Typical Groucho.

"I am slowly regaining my strength, and in a short time will be up and about," Julius "Groucho" Marx wrote to his friend, journalist Arthur Sheekman, during the comedian's 1934 retreat to Skowhegan, Maine.

"I haven't been sick," Groucho clarified, "but I think that if one is living in the country, a line like this doesn't do a letter any harm. It arouses sympathy."

It also described Groucho's career.

He was fresh from his biggest flop. Hailed today as one of the Marx Brothers best films, "Duck Soup" didn't fly in 1933. It bombed so badly that Paramount Pictures, producer of the Marxes' first five films, dropped the act.

Shaken, Groucho moved his family to New York, where he and brother Chico collaborated on a short-lived radio program, "Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel." When that died in mid-'34, Groucho decided to "rough it," retreating to an eight-room cottage on Lake Wesserunsett, near Skowhegan.

Hidden from Hollywood, Groucho played tennis, raised chickens and kept tabs on the world via a six-party telephone that, according to his son Arthur, rang just once all summer, "when our landlady had called up to say that if our dachshund didn't stop eating her chickens she would let him have both barrels from her shotgun."

In an undated letter to Sheekman, Groucho described his sabbatical:

"This is a lovely spot up here, but it is inhabited mainly by octogenarians, and I am beginning to yearn again for the tattle of little children," he wrote. "In the evening we sit around a fireplace with nothing to drink (unless it's my house), very little to smoke (unless it's my house) and nothing to eat (unless I buy it), and discuss what's the matter with the theater. Is it dead?"

Apparently not. Groucho soon was lured by the nearby Lakewood Playhouse to star as "Oscar Jaffe" in a mid-August run of Ben Hecht's and Charlie MacArthur's Twentieth Century.

Although Groucho hadn't acted in anything but a Marx Brothers comedy in years, he was curious how he'd fare in a non-slapstick role.

He fared well. Time magazine likened Groucho to John Barrymore and Moffat Johnson, who played the part on film and Broadway.

"What a racket this straight acting is!," Groucho reportedly said on opening night. "Anyone can do it. It doesn't take any talent at all!"

Buoyed by his success, Groucho considered a solo career, but Hollywood beckoned. MGM signed the Marx Brothers in late 1934, and their first film, "A Night at the Opera," was their biggest hit. They went on to enjoy nine movies and 25 more years together.

Groucho indeed had "regained his strength" in Maine, and he was "up and about" until his 1977 death.

Today, few survivors recall Groucho's stay in Skowhegan, but its affect on Groucho and his career is undeniable.

"What a time the senior Rockefeller would have up here, and what a time I am having!," he wrote to Sheekman. "It's a great little place ..."

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