TheMarx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful invaudeville, onBroadway, and in 14 motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. Five of the Marx Brothers' fourteen feature films were selected by theAmerican Film Institute (AFI) as among thetop 100 comedy films, with two of them,Duck Soup (1933) andA Night at the Opera (1935), in the top fifteen. They are widely considered by critics, scholars and fans to be among the greatest and most influential comedians of the 20th century. The brothers were included inAFI's 100 Years...100 Stars list of the 25 greatest male stars ofClassical Hollywood cinema, the only performers to be included collectively.
The brothers are almost universally known by their stage names:Chico,Harpo,Groucho,Gummo, andZeppo. There was a sixth brother, the firstborn, named Manfred (Mannie), who died in infancy; Zeppo was given the middle name Manfred in his memory.
The core of the act was the three elder brothers: Chico, Harpo, and Groucho, each of whom developed a highly distinctive stage persona. After the group essentially disbanded in 1950, Groucho went on to a successful second career in television, while Harpo and Chico appeared less prominently. The two younger brothers, Gummo and Zeppo, never developed their stage characters to the same extent as the elder three. Both left the act to pursue business careers at which they were successful, and for a time ran a large theatrical agency through which they represented their brothers and others. Gummo was not in any of the movies; Zeppo appeared in the first five films in relatively straight (non-comedic) roles. The early performing lives of the brothers owed much to their mother,Minnie Marx (the sister of vaudeville comicAl Shean), who acted as their manager until her death in 1929.
The Marx Brothers were born inNew York City, the sons of Jewish immigrants from Germany and France. Their motherMiene "Minnie" Schoenberg (professionally known as Minnie Palmer, later the brothers' manager) was fromDornum inEast Frisia. She came from a family of performers. Her mother was ayodeling harpist and her father aventriloquist; both werefunfair entertainers. Around 1880, the family emigrated to New York City, where Minnie marriedSam Marx in 1884.
Samuel ("Sam"; born Simon) Marx was a native ofMertzwiller, a smallAlsatian village, and worked as a tailor.[1][2] His name was changed to Samuel Marx, and he was nicknamed "Frenchy".[3] The family lived in New York City'sUpper East Side in theYorkville district centered in the Irish, German and Italian quarters.
The Marx Brothers also had an older sister (actually a cousin, born in January 1885) who had been adopted by Minnie and Frenchy. Her name was Pauline, or "Polly".[4]
Julius Henry Marx (Groucho, left) and Adolph Marx (Harpo) holding a rat terrier dog, c. 1906
Leonard Joseph "Chico" Marx was the eldest of the brothers, born in 1887. Adolph "Harpo" Marx was born in 1888, Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx in 1890, Milton "Gummo" Marx in 1892,[5] and the youngest, Herbert Manfred "Zeppo" Marx, in 1901.
Familylore told privately of the firstborn son, Manfred, born in 1886 but surviving for only three months, dying of tuberculosis. Some members of the Marx family wondered whether he was real, but Manfred's death certificate from the Borough of Manhattan reveals that he died, aged seven months, on July 17, 1886, ofenterocolitis, with "asthenia" contributing, i.e., probably a victim of influenza. He is buried inWashington Cemetery (Brooklyn, NY), beside his grandmother, Fanny Sophie Schönberg (née Salomons), who died on April 10, 1901.[6][7][8]
During the early 20th century, Minnie helped her younger brother Abraham Elieser Adolf Schönberg (stage nameAl Shean) to enter show business; he became highly successful invaudeville and onBroadway as half of themusical comedydouble actGallagher and Shean, and this gave the brothers an entrée to musical comedy, vaudeville and Broadway at Minnie's instigation.[9] Minnie also acted as the brothers' manager, using the name Minnie Palmer so that agents did not realize that she was also their mother. All the brothers confirmed that Minnie Marx had been the head of the family, the driving force in getting the troupe launched, and the only person who could keep them in order; she was also said to be a hard bargainer with theater management.[10][11]
As the comedy act developed, it increasingly focused on the stage characters created by the elder brothers Chico, Harpo, and Groucho, leaving little room for the younger brothers. Gummo and Zeppo both became successful businessmen: Gummo left the act early and gained success through his talent agency activities and a raincoat business,[12] Zeppo stayed with the act through its Broadway years and the beginnings of its film career, but then quit and later became a multi-millionaire through his engineering business.[13]
Al Shean, Sam J. Curtis, Arthur F. Williams, Ed C. Mack – the original Manhattan Comedy Four in "It's Nudding" 1898–991911 newspaper advertisement for a Marx Brothers appearance (l–r: Harpo, Groucho, Gummo)1913 advertisement for "Green's Reception" at the Greenwall. Left to right, Groucho, Chico, Harpo and Gummo.
