It did, however, produce at least one notable song: “Sailin’ Away on the Henry Clay.” It does appear that the show, once it moved from Grand Rapids to Benton Harbor, Mich. We don’t know what role Zeppo was playing - details on the plot, which local notices from the time describe as “a love story of a couple of street singers,” are hard to come by. Gummo had just left for the army, and Zeppo was added to the roster as a replacement, a permutation that, with few exceptions, would become the norm for the group going forward. But they were in something of a different arrangement than usual. The brothers, working with writer Jo Swerling (who went on to co-write “Gone with the Wind” and “It’s a Wonderful Life”), lyricist Gus Kahn and composer Egbert van Alstyne, were by then hugely successful on the road, having toured their show “Home Again” for nearly three years.
Groucho later wrote of the production that “Chico hired six dancers out of a five-and-dime store, and gave them each ten dollars. This meant that even a sold out house was sparse, which made it tough for the brothers to break even.Īdding to their problems was a subpar out-of-town ensemble. That audience, it bears mentioning, occupied every other seat in every other row due to health regulations.
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