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yellowbunnydreams · 11 months ago

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The Blood Runs Thicker (part 11) ~vampire!William Afton x F! Reader~

~On a roll so multi-upload for this story! Don't worry, bunny ears will get a multi-upload day to compensate. However there will be no uploads on Wednesday and Tuesday, post about that later. Also this is a very back and forth chapter, I'm so sorry for that!~

Tag-List; @ruh--roh-raggy @randymeeksisafinalgirl @sleepy---head @robin-the-enby @hungrhay @likoplays @slxsher-whxre @nicolezghostz @spiderlilytengu

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* Want more or something different? *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

CW:Minors DNI, (18+ ONLY), Female Reader, legal age gap (Reader- 20's, William - 50's), graphic acts of violence, biting, knife-play, blood, blood-drinking/licking, mention of dead children, anaemia. Mentions of torture. Drama. Possessive behaviour. The suit stays ON

The lights seemed too bright as you opened your eyes, groaning against them and looking around as you tried to orient yourself. Ears attuning to the sound of beeps and machines whirring, people walking and talking just outside of where they were fully clear. The white tiled ceiling staring back at you. Sitting up slowly, you winced, noticing an IV in your arm, attached to some form of fluids, quickly glancing at the bed told you that you were in some form of hospital bed. Heart pounding quickly and making the monitor besides you jump erratically, summoning a nurse who was passing by.

"You're awake, excellent! I-"

"What have you put me on?" You ask, glancing at the bag, the nurse smiling as she realised that you were probably a little confused.

"Saline and iron, now you-"

"Any medications? I can't be taking any medications." You said, making the nurse sigh slightly, her smile remaining in place however as she shook her head slightly.

"You were dehydrated and anaemic, so only fluids and iron. I'm surprised you came around so quickly honestly!" She giggled like it was meant to be some joke, but you just stared at her. Making her shift uncomfortably after a moment as you upheld it. Maybe your time with William had changed you more than you cared to admit.

"Now, I'm going to grab the doctor and some forms, as we need to have them filled out now you're awake. Your insurance should cover all this for sure!" The nurse smiled, your eyes watching her as she scooted out of the room. As soon as she was out of sight, you reached behind the monitors and pulled out some wires that looked important, the machine switching off and stopping the infernal beeping, pulling the attachment from your finger and hissing as you pulled the IV from the crook of your elbow. Folding your arm up to put pressure on it and reduce the bleeding.

You weren't going to stick around, you had to figure out where you were. Where Michael and Elizabeth had gone. Where William was. Your eyes welled up as you recalled how feral he'd looked with the bridle on, forcing him to compliancy, and you made a promise to yourself that you would rescue him from whatever hell he'd been placed into next.

Looking around, you eventually found a tiny locker next to the bed, wrangling it open and finding your clothes, you got dressed quickly, discarding the paper thin hospital gown and feeling more comfortable in your own clothes. Sticking your fingers in your pockets, you frowned as you felt some paper in there, pulling it out and unravelling two fifty-dollar bills and a note, reading the elegant looping handwriting carefully.

'I'm sorry you might not know where you are. I dropped you off far away so you could give yourself a new life, and some money for your troubles. -Elizabeth Afton'

Pulse racing, you shoved one of the bills and the note into your pocket, glancing out of the door to the room before padding quietly down the hall. Realising that you needed some things if you were going to go and find Afton. Nobody questioned you, or where you had come from, but you headed straight for the hospital shop. Picking up a pair of cheap, thin shoes, some socks, a soda and a sandwich, paying for them quickly before you put the shoes and socks on.

Now to figure out where you were.

Michael swung his foot forwards and felt his face splitting into a grin as William doubled over, yell muffled as he doubled over in pain. Unable to stand or use his arms to block it as he was bound. And the bloody baseball bat in the corner, splinters missing from it with the force which it had hit him, was another good reason.

His son had been taking sick pleasure over the past few days with torturing him, unable to feed, unable to heal and unable to talk or bite back. Years of vexations and pain was being poured back into him, and William had begun to believe he almost deserved it. Mike grabbed his head and made him upright again, greenish grey eyes staring at him with pure hatred behind them as he smirked. The same cruel look he'd seen so many times on his son's face when he bullied Evan to tears.

"You're not so big anymore are you? God I remember how you used to fucking belt me for making Evan cry." Mike laughed bitterly, receiving a glare from William, he hated being unable to bite back at his brat of a son. To retort and make himself big again, William Afton was not the kind of man who did well with feeling small.

"But then...you come home, changed. You start wearing sunglasses more, refusing to eat dinner with us. I thought; 'perhaps he's getting so blackout, his liver might go'." Mike continued, picking up a switch-blade from the floor and raking it down William's skin, listening to the muffled hisses, the air rushing through his nose as he desperately tried to hold onto air. "And then...I happen to be there when you come home. You looked so pissed. Desperate even."

Placing the point against William's shoulder and driving it in, he watched his father squirm and shout against the plate that meant he couldn't speak. The same plate that he'd used on him more than once to 'teach him a lesson'.

"Do you even remember what I tasted like? When you almost tore me apart? How long did you wait after you snapped my neck?" He asked, driving the tip in further as William screamed, Mike's face contorting into a scowl as it didn't reach deep enough for his liking, leaving the blade in his shoulder and examining his bloody hands.

"Did you realise that Evan and Lizzie were home?"