The brothers were from a family of musical artists, and their talent was encouraged from an early age. Harpo was particularly talented, learning to play an estimated six different instruments throughout his career. He became a dedicated harpist, which gave him his nickname.[14] Chico was an excellent pianist, Groucho a guitarist and singer, and Zeppo a vocalist.
They got their start invaudeville, where their uncle Albert Schönberg performed asAl Shean ofGallagher and Shean. Groucho's debut was in 1905, mainly as a singer. By 1907, he and Gummo were singing together as "The Three Nightingales" withMabel O'Donnell.[15] The next year, Harpo became the fourth Nightingale and by 1910, the group briefly expanded to include their mother Minnie and their Aunt Hannah. The troupe was renamed "The Six Mascots".
One evening in 1912, a performance at the Opera House inNacogdoches, Texas, was interrupted by shouts from outside about a runaway mule. The audience hurried out to see what was happening. Groucho was angered by the interruption and, when the audience returned, he made snide comments at their expense, including "Nacogdoches is full of roaches" and "the jackass is the flower of Tex-ass". Instead of becoming angry, the audience laughed. The family then realized that it had potential as a comic troupe.[16] (However, in his autobiographyHarpo Speaks, Harpo Marx stated that the runaway mule incident occurred inAda, Oklahoma.[17] A 1930 article in theSan Antonio Express newspaper stated that the incident took place inMarshall, Texas.[18])
The act slowly evolved from singing with comedy to comedy with music. The brothers' sketch "Fun in Hi Skule" featured Groucho as a German-accented teacher presiding over a classroom that included students Harpo, Gummo, and Chico. The last version of the school act was titledHome Again and was written by their uncleAl Shean. TheHome Again tour reachedFlint, Michigan, in 1915, where 14-year-old Zeppo joined his four brothers for what is believed to be the only time that all five Marx Brothers appeared together on stage.[19] Gummo then left to serve inWorld War I, reasoning that "anything is better than being an actor!"[20] Zeppo replaced him in their final vaudeville years, continuing with his brothers toBroadway and then toParamount films.
Sheet music published in 1917 for the song "Sailing Away on the Henry Clay"; from left: Harpo, Gummo, Chico, Groucho
During World War I, anti-German sentiments were common, and the family tried to conceal its German origin. Upon Minnie Marx learning that farmers were excluded from the draft, she purchased a 27-acre (11 ha) poultry farm nearCountryside, Illinois;Stefan Kanfer wrote that "Each night, rats made off with the day's eggs."[21] During this time, Groucho discontinued his "German" stage personality.[21] In 1917, theSelective Service caught up with Marxes, and each was rejected except Gummo, who was drafted; he spent the war serving in Illinois.[21] Following this, Zeppo (the youngest brother) joined the team.[21]
By this time, "The Four Marx Brothers" had begun to incorporate their unique style of comedy into their act and to develop their characters. Both Groucho's and Harpo's memoirs say that their now-famous on-stage personae were created byAl Shean. Groucho began to wear his trademarkgreasepaint mustache and to use a stooped walk. Harpo stopped speaking onstage and began to wear a red fright wig and carry a taxi-cab horn. Chico spoke with a fake Italian accent, developed off-stage to deal with neighborhood toughs, while Zeppo adopted the role of the romantic (and "peerlessly cheesy", according toJames Agee)[22]straight man.
