Captain Spaulding is the signature character played by actor Groucho Marx for the stage play and film Animal Crackers. The character of Captain Jeffrey (or Geoffrey, the name appears both ways in the film) T. Spaulding (the "T" stands for "Edgar") first appeared in the Broadway play Animal Crackers and later in the 1930 film of the same name. Spaulding is a famous explorer on return from a trek across Africa to be the guest of honor at a high-soc...
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Captain Spaulding is the signature character played by actor Groucho Marx for the stage play and film Animal Crackers. The character of Captain Jeffrey (or Geoffrey, the name appears both ways in the film) T. Spaulding (the "T" stands for "Edgar") first appeared in the Broadway play Animal Crackers and later in the 1930 film of the same name. Spaulding is a famous explorer on return from a trek across Africa to be the guest of honor at a high-society party. Despite his hosts' frequent claims that he is one of the most courageous travelers in the world, his own accounts of his safari reveal his cowardice. He eventually gets caught up in the mystery of a stolen painting.
The character's theme song, "Hooray for Captain Spaulding", became forever associated with Groucho in the public mind. A jazzy instrumental version of the song was later the theme for his quiz show, You Bet Your Life. At Groucho's Carnegie Hall concert in the early 1970s, accompanist Marvin Hamlisch played the song as...
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