“… that would accept me as member.”
I’ve heard that it’s been misattributed to him and that he made a paraphrase of something Freud once said.
I don’t know about the veracity of the club comment, but the Freud paraphrase thing is probably about another alleged Groucho Marx quote: “Sometimes a cigar is nothing but a cigar”.
Wikiquote attributes it to Groucho.
IIRC, he wrote it in “Memoirs of a Mangy Lover”.
According to the Columbia World of Quotations, he wrote it in a letter to the Hollywood Friar’s Club. You might trying tracking down the mentioned book by Arthur Sheekman if you’re truly curious.
I have never seen anything that indicated it was misattributed to Groucho.
I is one of his most famous quotes. I will be quite surprised if it turns out not to be his.
Jim
I finished that book last night, it isn’t in there. In “Groucho and Me,” he said he wrote it in a telegram to “a prominent theatrical organization” whose members didn’t do much of anything except cheat at cards. The chapter concludes “The following morning I sent the club a wire stating “Please accept my resignation. I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member.””
Books that attribute the Quote to Groucho, I have found none that do not.
20,000 Quips & Quotes: Twenty Thousand Quips and Quotes by Evan Esar
Page 147 - CLUB I don’t care to belong to a club that accepts people like me … members.
— Groucho Marx
The Voice of Reason: Fundamentals of Critical Thinking
by Burton Frederick Porter - Philosophy - 2001 - 384 pages
Page 7 - An example would be the well-known joke of Groucho Marx that “I don’t care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members. …
Public Goods: Theories and Evidence
by Raymond G Batina, Toshihiro Ihori - Business & Economics - 2005 - 421 pages
Page 325 - It stems from a statement once made in jest by Groucho Marx, “I don’t care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members. …
Jim
That’s probably the club in question. I don’t know if Groucho really wrote the letter, since he also tells the Warner Brothers letter story in “Groucho and Me.” The book’s an autobiography, but the emphasis is more on being funny than being truthful.
The “misattribution” comes from a line at the beginning of “Annie Hall.”
I think that Allen was linking it with Freud ironically for effect rather than saying it really came from there.
Since I can modestly say I own every book ever printed in English that is by or about the Marx Brothers, little tracking is necessary.
Sheekman’s introduction does quote this, unattributed and with no mention of the Friars Club, just a “Hollywood club.”
The story he tells in Groucho and Me is of a different club, and probably in New York rather than Hollywood. To expand on what Marley23 wrote, both for context and to give a flavor of Groucho’s style:
A Google search brings up no hits for a theatrical “Delaney Club,” which isn’t surprising since Groucho uses Delaney for his all-purpose pseudonym all through the book. It could be the New York Friars Club he’s referring to, although if so he later relented, because I’m pretty sure he became a member of the Hollywood branch of the club. And it’s never clear at any time that he ever resigned in reality, rather than merely sending a funny telegram, which was all the rage back in the 1920s.
Definitely a Grouchoism, though. Freud never said anything funny in his entire life. At least not deliberately.
Thanks all.
It’s interesting though that there are a few slight variations in collections of quotations, and knowing Groucho, he wouldn’t hesitate to steal a good one-liner, give it new plates and a paint job. I was curious if it really originated with Freud and it seems RealityChuck has put that to rest.
From my readings, he was a member of at least two notable clubs…the Hilcrest Country Club, along with all four of his brothers, and the Friars.
As the subject matter expert please clarify this for me. In my memory this quote was linked to a story about antisemitism. As I recall a WASPy club tried to get Groucho to join as its only jewish member and Groucho replied in his usual manner. Obviously that would leave out the Friar’s Club. Am I combining two different stories? I seem to remember this story being told by Dick Cavet somewhere.
Yes, you’re thinking of his response to not being allowed into a restricted country club pool that wouldn’t take Jews as members. “Well, my son is only half-Jewish. Can he go in up to his waist?” (The story sometimes has his daughter in the lead.)
The Warners Brothers letter about “A Night in Casablanca?” That letter is reprinted in his collected letters, so it is true.
What with my copy of *Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Sometimes Zeppo * being long since destroyed by too much reading on my part, I’m going on my very shaky memory, but I’m sure Joe Adamson related the story as taking place in Hollywood. The boys had moved out there to make Monkey Business and Groucho immediately tried to join some country club. His membership was refused, apparently due to his religious background. After Monkey Business became a hit and the Marx Brothers were big names, the same country club invited him to join, only to receive the famous reply.
I’m guessing, though, that the line may have actually occured, but the actual incident may have been forgotten, events switched around, etc. We will probably never know what really happened.
I’ve fixed the thread title, as it’s been getting on my nerves. 
Here’s an alleged Groucho cigar comment, from You Bet Your Life: “Lady, I love my cigar, but I take it out of my mouth once in a while!”
Alleged? Not according to Cecil.
I explained the situation poorly. He did write that letter, but I’m not sure he ever sent it to Warner Brothes. And if he did, it wasn’t in response to the threat of a suit - it was just a gag to increase publicity for the movie. Here’s the Snopes article about that.