Quote Origin: I Never Forget a Face, But I’ll Make an Exception in Your Case

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Groucho Marx? Alan Gale? George Oppenheimer? Sidney Skolsky? Anonymous?

Question for Quote Investigator: When I am at a party I sometimes have trouble recalling the name of a person I have met before. But my recalcitrant memory has no difficulty remembering the line credited to Groucho Marx:

I never forget a face, but in your case I’d be glad to make an exception.

When I performed a search I found some other versions:

I never forget a face, but I’ll make an exception in your case.
I never forget a face—but I’m willing to make an exception in your case.

Is this a genuine Groucho joke or is it just a quip with a fake nose and glasses?

Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match known to QI appeared in “The Hollywood Reporter” in December 1935 within an article titled “Harpo, Chico, Groucho and Scenario” by screenwriter George Oppenheimer. The piece contained a Groucho-like fictional character named Lyons. The first line below was  spoken by the narrator of the article who was a fictional version of Oppenheimer. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1

“It’s funny. I’m sure I know you. I never forget a face.”
“Neither do I,” answered Lyons, “but I’m going to make an exception in  your case. Horsefeathers, second reel.”
It was useless. The man was a maniac and then I looked again. There was pain in Lyons’ eyes … real acute suffering.

“Horse Feathers” was a 1932 Marx Brothers movie, but QI has not found this line within that movie script. Oppenheimer was one of the three writers of the 1937 Marx Brothers film “A Day at the Races”.

The next match found by QI appeared in the syndicated Hollywood gossip column of Sidney Skolsky in November 1936. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:2

Groucho Marx, on meeting a prominent actress, said: “I never forget a face – but I’m going to make an exception in your case.”

QI believes Groucho Marx is the most likely creator of this jape.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

In February 1937 “The Literary Digest” published a piece about psychology and memory. Conventional advice givers have emphasized the desirability of memorization, but this article accentuated the practice of forgetting:3

It’s the art of forgetting; and all it amounts to, really, is the reverse English of memory. In fact, some psychologists find it as important as the art of memory.
Groucho Marx facetiously shows how effective it can be in his gag: “I never forget a face — but I’m going to make an exception in your case!”

A few days later, a columnist named E. V. Durling of the “Los Angeles Times” presented the same joke with a variant wording and an ascription to Groucho.4 This citation was listed in the key reference “The Yale Book of Quotations”:5

Groucho Marx. My nomination for Public Wisecracker No. 1. When and where was it Groucho said to somebody. “I never forget a face—but I’m going to make an exception in your case.”

In May 1941 the mass-circulation Reader’s Digest printed a more elaborate version of the joke supplied by a contributing writer named Hugh Pentecost. The context was specified and two lines of dialog were given:6

A celebrity hound approached Groucho Marx at a party. “You remember me, Mr. Marx. We met at the Glynthwaites’ some months ago.”
“I never forget a face,” Groucho replied, “but I’ll make an exception in your case.”

Also, in May 1941, a columnist in “The Hollywood Reporter” attributed the line to the famous actor John Barrymore although “John” was spelled as “Jawn”:7

Believe it or not, Jawn Barrymore was at a party the other night, stone sober, when an annoying drunk wobbled over to him, passed a few remarks. Barrymore paid no heed. Finally the souse said: “Look at him. A swell head. He doesn’t remember people.” Squelched Barrymore: “I never forget a face, but in your case I’m glad to make an exception.”

The Reader’s Digest version of the anecdote was disseminated further in the “Thesaurus of Anecdotes” edited by Edmund Fuller8 and in newspapers such as the Lime Springs Herald of Iowa.9

In 1944 the quotation collector Bennett Cerf reminisced in the pages of “The Saturday Review” about past shows by the Marx Brothers:10

The funniest lines usually fell to Groucho. He revived on the radio the other night his “I never forget a face—but I’m willing to make an exception in your case.”

In 1946 the comedian Joey Adams published “From Gags to Riches” which included a version of the quip that remarkably was credited to someone who was not Groucho:11

Alan Gale lets them have it with, “I never forget a face, but in your case I’ll make an exception.”

In 1949 Life magazine described remarks made by Groucho during his popular radio show “You Bet Your Life”. These lines were clearly reprised from his collection of past zingers:12

The insults are direct and paralyzing. To a tongue-tied contestant he muttered, “Either this man is dead or my watch has stopped.” To another he said thoughtfully, “I never forget a face, but in your case I am going to make an exception.”

In conclusion, QI believes that Groucho Marx coined this joke and popularized it. The earliest citation was written by screenwriter George Oppenheimer, but he put the punchline into the mouth of a Groucho-like character, and he credited a Marx Brothers movie. Other early citations pointed to Groucho, and there was no strong rival. He also seems to have used the quip on multiple occasions. There was no fixed phrasing for the quotation, but the core joke was invariant.

Acknowledgement: Thanks to Peter Morris who found  the initial  pointer to the citation in “The Hollywood Reporter”, and to Ben Zimmer who helped to clarify the details of the match.

Update History: On February 18, 2025 the format of the bibliographical notes was updated. On February 21, 2025 citations dated November 18, 1936; May 23, 1941; and December 30, 1935 (reprinted in 1962) were added to the article.

  1. 1962 Copyright, Hello, Hollywood: A Book About the Movies by the People Who Make Them, Edited by Allen Rivkin and Laura Kerr, Chapter: Harpo, Chico, Groucho and Scenario by George Oppenheimer, Note: Article reprinted from Hollywood Reporter of December 30, 1935, Start Page 287, Quote Page 288 and 289, Doubleday & Company, New York (Verified with scans) (QI has not yet directly verified the presence of this article in “The Hollywood Reporter”) ↩︎
  2. 1936 November 18, Daily News, Hollywood by Sidney Skolsky, Quote Page 62, Column 1, New York, New York. (ProQuest) ↩︎
  3. 1937 February 13, The Literary Digest, Psychology: Art of Forgetting: Magic Formula, Quote Page 29, Funk & Wagnalls Company, New York. (Unz) ↩︎
  4. 1937 February 16, Los Angeles Times, On the Side with E. V. Durling, Page A1, Los Angeles, (ProQuest) ↩︎
  5. 2006, The Yale Book of Quotations by Fred R. Shapiro, Section Julius Henry ‘Groucho’ Marx, Quote Page 498, Yale University Press, New Haven. (Verified on paper) ↩︎
  6. 1941 May, Reader’s Digest, Volume 38, Party Chatter, Quote Page 66, Column 2, The Reader’s Digest Association. (Verified on paper) ↩︎
  7. 1941 May 23, The Hollywood Reporter, Rambling Reporter by Herb Stein, Quote Page 2, Column 2, The Wilkerson Daily Corp., Los Angeles, California. (ProQuest) ↩︎
  8. 1942, Thesaurus of Anecdotes, Edited by Edmund Fuller, Section: Rudeness, Quote Page 90, Crown Publishers, New York. (Verified on paper) ↩︎
  9. 1941 April 24, Lime Springs Herald, Under the Co-Co by M.N.X., Quote Page 1, Column 5, Lime Springs, Iowa. (GenealogyBank) ↩︎
  10. 1944 April 1, The Saturday Review, Trade Winds by Bennett Cerf, Start Page 18, Quote Page 18, Saturday Review Associates, Inc., New York. (Unz) ↩︎
  11. 1946, From Gags to Riches by Joey Adams, Quote Page 111, Frederick Fell Inc., New York. (Verified on paper) ↩︎
  12. 1949 Nov 21, Life, Groucho’s Garland of Gags, Quote Page 139, Time Inc., New York. (Google Books full view) ↩︎