Chuckling, he smacked the hilt of the blade, making William wince and try to pant as it scraped against bone in his shoulder before Mike pulled it free, flicking the worst of the blood off to one side. Head tilting to one side slightly as he laughed, a bitter sound as he examined the line-up of tools he had against the wall, deciding which one was next to test out.

"I guess I can thank you for one thing, father. You always hated me, because I was cruel like you. And now...now you're the one who can't stop me." He sneered as he picked up a crowbar, feeling the heavy weight in his hand before he swung it violent at William's head.

You'd managed to figure out where you were once you made it outside the hospital. Moving quickly as you heard a tannoy system activating inside and garbled words that you assumed meant 'missing patient' seemed to send everybody inside into a frenzy. Scarfing down your food as you walked, you headed straight for a bus-stop. Looking through the list of destinations with a frown, finishing off the last bites as a bus pulled into the stop. Moving out of the way to allow people off and on, you studied the route map intensely.

"Where are you headed love? Maybe I can help?" The driver asked, making you jump slightly as you looked at him, barely glancing back to the route before making your mind up. Elizabeth might have taken you some way, but you were running on determination.

"Hurricane. I was visiting a friend and caught a lift up, but now I need to make my way back." Not technically a lie, but the driver nodded as he hummed for a moment, pulling out a map book and running his chubby fingers over the pages before he turned back to you.

"You want the four-twenty-seven bus. It'll take you one city over and from there, you'll have to ask again." He offered and you smiled, nodding your thanks as you took a seat at the stop. The digital clock on the wall ticking by all too slowly as the bus departed, counting down precious minutes.

You somehow knew that you had to make it to Freddy's. William had an unhealthy obsession with the place, and something in your gut made you think of the ghost children, how they seemed afraid of Afton. The thought made your stomach sink into your chest, not wanting the sickening revelation that popped into your head to be true.

A cold burst of air next to your arm caught your attention, and you glanced down at where it had touched. Frowning as you saw nothing there and turning your attention back to the clock.

'Do you...really want to save him?'

The tiny voice was almost impossible to hear, but you recognised it deep in the back of your mind. You offered your hand silently to the open space and felt the cold touching it after a few moments. Mulling over your words.

"It's complicated." You answered, looking roughly where you would expect a child to be sat before returning your gaze to straight ahead. Wondering how the ghost had managed to follow you to a town three hours away from the restaurant. But it sounded weak, like it was trying to talk through a string-phone across a campsite.

'Didn't...he..hurt..you?'

"Yes... But I just...I'm used to him now. It feels strange to go without him. There are moments when he's almost human again." Explaining to air, you felt the cold moving up your arm and moving your hair slightly, the faintest touch as you kept your eyes focused on the floor before the sensation disappeared, releasing you from it's spell and making your heart pound as you wondered what was going on to force the spirits out to find you.

"Mike, he's not going to get his punishment if you beat him to a pulp before we go through with it." Elizabeth tutted, looking at the bloody floor and the distinctly slightly mis-shapen body of her father. Mike was coated too, dropping the crow-bar from his grip and watching William's fingers twitch as his nerves continued to fire, trying to repair himself even now. Sighing, he wiped his face with his forearm, taking off some of the sweat before he turned to his baby sister.

Elizabeth's face was starting to become lined with age, her hair tied back into a pony-tail and secured with a red ribbon that made Mike smile slightly. The same way she had loved to wear it as a kid, some things would never change.

"Sorry Lizzie, I just..."

"I know Mike...But you've got to remember what we're doing this for." He nodded as Elizabeth reached out her hand cautiously and held his in hers. Looking at her father as he twitched and groaned, despite the fact that any human who had sustained that much damage would certainly be dead. It was hard for her to keep reminding herself that he wasn't human. The proof was in the fact he looked the same as he did almost forty years ago, let alone the blood spilt in his name and by his hands.

He lost the right to be human when he'd almost killed Charlie Emily.

If it hadn't been for the stranger walking past, Charlie would never have been found in that back alley, body wrapped under the security puppet that Henry Emily designed. She was alive, barely. And Elizabeth had always made sure once she was grown that there was a mysterious benefactor for the Emily family, alongside Mike. They felt responsible for the fact that Charlie was wheelchair bound, that her father never got the solace to know that her attacker was brought to justice.

It always turned Elizabeth Afton's stomach that nobody knew it was her father who had done such a thing.

But it was all going to end. The remaining Afton siblings were going to end their father's reign of terror, and perhaps bring peace to whatever afterlife there may be that he was rotting in hell. They had spent years tracking him down, biding their time.

They knew he would revert to his true nature eventually.

"Go get the suit please Mike. I'm sure dad's well acquainted with what the insides look like, he'll be staring at them for a long time to come." she breathed, and Mike nodded, giving her hand a gentle squeeze before he wandered off into the restaurant, looking for the final piece of the trap that had been set.

The closer you got the Hurricane, you felt the cold air around you increasing. You treated it like a person, your hand often dangling open at your side as you walked between buses and stations, feeling the cold air engulfing your hand as if the small child had taken a hold of your hand, holding you close in case they got lost.

It was dark by the time you made it into Hurricane, and you had the bus drop you off near to William's house. Still having to walk a way down the side of the road as you approached the house, seeing the lights all turned off and leaving it looking dark and ominous.

