Four Quarters Volume 208 Number 1 Four Quarters (Second Series): Spring Article 1 1994 Vol. 8, No. 1 4-1994 Four Quarters (Second Series): Spring 1994 Vol. 8, No. 1 Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/fourquarters Recommended Citation (1994) "Four Quarters (Second Series): Spring 1994 Vol. 8, No. 1," Four Quarters: Vol. 208 : No. 1 , Article 1. Available at: http://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/fourquarters/vol208/iss1/1 This Complete Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the University Publications at La Salle University Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Four Quarters by an authorized editor of La Salle University Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Quarter^ VOL. 8, NO. 1 Second Series SPRING, 1994 Four Dollars Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation http://www.archive.org/details/fourquarters811994unse 1 c Di€ioioi rbor'» Quartet^ VOLUME 8, NUMBER 1, SECOND SERIES SPRING, 1994 Table of Contents QUARTER NOTES John P. Rossi, A Night in Philadelphia 3 John Keenan, The Seastone Mystery 8 Carl Kern, Get a Dog (Lines composed for a lady who lives alone and gardens) 9 POEMS John Wheatcroft, "The Relique" 10 T". Alan Broughton, "Parable" 1 T. Alan Broughton, "Dolorosa" 12 Martin Galvin, "Prevision, "Mating Owls," "Freshman Year," 20 Peter Desy, "Anxiety" 34 Peter Desy, "Even Then" 36 David Curtis, "Had 'Starry' Vere a Star?" 37 David Curtis, "Marianne Moore Because" 38 Kathryn Hall, "Before Bed" 47 Errol Miller, "A Treasury of Modern Thought" 48 Carol Carpenter, "Epistemology" 50 Clifford Fetters, "Power and Weakness" 57 Barbara Daniels, 'The Fortune Teller" 58 FICTION Amanda Finley, My Cat, His Dog 23 Madelene Carr, The Center of the Earth 39 Gerard Furey, Wilderness Woman 51 Delsa Winer, Ms. Perfect & Mr. Flawed 59 ESSAYS Kevin J. Harry, The Failures of Jonathan Demme's Philadelphia 13 CONTRIBUTORS 63 COVER Benton Spruance (1904-1967), "Changing City" (1934). Lithograph. Reproduced courtesy of La Salle Art Museum. Editor. JOHN J. KEENAN Associate Editor: JOHN P. ROSSI Editorial Assistant: JOANNE CAWLEY Desktop Publishing Specialist: GERVASIO T. RAMIREZ Editorial Assistants: John S. Baky, Daniel Burke, FSC, James Butler, Joseph Cairo, Justin Cronin, Toni Culjak, John Duffy, Gabriel Fagan FSC, Robert T. Fallon, Craig Franz, FSC, David George, Richard Grande, Howard L. Hannum, John C. Kleis, Vincent Kling, Rita Mall, Emery Mollenhauer, FSC, Glenn Morocco, Fran Pelham, John J. Rooney, Frank Ryan, John J. Seydow, Richard Tiedeken, Judy Trachtenberg. FOUR QUARTERS (ISSN-00 15-9 107) is published semiannually in the Spring and Fall by thefaculty ofLa Salle University, 1900 W. Olney Ave.,Philadelphia, PA 19141. Four dollars per copy. Subscriptions: $8.00for one year; $13.00for two years. Copyright© 1994 La Salle University. Unsolicited manuscripts must be accom- panied by a SASE. Available in Microformfrom Xerox University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, MI 481 06. Indexed in American Humanities Index and Index ofAmerican Periodical Verse. Distributed by B. DeBoerlnc, Nutley, NJ. •ICIOIO Quarter Notes JOHN P. ROSSI Marx Brothers became famous for. The brothers began to develop some profes- sionalism—polish was never a word to describe them as A Night in Philadelphia — well as the charac- terizations that became their trade- In June 1923 an unheralded show marks. opened at the Walnut Theater in Phila- The story goes that they were play- delphia and played to capacity houses ing in Galesburg, Illinois, on the same for 14 weeks, despite the city's legen- bill with a monologist named Art dary summer heat and humidity. The Fisher. He gave them their monickers. play, if it can be dignified with that ti- The eldest brother, Leonard, became tle, was I'll Say She Is; the stars, the Chico (always rhymed with chick) be- Marx Brothers. cause he was such a ladies' man; Ar- Often considered a theatrical grave- thur was labeled Harpo for obvious yard, Philadelphia was the highly re- reasons; Julius, Groucho, because of ceptive site for the maturing of the his sour disposition and general pessi- Marx Brothers as a team. Despite ear- mism. The least important of the five lier vaudeville success they had failed brothers, Milton and Herbert were to make it to Broadway. I'll Say She Is called Gummo and Zeppo; the first be- changed all that. It not only made cause he always wore rubbers, then them Broadway stars but also began called gumshoes; the latter for reasons the rise to stardom that led to Holly- that are not clear. Groucho always ar- wood and ultimately to international gued that Zeppo was