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KAREN BARTA: Good morning. I'm Karen Barta with news from Minnesota Public Radio. Fire Public Safety Commissioner Michael Jordan has scheduled a news conference tomorrow to counter Governor Carlson's stated reasons for dismissing him. Carlson fired Jordan last week, citing the department's failure to act promptly on a report of a possible death threat against the governor. Minneapolis Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton today will sign a historic environmental agreement between the city and 26 different neighborhoods. Minnesota Public Radio's Karen Louise Boothe reports.

KAREN LOUISE BOOTHE: The agreement means that the neighborhoods will commit their revitalization dollars for the demolition of hazardous and boarded buildings now on the city's demolition list. This is the first time such an agreement has been worked out between the city and neighborhood governments concerning a mutual problem plaguing Minneapolis. Meanwhile, the city will continue to fully fund the destruction of buildings in imminent danger of collapse. Right now, there are more than 350 structures on the city's demolition list. About 60 are currently under rehabilitation. For Minnesota Public Radio, this is Karen Louise Booth.

KAREN BARTA: Today marks the start of Minnesota's Annual Tornado and Severe Summer Weather Awareness Week Observance in Minnesota. The week is set aside each spring to help Minnesotans reacquaint themselves with severe weather procedures and to allow public safety officials to fine tune their weather emergency procedures. The state forecast today, mostly cloudy this morning, clearing or partial clearing in the afternoon. Highs from the middle seconds in the north to 50 in the south. For the Twin Cities becoming partly sunny with a high near 55. It's mostly cloudy around the region. In Rochester, it's 40 degrees. Duluth, reporting 41. In Saint Cloud, the temperature is 36, and it's 40 degrees in the Twin Cities. That's news from Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Karen Barta.

PAULA SCHROEDER: It's 10:06 o'clock. I'm Paula Schroeder. This is Mid-Morning on the FM news station.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

CATHERINE WINTER: On today's Voices of Minnesota, we'll hear from newspaper editor and publisher, Veda Ponikvar. Every Monday at this time, we bring you a Voices of Minnesota interview with someone who has an interesting life story to tell. On Minnesota's Iron Range, everybody knows the name Veda Ponikvar. She's been the editor of the Chisholm Free Press for nearly 50 years. She's also been involved in just about every Democratic political campaign and counts among her friends, Congressman John Blatnik from the eighth district and Senators Hubert Humphrey and Eugene McCarthy.

She has watched the Iron Range towns boom and bust, and she has championed countless projects to try to keep the range on its feet. Projects such as Iron World, the creation of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, and most recently, the Northwest Airlines Reservation Center in Chisholm. Veda Ponikvar started a newspaper when journalism was still considered a man's profession. She told reporter Catherine Winter that she was inspired to try by the teacher she had when she was growing up in Chisholm.

VEDA PONIKVAR: In the fifth grade, we were putting out a little newspaper, and the teacher asked us to write little stories, and we could even try poetry. So at the end of the period, she called me aside and she said, I think you should keep on writing. And I never forgot that. Then in eighth grade, I had Ann Sallman who really was a tremendous influence on my life. She opened up the world of literature and english. And I knew then that what I wanted more than anything else was to someday own a newspaper.

CATHERINE WINTER: At that time, I know that both your sisters ended up leading relatively traditional lives. They both married and didn't have careers like yours. What made you different enough to do something that women weren't doing at that time?

VEDA PONIKVAR: Again, I must say that I think it was the motivation of the educators that were in our Chisholm schools. When I got to Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, my first professor was Dr. Gallup of the Gallup Poll. His protege was Dr. Emory Ruby, who stayed three years and then became the ahead of Time magazine. So I had some marvelous instructors all through my educational years. And there just wasn't any question but that I was going to be in journalism.

CATHERINE WINTER: You took a hiatus from journalism during World War II. Didn't you? Tell me a little about what you did during World War II.

VEDA PONIKVAR: To a certain extent. After I got home from-- after graduating and got home, I was, I think, unsettled and troubled as to what I really should do. And I was home about a week when the Brown twins came early one morning and said that they were going into the service and would I be the editor at the Tribune Herald. And I did that until December, and then I went into the service myself.

CATHERINE WINTER: What was that like? What was the kind of work that you did?

VEDA PONIKVAR: The Navy sent me to Smith College at Northampton, Mass. And after the training and the studies, I was commissioned and assigned to Naval intelligence in Washington, DC. And I was put in charge of, because of my language background of the Yugoslav desk, the Polish and the Czech.

CATHERINE WINTER: Do you speak those languages?

VEDA PONIKVAR: I speak the Yugoslav language very well, read it and write it. The Czech and the Polish, much of the vocabulary is the same. And so there wasn't any difficulty there because they sent me to a special school at Fredericksburg, Maryland, it was an intensive course for 13 weeks. And then I returned. There wasn't much in Poland and Czechoslovakia going on as far as military action was concerned due to the fact that Hitler had marched through and had practically devastated those two nations.

With the Yugoslav desk, it was a different story, of course, and that was a very fascinating. I wouldn't exchange that experience for all the money in the world.

