David Steinberg was spotted getting big laughs lunching at Michael’s this week while in town to appear on “Today” with Matt Lauer.
The host of Showtime’s “Inside Comedy” — who became infamous in 1968 for his satirical sermon on CBS, which got “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” canceled — recalled that at the height of that controversy, he grabbed dinner with Groucho Marx.
During their meeting at now-closed Hollywood haunt the Brown Derby, Steinberg said, he noticed “two priests walk in.”
“They saw me, but Groucho had his back to the door and his head down.”
When Steinberg — in his 20s at the time, while Marx was in his 70s — saw the men of the cloth head his way, he knew he was in for a lecture about his TV sermon. To diffuse the situation, he told the holy men, “I’d like you to meet Groucho Marx!”
The priests beamed. One told the icon, “I’d like to thank you for bringing so much joy into the world.”
Marx, “without lifting his head, or missing a beat, replied, ‘And I’d like to thank you for taking so much out,’ ” Steinberg recalled.