Marx Brothers: A Family Odyssey

The Marx Brothers--Chico, Harpo, Groucho, and (in their first five movies) Zeppo--arguably the greatest comedy team in film history, owed their entire careers to their family. They inherited show-business interests and skills from their maternal grandparents, who had been itinerant performers in Germany, and from their uncle Al Shean, a famous vaudevillian. The boys' mother, Minnie, molded them into a team and put them on the stage, continuing to manage and advise them long after they were grown men. The brothers themselves retained a deep affection for each other throughout their lives, and in their performances their united battle against conventional society forged a remarkable artistic teamwork despite the appearance of anarchy in their wild comic style.

The Marx Brothers have never been surpassed in the breadth of their comedic range. They combined nonsense, slapstick, satire, pantomime, black humor, and witty dialogue. At the heart of their comedy was their refusal to be controlled by the pompous powers of convention.

The boys grew up in a Jewish family steeped in show-business experiences. Their maternal grandparents, Levy (also known as Lafe) and Fanny Schönberg, had led a traveling theatrical troupe in Germany. With the town of Dornum as their base, they toured the German countryside in their theater wagon, Levy performing as a magician and ventriloquist and Fanny as a harpist. They had eleven children, eight of whom survived past childhood. The youngsters, too, joined the troupe, and three of them, in particular, became hooked on show business: Hannah, Miene, and Adolf.

In the 1870s the family immigrated to the United States, settling in New York City, where Levy became known as Louis and the spelling of the family name eventually changed to Schoenberg. Louis and Fanny spoke little English and soon retired. Their children went to work, mostly in garment factories.

Miene anglicized her name to Minna and then Minnie. She was working in a sweatshop in 1884 when she married the tailor Sam Marx. Sam had immigrated to America in 1881 from Alsace-Lorraine (a French region ceded to German control in 1871). Originally named Simon Marrix, he changed his first name to Sam and his last name to Marx (because his cousin who had sponsored Sam's immigration had already adopted that surname). Minnie's parents moved in with her and Sam, and for years to come many other relatives stayed for prolonged periods of time with the family.

Minnie and Sam had six sons. The first, Manfred, died in infancy in 1886. The births of the other sons, all in New York City, were as follows: Leonard (later Chico) on March 22, 1887 (some sources, such as Chico's daughter, give August 1887, but there was no birth certificate to prove either date); Adolph (later Arthur and then Harpo) on November 23, 1888; Julius Henry (later Groucho) on October 2, 1890; Milton (later Gummo) on October 23, 1892; and Herbert (later Zeppo) on February 25, 1901. Milton appeared onstage with his brothers in their early years but left the team before they began making films.

The boys loved their gentle father, Sam. Even though he had been born in a French region, he rejected all things French. Consequently his sons, already imbued with a sense of irony, playfully called him Frenchy. Sam had no head for business, and he had a difficult time earning a living at tailoring or anything else. He usually retreated to the kitchen and did the family cooking.

The real power in the family belonged to Minnie. She not only made the important household decisions but also gave a theatrical ambience to her sons' early lives through her flamboyant personality and her private performances of songs, skits, and comic impersonations. She had, in fact, adopted the name Minnie in homage to Minnie Maddern, a Broadway star.

The boys were also influenced by Minnie's parents, who continued to live with the family. Their grandfather regaled the youngsters with magic shows and with tales of theatrical life in Germany. His cockeyed sense of humor had a lasting effect on his grandsons. Another household fixture was Aunt Hannah, Minnie's older sister and a gifted singer.

But the boys' principal role model was their mother's brother Adolf, who in America took the name Al Shean. In the 1890s and early 1900s, he appeared in various vaudeville acts as a singer and comic. He reached the top echelon of vaudeville stardom during two stints (1910-12 and 1920-25) with his partner Ed Gallagher. When Al visited the family, he always gave money to his little nephews, and when he left their home, he would toss a hundred pennies into the air so that the neighborhood children could scramble for the coins. Uncle Al's money, stage performances, and glamorous lifestyle were strong lures to the young Marxes.

None of the boys lasted long in school or on their early jobs. With their mother, their grandparents, and their uncle as living examples of the life fantastic, the Marx brothers developed a penchant for offbeat, nonstructured behavior. As youngsters they were already well on their way to becoming as freewheeling in real life as they would be on the screen in later years.

Because her first son, Manfred, had died so young, Minnie gave all her unconditional love to her next boy, Leonard, or Leo (Chico). As a result he was the most psychologically secure of the brothers, and he absorbed his mother's great sense of self-confidence. However, instead of applying that confidence to schoolwork or jobs, he took it to the streets, becoming forever entangled in escapades involving gambling debts and girls. To pay debts, he sometimes pawned his father's tailoring work, even the scissors. To dodge trouble, he learned how to cover up his true identity by using German, Irish, Italian, and other accents. This ruse was the beginning of the Italian accent that Leo later used in vaudeville and in films.