His car was still in the drive, and you felt grateful that you'd had some experience driving it. Heading inside, you were somewhat surprised that the door was unlocked, but you headed inside and found some old cardboard boxes. Looking around as you tried to figure out what in his life was important.

Time was running out.

'Do you need help?'

You'd almost forgotten about your silent friend, and you nodded. The cold moving up your arm and making you sharply inhale, spluttering as your lungs burnt with cold for a moment before it felt like one side of your body was filled with pins and needles. Blinking rapidly as your arm raised up by itself and your hand moved, clenching and unclenching as if testing out the movement.

'Sorry if this feels strange'

"You're alright. Thank you for helping." You said softly, allowing yourself to walk around and be poked into the right directions by the ghost sharing your body. It was a strange sensation, like your body had fallen asleep on one side and even though you were aware you were moving, you weren't doing it fully consciously. But whoever was sharing your body seemed to know William well, picking out what they deemed to be the most important and placing them into the box sort of haphazardly for your more 'awake' side to sort out and pack neatly.

"Are you...An Afton?" You asked, the side of your body being controlled pausing for a moment, the cold washing over you as you felt the question forming in your mind.

'Evan'

"Mike's your brother? That means William's your dad, right?" The little voice fell silent again as it slowly controlled your hand again, picking up things and placing them with a little more care into the boxes you dragged around the house.

'I know how you feel...Mike hurt me and..I still love him.'

"Mike hurt you?" the surprise evident in your voice as you almost felt a mental nod, Evan's hand nervously picking at itself through you and you watched it with some sadness. Like he was too nervous to talk about it, but finally summing up the courage.

'He didn't know what happened to him. He came in, and he was scarier than usual. He grabbed Lizzie first, and she didn't make any noise... it was strange. And then he grabbed me...it went all warm and fuzzy, even though I was cold.'

Mike's ability had been used on his siblings. You felt a pang in your chest as you felt some relief that at least it hadn't been painful for Evan, you knew all too well how easy it was to slip under when Mike bit you.

"Then how come you can move Fredbear?" You asked, curiosity piqued as you watched Evan putting some books into the boxes as well as boxes filled with blue-prints and metal pieces.

'Mike panicked. He put me in Fredbear, made it look like an accident so nobody would ask too many questions.'

"That's horrible!"

'I still love him...does that make me a bad person, miss?' You paused as he asked the question, wondering what he meant before the tiny voice continued 'My mom used to say that only bad people love people who've done bad things.'

"You're not a bad person Evan, you love your brother. He's...He's got issues, and I don't blame him for that. He hurt me too. Do you think I'm a bad person?" You asked, feeling the mental head-shake from the ghost as you shrugged, admittedly one sidedly. "Then how can you be a bad person."

Evan remained silent this time, moving slowly to help point out important items, and giving you full control back of your body as you loaded up the car with the boxes. Grabbing William's keys and locking up the house, you hoped that it would still be there, waiting for him to come back when you'd done. Adjusting the seat and mirrors, catching a brief glance of something blurry in the reflective surface as you adjusted them, but you started the car, carefully driving it towards Freddy's.

Pulling up behind the building, you didn't notice any other cars nearby but you made sure to park in the most out of the way spot you could find. The cold air that was Evan's ghost had disappeared the closer you got to the place, and you felt your heart pounding a nervous tattoo under your skin as you faced the building for only the third time in your life.

As you went to open the door, you almost screamed as the face of a plush purple rabbit pressed against the glass, waving slowly, making you wave back before it pushed open the door with stiff movements. You guess Evan had gone inside and told the others to play nicely, though you weren't entirely sure about it.

'Is she really coming to save him?'

'She likes him. Don't you remember having crushes and you wanted to do anything for them?' Evan's tiny ghostly voice would have made you blush and smile if you weren't hyper aware of any movement potentially alerting the Afton siblings of your presence.

Heading further into the dark, you trod carefully. Something acidic hitting your nose and making you pause as you felt your shoe press into something wet on the carpet. Breathing deeply before you paused.

Gasoline. They were going to burn down the pizzeria.

Moving quickly, you heard the heavy thumps of animatronics moving about before a movement caught your eye and you ducked behind a pillar on the wall. Seeing the handsome, angular features of Michael Afton in the low light, he looked around almost casually. You realised that the strong smell of gasoline offered you some protection from his senses, but you weren't willing to push it. Shuddering as he wiped blood from his hands against his t-shirt that he's changed into, sniffing and scrunching his nose in distaste as the scent in the place. Rolling his shoulders before he began to walk off into the dark again, allowing you to slip down the corridor that he'd come from.

Your feet were quiet against the tiled floor, listening and quietly testing each door you came to. Opening the door where you had hidden with William, seeing Fredbear's suit in the corner, blank eyes staring into your soul as you slipped inside. Carefully, you picked up the head, cradling it carefully before you listened for the sound of the heavy animatronic feet passing by.

Opening the door, you saw Foxy glaring at you, hook raised slightly as if he was about to swing before seeing you carry the golden Freddy head in your arms.

"I-I don't know if you can understand me, but you need to escape. They're going to burn the building. Can you take Evan and this key," whispering as you fumbled with they key set, taking off the Afton house key and gently placing it on his hook before holding out the head tenderly. "and let his show you where to go? You'll be safe there. I promise to come back for you."

