The basic premis of the show was based on an old parlour game. Three couples were brought onstage to be interviewed by Groucho. He would be, for once, quite serious. They were each given $20 and asked to bet as much as they dared on four questions from a category of their choice. If they won, their money would double. Therefore it was possible for couples to win either $320, go broke on the first question or finish anywhere in between. The couple with the highest total went through to the jackpot question. It was said that the contestants did not care so much about the money, they just wanted to see if they were shrewd enough to escape Groucho’s legendary verbal battering.

Much of the tension of the show revolved around whether any of the contestants, in pre-contest conversation with Groucho, would say the "secret word", a common word seemingly selected at random and revealed to the audience at the show's outset. If a contestant uttered the word, a mustachioed toy duck (wearing eyeglasses and with a cigar in its bill, resembling Groucho) would descend from the ceiling to bring the contestant some prize money; Marx would sometimes slyly direct their conversation in such a way as to encourage the word to come up.

The play of the game, however, was only secondary to the side-splitting interplay between Groucho, the contestants, and occasionally Fenneman, the show's announcer. One often-told story recounts the appearance a woman contestant who mentioned she had 17 children. Groucho asked her, "Why so many children?" The woman innocently replied, "Well, I just love my husband." Groucho shot back with raised eyebrows, "Well, I love my cigar, but I take it out of my mouth once in a while." The remark was judged too risque to be aired at the time and was edited out before broadcast, but the sound of the audience's reaction became legondary and was used by NBC for many years whenever bring-down-the-house laughter was called for in future laugh tracks.

The program was enormously successful and was rerun well into the 1960s, and later in syndication, under the title The Best of Groucho. As such, it was the first game show to have its reruns syndicated.

An absolute must-have for any old time radio collection!

# # #

HOST: Groucho Marx

ANNOUNCERS: George Fenneman, Jack Slattery

ORCHESTRA: Billy May

PRODUCERS/DIRECTORS: John Guedel, Harfield Weedin, Bob Dwan

WRITERS: Bernie Smith, Hy Freedman

THEME: ‘Hooray for Captain Spaulding’ by Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar

You Bet Your Life – 1947-1959