Adolph, who later changed his name to Arthur (Harpo), inherited his mother's kindliness. He was always puckish and good-natured. One of his favorite childhood pastimes was to peer through the window of a cigar shop where a cigar roller named Gookie, while intent on his work, unintentionally created a weird expression on his face. Adolph, standing outside the shop, would imitate the expression, puffing out his cheeks and crossing his widened eyes. The cigar roller would chase the kid away. In all his stage and screen performances, Adolph would pull this face, which he called a "Gookie."

Milton (Gummo) endured a lot of ribbing from his brothers because of his lifelong hypochondria. Young Herbert (Zeppo) was beginning to follow in Chico's footsteps as a gambler and practical joker.

Julius Henry (Groucho) had plenty to grouch about from early in his life. While his two older brothers, as youngsters, were blond (like their mother) and attractive, he had dark, kinky hair, a prominent nose, and an eye affliction in which one eye looked straight ahead while the other looked off to one side. Minnie was frankly troubled by his appearance and gave less affection to him than to his brothers.

Probably because of that deprivation, he tended to be a loner and brooder. Unlike his brothers he was not interested in cards, pool, or other activities enjoyed by the street-oriented kids in the neighborhood. His tastes were already intellectual. He read voraciously, especially success stories. Because he did not have the security of automatic love from his mother, he longed for the substitute security of financial success. At first he dreamed of attaining such success by becoming a medical doctor. But that was the slow way. The quick way was the familiar one: show business. It is not surprising, then, that he would become the first of the brothers to pursue a serious career on the professional stage.

In 1905 Julius answered a classified ad for a boy singer. He got the job and briefly toured with the Leroy Trio. Minnie, thrilled at the chance to be part of show business again, became his unofficial agent, obtaining various singing jobs for him. The highlight in this period of his career was his stint with the famous vaudeville kid act of Gus Edwards, who discovered such future stars as Eddie Cantor, George Jessel, and Eleanor Powell. Julius also had a part in a melodrama as a wisecracking office boy.

In 1907 Minnie made a decision that had a dramatic effect on the history of American entertainment. She became determined that her sons would band together and carry on the family's show-business tradition.

To start with, she convinced a theatrical acquaintance, Ned Wayburn, to sponsor a singing trio called the Three Nightingales, consisting of Julius, Milton, and Mable O'Donnell (selected by Wayburn). Later the act expanded to Four Nightingales: Adolph, Julius, Milton, and Lou Levy. Adolph inherited his grandmother's talent on the harp, but he also learned a couple of tunes on the piano, having been taught by Leo, who had received formal lessons. Minnie, the Nightingales' manager, plucked Adolph out of a nickelodeon, where he was working as a pianist, and joined him with his two brothers in the family singing group.

The Nightingales toured from 1907 to 1910. During that time Minnie moved the family to Chicago, Illinois, the center of the vaudeville circuits that the group played.

Though the act remained basically a singing routine, the boys gradually added comedy bits to their performances. The most important move in that direction occurred one memorable day in Nacogdoches, Texas. While they were performing in an outdoor theater, a mule caused a nearby disturbance. Most of the audience went out to watch the mule. When some of the people straggled back, the boys--furious at being upstaged by a mule--hurled insults at the audience. Julius, for example, quipped, "Nacogdoches is full of roaches." The audience loved the "jokes" and laughed hysterically.

After the Nightingales ran their course, Minnie formed a new singing-dancing group, the Six Mascots, with Adolph, Julius, Milton, and three others. At first the act included two young women. When they quit, Minnie herself and her sister Hannah replaced them onstage. The act was short-lived.

In 1910 the team hit its full stride when it developed a comedy schoolroom show, a popular format at that time. Julius played the schoolmaster, while Adolph, Milton, and nonfamily members completed the cast. The team, billed as the Three Marx Brothers, enjoyed steady bookings over the next few years.

During that time, Herbert was too young to join his brothers onstage. Leo had long ago struck out on his own and engaged in a wide variety of pursuits. He worked as a wrestler, a prizefighter, a pool hustler, a songplugger, and a nickelodon, brothel, and vaudeville pianist. When he and his friend Arthur Gordon formed a vocal duo, Minnie took over their management and changed their billing to Marx and Gordoni (her reasoning being that Italians were well known as singers). Later Gordon was replaced by Lou Shean (Leo's cousin) and then George Lee.

For professional purposes, Minnie assumed the name Minnie Palmer, which was also the name of a popular vaudeville performer of that time. The confusion, Minnie Marx believed, would be good for business.

In 1912 Leo finally joined the rest of the family in the vaudeville schoolroom act. The billing was now the Four Marx Brothers and Company. His addition to the team proved to be the catalyst needed to propel the act to stardom, not only because of his stage presence but also because of his business savvy.