The on-stage personalities of Groucho, Chico, and Harpo were said to have been based on their actual traits. Zeppo, on the other hand, was considered the funniest brother offstage, despite his straight stage roles. He was the youngest and had grown up watching his brothers, so he could fill in for and imitate any of the others when illness kept them from performing. "He was so good as Captain Spaulding [inAnimal Crackers] that I would have let him play the part indefinitely, if they had allowed me to smoke in the audience", Groucho recalled. (Zeppo stood in for Groucho in the film version ofAnimal Crackers. Groucho was unavailable to film the scene in which the Beaugard painting is stolen, so the script was contrived to include a power failure, which allowed Zeppo to play the Spaulding part in near-darkness.)[23] In December 1917, the Marx brothers were noted in an advertisement playing in a musical comedy act "Home Again".[24]
By the 1920s, with their sharp and bizarre sense of humor, the Marx Brothers had become one of America's favorite theatrical acts. They satirized high society and human hypocrisy, and they became famous for theirimprovisational comedy in free-form scenarios. A famous early instance was when Harpo arranged to chase a fleeingchorus girl across the stage during the middle of a Groucho monologue, to see if Groucho would be thrown off. However, to the audience's delight, Groucho merely reacted by commenting, "First time I ever saw a taxi hail a passenger." When Harpo chased the girl back in the other direction, Groucho calmly checked his watch and ad-libbed, "The 9:20's right on time. You can set your watch by theLehigh Valley."
The brothers' vaudeville act had made them stars on Broadway under Chico's management and with Groucho's creative direction, with the musical revueI'll Say She Is (1924–1925). Its success helped secure playwrightGeorge S. Kaufman and songwriterIrving Berlin—two of Broadway's best talents—for the musical comedyThe Cocoanuts (1925–1926) and laterAnimal Crackers (1928–1929).[25]
Out of their distinctive costumes, the brothers looked alike, even down to their receding hairlines. Zeppo could pass for a younger Groucho and played the role of Groucho's son inHorse Feathers. A scene inDuck Soup finds Groucho, Harpo, and Chico all appearing in the famous greasepaint eyebrows, mustache, and round glasses while wearing nightcaps; the three are indistinguishable, enabling them to carry off the "mirror scene" perfectly.
The stage names of the brothers (except Zeppo) were coined bymonologist Art Fisher[22] during apoker game inGalesburg, Illinois,[when?] based both on the brothers' personalities andGus Mager'sSherlocko the Monk, a popularcomic strip of the day that included a supporting character named "Groucho".[26] As Fisher dealt each brother a card, he addressed them, for the first time, by the names they kept for the rest of their lives.
The reasons behind Chico's and Harpo's stage names are undisputed, and Gummo's is fairly well established. Groucho's and Zeppo's are far less clear. Arthur was named Harpo because he played the harp, and Leonard became Chico (pronounced "Chick-o") because he was, in the slang of the period, a "chicken-chaser". ("Chickens" – later "chicks" – was period slang for women. "In England now," said Groucho, "they were called 'birds'.")[27]
In his autobiography, Harpo explained that Milton became Gummo because he crept about the theater like agumshoe detective.[28] Other sources reported that Gummo was the family's hypochondriac, having been the sickliest of the brothers in childhood, and therefore worerubber overshoes, called gumshoes, in all kinds of weather. Still others reported that Milton was the troupe's best dancer, and dance shoes tended to have rubber soles.[29] Groucho stated that the source of the name was Gummo wearing galoshes. Whatever the details, the name relates to rubber-soled shoes.