The animatronic whirred and clicked, metallic parts struggling to move for a moment before Foxy's jaw opened and snapped shut, making his head wobble back and forth in a pseudo-nod. His hand taking the underside of the suit head before he turned slowly, stomping back down the hall, hopefully to retrieve the others and escape.

You began to move again, hoping that you would be able to find your way out of the restaurant in time as you tried the last door on the corridor. Gasping as the smell of iron hit you in the face, eyes adjusting to the dim lighting before you spotted what you had come for. Shoulders slumping as you cautiously approached.

The once yellow rabbit was slumped against the wall, and you could see blood soaking the fur. Pooling beneath it and spreading across the tile like black ichor in the low light. Falling to your knees, you stared at what to all intents and purposes looked like a corpse. Something in the way that he was slumped over told you that the mechanisms inside that you had set off when you first met William had popped and contributed to the bleeding. You wondered if his head had been damaged. Truly trapped inside a prison of his own making.

Tears welled up in your eyes, staring at him helplessly before you crawled through the gore and laid your head against his shoulder, arms around the thick middle and letting yourself cry for a moment. You weren't sure what you were mourning, but they flowed freely, and the hot salt rolling down your cheeks felt like it released a tension you didn't know you'd been carrying. Quietly sobbing and making the suit wetter than it already was.

You almost missed the tiny, rattling breath from inside.

Hearing it, you paused, trying to contain your hiccupping breaths as you listened for it again. Seeing the fingers on his gloved left hand twitching almost imperceptibly. Hope swept through you like a crashing wave, and you struggled to your feet, hooking your arms under his and grunting as the dead weight pressed against your much smaller body.

"William...if you can hear me... I've got you." You whispered close to the suit, watching the mechanical ear twitch slightly as you spoke. Grunting as you pulled him along the tiles, trying to not slip over in his blood as you managed to shoulder open the door. Eyes widening as you saw flames licking at the end of the hallway, black smoke curling up to the ceiling and crawling along it.

You had to escape.

Looking at the grimy walls, you spotted a fire-plan, scanning it briefly before you began to drag William with you down a different turning. Sweating as the heat in the building increased and from the heavy work, William was not a light man at the best of times, and now the added weight of the suit wasn't helping your cause. Panting as you managed to pull him towards the door, coughing as the smoke began to cling to everything, burning your eyes as you fumbled with the fire-door. The bar refusing to give out before you slammed your whole weight against it, hissing in pain as it felt like something in your shoulder popped trying to get it to move.

Grabbing the yellow suit again, you felt out of breath moving him into the cool night air, feeling the suit shudder at the change in temperature.

In the light of the flames, you could faintly make out two figures stood in front, holding onto each other as they watched the building go up in flames. The Afton siblings. You felt some sadness for them, that it had come to this to get over everything that had happened in their life. Turning towards the woods out back, you saw the faintly glowing eyes of five animatronics peering at the flames, watching at least one pair slide over to you before they turned and began to walk through the brush. You hoped that they made it to the house okay. They were children after all.

Opening the car door, it took a while of effort to haul William into the back seat, hearing a quiet rasping breath as you winced, the suit barely moving as you guessed animatronic parts held him still. Placing him as comfortably as you could manage before climbing into the driver's seat, bloody and tired as you managed to start the car and slip out onto the highway, not sure if Elizabeth and Michael noticed you, but you were too focused on driving.

You weren't sure where you would go. But you needed somewhere safe for the night where you could assess the damage.

You needed somewhere where you could make sure William was alive.

#steve raglan #william afton #william afton x reader #springtrap #steve raglan x reader #fnaf movie #springtrap x reader #william afton x you #william afton smut #fnaf x reader #vampire william afton

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the-marx-brothers-will-live-on · 4 years ago

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Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, stage, film, radio, and television star. A master of quick wit, he is generally considered to be one of America's greatest comedians.

Julius Henry Marx was born on October 2, 1890, in Manhattan, New York. Marx stated that he was born in a room above a butcher's shop on East 78th Street, "Between Lexington & 3rd", as he told Dick Cavett in a 1969 television interview. The Marx children grew up in a turn-of-the-century building on East 93rd Street off Lexington Avenue in a neighborhood now known as Carnegie Hill on the Upper East Side of the borough of Manhattan. His brother Harpo, in his memoir Harpo Speaks, called the building "the first real home they ever knew". It was populated with European immigrants, mostly artisans. Just across the street were the oldest brownstones in the area, owned by people such as the well-connected Loew Brothers and William Orth. The Marx family lived there "for about 14 years," Groucho also told Cavett.

Marx's family was Jewish.[7] His mother was Miene "Minnie" Schoenberg, whose family came from Dornum in northern Germany when she was 16 years old. His father was Simon "Sam" Marx, who changed his name from Marrix, and was called "Frenchie" by his sons throughout his life, because he and his family came from Alsace in France.[8] Minnie's brother was Al Schoenberg, who shortened his name to Al Shean when he went into show business as half of Gallagher and Shean, a noted vaudeville act of the early 20th century. According to Marx, when Shean visited, he would throw the local waifs a few coins so that when he knocked at the door he would be surrounded by adoring fans. Marx and his brothers respected his opinions and asked him on several occasions to write some material for them.

Minnie Marx did not have an entertainment industry career but had intense ambition for her sons to go on the stage like their uncle. While pushing her eldest son Leonard (Chico Marx) in piano lessons, she found that Julius had a pleasant soprano voice and the ability to remain on key. Julius's early career goal was to become a doctor, but the family's need for income forced him out of school at the age of twelve. By that time, young Julius had become a voracious reader, particularly fond of Horatio Alger. Marx would continue to overcome his lack of formal education by becoming well-read.

