Three of the silver screen’s most iconic celebrities — Groucho Marx, James Dean, and Marilyn Monroe — square off in Johnny Legend’s highly entertaining collection of appearances from the golden era of television: Groucho! James Dean! And Marilyn!
The DVD begins with an introduction by Johnny Legend himself, and kicks off with the premiere episode of Groucho Marx’s famous You Bet Your Life from late 1949. Making the transition from their live radio show to a live TV series, 
this rare pilot shows Groucho and co-host George Fenneman doing their best to settle into their new, unfamiliar medium as stagehands come into frame to adjust mic stands and nobody seems to remember that there‘s a camera there. Contestants seem even more nervous than usual, prompting them to say the most unintentionally funny things — which only adds fuel to the fire with the ad-libbing maestro Groucho around (the second pair of guests, the carhop and married man, will have you rolling on the floor in tears).
Following the You Bet Your Life pilot is an episode of The Jack Benny Show from 1955, “You Bet Your Sweet Benny,” wherein Jack (another comedic icon) goes on Groucho’s show in disguise in order to win the prize money (naming off every single item in his house in order to guess the secret word) — and both funnymen give each other the goods…but good!
After nearly an hour-and-a-half of laughing at Groucho and Jack Benny, it’d be best to give your funny bone a rest, and thankfully, Johnny Legend chooses that time to break away to a more serious outing: a seldom-seen episode of the anthology series Campbell Playhouse (aka Campbell Soundstage) from 1953 entitled “Something For An Empty Briefcase” and starring a young James Dean, who was just two years away from achieving immortality in East Of Eden and Rebel Without A Cause. The story has James as a smalltime thug named Joe who yearns for something better in life — and that something better comes along in the guise of a young woman (Susan Douglas Rubes) who introduces him to the Bible. The original Campbell’s Soup commercials are included for vintage TV enthusiasts.
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