The reason that Julius was named Groucho is perhaps the most disputed. There are three explanations:
Julius' temperament: Maxine, Chico's daughter and Groucho's niece, said in the documentaryThe Unknown Marx Brothers[30] that Julius was named "Groucho" simply because he was grouchy most or all of the time.Robert B. Weide, a director known for his knowledge of Marx Brothers history, said inRemarks On Marx (a documentary short included with the DVD ofA Night at the Opera) that, among the competing explanations, he found this one to be the most believable.Steve Allen said inFunny People that the name made no sense; Groucho might have been impudent and impertinent, but not grouchy – at least not around Allen. However, at the very end of his life, Groucho finally admitted that Fisher had named him Groucho because he was the "moody one".[31]
The grouch bag: This explanation appears in Harpo's biography; it was voiced by Chico in a TV appearance included onThe Unknown Marx Brothers; and it was offered byGeorge Fenneman, Groucho's sidekick on his TV game showYou Bet Your Life. A grouch bag was a small drawstring bag worn around the neck in which a traveler could keep money and other valuables so that it would be very difficult for anyone to steal them. Most of Groucho's friends and associates stated that Groucho was extremely stingy, especially after losing all his money in the1929 stock market crash, so naming him for the grouch bag may have been a comment on this trait. Groucho insisted that this was not the case in chapter six of his first autobiography:
I kept my money in a 'grouch bag'. This was a smallchamois bag that actors used to wear around their neck to keep other hungry actors from pinching their dough. Naturally, you're going to think that's where I got my name from. But that's not so. Grouch bags were worn on manly chests long before there was a Groucho.[32]
Groucho's explanation: Groucho himself insisted that he was named for a character in the comic stripKnocko the Monk, which inspired the craze for nicknames ending in "o"; in fact, there was a character in that strip named "Groucho". However, he is theonly Marx or Marx associate who defended this theory and, as he is not an unbiased witness, few biographers take the claim seriously. Groucho himself was no help on this point; he was discussing the Brothers' names during hisCarnegie Hall concert, and he said of his own, "My name, of course, I never did understand." He goes on to mention the possibility that he was named after his unemployed uncle Julius, who lived with his family. The family believed that he was a rich uncle hiding a fortune, and Groucho claimed that he may have been named after him by the family trying to get into the will. "And he finally died, and he left us his will, and in that will he left three razor blades, an 8-ball, a celluloid dicky, and he owed my father $85 beside."[27]
Herbert was not nicknamed by Art Fisher, since he did not join the act until Gummo had departed. As with Groucho, three explanations exist for Herbert's name "Zeppo":
Harpo's explanation: Harpo said inHarpo Speaks! that the brothers had named Herbert for Mr. Zippo, achimpanzee that was part of another performer's act. Herbert found the nickname very unflattering, and when it came time for him to join the act, he put his foot down and refused to be called "Zippo". The brothers compromised on "Zeppo".
Chico's explanation: Chico never wrote an autobiography and gave fewer interviews than his brothers, but his daughter Maxine said inThe Unknown Marx Brothers that, when the brothers lived in Chicago, a popular style of humor was the "Zeke and Zeb" joke, which made fun of slow-witted Midwesterners in much the same way thatBoudreaux and Thibodeaux jokes mockCajuns andOle and Lena jokes mockMinnesotans. One day, Chico returned home to find Herbert sitting on the fence. Herbert greeted him by saying "Hi, Zeke!" Chico responded with "Hi, Zeb!" and the name stuck. The brothers thereafter called him "Zeb" and, when he joined the act, they floated the idea of "Zebbo", eventually preferring "Zeppo".
Groucho's explanation: In a tape-recorded interview excerpted onThe Unknown Marx Brothers, Groucho said that Zeppo was so named because he was born when the firstzeppelins started crossing the ocean. He stated this in his Carnegie Hall concert, around 1972. The first zeppelin flew in July 1900, and Herbert wasborn seven months later in February 1901. However,the first transatlantic zeppelin flight was not until 1924, long after Herbert's birth.
Maxine Marx reported inThe Unknown Marx Brothers that the brothers listed theirreal names (Julius, Leonard, Adolph, Milton, and Herbert) on playbills and in programs, and only used the nicknames behind the scenes, untilAlexander Woollcott overheard them calling one another by the nicknames. He asked them why they used their real names publicly when they had such wonderful nicknames, and they replied, "That wouldn't be dignified." Woollcott answered with a belly laugh. Woollcott did not meet the Marx Brothers until the premiere ofI'll Say She Is, which was their first Broadway show, so this would mean that they used their real names throughout their vaudeville days, and that the name "Gummo" never appeared in print during his time in the act. Other sources reported that the Marx Brothers went by their nicknames during their vaudeville era, but briefly listed themselves by their given names whenI'll Say She Is opened because they were worried that a Broadway audience would reject a vaudeville act if they were perceived as low class.[33]
Humor Risk (1921), now long-lost, was the first Marx Brothers' film. Pictured in a photograph the same year, from (left to right), areZeppo,Groucho,Harpo, andChico.
The Marx Brothers' stage shows became popular just as motion pictures were evolving to "talkies". They signed a contract withParamount Pictures and embarked on their film career at Paramount's studios in New York City'sAstoria section. Their first two released films (after an unreleased short silent film titledHumor Risk) were adaptations of the Broadway showsThe Cocoanuts (1929) andAnimal Crackers (1930). Both were written byGeorge S. Kaufman andMorrie Ryskind.
