Dick Cavett can still picture the exact moment and place in New York City when he first met the man who would become one of his dearest friends. It was 1961 and Cavett, then 25, was writing for Jack Parr The Tonight Showmet the legendary Groucho Marx after they both attended the funeral of playwright George S. Kaufman.
“He walked east up 81st Street to Fifth Avenue, flanked by Art Carney on one side and Abe Burrows on the other,” Cavett recalls to Deadline. “And then when they left him, I moved to the corner of Fifth and 81st Streets. And in one of my great inspired uses of the English language, I said the terribly funny “I’m a big fan of yours, Groucho”. And he said, ‘Well, if it gets any hotter, I could use a big fan.'”
After exchanging a few pleasantries, the then 70-year-old Marx invited Cavett to lunch at the Plaza Hotel. “There I was, a dream I didn’t even dare have, sitting in an alcove in the oak room with Groucho Marks.”
This was the beginning of a relationship that would last through the last years of Marx’s life and ultimately inspire the creation of AAmerican Masters: Groucho & Cavett, debuting today on PBS. Marx — the writer/comedian best known for directing 13 cult films with his brothers between 1929 and 1950 — became both a mentor and confidante to Cavett, a former comedy writer and stand-up host who began to host his eponymous late night show for ABC in 1968.
The special features show footage from Marx’s countless visits The Dick Cavett Showwhich ran until 1974. Cavett hosted an interview series for PBS from 1977 to 1982 and later for programs on CBS, USA and CNBC.
“The only person who was on the air more often than Groucho was someone named Muhammad Ali,” Cavett recalled of Marx’s talk show visits. “I don’t think he ever came to take anything. It was just a typical talk show gig where we talked about whatever we wanted to talk about.”
But their friendship stretched well beyond the late-night couch. The two often met for trips to the theater when Marx flew from California to NYC to visit Cavett. “When I knew him, he always lived in Beverly Hills. The only thing he didn’t like about it was that Richard Nixon moved about six houses down.”
Cavett cannot say exactly why he thinks Marx liked him so much. “I know he once mentioned that I went to Yale and that might have impressed him,” says Cavett, who now lives in Connecticut. “He also liked the fact that I had so many good writers and writers on the show. What he wanted most in life to be was a writer rather than an artist. He read many modern novels. For a man who only made it to eighth grade, he was wonderfully educated.”
Marx died in 1977 at the age of 86. “Of course it was wonderful for me to know that Groucho liked me. Whenever I’m in a bad mood, all I have to do is pull out a letter from his daughter Miriam, who wrote me after his death. It said, ‘PS my dad thought the world of you.’”
American Masters: Groucho & Cavett Premieres December 27 at 8 p.m. ET on PBS and the PBS Video app.