Hello, I Must Be Going (song)

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“Hello, I Must Be Going” is a song from the Marx Brothers’ 1930 film Animal Crackers, written by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. It is sung by Groucho Marx, with Margaret Dumont, just before the dialogue that leads into the song “Hooray for Captain Spaulding.” The number wasn’t part of the 1928 Broadway stage version of Animal Crackers. In the film, the song—together with “Hooray for Captain Spaulding”—forms a mock grand operatic entrance for Captain Spaulding, the African explorer played by Groucho, and it expresses Spaulding’s contempt for the extravagant welcome. The song is closely associated with Groucho; a biography of him was titled Hello, I Must Be Going! He performed the piece again with Erin Fleming as the opening number of his 1972 Carnegie Hall concert. In Oliver Stone’s 1993 miniseries Wild Palms, the fifth episode was titled “Hello, I Must Be Going,” and the song is performed in the show by Senator Anton Kreutzer (Robert Loggia).