Production then shifted to Hollywood, beginning with a short film that was included in Paramount's twentieth anniversary documentary,The House That Shadows Built (1931), in which they adapted a scene fromI'll Say She Is. Their third feature-length film,Monkey Business (1931), was their first movie not based on a stage production.
The Marx Brothers on the cover ofTime (volume 20 issue 7, August 15, 1932)
Horse Feathers (1932), in which the brothers satirized the American college system andProhibition, was their most popular film yet, and won them the cover ofTime magazine.[34] It included a running gag from their stage work, in which Harpo produces a ludicrous array of props from inside his coat, including a wooden mallet, a fish, a coiled rope, a tie, a poster of a woman in her underwear, a cup of hot coffee, a sword and (just after Groucho warns him that he "can't burn the candle at both ends") a candle burning at both ends.
During this period Chico and Groucho starred in a radio comedy series,Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel. Though the series was short lived, much of the material developed for it was used in subsequent films. The show's scripts and recordings were believed lost until copies of the scripts were found in theLibrary of Congress in the 1980s. After publication in a book they were performed with Marx Brothers' impersonators forBBC Radio.[35]
Their last Paramount film,Duck Soup (1933), directed by the highly regardedLeo McCarey, is the highest rated of the five Marx Brothers films on theAmerican Film Institute's "100 years ... 100 Movies" list. It did not do as well financially asHorse Feathers, but was the sixth-highest grosser of 1933. The film sparked a dispute between the Marxes and the village ofFredonia, New York. "Freedonia" was the name of a fictional country in the script, and the city fathers wrote to Paramount and asked the studio to remove all references to Freedonia because "it is hurting our town's image". Groucho fired back a sarcastic retort asking them to change the name of their town, because "it's hurting our picture".[36]
On March 11, 1933, the Marx Brothers founded a production company, the "International Amalgamated Consolidated Affiliated World Wide Film Productions Company Incorporated, of North Dakota".[37]
After expiration of the Paramount contract Zeppo left the act to become an agent. He and brother Gummo went on to build one of the biggest talent agencies in Hollywood, working with the likes ofJack Benny andLana Turner. Groucho and Chico did radio, and there was talk of returning to Broadway. At abridge game with Chico,Irving Thalberg began discussing the possibility of the Marxes joiningMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer. They signed, now billed in films before the title as "Groucho — Chico — Harpo — Marx Bros", with the same ordering in the cast list.[38]
Unlike the free-for-all scripts at Paramount, Thalberg insisted on a strong story structure that made the brothers more sympathetic characters, interweaving their comedy with romantic plots and non-comic musical numbers, and targeting their mischief-making at obvious villains. Thalberg was adamant that scripts include a "low point", where all seems lost for both the Marxes and the romantic leads. He instituted the innovation of testing the film's script before live audiences before filming began, to perfect the comic timing, and to retain jokes that earned laughs and replace those that did not. Thalberg restored Harpo's harp solos and Chico's piano solos, which had been omitted fromDuck Soup.
The Three Marx Brothers photo byYousuf Karsh, 1948
The first Marx Brothers/Thalberg film wasA Night at the Opera (1935), a satire on the world of opera, where the brothers help two young singers in love by throwing a production ofIl Trovatore into chaos. The film, including its famous scene where an absurd number of people crowd into a tiny stateroom on a ship, was a great success. It was followed two years later by an even bigger hit,A Day at the Races (1937), in which the brothers cause mayhem in a sanitarium and at a horse race. The film features Groucho and Chico's famous "Tootsie Frootsie Ice Cream" sketch. In a 1969 interview withDick Cavett, Groucho said that the two movies made with Thalberg were the best that they ever produced. Despite the Thalberg films' success, the brothers left MGM in 1937; Thalberg had died suddenly on September 14, 1936, two weeks after filming began onA Day at the Races, leaving the Marxes without an advocate at the studio.
After a short experience atRKO (Room Service, 1938), the Marx Brothers returned to MGM and made three more films:At the Circus (1939),Go West (1940) andThe Big Store (1941). Prior to the release ofThe Big Store the team announced they were retiring from the screen. Four years later, however, Chico persuaded his brothers to make two additional films,A Night in Casablanca (1946) andLove Happy (1949), to alleviate his severe gambling debts.[39] Both pictures were released byUnited Artists.