CATHERINE WINTER: Was it hard after having that experience to come back to Chisholm?

VEDA PONIKVAR: Well, no, because I think everybody was really weary of the war and all that we had gone through. I did not get out until December of 1946. And that's when I came home. But I had already started making arrangements that I would start a newspaper. And in my mind it was to be called the Free Press.

CATHERINE WINTER: Now, why start a newspaper instead of working for the existing paper? What was wrong with the Tribune Herald?

VEDA PONIKVAR: There wasn't anything wrong with it. It was a fine paper. But I just felt that they were quite conservative. And I just felt that there were other things to bring out as far as not only the community, the region and the state, but nationwide. And that's the way I started it.

CATHERINE WINTER: So you started the Free Press. And as far as I can tell, you have written every editorial that's ever appeared in that paper in almost 50 years. Did you never take a vacation? Never once.

VEDA PONIKVAR: A vacation as such, no. And if I was gone, I saw to it that the editorials were written, and I sent them or I wrote them ahead of time. The other thing was that if I did go, it was not really a vacation. It was a working situation.

CATHERINE WINTER: The editorials appear to be seem unabashedly pro-labor, very populist. You have some views that I think today would be characterized as left wing and some that I think would be characterized as right wing. You were very angry about wasteful government spending, angry about what appeared to be a breakdown in values in society. But some of your views were certainly, they were very pro-labor, very pro-work, anti-hunger. I remember reading one editorial where you said in Cuba and Russia, it's against the law for people to be hungry and we ought to have something like that here. Was that a difficult position to take in those years after World War II?

VEDA PONIKVAR: It was very difficult. Extremely difficult, because we went right into the McCarthy, Joe McCarthy era.

CATHERINE WINTER: Yes, exactly.

VEDA PONIKVAR: And my name was on that list.

CATHERINE WINTER: How do you know?

VEDA PONIKVAR: How did I know that my name was on the list? You remember that we had people like Hubert Humphrey, John Blatnik, Gene McCarthy in the Congress.

CATHERINE WINTER: And somehow word got to you?

VEDA PONIKVAR: That's right.

CATHERINE WINTER: So did that change your behavior at all? Did it frighten you?

VEDA PONIKVAR: No.

CATHERINE WINTER: You kept writing what you wanted to write--

VEDA PONIKVAR: I would have taken him on.

CATHERINE WINTER: Head first? And you did manage to come through that time without scars.

VEDA PONIKVAR: Yes.

CATHERINE WINTER: Were there local people who also objected to what you wrote on the grounds that it appeared to be too left or too red to them?

VEDA PONIKVAR: Oh, I'm certain that there were some. But as time went on, it wasn't I that changed my mind or had to apologize. The people that were adverse realized that labor had certain rights, and that there were certain iniquities as far as the whole social strata was concerned and the work strata, and we had to change it. It took years, did it not? And as time went on, when I talked about children being hungry and other situations that weren't right, what else could they do but admit that I was right?

And I'm not saying that I'm always right. I stand to be corrected. But also throughout my career in journalism, I have read a great deal. I have talked to many people and I have studied and researched so that I do not have to make apologies for the stance that I took.

CATHERINE WINTER: You mentioned Hubert Humphrey and John Blatnik and Eugene McCarthy. And you know them all, don't you? Or knew them all--

VEDA PONIKVAR: Yes, yes. Very well. I ran many a campaign for John Blatnik, was the campaign manager for Northeastern Minnesota when Hubert Humphrey ran not only for the senate, but also when he ran for president.

CATHERINE WINTER: Well, they say to get elected in this area, you better have Veda Ponikvar on your side. Is that true?

VEDA PONIKVAR: Oh, I don't know that I would put it that strongly. But when you believe in somebody and when you believe in issues that they stand for, it isn't very difficult to go out and work for them.

CATHERINE WINTER: You knew and know virtually every politician who's ever been anybody that's come out of this area and even out of statewide politics, and you've been involved in all those campaigns, very active, helped shape policy, been someone people come to ask which way the wind is blowing on the Iron Range. Why did you never run for office yourself?

VEDA PONIKVAR: Because having the newspaper, I thought, was a vehicle in which I could express views and debate issues and make people think. Not that we would always agree, but at least people would stop to think if they read something that I wrote and they did not agree, they could come in and discuss it. But I was in the most favorable position and the best of two worlds because I could help these people in ways that I never could if I was in office. There are too many ifs and ands when one gets elected to an office and too many avenues that turn the wrong way.

And so I always felt that it was much more advantageous to research, to study, to find out the facts and to help the people that were running.

CATHERINE WINTER: Over the last 50 to 100 years, a conceit has developed in the newspaper industry that newspapers are supposedly unbiased and reporters are supposedly unbiased and are just giving you the facts, whereas, of course, 175, even 50 years ago, each newspaper had its stand and you knew where it stood, and you got the newspaper that agreed with you and maybe read the one that didn't. But these days, to be as political as you have been to both manage a DFL campaign and report on it, a lot of people would look askance at that and say that's not how a newspaper should work. What do you think about that?