After a few stabs at entry-level office work and jobs suitable for adolescents, Julius took to the stage as a boy singer with the Gene Leroy Trio, debuting at the Ramona Theatre in Grand Rapids, MI, on July 16, 1905.[9] Marx reputedly claimed that he was "hopelessly average" as a vaudevillian, but this was typical Marx, wisecracking in his true form. By 1909, Minnie Marx had assembled her sons into an undistinguished vaudeville singing group billed as "The Four Nightingales". The brothers Julius, Milton (Gummo Marx) and Arthur (originally Adolph, but Harpo Marx from 1911) and another boy singer, Lou Levy, traveled the U.S. vaudeville circuits to little fanfare. After exhausting their prospects in the East, the family moved to La Grange, Illinois, to play the Midwest.

After a particularly dispiriting performance in Nacogdoches, Texas, Julius, Milton, and Arthur began cracking jokes onstage for their own amusement. Much to their surprise, the audience liked them better as comedians than as singers. They modified the then-popular Gus Edwards comedy skit "School Days" and renamed it "Fun In Hi Skule". The Marx Brothers would perform variations on this routine for the next seven years.

For a time in vaudeville, all the brothers performed using ethnic accents. Leonard, the oldest, developed the Italian accent he used as Chico Marx to convince some roving bullies that he was Italian, not Jewish. Arthur, the next oldest, donned a curly red wig and became "Patsy Brannigan", a stereotypical Irish character. His discomfort when speaking on stage led to his uncle Al Shean's suggestion that he stop speaking altogether and play the role in mime. Julius Marx's character from "Fun In Hi Skule" was an ethnic German, so Julius played him with a German accent. After the sinking of the RMS Lusitania in 1915, public anti-German sentiment was widespread, and Marx's German character was booed, so he quickly dropped the accent and developed the fast-talking wise-guy character that became his trademark.

The Marx Brothers became the biggest comedic stars of the Palace Theatre in New York, which billed itself as the "Valhalla of Vaudeville". Brother Chico's deal-making skills resulted in three hit plays on Broadway. No other comedy routine had ever so infected the Broadway circuit. All of this stage work predated their Hollywood career. By the time the Marxes made their first movie, they were already major stars with sharply honed skills; and by the time Groucho was relaunched to stardom on You Bet Your Life, he had been performing successfully for half a century.

Marx started his career in vaudeville in 1905 when he joined up with an act called The Leroy Trio. He was asked by a man named Robin Leroy to join the group as a singer, along with fellow vaudeville actor Johnny Morris. Through this act, Marx got his first taste of life as a vaudeville performer. In 1909, Marx and his brothers had become a group act, at first called The Three Nightingales and later The Four Nightingales. The brothers' mother, Minnie Marx, was the group's manager, putting them together and booking their shows. The group had a rocky start, performing in less than adequate venues and rarely, if ever, being paid for their performances. Eventually one of the brothers would leave to serve in World War I and was replaced by Herbert (Zeppo), and the group became known as the Marx Brothers. Their first successful show was Fun In Hi Skule (1910).

Marx made 26 movies, 13 of them with his brothers Chico and Harpo. Marx developed a routine as a wisecracking hustler with a distinctive chicken-walking lope, an exaggerated greasepaint mustache and eyebrows, and an ever-present cigar, improvising insults to stuffy dowagers (usually played by Margaret Dumont) and anyone else who stood in his way. As the Marx Brothers, he and his brothers starred in a series of popular stage shows and movies.

Their first movie was a silent film made in 1921 that was never released, and is believed to have been destroyed at the time. A decade later, the team made two of their Broadway hits—The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers—into movies. Other successful films were Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, Duck Soup, and A Night at the Opera.[11] One quip from Marx concerned his response to Sam Wood, the director of A Night at the Opera. Furious with the Marx Brothers' ad-libs and antics on the set, Wood yelled in disgust: "You can't make an actor out of clay." Marx responded, "Nor a director out of Wood."

Marx also worked as a radio comedian and show host. One of his earliest stints was a short-lived series in 1932, Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel, costarring Chico. Though most of the scripts and discs were thought to have been destroyed, all but one of the scripts were found in 1988 in the Library of Congress. In 1947, Marx was asked to host a radio quiz program You Bet Your Life. It was broadcast by ABC and then CBS before moving to NBC. It moved from radio to television on October 5, 1950, and ran for eleven years. Filmed before an audience, the show consisted of Marx bantering with the contestants and ad-libbing jokes before briefly quizzing them. The show was responsible for popularizing the phrases "Say the secret word and the duck will come down and give you fifty dollars," "Who's buried in Grant's Tomb?" and "What color is the White House?" (asked to reward a losing contestant a consolation prize).

Throughout his career, Marx introduced a number of memorable songs in films, including "Hooray for Captain Spaulding" and "Hello, I Must Be Going", in Animal Crackers, "Whatever It Is, I'm Against It", "Everyone Says I Love You" and "Lydia the Tattooed Lady". Frank Sinatra, who once quipped that the only thing he could do better than Marx was sing, made a film with Marx and Jane Russell in 1951 entitled Double Dynamite.

