Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel

Infobox Radio Show
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"Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel" was a short lived radio situation comedy aired for 26 weeks beginning in November 1932 on the NBC Blue radio network, and which starred two of the Marx Brothers, Groucho and Chico. Groucho played attorney "Waldorf T. Flywheel" and Chico played "Emmanuel Ravelli", a character lifted directly from the film "Animal Crackers" (1930). According to Stefan Kanfer in his biography "Groucho" (2000), Harpo was paid a weekly salary for "not" appearing on the show.

Part of an NBC series known as "Five-Star Theater", involving a different presentation each night of the week, the show actually garnered respectable ratings for its early evening time period, but -— according to Michael Barson, who edited a 1988 collection of the show's scripts -- sponsor Standard Oil, promoting Essolube motor oil and Esso gasoline, was unimpressed, comparing the higher ratings drawn in later time slots by other shows, such as Ed Wynn's "Texaco Star Theater". The sponsor and NBC executives convinced themselves "Flywheel" was a comparative flop.

The premise was about misadventures of a small time law firm starring the comedians' usual characters. The original series title was "Beagle, Shyster, Beagle", but were forced to change when an actual attorney named Beagle complained and, according to Barson, may have threatened a lawsuit.

The shows included material from both earlier and later Marx Brothers films. The show's writers usually included Nat Perrin, Arthur Sheekman, George Oppenheimer, and Tom McKnight.

Despite the fame of the stars, the show lived only one season, with scripts and recordings believed lost. However, a researcher discovered that all but one of the series' scripts were stored in the Library of Congress. The found copies were printed in a book and were later performed with Marx Brothers impersonators on BBC radio "(see below)". At least one complete original episode of "Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel" (the last episode) and a couple of partial episodes are known to exist, recorded on transcription disks while the program was being broadcast.

BBC Radio adaptation

During the early 1990s, adaptations of recovered scripts from the original Marx Brothers radio show were performed before modern audiences and broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

This experiment proved highly successful, and two further series followed. The lead roles were taken by professional soundalikes Michael Roberts (playing Groucho Marx, as Waldorf T Flywheel) and Frank Lazarus (playing Chico Marx, as Emmanuel Ravelli); the cast also included Lorelei King playing all the female roles, and the show attracted guest stars of the calibre of Spike Milligan and Dick Vosburgh.

Episode list

References

* Gerald Nachman: "Raised on Radio". New York: Pantheon Books, 1998
* Michael Barson, editor: "Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel: The Marx Brothers' Lost Radio Show"

External links

* BBC adaptation director's website details for [http://www.dirkmaggs.dswilliams.co.uk/Flywheel%20series%201%20dirk%20maggs.htm series 1] , [http://www.dirkmaggs.dswilliams.co.uk/Flywheel%20series%202%20dirk%20maggs.htm series 2] and [http://www.dirkmaggs.dswilliams.co.uk/Flywheel%20series%203%20dirk%20maggs.htm series 3] .
* [http://www.britishcomedy.org.uk/comedy/flywheel.htm britishcomedy.org.uk details]
* [http://www.archive.org/details/otr_flywheelshysterflywheel Internet Archive: BBC Radio performance recordings]