I had heard that my third cousin once removed, Louis Menke, was on Groucho Marx's show You Bet Your Life several decades ago. That's all I had heard about it. Nothing about what it was about. I just figured it was a game show and that's as far as it went. Then someone posted on the West Point, Iowa Facebook page a newspaper article written around the time of the show. It is quite entertaining in that it was said that Louis Menke was never out-talked by anyone. Apparently, Groucho Marx heard about this and had to invite him onto the show.
In the end, even Groucho Marx said that Louis was quicker with a quip than he was himself. Louis talked for 45 minutes but was cut down to just a few minutes on the show. His partner in the game show was a woman who was a dog show judge. The opening of this segment mentions her. The rest of this clip is mostly Louis Menke and Groucho Marx, followed by the quiz segment with Louis and his partner answering questions. This clip is pretty fun. I'd bet Louis was a blast to hang out with.
Click here to listen to this portion of the show.
Here is the article talking about Louis' appearance on the show.
--Matt
It sounds like Louis was a fun relative. My eyes got big, though, when you said he was on the show "several years ago." It was on TV from 1955-1960! I barely remember it.
ReplyDeleteGood point. I changed the wording to "several decades". That's a much more accurate term.
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