Groucho & Kermit sing: Lydia the Tattooed Lady
My 5-year-old daughter enjoyed this performance by Groucho Marx, so I’m posting several versions here. The song? Lydia The Tattooed Lady, from the Marx Brothers movie At The Circus.
According to Wikipedia, among the items, persons, and scenes tattooed on Lydia’s body are the Battle of Waterloo (on her back), The Wreck of the Hesperus (beside it), the red, white and blue (above them); the cities of Kankakee and “Paree“, Washington Crossing the Delaware, President Andrew Jackson, Niagara Falls, Alcatraz, Buffalo Bill, Captain Spaulding exploring the Amazon, Lady Godiva (with her pajamas on), Grover Whalen, the Trylon, Treasure Island, Nijinsky, a fleet of ships (on her hips), and Lydia’s own Social Security number.
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Here’s another version of Groucho singing the same song on the Dick Cavett show much later in life.
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This next version is adorable – it’s Kermit the Frog singing Lydia on The Muppet Show. My daughter loves the ending, when Miss Piggy says, “Have you met my left fist? Hi-ya!”
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The two old hecklers in the balcony at the end of this clip are Statler and Waldorf. I always found them hilarious. Even more so when I grew up and learned that they were named after hotels: the Statler Hilton and my beloved Waldorf-Astoria!
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I presume you already knew this, but Waldorf’s wife is named Astoria. Statler’s wife’s name is a mystery.
Thanks Nickelking. No, I didn’t know that Waldorf’s wife was named Astoria. I did know that the original New York Statler hotel is currently named the Hotel Pennsylvania, and its telephone number is Pennsylvania 6-5000. This telephone number was the inspiration for Glenn Miller’s big band song with the same name!
That I did not know. We’re throwing trivia all over the place!
