‘American Masters: Groucho & Cavett‘ Explores Special Relationship Between Comedy Greats
deadline.comDick Cavett can still picture the exact moment and location in New York City when he first met the man who would become one of his most cherished pals.
It was 1961 and Cavett, then a 25-year-old writer for Jack Parr on The Tonight Show, met the legendary Groucho Marx after they both attended the funeral for playwright George S.
Kaufman. “He was walking east up 81st Street toward Fifth Avenue flanked by Art Carney on one side and Abe Burrows on the other,” recalls Cavett to Deadline. “And then when they left him, I moved to the corner of Fifth and 81st.
And in one of my great inspired uses of the English language, I said the terribly witty ‘I’m a big fan of yours, Groucho.’ And he said, ‘well, if it’s gets any hotter, I could use a big fan.'” After exchanging a few pleasantries, Marx, then 70, invited Cavett to lunch at The Plaza Hotel. “There I was, a dream I never even dared to have, sitting in a booth in the Oak Room with Groucho Marks.” That was a start of a relationship that would span the final years of Marx’s life, and ultimately inspire the making of American Masters: Groucho & Cavett, debuting today on PBS.
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