In public and off-camera, Harpo and Chico were hard to recognize, without their wigs and costumes, and it was almost impossible for fans to recognize Groucho without his trademark eyeglasses, fake eyebrows, and mustache.

The greasepaint mustache and eyebrows originated spontaneously prior to a vaudeville performance in the early 1920s when he did not have time to apply the pasted-on mustache he had been using (or, according to his autobiography, simply did not enjoy the removal of the mustache because of the effects of tearing an adhesive bandage off the same patch of skin every night). After applying the greasepaint mustache, a quick glance in the mirror revealed his natural hair eyebrows were too undertoned and did not match the rest of his face, so Marx added the greasepaint to his eyebrows and headed for the stage. The absurdity of the greasepaint was never discussed on-screen, but in a famous scene in Duck Soup, where both Chicolini (Chico) and Pinky (Harpo) disguise themselves as Groucho, they are briefly seen applying the greasepaint, implicitly answering any question a viewer might have had about where he got his mustache and eyebrows.

Marx was asked to apply the greasepaint mustache once more for You Bet Your Life when it came to television, but he refused, opting instead to grow a real one, which he wore for the rest of his life. By this time, his eyesight had weakened enough for him to actually need corrective lenses; before then, his eyeglasses had merely been a stage prop. He debuted this new, and now much-older, appearance in Love Happy, the Marx Brothers's last film as a comedy team.

He did paint the old character mustache over his real one on a few rare occasions, including a TV sketch with Jackie Gleason on the latter's variety show in the 1960s (in which they performed a variation on the song "Mister Gallagher and Mister Shean," co-written by Marx's uncle Al Shean) and the 1968 Otto Preminger film Skidoo. In his late 70s at the time, Marx remarked on his appearance: "I looked like I was embalmed." He played a mob boss called "God" and, according to Marx, "both my performance and the film were God-awful!"

The exaggerated walk, with one hand on the small of his back and his torso bent almost 90 degrees at the waist was a parody of a fad from the 1880s and 1890s. Fashionable young men of the upper classes would affect a walk with their right hand held fast to the base of their spines, and with a slight lean forward at the waist and a very slight twist toward the right with the left shoulder, allowing the left hand to swing free with the gait. Edmund Morris, in his biography The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, describes a young Roosevelt, newly elected to the State Assembly, walking into the House Chamber for the first time in this trendy, affected gait, somewhat to the amusement of the older and more rural members. Marx exaggerated this fad to a marked degree, and the comedy effect was enhanced by how out of date the fashion was by the 1940s and 1950s.

Marx's three marriages ended in divorce. His first wife was chorus girl Ruth Johnson (m. 1920-42). He was 29 and she was 19 at the time of their wedding. The couple had two children, Arthur Marx and Miriam Marx. His second wife was Kay Marvis (m. 1945–51), Catherine Dittig, ormer wife of Leo Gorcey. Marx was 54 and Kay was 21 at the time of their marriage. They had a daughter, Melinda Marx. His third wife was actress Eden Hartford (m. 1954-69). He was 64 and she was 24 at the time of their wedding.

During the early 1950s, Marx described his perfect woman: "Someone who looks like Marilyn Monroe and talks like George S. Kaufman."

Marx was denied membership in an informal symphonietta of friends (including Harpo) organized by Ben Hecht, because he could play only the mandolin. When the group began its first rehearsal at Hecht's home, Marx rushed in and demanded silence from the "lousy amateurs". The musicians discovered him conducting the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra in a performance of the overture to Tannhäuser in Hecht's living room. Marx was allowed to join the symphonietta.

Later in life, Marx would sometimes note to talk show hosts, not entirely jokingly, that he was unable to actually insult anyone, because the target of his comment would assume that it was a Groucho-esque joke, and would laugh.

Despite his lack of formal education, he wrote many books, including his autobiography, Groucho and Me (1959) and Memoirs of a Mangy Lover (1963). He was a friend of such literary figures as Booth Tarkington, T. S. Eliot and Carl Sandburg. Much of his personal correspondence with those and other figures is featured in the book The Groucho Letters (1967) with an introduction and commentary on the letters written by Marx, who donated his letters to the Library of Congress. His daughter Miriam published a collection of his letters to her in 1992 titled Love, Groucho.

Marx made serious efforts to learn to play the guitar. In the 1932 film Horse Feathers, he performs the film's love theme "Everyone Says I Love You" for costar Thelma Todd on a Gibson L-5.

In July 1937, an America vs England pro-celebrity tennis doubles match was organized, featuring Marx and Ellsworth Vines playing against Charlie Chaplin and Fred Perry, to open the new clubhouse at the Beverly Hills Tennis Club. Marx appeared on court with 12 rackets and a suitcase, leaving Chaplin – who took tennis seriously – bemused, before he asked what was in it. Marx asked Chaplin what was in his, with Chaplin responding he didn't have one. Marx replied, "What kind of tennis player are you?" After playing only a few games, Marx sat on the court and unpacked an elaborate picnic lunch from his suitcase.

Irving Berlin quipped, "The world would not be in such a snarl, had Marx been Groucho instead of Karl". In his book The Groucho Phile, Marx says "I've been a liberal Democrat all my life", and "I frankly find Democrats a better, more sympathetic crowd.... I'll continue to believe that Democrats have a greater regard for the common man than Republicans do". However, just like some of the other Democrats of the time, Marx also said in a television interview that he disliked the women's liberation movement. On the July 7, 1967, Firing Line TV show, Marx said, "The whole political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence."

