Groucho Marx' glasses

I admit I was disappointed when I found that Groucho mustache was greasepaint, not hair. But I would like to know if he really needed glasses in his movie appearances–including in his first movie, The Cocoanuts.

He’s not wearing makeup in this radio appearance. He is wearing glasses to read the script.

https://goo.gl/images/cAo9tX

It’s easyh t see the distortion made by prescription lenses, when looking at a 3/4 angle of the person’s face. Look at the line of the edge of his face in this picture, his face behind the glass is not distorted – so these glasses are just unground window glass.

On the radio, he might have needed reading glasses to read the script, but the persona glasses he wore as part of his costume were not Rx.

It’s intgeresting that “Groucho Marx glasses” are always black plastic or horn rim, but in fact, he wore rimless glasses or wire framed in public appearances. Or occasionally, inconspicuous plastic freames. I can’t find a picture of the real Grouch wearing black-framed glasses.

It’s hard to tell from a still, but in that picture it looks like he doesn’t even have any glass at all in those frames.

EDIT: Actually, I take that back. There are some artifacts to the right (as we’re seeing it) of each of his eyes that look like they might be distorted images of a light source off to the left in the picture. If that’s the case, then it suggests that his frames do have glass in them, and that the glass is curved, just curved the same amount on the front and the back such that (except for extreme angles) there’s no focusing.

It’s hard to know for certain because even “candid” photos in those days were often posed, but the dividing line between Groucho never wearing glasses in photos (unless he was in character) and always wearing glasses seems to be right around 1930. That’s also about the time he grew a real-life mustache.

At least by '45, when he married Kay.

I see he’s at a Blue microphone.

Which led me to search for his first radio show, Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel, which led me to a blog post with this photo. I can’t read the caption, but Groucho is definitely wearing glasses and he and Chico appear to be younger than in other photos. Assuming the photo is actually connected to the show, that would put it at 1932-1933. Still cleanshaven, though.

Groucho’s son Arthur wrote that his father grew a mustache after coming out of a premiere of one of his pictures in the late 1940s. They recognized Bob Hope and Al Jolson (who had a comeback with the “Jolson Story” movie. Groucho always claimed to like the anonymity a clean face gave him but apparently this time it hurt.

Groucho wore glasses in real life, but it’s unlikely he had lenses in his 1930s films. The glass would reflect the set lighting as he moved. Note any close-ups: there is no reflection.

You can see some reflection from his frames, but not from the glass.

In his book “The Secret Word is Groucho,” Groucho commented that the producers wanted him to dress in the frock coat and greasepaint. (He had the real 'stache by now, as noted by Jim’s Son). Groucho said the old character was dead, and refused to do the show in any persona but his own. Not that that has anything to do with the glasses question, but certainly he wore “real” glasses on You Bet Your Life.