named after the fame as one of America's greatest com- zeppelins of World War I. The names edy teams. stuck because they were perfectly in The Marx Brothers had been a suc- character. cessful for over a decade before team "Fun in Hi Skule" completed the I'll Say She Is. They had been brought transformation of the Marx Brothers together by their formidable stage as a vaudeville act because it made mother, Minnie, who among other perfect use of the boys' talents. Chico, things the sister of Al Shean, the was dressed in an organ grinder's outfit, better half of the legendary vaudeville was the dumb wop who massacred the team, Gallagher and Shean. Minnie English language and beguiled the was determined that her boys would audience by deftly playing the piano in separated her brother's suc- not be and his own unique style: shooting the cess in show business showed her how keys. Harpo, originally the country to keep them together. Shean wrote an rube whose angelic face hid a devilish act for them that helped get them ability to outsmart everyone, became a vaudeville. launched in mute in what turned out to be a bril- Their first success was with an act liant comedic move. It injected an el- called "Fun in Hi Skule," a blend of the ment of pathos and a touch of the crude ethnic humor popular in those Chaplinesque in the act. Harpo and innocent days and the knock-down, Chico quickly became masters of their rough house anarchic comedy the — •ICIOIO Quarter Notes own form of kinetic comedy. No stage Chico: Round. was safe from total destruction at their Groucho: That's it! Now what inspired hands. Groucho, who started is the shape of the earth? as a boy soprano, was the comedy gen- Chico: Square on weekdays ius of the act, the glue that held them and round on Sundays. together. He had already developed the In another scene Groucho is at the acerbic personality, sharp tongue and blackboard lecturing his loutish stu- flair for the pointed ad lib that was to dents on the finer points of geography. earn him far greater and more lasting Pointing to Switzerland, he states: fame than his brothers. He was invari- "Here lie the Alps, and beyond the Alps ably the slightly disreputable authority lie more Alps. And the Lord alps those figure, the teacher, lawyer, doctor who who alp themselves." Before you get ill, was taken apart by Harpo and Chico. consider how some of what passes for Gummo and Zeppo were there because humor today appears after the pas- they were Marxes. Zeppo's good looks sage of only a few years. Just think made him an acceptable leading man. how corny the SNL of a few years ago In "Fun in Hi Skule" and later acts sounds now. Does anyone still laugh the Marx Brothers finally reached the at John Belushi as a bee? I doubt it. big time. They began to move out of Despite their vaudeville success the line circuits into the major second they were making close to $1000 a vaudeville houses, including the show week—the expenses of maintaining a Palace business Mecca, the in New large troupe plus hauling scenery from York. They played the Palace so often town to town limited the act's profit. in the early 1920s that they were Moreover, the boys became involved in known as the "Palace Theater Stock an ugly dispute with the Keith-Albee Company." of their routines devel- Most chain and this barred them from the oped at this time, for although the main vaudeville houses. It appeared boys were still in their late 20s and that the act might break up. The early 30s they were consummate enter- Brothers were also tired of touring and tainers. playing one night stands. They A couple of examples of their humor yearned for acceptance, Broadway at this time tells all. Groucho is play- fame, and the money that went with it. ing the teacher and is questioning That the team didn't break up is a tes- Chico, his rather limited student. tament to Minnie's tenacity to keep them together and the good luck to Groucho: What is the shape of latch onto a show that held out the dis- the earth? tant promise of Broadway. Chico: Don't know. In 1922 two shows called Gimme A Groucho: What's the shape of Thrill and Love For Sale flopped and my cuff links? left a legendary Broadway producer, Chico: (looking at his sleeve) Joseph M. Gaites, as "Mini- Square. known mum" Gaites because of his shoestring Groucho: No, my Sunday cuff operations, with a load of scenery, cos- links. — f)COO Quarter Notes tumes and no apparent way of recoup- "without the mosquitoes," the Marx ing his investment. He also had an ob- Brothers opened I'll Say She Is at the ligation to open a show in Philadelphia Walnut Theater. The title, by the way, in less than a month.