VEDA PONIKVAR: Let's just be honest and tell it like it is.

CATHERINE WINTER: That it makes more sense for a journalist to say, here's what I believe. And--

VEDA PONIKVAR: That's right. Everybody has known over the past 50 years exactly where I stood on different issues, on different projects and problems. And again, I must point out, I'm not always right, but show me. Where am I wrong? And if I can see that, that it is wrong, I'll be the first one to concede.

CATHERINE WINTER: Are there stands that you took that you look back on now and say, hm, maybe I was wrong about that?

VEDA PONIKVAR: No.

CATHERINE WINTER: Not a one?

VEDA PONIKVAR: Not a one.

CATHERINE WINTER: What about projects you backed? Are there projects you backed that you think now, hm, maybe that wasn't the best idea.

VEDA PONIKVAR: Not a one.

CATHERINE WINTER: That's a remarkable thing to be able to say to look back on.

VEDA PONIKVAR: Yes, it is. But again, I think a lot of it stems from the fact that I did my research. I did ask questions, and I did study the facts behind the situations. And sometimes, it was very difficult. But I've never had to look back and say I'm sorry that I did it that way.

PAULA SCHROEDER: You're listening to newspaper publisher and editor Veda Ponikvar speaking with Main Street Radio's Catherine Winter. This is Mid-Morning on Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Paula Schroeder. And you're listening to our Monday Voices of Minnesota interview. It's 10:21 o'clock. Programming on Minnesota Public Radio is supported by Bendix, a front loading washer dryer combination with water and energy conserving capabilities. New at Independent Appliance Dealers.

Well, Veda Ponikvar recently sold her newspaper in Chisholm in part to ensure that it would remain independently owned after her death. But she says she will continue to write and be involved with various projects and committees.

CATHERINE WINTER: Someone I know referred to you as Chisholm's shadow government.

[CHUCKLES]

And said, if you want something done, you don't go to the city council, you don't go to the mayor, you go to Veda Ponikvar. And it is true that you have backed and brought to be any number of enormous projects-- the Iron Man, Iron World, you were instrumental in the creation of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. I can't even begin to count how many projects many people believe would not be here today if you hadn't been here. Do you think you had that much influence?

VEDA PONIKVAR: I think I helped. And the newspaper, if it really assumes its full responsibility, can play a key role in doing good for an area, good for a community or a school district. On the other hand, if a newspaper does not assume its proper role and its total responsibility, it can destroy communities, it can destroy school districts, it can destroy a region.

CATHERINE WINTER: So a newspaper has a responsibility as almost a community booster then?

VEDA PONIKVAR: Absolutely.

CATHERINE WINTER: And you certainly have been that many, many of your editorials waxed rhapsodic about the virtues of Chisholm and its inhabitants. What do you think makes the Iron Range and the people who live there so special?

VEDA PONIKVAR: First of all, the whole Iron Range is unique because it was from the very beginning made up of immigrants. The whole population just fused together because they had to understand each other. They worked side by side and they helped each other. And I think this is the whole tapestry and fiber of the Iron Range is what makes it so beautiful.

CATHERINE WINTER: Was there a best of times on the Iron Range?

VEDA PONIKVAR: I think the best of times and the worst of times was the Depression. There was something about that Depression that gave us a direction. It made us stronger. It left us with a great determination on to achieve and to do better and to make a difference in the lives of people.

CATHERINE WINTER: Given how much you have loved Chisholm and the Range and how hard you've worked on all these projects, does it look today, the way you hoped it would 50 years ago?

VEDA PONIKVAR: Well, when I started and came out with the first edition in 1947, there were things that troubled me from the standpoint that I had come out of the service, and already I could sense that something was happening. I would stand on the edge of the Glen and the Pillsbury, and it was at that time that I said to myself, when I looked at those pits, something needs to be done in this area to recognize, understand and pay tribute to the iron ore miners. I didn't know what it would be, but the idea was there.

Nobody said anything to me. But in the back of my mind was, what is going to happen when this natural iron ore is gone? And it wasn't long afterward that we began to see the effect of all that as time went on. And there were upheavals again on the Iron Range and there were strikes and so forth. I realized in early in 1960 that we had to do something. And my total mission in that time was to help with the passage of the Taconite Amendment.

CATHERINE WINTER: Even with the Taconite Amendment and the various projects that have come to the range, I think sometimes people who don't live here view the range as an area that's economically depressed. And there are any number of towns that have lost population, have lost businesses, that sort of thing. Do you think that's an unfair characterization of the Range?

VEDA PONIKVAR: Yes, I do. I think that, first of all, the Iron Range has made a tremendous contribution to the whole state of Minnesota. It has made it to the city of Duluth. And also to Minneapolis-Saint Paul. And the sooner that the moguls understand that, the better off we're all going to be. I think we need to all work together. We need the metropolitan sector for many things, but they need us even more. Economically, they need us. The thing that is really encouraging at the moment is that industry and business have begun to realize that the Iron Range has a great deal to offer.

