Swampy's Florida

Here’s Trilby celebrating Elvis Presley and Zuber looking on as Groucho Marx.

August 16th marked the death of Elvis Presley back in 1977. That week and weeks after saw front page stories and the vast amount of the population mourning his death. Along the way this week was marked ‘Elvis Week’. Oddly, the week is not the week of Elvis’ birth in January. Various events around the world happens this week. Including one I’ll post later today.

Three days later in 1977, comedian, Groucho Marx also died. His death was buried in back pages as Elvis stories continued to be posted on the front page. As more a Groucho fan than Elvis, I actually barely remember Elvis’ death. Groucho’s I recall vividly as it was also the birthday of my mother and I learned of the death right after the birthday celebration.

Elvis had far more Florida connections than Groucho. Elvis performed many coincerts, made 3 movies and vacationed in the state. In my research of Groucho over the decades, he almost never came to Florida, unlike his brother Harpo, who would vacation in Palm Beach.

Seems Groucho time in Florida was back in the late 19-teens and early ’20s when he and his brothers would perform one of their plays or try out material. All of this touring was in northern Florida and not south. This was before the “Boom” and the mass population of the southeast coast of the state. The bulk of the population was still north of Daytona beach. Harpo writes of their touring Florida in his book, ‘Harpo Speaks’. There he recounts, as most all performers have back then to now, the inundation of mosquitoes while trying to perform.
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#Groucho #GrouchoMarx #Elvis #ElvisPresley #ElvisWeek #Happy #Celebrate #Celebration #DailyCartoon #Florida  #DAily #CArtoon