, by then comedy and film legends.[2] Unfortunately, like most early TV programs, America After Dark was not routinely recorded and the episode is considered almost surely lost.

Background

Tonight! America After Dark was concieved by network executives a late-night counterpart to the network's iconic morning staple, The Today Show. Current news stories and personalities were thus introduced to the Tonight Show format along with the celebrity guests and short comedy bits. This fairly drastic and - by all accounts - noticeably awkward retool was not at all popular with NBC affiliate stations and was already in serious trouble by the sixteenth episode, airing February 18, 1957, when word arrived that all five members of the Marx Brothers comedy troupe were not only in town but staging a mini-reunion.

The brothers (Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Zeppo and Gummo) had long since attained worldwide comedy superstardom via their films together, but by 1950 the troupe had largely disbanded and all five, now in their sixties, had embarked on solo projects. As it happened, on Feb 18th Chico Marx, the eldest, had to a prior commitment to The Fifth Season, a comedy play also premiering that night. [3]. In a show of brotherly support, Chico’s younger brothers Adolf (Harpo), Julius Henry (Groucho), Milton (Gummo) and Herbert Manfred (Zeppo), planned to attend the play.

Presented with this golden opportunity, AAD's producers wasted no time arranging for all five brothers to meet in Chico’s dressing room for some photographs - and hopefully, a great deal of the fast-paced, off-the-cuff banter they were all famous for in a segment that was scheduled to air around 11:15pm. Jack Lescouli, the AAD host at the time, oversaw the reunion, which was also commemorated in photographs. [4]

Preservation

To date, no copies of this presumed classic comedy goldmine have turned up. A routine method of recording directly from film, either professionally or by the viewers, did not exist at this point, but it is possible that kinetoscope recordings were taken, as was sometimes the case with live performances thought worthy of preservation. Unfortunately America After Dark was not considered a success, running through several hosts over its short lifespan in an effort to stay afloat - and recordings of its episodes would not have been valued highly in any case.

References