Resuming My Tradition of Seeing The Marx Brothers on New Year's Day

 

Today, I resumed my New Year's Day tradition of watching The Marx Brothers at the Brattle Theatre. The last time I did so was in 2018. Of course, later that year I would move to New York City and spend the next two New Year's Days there while bringing in 2021 in Atlanta. The closest I came to starting a new New Year's Day ritual was in 2020 when I bowling for two hours for $20 at Bowl 360 in the Ozone Park section of Queens. It wasn't such a bad way to spend New Year's Day, but the world in which we live would change so drastically in a matter of months. 

One of the things which I missed terribly about Boston/Cambridge was not being able to see The Marx Brothers in a movie theater. I felt the need to bring in the new year with a laugh and lots of them and be able to hear other people enjoy their humor as well. I wasn't sure if the opportunity to experience this joy would ever come my way again.

Nearly a decade ago, I wrote an article about this ritual in The American Spectator titled, "My Favorite Marxists." Unfortunately, as with most of my work with The American Spectator, this article has long since been scrubbed from their website. It's probably just as well. My worldview has changed considerably in the interim. At the time, I wrote the article Barack Obama had just won a second term and was not pleased with this development. While I'm no more fonder of Obama than I was nearly 10 years ago, I didn't think the Republican Party would be stupid enough to nominate Donald Trump. But as the kids say, "Here we are."

So it's probably just as well that I am unable to share that article with you. I can say that regardless of my ever evolving political perspective the Marx Brothers will always be funny. In a century from now, I can take comfort that children will still laugh at the sight of Harpo while adults will love the banter between Groucho and Chico (and sometimes Zeppo).

Alas some traditions must adapt and concessions to reality must be made. Up until this year, the Brattle had always shown four or five Marx Brothers films running from about noon until about 9 p.m. With the pandemic still very much with us, instead of a marathon the Brattle opted to show a double feature of Duck Soup and A Night at the Opera. Well, two Marx Brothers films are better than none and these two are among their very best. I've seen both of these films numerous times and never tire of them. For good measure, during the intermission we were treated to three Bugs Bunny cartoons. Still, I do hope the Brattle will be able to have a full fledged marathon come 2023.