And we are very fortunate and very grateful that Northwest Airlines has built the reservation center in the Iron Range corridor. There are other industries that are moving into the area. And as time goes on, I think there will be many more.

CATHERINE WINTER: When you mentioned iron mining's importance to Minnesota, I think it's true that mining no longer makes up the portion of the state's economy that it once did and has slid behind other industries in.

VEDA PONIKVAR: It has slid behind other industries from the standpoint that, as everyone knows, we went into a period where there was a great deal of import of, first of all, the raw iron ore, then also the taconite pellets. Unfortunately, after the war, business made and the corporates made a great big mistake in that we poured a great deal of money into not only Germany, but we poured it into Japan. And what we should have been doing is taking care of our steel mills, which we didn't. That has somewhat turned around. All of the mining companies are upgrading their operations.

What we need to remember is that labor communities, municipalities, the state government has to work with this industry. It still is a very key industry in the state of Minnesota and certainly here on the Iron Range.

CATHERINE WINTER: What made you finally sell the newspaper?

VEDA PONIKVAR: Catherine, I had it for 49.5 years, and I began to realize that the time has come when I'm not going to live forever. And of course, none of us know from today to tomorrow whether we will be here, we could fall asleep, we could be in a horrible accident. And it was just time to bring the whole thing together and get it over with, because I'm not going to be here forever. And right now, I would say that I have the best of two worlds because I'm still writing. I still do feature stories which I love to do, writing about people, communities, and so forth.

The schools, I'd still write editorials. And as you know, it's like-- a field of wheat or flowers in a garden. They don't last forever either.

CATHERINE WINTER: What will you do now?

VEDA PONIKVAR: I'm thinking very seriously about writing a book. I would love to write a book about the Iron Range and about its people, that this little piece of fragile Earth within the whole universe has made a difference and has made a contribution that is pretty hard to beat.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Chisholm Newspaper editor and publisher Veda Ponikvar, speaking with Main Street Radio's Catherine Winter. Our Voices of Minnesota interview series is heard nearly every Monday at this time. The producer is Dan Olson.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

It's 29 minutes before 11:00. Today's programming is sponsored in part to celebrate Earth Day and by Ralph and Barbara Leary, who wish you luck with your garden this year.

GROUCHO MARX (SINGING): Hello. I must be going. I cannot stay. I came to say I must be going. I'm glad I came. But just the same, I must be going. La, la.

SPEAKER 1 (SINGING): For my sake, you must stay. If you should go away, you'll spoil this party I am throwing.

GROUCHO MARX (SINGING): I'll stay a week or two. I'll stay in the summer through. But I am telling you, I must be going.

PEOPLE (SINGING): The Labor Party's boarding the African Explorer.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Oh, who doesn't know who that is? Groucho Marx, of course. One of my all-time favorites. He is just delightful. And there's a new book out about Groucho Marx, actually, his last few years, and Arne Fogel is here to tell us about it today. Arne is a big fan of the Marx brothers and a lot of the longtime comedians and has all kinds of information about him. And this is an unusual kind of a book, isn't it, Arne? That it doesn't go back, really, and look at all the movies and the bits and the songs that the Marx Brothers did.

ARNE FOGEL: No, not at all. And that's been done before. I would say that with the possible exception of Charlie Chaplin, there has been no-- there have been no comedians that have been written about more often that more books aren't-- that feature them than the Marx Brothers and by extension, Groucho.

PAULA SCHROEDER: So what is this one about?

ARNE FOGEL: This one is about Groucho's last few years, very controversial years in many ways, and it's written from the point of view of a young man whose only wish, one of his main goals in life was to get the opportunity, as we all have with somebody at some point in life, to shake hands with his hero. And his hero was Groucho Marx, and he put himself into a position to do just that. And before he knew it, he was living in a day to day situation, or certainly at least on the weekends at first, and eventually in a day to day situation in the home of Groucho Marx, not officially living there, but that was, in a sense, his office. That was where he went to work every day as Groucho's assistant researcher, rather, and as a historian and to serve various functions down through the three or four year period.

PAULA SCHROEDER: He was 19 years old when he met Groucho Marx.

ARNE FOGEL: He's a college kid who had put together, some of you may recall, some of the folks listening may recall that in 1974, the Marx Brothers' movie, Animal Crackers, was released to theaters after not having been seen by anybody for the most part, for several decades. And Steve Stoliar, the name of the person we're talking about here, was at the forefront of the petition campaign to get the-- go through the legal means to get that movie rereleased, the committee to rerelease Animal Crackers.

I can't recall the exact acronym, but they-- and pretty soon, Erin Fleming, who was Groucho's general factotum at the time, among other things, saw that this kid had some potential to do some work for their little organization, that she and Groucho had, Groucho Marx Productions, and to just archive Groucho's career. And that was one of Erin's I guess, better instincts was to preserve Groucho's career in that way.

CATHERINE WINTER: Yeah, of course. Erin Fleming was at the center of the controversy surrounding Groucho in his final years. His children were quite upset that she was going to be included in his will or was included in his will.

