Groucho Marx played a major role in Sheekman's life. The two men met in the fall of 1926 when
The Marx Brothers came to Chicago on tour in their musical play,
The Cocoanuts. When Sheekman interviewed them for his column, the brothers told him that Groucho, Harpo and Chico were going "... to produce a film called
The Marx Brothers at Yale." Sheekman commented, "It was inevitable of course that Mrs. Marx's boys should be sought after as film comedians; for there are few stage buffoons who come within blocks of their talents for comedic pantomime ..." (Rather than
The Marx Brothers at Yale that turned Mrs. Marx's boys into legendary film comedians, it was
The Cocoanuts, released in August 1929.) Then again after the Broadway run of their musical play,
Animal Crackers (October 1928 – April 1929), the brothers again came to Chicago on tour. Sheekman gave Groucho his column's space, advising his readers: "On Tuesday, Mr. Groucho Marx, the comedian, will be guest conductor of this column at no increase in prices. Mr. Marx is the man who said (and is still saying in
Animal Crackers): 'It would be a happier world for children if parents ate the spinach themselves.'" The following year, the movie version of
Animal Crackers was released. Groucho wanted Sheekman to come to Hollywood and write for The Boys (as they called themselves). Instead, with Sheekman in Chicago and The Boys in Los Angeles, Sheekman did write for one of them. In 1929, a book titled
Beds was serialized in the magazine,
College Humor, then the following year was published in book form.—his credit on that first picture was "Dialog by Arthur Sheekman." Next he worked on
Horse Feathers but just with Groucho (and was uncredited). Sheekman makes an unscripted appearance in the movie as a sports writer in the press box. At this point in his career, Sheekman began a collaboration (and lasting friendship) with
Nat Perrin. Perrin was also new at writing comedy for the screen, but their chemistry clicked. In the next five years, Sheekman and Perrin came up with two original stories (
Kid Millions,
Pigskin Parade), wrote four screenplays—two for Shirley Temple, one for Eddie Cantor, (
Kid Millions,
Rose of the Rancho,
Dimples,
Stowaway) and contributed additional dialog/material to movies for The Marx Brothers and Eddie Cantor (
Duck Soup,
Roman Scandals). They also worked on the Groucho-
Chico radio series
Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel. In 1937, Sheekman and Perrin amicably agreed it was time to move on. Through the years, Groucho and Sheekman were closest friends. The two men had much in common. They had the same wry fly irreverent sense of humor, grew up struggling to support their families, were non-religious Jews with a liberal bent (Marx was a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild and Sheekman was a founding member of the Screen Writers Guild), loved to read and appreciated beautiful women. When Groucho was asked to put together a collection of his letters for Simon & Schuster, he asked Sheekman to do it for him.
The Groucho Letters: Letters to and from Groucho Marx was published in 1967. Sheekman wrote a Preface to the book but requested his name not be noted as editor. ==Non-Marxian works (1933–1961)==