YOU BET YOUR LIFE, GROUCHO MARX 1950'S QUIZ SHOW



You Bet Your Life is an American quiz show that aired on both radio and 
television. The original and best-known version was hosted by Groucho Marx of 
the Marx Brothers, with announcer and assistant George Fenneman. The play of 
the game, however, was secondary to the interplay between Groucho, the 
contestants, and occasionally Fenneman. 

Contestant teams usually consisted of one male and one female, most selected 
from the studio audience. Occasionally, famous or otherwise interesting figures 
were invited to play. 

After his signature introduction of "Here he is: the one, the only..." by Fenneman 
and finished by a thunderous "GROUCHO!" from the audience, Marx would be 
introduced to the music of "Hooray for Captain Spaulding", his signature song. 
After which, Groucho would be introduced to the contestants and engage in 
humorous conversation for a lengthy period of time where Groucho both 
improvised his responses and employed prepared lines written by the show's 
writers using preshow interviews.

Some show tension revolved around whether a contestant would say the 
"secret word", a common word revealed to the audience at the show's outset. 
If a contestant said the word, a toy duck resembling Groucho with a mustache 
and eyeglasses, and with a cigar in its bill, descended from the ceiling to bring a 
$100 bill. A cartoon of a duck with a cigar was also used in the opening title 
sequence. In one episode, Groucho's brother Harpo came down instead of the 
duck, and in another a model came down in a birdcage with the money. Marx 
sometimes slyly directed conversation to encourage the secret word to come up. 
The duck was also occasionally replaced with a wooden Indian figure

Show list coming soon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - www.en.wikipedia.org