ARNE FOGEL: It's an amazing thing when you start to think about it now in this post-OJ era. But at the time, there was no more publicized celebrity courtroom drama than that over, first of all, the conservatorship of Groucho Marx as a state while he was still living, but very, very frail. And then the tremendous problems taking place after Groucho passed away between Erin Fleming as a principal of Groucho Marx Productions, and Arthur Marx as the first child and only son of Groucho Marx.

PAULA SCHROEDER: You brought some clips of Groucho.

ARNE FOGEL: Yes. This particular one I chose because it's ironic in light of in view of the fact that the Groucho that's portrayed in this book throughout most of this book is a very frail individual who needs a lot of care and a lot of attention. And our image of Groucho alone, amongst all of the great comedians of this century who usually play, put upon characters, Groucho, the king of all he, surveys the man who doesn't take it from anybody.

GROUCHO MARX: The meeting is called to order.

SPEAKER 2: Your excellency, here's the Treasury Department's report. I hope you find it clear.

GROUCHO MARX: Clear? Huh? By a four-year-old child could understand this report. Run out and find me a four-year-old child. I can't make head or tail out of it. And all members of the cabinet, we'll take up old business. I wish to discuss the tariff.

SPEAKER 3: Sit down. That's no business.

GROUCHO MARX: No old business? Very well. And we take up new business.

SPEAKER 3: Now, about that tariff.

GROUCHO MARX: Too late. That's old business already. Sit down.

SPEAKER 4: Gentlemen. As your Secretary of War, I--

GROUCHO MARX: The Secretary of War is out of order.

SPEAKER 4: Which reminds me, so is the plumbing. Make a note of that. Never mind. I'll do it myself. The Department of Labor wishes to report that the workers of Fredonia are demanding shorter hours.

GROUCHO MARX: Very well. We'll give them shorter hours. We'll start by cutting their lunch hour to 20 minutes.

SPEAKER 5: Gentlemen, gentlemen, enough of this. How about taking up the tax?

GROUCHO MARX: How about taking up the carpet?

SPEAKER 5: I still insist. We must take up the tax.

GROUCHO MARX: He's right. You've got to take up the tax before you can take up the carpet.

SPEAKER 5: Your excellency, unless this measure is given immediate attention, I shall resign. I give all my time and energy to my duties. And what do I get?

GROUCHO MARX: You get awfully tiresome after a while.

SPEAKER 5: Sir, you try my patience.

GROUCHO MARX: I don't mind if I do. You must come over and try mine sometime.

SPEAKER 5: That's the last straw. I resign. I washed my hands of the whole business.

GROUCHO MARX: A good idea. You can wash your neck too.

[LAUGHS]

PAULA SCHROEDER: He gets me every time.

ARNE FOGEL: Yes--

PAULA SCHROEDER: That's genius.

ARNE FOGEL: That's, of course, from Duck Soup, which is their masterpiece film, and one of the great comedies of all time. And there's a man whose entire image once again, is built on, I can surmount any situation with my own peculiar brand of nonsense and puncture any pompous windbag who tries to deal with me in any other fashion.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Yeah. He was always the guy in control who was calling the shots. And I think that that's why it was so difficult for people to understand later during this, the end of his life, the years at the end of his life that he wasn't doing that.

ARNE FOGEL: That's exactly right. And one of the reasons that this whole situation and Erin Fleming more or less is the definition of the word controversy, is because there is no clear-cut answer to the effect that she had on Groucho Marx. There are many people, including some of the people who were most against her, who had to admit, as does Stephen Stoliar here in this book, that she had a very positive effect on him in some ways. She certainly gave him a lot of encouragement and a lot of reason to continue breathing when-- and that's certainly the way he felt about it most of the time. But she did divide him from his family.

And she-- it's sad to have to say this, those of us who are fans of Groucho and enjoyed watching him even up to the very end of his life, but he shouldn't have made a number of the last appearances that he did make. He was simply not-- he was too frail. And we won't go so far as to say that he embarrassed himself. But there were times when everybody around him was imagining him to be the Groucho of old. But in retrospect, we see that he was simply a little old man sitting in the midst of a number of other performers trying to-- trying to be himself and not quite up to the job.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Well, his wit was so sharp during his heyday that it would have been difficult for anyone to keep up with him, including himself.

ARNE FOGEL: He was competing with Groucho Marx.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Yeah.

ARNE FOGEL: Exactly. Erin Fleming, I think one of the reasons that-- well, certainly Mr. Stoliar here in this book, believes that one of the reasons that she was pushing Groucho for her own benefit. And she was a performer. She was an actor, tried to be during various times. In fact, she's in one of Woody Allen's movies. Erin Fleming is the lady in the car in the Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask. There's this elaborate scene at the end of the film. What takes place during sex is. And there's this number of things going on that are replicating what's supposedly happening.

And she is the young lady in the back seat of the car. That's Erin Fleming. The Groucho Marx is the lady that we're talking about here. And here she is singing with Groucho in Groucho's home as they rehearse for an appearance on a television program. Marvin Hamlisch, the Academy Award winning songwriter, is playing the piano here. This is a very rare rehearsal performance. And you can hear that Groucho, singing Dr. Hackenbush, which was supposed to be in A Day at the Races, is struggling to do his best.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

ERIN FLEMING (SINGING): So this is Dr. Hackenbush, the famous medico. You're welcome, Dr. Hackenbush!