From the 1940s onward Chico and Harpo appeared separately and together in nightclubs and casinos. Chico fronted abig band, the Chico Marx Orchestra (with 17-year-oldMel Tormé as a vocalist). Groucho made several radio appearances during the 1940s and starred inYou Bet Your Life, which ran from 1947 to 1961 onNBC radio and television. He authored several books, includingGroucho and Me (1959),Memoirs of a Mangy Lover (1964) andThe Groucho Letters (1967).
Groucho and Chico briefly appeared in a 1957 color short film promotingThe Saturday Evening Post entitledShowdown at Ulcer Gulch, directed by animatorShamus Culhane, Chico's son-in-law. Groucho, Chico, and Harpo worked together (in separate scenes) inThe Story of Mankind (1957). In 1959, the three began production ofDeputy Seraph, a TV series starring Harpo and Chico as blundering angels, and Groucho (in every third episode) as their boss, the "Deputy Seraph". The project was abandoned when Chico was found to be uninsurable (and incapable of memorizing his lines) due to severearteriosclerosis. On March 8 of that year, Chico and Harpo starred as bumbling thieves inThe Incredible Jewel Robbery, a half-hour pantomimed episode of theGeneral Electric Theater on CBS. Groucho made a cameo appearance (uncredited, because of constraints in his NBC contract) in the last scene, and delivered the only line of dialogue ("We won't talk until we see our lawyer!").
The five brothers, just prior to their only television appearance together, on theTonight! America After Dark, hosted by Jack Lescoulie, February 18, 1957. From left: Harpo, Zeppo, Chico, Groucho, and Gummo.
According to a September 1947 article inNewsweek, Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo all signed to appear as themselves in a biographical film entitledThe Life and Times of the Marx Brothers. In addition to being a non-fiction biography of the Marxes, the film would have featured the brothers re-enacting much of their previously unfilmed material from both their vaudeville and Broadway eras. The film, had it been made, would have been the first performance by the Brothers as a quartet since 1933.
The five brothers made only one television appearance together, in 1957, on an early incarnation ofThe Tonight Show calledTonight! America After Dark, hosted byJack Lescoulie. Five years later (October 1, 1962) after Jack Paar's tenure, Groucho made a guest appearance to introduce theTonight Show's new host,Johnny Carson.[40]
Around 1960, acclaimed directorBilly Wilder considered writing and directing a new Marx Brothers film. Tentatively titledA Day at the U.N., it was to be a comedy of international intrigue set around the United Nations building in New York. Wilder had discussions with Groucho and Gummo, but the project was put on hold because of Harpo's ill health, and abandoned when Chico died on October 11, 1961, fromarteriosclerosis,[41] at the age of 74. Three years later, Harpo died on September 28, 1964, at the age of 75, following a heart attack one day afterheart surgery.
In 1969, audio excerpts of dialogue from all five of the Marx Brothers' Paramount films were collected and released on an LP album,The Original Voice Tracks from Their Greatest Movies, byDecca Records. The excerpts were interspersed with voice-over introductions by disc jockey and voice actorGary Owens.[44] The album was praised byBillboard as "a program of zany antics"; the magazine highlighted the excerpts of Groucho, who was "way ahead of his time in spoofing the 'establishment', [and] at his hilarious biting best with his film soundtrack one-line zingers on his love life, his son, politics, big business, society, etc.".[45]Village Voice criticRobert Christgau was less enthusiastic, however, grading the LP a C-plus and recommending it only to fanatics of the comedy group, also expressing displeasure with the interspersing of small portions of "annoying music" and Owens's commentary.[46]
In 1970, the four Marx Brothers had a brief reunion of sorts in the animatedABC television specialThe Mad, Mad, Mad Comedians, produced byRankin-Bass animation (ofRudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer fame). The special featured animated re-workings of various famous comedians' acts, includingW. C. Fields,Jack Benny,George Burns,Henny Youngman,the Smothers Brothers,Flip Wilson,Phyllis Diller,Jack E. Leonard,George Jessel and the Marx Brothers. Most of the comedians provided their own voices for their animated counterparts, except for Fields and Chico Marx (both of whom had died) and Zeppo Marx (who had left show business in 1933). Voice actorPaul Frees filled in for all three (no voice was needed for Harpo). The Marx Brothers' segment was a re-working of a scene from their Broadway playI'll Say She Is, a parody ofNapoleon that Groucho considered among the brothers' funniest routines. The sketch featured animated representations – if not the voices – of all four brothers.Romeo Muller is credited as having written special material for the show, but the script for the classic "Napoleon Scene" was probably supplied by Groucho.