Marx's radio career was not as successful as his work on stage and in film, though historians such as Gerald Nachman and Michael Barson suggest that, in the case of the single-season Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel (1932), the failure may have been a combination of a poor time slot and the Marx Brothers' returning to Hollywood to make another film.

In the mid-1940s, during a depressing lull in his career (his radio show Blue Ribbon Town had failed, he failed to sell his proposed sitcom The Flotsam Family only to see it become a huge hit as The Life of Riley with William Bendix in the title role, and the Marx Brothers as film performers were well past their prime), Marx was scheduled to appear on a radio show with Bob Hope. Annoyed that he was made to wait in the green room for 40 minutes, he went on the air in a foul mood.

Hope started by saying "Why, Groucho Marx! Groucho, what are you doing out here in the desert?" Marx retorted, "Huh, desert, I've been sitting in the dressing room for forty minutes! Some desert alright..." Marx continued to ignore the script, ad-libbing at length to take the scene well beyond its allotted time slot.

Listening in on the show was producer John Guedel, who had a brainstorm. He approached Marx about doing a quiz show, to which Marx derisively retorted, "A quiz show? Only actors who are completely washed up resort to a quiz show!" Undeterred, Guedel proposed that the quiz would be only a backdrop for Marx's interviews of people, and the storm of ad-libbing that they would elicit. Marx replied, "Well, I've had no success in radio, and I can't hold on to a sponsor. At this point, I'll try anything!"

You Bet Your Life debuted in October 1947 on ABC radio (which aired it from 1947 to 1949), sponsored by costume jewelry manufacturer Allen Gellman;[23] and then on CBS (1949–50), and finally NBC. The show was on radio only from 1947 to 1950; on both radio and television from 1950 to 1960; and on television only, from 1960 to 1961. The show proved a huge hit, being one of the most popular on television by the mid-1950s. With George Fenneman as his announcer and straight man, Marx entertained his audiences with improvised conversation with his guests. Since You Bet Your Life was mostly ad-libbed and unscripted—although writers did pre-interview the guests and feed Marx ready-made lines in advance—the producers insisted that the network prerecord it instead of it being broadcast live. There were two reasons for this: prerecording provided Marx with time to fish around for funny exchanges and any intervening dead spots to be edited out; and secondly to protect the network, since Marx was a notorious loose cannon and known to say almost anything. The television show ran for 11 seasons until it was canceled in 1961. Automobile marque DeSoto was a longtime major sponsor. For the DeSoto ads, Marx would sometimes say: "Tell 'em Groucho sent you", or "Try a DeSoto before you decide".

The program's theme music was an instrumental version of "Hooray for Captain Spaulding", which became increasingly identified as Marx's personal theme song. A recording of the song with Marx and the Ken Lane singers with an orchestra directed by Victor Young was released in 1952. Another recording made by Marx during this period was "The Funniest Song in the World", released on the Young People's Records label in 1949. It was a series of five original children's songs with a connecting narrative about a monkey and his fellow zoo creatures.

An apocryphal story relates Marx interviewing Charlotte Story, who had borne 20 children. When Marx asked why she had chosen to raise such a large family, Mrs. Story is said to have replied, "I love my husband"; to which Marx responded, "I love my cigar, but I take it out of my mouth once in a while." The remark was judged too risqué to be aired, according to the anecdote, and was edited out before broadcast. Charlotte Story and her husband Marion, indeed parents of 20 children, were real people who appeared on the program in 1950. Audio recordings of the interview exist, and a reference to cigars is made ("With each new kid, do you go around passing out cigars?"), but there is no evidence of the claimed remark. Marx and Fenneman both denied that the incident took place. "I get credit all the time for things I never said," Marx told Roger Ebert in 1972. "You know that line in You Bet Your Life? The guy says he has seventeen kids and I say, 'I smoke a cigar, but I take it out of my mouth occasionally'? I never said that." Marx's 1976 memoir recounts the episode as fact, but co-writer Hector Arce relied mostly on sources other than Marx himself—who was by then in his mid eighties, in ill health and mentally compromised—and was probably unaware that Marx had specifically denied making the observation. Another anecdote that may or may not be apocryphal recounts how Warner Brothers threatened to sue Groucho when they learned that the next Marx Brothers film was to be called "A Night in Casablanca", contending that that title was too similar to their own film Casablanca. Groucho is reported to have replied: "I'll sue you for using the word Brothers."

By the time You Bet Your Life debuted on TV on October 5, 1950, Marx had grown a real mustache (which he had already sported earlier in the films Copacabana and Love Happy).

During a tour of Germany in 1958, accompanied by then-wife Eden, daughter Melinda, Robert Dwan and Dwan's daughter Judith, he climbed a pile of rubble that marked the site of Adolf Hitler's bunker, the site of Hitler's death, and performed a two-minute Charleston. He later remarked to Richard J. Anobile in The Marx Brothers Scrapbook, "Not much satisfaction after he killed six million Jews!"

In 1960, Marx, a lifelong devotee of the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, appeared as Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner, in a televised production of The Mikado on NBC's Bell Telephone Hour. A clip of this is in rotation on Classic Arts Showcase.