GROUCHO MARX (SINGING): If that's the case, I'll go.

ERIN FLEMING (SINGING): Oh no, you mustn't go!

GROUCHO MARX (SINGING): Who said I mustn't go? The only reason I came is so that I can go.

ERIN FLEMING (SINGING): He's Dr. Hackenbush.

His medical standing's very high.

Well, anyways, ladies and gentlemen.

GROUCHO MARX (SINGING): I am Dr. Hackenbush.

ERIN FLEMING (SINGING): He's Dr. Hackenbush!

GROUCHO MARX (SINGING): I'm Dr. Hackenbush. You never would guess, but nevertheless, I'm Dr. Hackenbush!

For ailments--

ERIN FLEMING (SINGING): For ailments abdominal, his charges are nominal.

Though he's great for, there's a rate for tonsillectomy.

GROUCHO MARX (SINGING): Sick and healthy, poor and wealthy, come direct to me.

Oh, God bless you, they yell.

When I send them home well.

But they never, no, they never send a check to me.

ERIN FLEMING (SINGING): He's won a claim for curing ills, both in the north and south.

You'll find his name just like my pills: in everybody's mouth.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Well, yeah. He might have been struggling, Arne, but you could still tell that's Groucho. He's still got the timing. He's got that distinctive voice of his, of course. But yeah--

ARNE FOGEL: And when he would make appearances on The Merv Griffin Show or Dick Cavett Show towards the end, as you say, the wit was intact up until the very, very last performances. One of the great stories of Groucho's final months, let alone years, is the one that George Fenneman, his old announcer on You Bet Your Life Tells, when Groucho was so frail that he couldn't make it from the wheelchair back to the bed. And Fenneman, who happened to be visiting, was asked by the nurse to please pick up Groucho and place him back in the bed.

And Fenneman, who was filled with sadness at having to do for this once dynamic man, picks him up bodily and carries him to the bed and on the way back to the bed in a very tiny, frail voice, Groucho says, you always were a terrible dancer, Fenneman.

[CHUCKLES]

PAULA SCHROEDER: Oh, my. Yeah. And it's just awful.

ARNE FOGEL: And there are a lot of stories like that, but he was pretty clearly exploited in a lot of ways at the very end. And according to some of the stories from some of the people in the book, there are tales of actual abuse.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Physical abuse?

ARNE FOGEL: Physical abuse. Yeah. And emotional abuse. Certainly emotional abuse. There's no disputing that. If Groucho was-- if she was in a mood to not have to deal with the fact that Groucho had had a stroke, she simply tried to yell him out, Erin, yeah, she tried to yell him out of it. But there were other rumored things too. Eventually she lost her bid for the conservatorship and for her claim to the Groucho estate. And according to some of the final reports in the book, she has fallen on very, very hard times.

PAULA SCHROEDER: We haven't even said the name of the book yet. What is it?

ARNE FOGEL: It's called Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho's House by Steve Stoliar with an introduction by Dick Cavett, of all people.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Is the focus entirely on this controversy and the role that Erin Fleming played in Groucho's life in the final years? Or does it add some of his own experience?

ARNE FOGEL: Oh, absolutely. And that's a good point, too, because we don't want to mislead people that it's all a down sort of a book. It's there-- the story of the book is really about this young man having this incredible wish fulfilled. A classic example of the old line, be careful what you wish for, it may come true. And it came true for this young fella who got to go to Groucho Marx's house and says that even though he became somewhat blasé about it or not blasé, but he became used to it, accustomed to the situation over a period of years, that there never was a day that he walked to that door, that he didn't say to himself, I am entering Groucho Marx's house to work for my friend Groucho Marx.

And one puts himself or herself in this young man's place and says, how would I feel if I was in this situation and I got to do this? And so there's a great feeling of identification as you read his reminiscences and what it's like to walk through Groucho's house and what Groucho was like on certain days and certain funny things that he did. And as the book progresses, however, it does become more and more a tale of the Erin Fleming wars.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Yeah. How important was the work that Steve Stoliar did in archiving Groucho's papers and whatever it was that he researched?

ARNE FOGEL: Well, to a certain extent, the work was at the behest of Erin Fleming and rather than Groucho. There was a-- there are a couple of books that he assisted on that are very, very valuable. First and foremost, a book called The Groucho File, which I don't know if it's still in print, but my gosh, this is one of the most beautiful books on Groucho or the Marx Brothers. It's entirely a picture book of all of the Groucho and Marx Brothers' memorabilia that he donated to the Smithsonian after his death.

But this was written before he died. And what Stoliar did was he was principal among those who organized all of these pictures and all of these bills and newspaper reprints and organized them all, so that Groucho and an author named Hector Arce, could go through them all and comment on nearly every bit of this material. It's a thick book.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Thank goodness that kind of material is saved.