InThe Way We Were (1973) the main characters attend a party, dressed as the Marx Brothers.[68] The realGroucho Marx also visited the set, of which a photograph was taken by David F. Smith.[69]
Woody Allen is a staunch Marx Brothers fan, and frequently references them in his films. InTake the Money and Run (1969) Virgil's parents give an interview while wearing Groucho masks.[70]Annie Hall (1977) starts off with a Groucho Marx joke, which is referred to again later.[70] InManhattan (1979), he names the Marx Brothers as the first thing that makes life worth living.[70] InStardust Memories there is a huge Groucho poster in the main character's flat.[70] InHannah and Her Sisters (1986), Woody's character, after a suicide attempt, is inspired to go on living after seeing a revival showing ofDuck Soup. InEveryone Says I Love You (1996) (the title itself a reference to Groucho's famous song), Woody Allen andGoldie Hawn dress as Groucho for a Marx Brothers celebration in France, and the song "Hooray for Captain Spaulding", fromAnimal Crackers, is performed, with various actors dressed as the brothers, striking poses famous to Marx fans. (The film itself is named after a song fromHorse Feathers, a version of which plays over the opening credits.)[70] InMighty Aphrodite Woody suggests Harpo and Groucho as names for his son.[70]
In the 1989 filmIndiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Professor Henry Jones (Sean Connery) mails his diary to his sonIndiana Jones (Harrison Ford) to keep it out of Nazi hands. When Indy misconstrues the purpose of being sent it and returns it to his father instead, his father berates him by saying "I should have mailed it to the Marx Brothers!"[70]
Danny DeVito's Jersey Films planned to make a movie about the early lives of the Marx Brothers.[72]
InRob Zombie's 2003 filmHouse of 1000 Corpses, the clown Captain Spaulding, as well as many other characters, are named after various Marx brothers characters. In the sequel,The Devil's Rejects, a Marx Brothers expert is brought in to try to help the police get in to the minds of the fugitives who use their character names.[70]
Tex Avery's cartoonHollywood Steps Out (1941) features appearances by Harpo and Groucho.[74]Bugs Bunny impersonated Groucho Marx in the 1947 cartoonSlick Hare (withElmer Fudd dressing up as Harpo and chasing him with a cleaver),[70] and inWideo Wabbit (1956) he again impersonated Groucho hosting a TV show called "You Beat Your Wife", askingElmer Fudd if he had stopped beating his wife.[75]
Many television shows and movies have used Marx Brothers references.Animaniacs andTiny Toons, for example, have featured Marx Brothers jokes and skits.[76][47][77]
TheGenie imitates the Marx Brothers in bothAladdin andAladdin and the King of Thieves.Robin Williams, who voiced the Genie in both films, would do impersonations of Groucho during his stand-up routines, calling him a major source of inspiration for his comedy.[73]
Harpo Marx appeared as himself on a 1955 episode ofI Love Lucy in which first, he performed "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" on his harp, then, he andLucille Ball reprised the mirror routine fromDuck Soup, with Lucy dressed up as Harpo.[78] Lucy had worked with the Marxes when she appeared in a supporting role in an earlier Marx Brothers film,Room Service. Chico once appeared onI've Got a Secret dressed up as Harpo; his secret was shown in a caption reading, "I'm pretending to be Harpo Marx (I'm Chico)".
Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda) onM*A*S*H occasionally put on a fake nose and glasses, and, holding a cigar, did a Groucho impersonation to amuse patients recovering from surgery. Early episodes also featured a singing and off-scene character named Captain Spaulding as a tribute.
In theAirwolf episode "Condemned", four anti-virus formulae for a deadly plague were named after the four Marx Brothers.
InAll in the Family, Rob Reiner often did imitations of Groucho, and Sally Struthers dressed as Harpo in one episode in which she (as Gloria Stivic) and Rob (as Mike Stivic) were going to a Marx Brothers film festival, with Reiner dressing as Groucho.