Another TV show, Tell It To Groucho, premiered January 11, 1962, on CBS, but only lasted five months. On October 1, 1962, Marx, after acting as occasional guest host of The Tonight Show during the six-month interval between Jack Paar and Johnny Carson, introduced Carson as the new host.

In 1964, Marx starred in the "Time for Elizabeth" episode of Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, a truncated version of a play that he and Norman Krasna wrote in 1948.

In 1965, Marx starred in a weekly show for British TV titled Groucho, broadcast on ITV. The program was along similar lines to You Bet Your Life, with Keith Fordyce taking on the Fenneman role. However, it was poorly received and lasted only 11 weeks.

Marx appeared as a gangster named God in the movie Skidoo (1968), directed by Otto Preminger, and costarring Jackie Gleason and Carol Channing. It was released by the studio where the Marx Brothers began their film career, Paramount Pictures. The film received almost universally negative reviews. As a side note, writer Paul Krassner published a story in the February 1981 issue of High Times, relating how Marx prepared for the LSD-themed movie by taking a dose of the drug in Krassner's company, and had a moving, largely pleasant experience.

Marx developed friendships with rock star Alice Cooper—the two were photographed together for Rolling Stone magazine—and television host Dick Cavett, becoming a frequent guest on Cavett's late-night talk show, even appearing in a one-man, 90-minute interview. He befriended Elton John when the British singer was staying in California in 1972, insisting on calling him "John Elton." According to writer Philip Norman, when Marx jokingly pointed his index fingers as if holding a pair of six-shooters, Elton John put up his hands and said, "Don't shoot me, I'm only the piano player," thereby naming the album he had just completed. A film poster for the Marx Bros. movie Go West is visible on the album cover photograph as an homage to Marx. Elton John accompanied Marx to a performance of Jesus Christ Superstar. As the lights went down, Marx called out, "Does it have a happy ending?" And during the Crucifixion scene, he declared, "This is sure to offend the Jews."

Marx's previous work regained popularity; new books of transcribed conversations were published by Richard J. Anobile and Charlotte Chandler. In a BBC interview in 1975, Marx called his greatest achievement having a book selected for cultural preservation in the Library of Congress. In a Cavett interview in 1971, Marx said being published in The New Yorker under his own name, Julius Henry Marx, meant more than all the plays he appeared in. As a man who never had formal schooling, to have his writings declared culturally important was a point of great satisfaction. As he passed his 81st birthday in 1971, however, Marx became increasingly frail, physically and mentally, as a result of a succession of minor strokes and other health issues.

In 1972, largely at the behest of his companion Erin Fleming, Marx staged a live one-man show at Carnegie Hall that was later released as a double album, An Evening with Groucho, on A&M Records. He also made an appearance in 1973 on a short-lived variety show hosted by Bill Cosby. Fleming's influence on Marx was controversial. Some close to Marx believed that she did much to revive his popularity, and the relationship with a younger woman boosted his ego and vitality. Others described her as a Svengali, exploiting an increasingly senile Marx in pursuit of her own stardom. Marx's children, particularly Arthur, felt strongly that Fleming was pushing their weak father beyond his physical and mental limits. Writer Mark Evanier concurred.

On the 1974 Academy Awards telecast, Marx's final major public appearance, Jack Lemmon presented him with an honorary Academy Award to a standing ovation. The award honored Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo as well: "in recognition of his brilliant creativity and for the unequalled achievements of the Marx Brothers in the art of motion picture comedy.” Noticeably frail, Marx took a bow for his deceased brothers. "I wish that Harpo and Chico could be here to share with me this great honor," he said, naming the two deceased brothers (Zeppo, still alive, was in the audience). He also praised the late Margaret Dumont as a great straight woman who never understood any of his jokes. Marx's final appearance was a brief sketch with George Burns in the Bob Hope television special Joys (a parody of the 1975 movie Jaws) in March 1976. His health continued to decline the following year; when his younger brother Gummo died at age 83 on April 21, 1977, Marx was never told for fear of eliciting still further deterioration of his health.

Marx maintained his irrepressible sense of humor to the very end, however. George Fenneman, his radio and TV announcer, good-natured foil, and lifelong friend, often related a story of one of his final visits to Marx's home: When the time came to end the visit, Fenneman lifted Marx from his wheelchair, put his arms around his torso, and began to "walk" the frail comedian backwards across the room towards his bed. As he did, he heard a weak voice in his ear: "Fenneman," whispered Marx, "you always were a lousy dancer." When a nurse approached him with a thermometer during his final hospitalization, explaining that she wanted to see if he had a temperature, he responded, "Don't be silly — everybody has a temperature." Actor Elliott Gould recalled a similar incident: "I recall the last time I saw Groucho, he was in the hospital, and he had tubes in his nose and what have you," he said. "And when he saw me, he was weak, but he was there; and he put his fingers on the tubes and played them like it was a clarinet. Groucho played the tubes for me, which brings me to tears."

Marx was hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with pneumonia on June 22, 1977, and died there nearly two months later at the age of 86 on August 19, four months after Gummo's death.

Marx was cremated and the ashes are interred in the Eden Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. He was survived by his three children and younger brother Zeppo, who outlived him by two years. His gravestone bears no epitaph, but in one of his last interviews he suggested one: "Excuse me, I can't stand up."

Litigation over his estate lasted into the 1980s. Eventually, Arthur Marx and his sisters were awarded the bulk of the estate, and Erin Fleming was ordered to repay $472,000.

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