ARNE FOGEL: Oh, yes. And thank goodness that Groucho himself down through the years kept it all. And he did other things, too. Some of the things he had to do with the legal problems that they were involved in that Erin wanted Stoliar to do and to go through mail and to give autographs, to be a bit of a PR person too.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Yeah. Is the book only for Groucho fans who really want to know about him? Or do you think that it's just a good read?

ARNE FOGEL: It's a good read. It's a very good read. If you-- once again, if you're interested, I would say that it's entertaining for anybody who might find themselves interested in what can happen to a great star under certain circumstances. My only caution to those people would be that are occasional Marxism's references rather to aspects of Groucho or the Marx Brothers career that may be a little vague to some people who aren't intimately familiar with the Marx Brothers or big fans or big followers of their careers, but not much of that. I think it would be enjoyable to just about anybody.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Well, the book is called Raised Eyebrows, and the author is Steve Stoliar. Joining us today to tell us about it has been Arne Fogel. And we're going to go out with it. Sounds like it might be kind of a sad song.

ARNE FOGEL: Well, only in that the song that we heard to open Hello. I must be going. Was Groucho in his prime during the making of Animal Crackers in 1930, the film. And here he is on the stage of Carnegie hall, which I guess is not a bad way to go out after all, in 1972.

GROUCHO MARX (SINGING): Hello. I must be going. I cannot stay. I came to say I must be going. I'm glad I came. But just the same, I must be going.

SPEAKER 1 (SINGING): For my sake, you must stay. For if you go away, you'll spoil this party I am throwing.

GROUCHO MARX (SINGING): I'll stay a week or two. I'll stay the summer through. But I am telling you, I must be going.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Ah, what a voice. Groucho Marx. Thanks a lot to Arne Fogel for bringing that in to us today. It's 11 minutes before 11:00. You're listening to Mid-Morning on the FM news station. I'm Paula Schroeder. And it should be a pretty nice day across the region today. We're looking for partly sunny skies and highs from the seconds in the north, up into around 50 degrees in the south. And actually, I think it's going to be warmer than that because we're looking for a high around 53 in the Twin Cities today. Even warmer tomorrow.

Well, every Monday we try to tell you about somebody who has an odd job. And today, we're going to look at somebody who does some spring yard cleaning. It's underway at a lot of homes this month. One chore that some folks downright detest, though, is cleaning up after their dogs, especially in the spring time. Today, in our Odd Jobs Report, we meet Todd Johnson of Minneapolis, who makes a living picking up the small piles left by dogs in backyards throughout the cities. Spring is a busy time of year for Johnson, who handles as many as 20 assignments a day.

He told Minnesota Public Radio's Todd Moe the idea for Doggy Doo Yard Cleaning came to him while cleaning up after his own black lab.

TODD JOHNSON: My dad always said, hey, if you want to do something in life, do something nobody else wants to do. And sure enough, I figured out that as I'm picking up my doggy doo, I can start doing this for other people. I like to do it by hand. And if you go to the hospital, and you're due for an examination, they put on these things called latex gloves. And that's what we use. We use a latex glove and a five-gallon bucket lined up with a 13-gallon bag, so there's plenty of room for the doggy doo. And we go, we go to work.

TODD MOE: People are probably thinking this has got to be a messy job.

TODD JOHNSON: Yeah, it can be. Why we do it by hand? It takes away the tools, so we don't create any divots in the yard and so that we can also be a little bit more delicate with it. It's an art, not a science. I've only got my hands as the tool. It's a raking action with your fingers.

My phrase, we boldly go where every dog has gone before, obviously was taken from borrowed from the Star Trek theme. When I started the business, I thought, you have to be pretty bold to go there. And I right there, I thought of it and I said, why not?

Doggy Doo Yard Cleaning has definitely changed my life. But when I was a young child, I was thinking just like the next kid, I wanted to be a race car driver or a fireman or a policeman. And I never thought I'd be in somebody's backyard picking up their doggy doo.

TODD MOE: What would you tell someone who said, well, I don't need your service. I'm just going to let the dog, the doggy doo, sit there all year. I mean, not really hurting the grass, is it? Or is it?

TODD JOHNSON: Well, it's doing a number of things to the yard. It's throwing off the pH entirely. In the concentrated areas, what happens with the doggy doo is that it can overgrow your grass. Sometimes, what it'll make it do is make that area grow profusely, and then you have uneven growing. Sometimes, it can-- the concentrated areas obviously are cutting, covering grass that can also kill the grass. The city of Minneapolis will fine dog owners up to $50 if they don't clean it up.

And I can-- I can eat a Big Mac while I do this. It doesn't bother me anymore. I mean, the actual--

TODD MOE: Seriously?

TODD JOHNSON: Pretty much. Obviously, I only have two hands, so it would be hard to eat lunch in the field. But I don't mind it at all. I mean, it's not something that you get used to it, so to speak.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Todd Johnson is owner of Doggy Doo Yard Cleaning. Our odd jobs report was prepared by Todd Moe. It's seven minutes before 11:00. Coming up at noon today, you can hear a speech by Mario Cuomo today. This week is National Volunteer Week, and he'll be talking about the importance of volunteering. In the 11 o'clock hour, all the latest news and weather. And we just got word that Irma Bombeck, the longtime columnist, died today in San Francisco. Apparently, she had been hospitalized for complications related to cancer. Again, Erma Bombeck died today in San Francisco.

