The Forgotten 30th Anniversary Deaths of Two Showbiz Legends: Groucho Marx and Bing Crosby

1977 was a bit unusual in the entertainment world--in that three legends of show business died within a short frame of time in the latter half of that year. It might be arguable--but these three were also possibly the most influential ever in the fields of music and comedy. And at least one of the three didn't get the media coverage he should have for having the unfortunate circumstance of passing away three days after Elvis Presley. The third one happened to die two months later when people were still reeling from Elvis's death--yet at least received a little bit more media coverage if not getting many TV tributes today as Elvis does. It's nearly unarguable that this third influential person may technically be more influential in music than Elvis was...and off-handedly paved the way for Elvis to even have a career.

These two figures outside of Elvis were Groucho Marx and Bing Crosby.

Looking back at the events that led up to Elvis's death--every piece of minutia has been analyzed enough now to get a fairly clear picture of why he died. A lot has been forgotten, though, on what was going on in the lives of Groucho Marx and Bing Crosby in their final year of life. Both of them had full, rich lives behind them--yet still were having a late zest for life (with some new successes in what they did best)...if controversially in the situation of Groucho Marx...



Groucho Marx's last year (with his controversial close companion Erin Fleming)...