In an episode ofThe Mary Tyler Moore Show, Murray calls the new station owner at home late at night to complain when the song "Hooray for Captain Spaulding" is cut from a showing ofAnimal Crackers because of the new owner's policy to cut more and more from shows to sell more ad time, putting his job on the line.
In 1990, three puppets were made of Groucho, Harpo and Chico for the satirical TV showSpitting Image. They were later used to portray the hunters in a 1994 TV production ofPeter and the Wolf, withSting as narrator and puppets from the series as characters.[70]
The Marx Brothers' early years were chronicled in the 1970 Broadway musicalMinnie's Boys.[81] The show received a brief Off-Broadway revival in 2008.[82]
A reconstructed version of the brothers' first Broadway musical,I'll Say She Is, was produced off-Broadway in June 2016. The other two Marx Brothers Broadway shows,The Cocoanuts andAnimal Crackers, have occasionally been revived by regional theater companies.
Harpo Marx is depicted on the cover of the albumEverybody's in Show-Biz by The Kinks in 1972. Early versions of the record showed Groucho, but as he was still alive at the time, he was replaced on later pressings with Harpo, who had died in 1964 and wouldn't require clearance.
The bandSparks had originally been named The Sparks Brothers, as a reference to The Marx Brothers. The recent Edgar Wright documentaryThe Sparks Brothers retains this title.
In theVlasic Pickles commercials, the stork associated with the product holds a pickle the way Groucho held a cigar and, in a Groucho voice, says, "Now that's the best tastin' pickle I ever heard!" and bites into the pickle.[73]
In February 1933, Chico, Groucho, Harpo, and Zeppo were honored with a block in the forecourt ofGrauman's Chinese Theatre.
In the1974 Academy Awards telecast,Jack Lemmon presented Groucho with an honoraryAcademy Award to a standing ovation. The award was also on behalf of Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo, whom Lemmon mentioned by name. It was one of Groucho's final major public appearances. "I wish that Harpo and Chico could be here to share with me this great honor", he said, naming the two deceased brothers (Zeppo was still alive at the time and in the audience). Groucho also praised the lateMargaret Dumont as a great straight woman who never understood any of his jokes.
The Marx Brothers were collectively named No. 20 onAFI's list of theTop 25 American male screen legends of Classic Hollywood. They are the only group to be so honored.
^1900 Census shows birth year as Oct 1892 and his WWI draft registration says Oct 21, 1892, Roll #1613143, on his death certificate and his grave the year 1893 is given.
^Adamson, Joe (1973).Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Sometimes Zeppo: A Celebration of the Marx Brothers. New York: Simon and Schuster. pp. 6–8.ISBN978-0-340-18807-1.
^Louvish, S. (1999). 'Monkey business: The lives and legends of the Marx Brothers: Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Zeppo with added Gummo.' London: Faber & Faber.
^Marx, Groucho (2007).The Groucho letters : letters from and to Groucho Marx (1st Simon & Schuster trade paperback ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster Papberbacks.ISBN9781416536031.OCLC148843246.
^Hollywood Reporter Archives (March 11, 2020)."Today in 1933".@THRArchives. Twitter.Archived from the original on August 21, 2022. RetrievedAugust 21, 2022.Today in 1933: The Marx Brothers launch a production company named the "International Amalgamated Consolidated Affiliated World Wide Film Productions Company Incorporated, of North Dakota"
^Gore, Chris (1999).The Fifty Greatest Movies Never Made, New York: St. Martin's Griffin.
^Scheimer, Lou; Mangels, Andy (2012).Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation. Raleigh, NC: Two Morrows Publishing. p. 51.ISBN978-1-60549-044-1.
^abcdeHahn, Matthew (November 15, 2017)."The Animated Marx Brothers". BearManor Media.Archived from the original on April 7, 2022. RetrievedApril 14, 2019 – via Google Books.
^Hahn, Matthew (November 15, 2017)."The Animated Marx Brothers". BearManor Media.Archived from the original on April 7, 2022. RetrievedApril 14, 2019 – via Google Books.
^Hahn, Matthew (November 15, 2017)."The Animated Marx Brothers". BearManor Media.Archived from the original on April 4, 2023. RetrievedApril 14, 2019 – via Google Books.
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