Captain Jeffrey T. Spaulding is a fictional character in the Broadway musical '' Animal Crackers'' and the film of the same name. He was originally played by actor

Groucho Marx Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, and singer who performed in films and vaudeville on television, radio, and the stage. He is considered one of America's greatest comed ...

, one of the

Marx Brothers The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act known for their anarchic humor, rapid-fire wordplay, and visual gags. They achieved success in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in 14 motion pictures. The core group consisted of brothers Chi ...

, in both productions. Despite his middle name being Edgar, he is known as Jeffrey T. Spaulding; his first name is also spelled as "Geoffrey" in parts of the film. Spaulding had a

theme song Theme music is a musical composition which is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at ...

entitled " Hooray for Captain Spaulding", composed by

Bert Kalmar Bert Kalmar (February 10, 1884 – September 18, 1947) was an American songwriter. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. He was also a screenwriter. Biography Kalmar, a native of New York City, left school at an early age an ...

and Harry Ruby, which all of the guests sing upon his arrival. This song would go on to be associated with Marx for the rest of his life in public; it was the theme for his television series '' You Bet Your Life'' and was often played when he was introduced as a guest on television shows. At Marx's

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

concert in the early 1970s, accompanist

Marvin Hamlisch Marvin Frederick Hamlisch (June 2, 1944 – August 6, 2012) was an American composer and conductor. He is one of a handful of people to win Emmy Awards, Emmy, Grammy Awards, Grammy, Academy Awards, Oscar, and Tony Awards, Tony awards, a feat ...

played the song as Marx made his entrance onstage.

Role in ''Animal Crackers''

Spaulding is a famous

explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

on return from a trek across

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

to be the guest of honour at a high-society party given by the wealthy dowager Mrs. Rittenhouse ( Margaret Dumont). She frequently claims that Spaulding is one of the most courageous travellers in the world, yet by his own accounts of his safari, he reveals his cowardice. At the party, which is taking place over a weekend, a valuable painting is stolen, and he, along with the police and his secretary Jamison ( Zeppo Marx), try to recover it.

In popular culture

In the 1939 Marx Brothers' film '' At the Circus'', J. Cheever Loophole (also played by Groucho Marx) sings a rendition of " Lydia the Tattooed Lady" and one line references Lydia having a tattoo of Captain Spaulding exploring the Amazon. The character Capt. Calvin Spaulding from the television show '' M*A*S*H'', played by Loudon Wainwright III, was named after the Marx character. The

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

character Captain Spaulding, who appears in several works by

Rob Zombie Robert Bartleh Cummings (born January 12, 1965), known professionally as Rob Zombie, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, filmmaker, and actor. His music and lyrics are notable for their horror and sci-fi themes, and his live show ...

(including '' House of 1000 Corpses'', '' The Devil's Rejects'', and '' 3 From Hell''), is named after the Marx character. A chorus on people disguised as the character appears in

Woody Allen Heywood Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American filmmaker, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades. Allen has received many List of awards and nominations received by Woody Allen, accolade ...

's movie '' Everyone Says I Love You''.

References

External links

Captain Jeffrey Spaulding
on

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

Literary characters introduced in 1928 Fictional explorers Fictional military captains Marx Brothers Comedy film characters Male characters in film {{film-char-stub