We'll have details on that coming up during the 11 o'clock hour of midday. We'll also look at the flooding in the Red River Valley. And today is Earth Day, 1996. We'll find out about some of those activities. First, here's Garrison Keillor in the Writer's Almanac.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

GARRISON KEILLOR: And here is the Writer's Almanac for Monday, the 22nd of April, 1996. It's the birthday of two novelists, two writers who grew up in one language and made their reputations in another. Ole Edvart Rolvaag and Vladimir Nabokov. Ole Rolvaag was born on the island of Donna in Norway in 1876, came to America when he was 14, worked on his uncle's farm in South Dakota and went to school at Augustana college. He traveled around the Midwest working as a traveling salesman, reading in small town libraries, learning English and wrote his masterpiece, Giants in the Earth in a cabin up in Northern Minnesota. Giants in the Earth came out in 1927.

Vladimir Nabokov was born in Russia, Saint Petersburg on the state in 1899. He was the son of a wealthy judge. Family lost its fortune in the Bolshevik Revolution. He settled in the United States in 1939, teaching at universities. He published the book that made his reputation in 1958, Lolita, about a middle aged man, Humbert Humbert, obsessed with a 12-year-old girl, Dolores Haze. Nabokov, who said, while I keep everything on the brink of parody, there must be, on the other hand, an abyss of seriousness. And I must make my way along this narrow ridge between my own truth and the caricature of it.

Thinking of Ole Rolvaag whose birthday is today who wrote Giants in the Earth about the homesteaders in South Dakota. Here's a poem by a rancher in South Dakota named Linda Hasselstrom. Her poem, Rancher Roulette.

It's no trick to get killed ranching.

You might get a foot caught in a stirrup when your horse bucks get dragged to death.

That's what happened to my half brother.

He was riding that ridge to the south there.

His wife found him after the storm.

Or tip the tractor over on a slope or forget to turn off the power, take off and get your pants leg caught.

That happened to a neighbor back in the 40s.

By the time his kids saw the tractor circling, he wasn't any bigger than a baseball, just wound him right around it.

Or you could get bit by a rattler fixing fence.

I killed one with my shoe once clean. Forgot that. Left my foot sort of vulnerable.

New fella ended up in a dam drowned.

Folks said he must have fell off his horse and hit his head.

But he was courting the daughter of a man who didn't like him much.

A horse can kick you in the head.

You can get hit by a bull or stomped by a cow that just calved.

I got thrown from my horse one time. Well, more than that.

But this one time, I was knocked out.

And when I woke up, my head was between two rocks.

If I'd hit either one, my head would have popped like a watermelon.

Knew a guy fell off the windmill once he was fixing it and the wind come up.

Jammed his hips up somewhere around his ears.

I damn near drowned trying to get a rope under a cow stuck in a mud hole.

She thrashed around and pushed me under.

I finally lassoed her head and drug her out that way.

She died anyway. Broke her back.

Freezing to death would be easy.

After I fell in the creek chopping ice, a damn near died before I could get 50 feet to the pickup.

It makes a person wonder if there ain't some other way to make a living.

I heard the other day, lightning struck a fella's place on his 54th birthday.

Killed 54 cows standing under a tree.

He said, I hope I don't live to be 100. I can't afford it.

A poem by Linda Hasselstrom, Rancher Roulette from Dakota Bones: The Collected Poems of Linda Hasselstrom, published by Spoon River Poetry Press and used by permission here on the Writer's Almanac for Monday, April 22, made possible by Cowles Enthusiast Media, publishers of figurines and collectibles and other magazines. Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Well, those of you who love literature will want to tune in at 9:00 tomorrow morning when we talk about the future of the book in this technological age. That's coming up tomorrow at 9:00 on Mid-Morning. At 10:00, we'll talk with Cordelia Anderson about the role of the community in preventing child abuse. That and more coming up tomorrow on Mid-Morning. Thanks for joining us today. I'm Paula Schroeder.

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JOHN RABE: I'm John Rabe. And on the next All Things Considered, Portrait of the Artist as a Soul Man, a new show at the Penumbra with Hannibal Peterson. All Things Considered, weekdays at 3:00 on the FM news station, KNOWFM 91.1.

PAULA SCHROEDER: You're listening to Minnesota Public Radio. 40 degrees at the FM news station. KNOWFM Minneapolis-Saint Paul. Winds are out of the north, gusting to 23 miles per hour right now. But we are looking for partly sunny skies and a high in the low 50s today, partly cloudy tomorrow with a high around 60 degrees.

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GARY EICHTEN: Good morning. It's 11:00 and this is Midday on the FM news station. I'm Gary Eichten. In the news this morning, the Clinton administration today is expected to outline several environmental measures to mark the 20--