He was the first to recognize that the team had real talent. The contented Adolph tended to be complaisant, while Julius's dark moods prevented him from taking a role of positive leadership. Leo freshened up the act with new material and convinced his brothers that they were really good. His optimism lifted their energy level and pushed them to reach their potential.

On the management side of things, Leo saw a real problem with what his mother was doing. While out on his own, he had seen how professional managers negotiated deals. Minnie's amateurish techniques, he realized, inhibited the boys' progress. She often bribed booking agents with Frenchy's cooking or with goods from his tailoring shop. In essence, she was bargaining from a position of weakness. Leo wanted to bargain from strength by letting the act prove its value on the stage and then demanding appropriate bookings and fees. He subtly persuaded her to stay home--after all, little Herbert needed his mother--and let Leo deal with bookers and producers, but he protected her feelings by informally consulting her on every deal that he arranged.

The boys performed many different skits at various times in their vaudeville career, including several versions of the schoolroom act. Al Shean, who provided his nephews with financial help and theatrical advice during their lean years, wrote one version, Home Again (1914).

The brothers had a great sense of camaraderie, and no matter how wild their individual antics became onstage they developed no bitter rivalries or jealousies. One brother might run up and down the theater aisles. Another might ride up and down with the stage curtain. Others might climb up and down the backdrops or engage in shouting matches and "fights." But no brother took offense at another's ad-libs. All the brothers were equally free to wing it. That freedom was the essence of what they were, and they knew it.

Up to 1914 the boys were still known by their original given names, except Adolph, who, a few years earlier, had started calling himself Arthur. During a 1914 poker game in Galesburg, Illinois, they acquired the stage names by which they would become famous. They and their poker partner, a monologist named Art Fisher, noted that a series of popular comic-strip characters called Knocko the Monk, Braggo the Monk, Tightwaddo the Monk, Sherlocko the Monk, and others had spawned a national craze of "-o" names based on dominant personality traits, such as the vaudeville names Nervo and Henpecko. Fisher applied the same naming system to the Marxes. He called Leo, known for his success in chasing young women, or chicks, Chicko (the k was later accidentally dropped by a typesetter, and the name became Chico, though the first syllable was still pronounced chick, not cheek). Adolph/Arthur, the harpist, became Harpo. Julius was named Groucho, according to various Marx brothers and associates, because of his irritable disposition, because of the "grouch bag" in which he carried his money, or because of a comic-strip character named Groucho. Milton, who wore gumshoes to help ward off colds, was henceforth Gummo (in later years Harpo claimed that Milton became Gummo because he crept about the theater like a detective, or gumshoe).

During World War I, Minnie dreaded having her boys drafted into the army to fight against Germany, her native country. She heard that persons engaged in certain vital industries, such as agriculture, were exempt from the draft, so she prodded her sons into buying a farm near Chicago. However, after making the purchase, they discovered that the farm was unnecessary. Four of the boys were already exempt: Chico was over the draft age, Harpo had albuminuria (a kidney problem), Groucho had poor eyesight, and Zeppo was too young. Ironically, it was the hypochondriac Gummo who, no longer interested in a stage career, enlisted in the army. Later, after leaving the army, he never returned to the act. His place was taken by the youngest brother, Herbert, who acquired his stage name, Zeppo, from one of three sources: Zeb, a rustic nickname that Chico jokingly applied to his youngest brother during their farm years (according to Chico's daughter, Maxine); Zippo the chimpanzee, a circus performer known, like Herbert, for his athletic prowess (according to Harpo); or zeppelin, a type of airship that was becoming popular at that time (according to Groucho).

Throughout the rest of the 1910s, the Marx Brothers continued to grow in popularity. In 1919 the family moved back to New York City, where in that year they made it to the prestigious Palace Theater. Soon they were the biggest attraction in all of vaudeville.

Up to that time, Minnie had handled all the family finances. She collected her sons' paychecks and doled out allowances. But by 1920 the three oldest boys were in their thirties. Groucho was ready to start a family, and he, the one with the strongest monetary incentive to go into show business in the first place, wanted his financial independence. It was at that point, with money as the principal issue, that Groucho became the primary authority figure in the family. Chico, because of his charm, continued to be the main contract negotiator, but he was too wrapped up with women and gambling to pay consistent attention to family matters. Groucho stabilized the family with his practical, businesslike decisions. He informed Minnie that from now on the boys would control their own money. He himself largely decided for his brothers how much of an allowance they would give their parents.

Through Chico's efforts, the boys entered a new phase in their career when they were engaged to perform in the musical revue I'll Say She Is. It opened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the summer of 1923, and the following year it became a hit on Broadway in New York City. They followed up with two extremely successful Broadway musical comedies: The Cocoanuts (1925-26) and Animal Crackers (1928-29). During that time, in early 1929, their billing changed from the Four Marx Brothers to simply the Marx Brothers.

After her sons became Broadway stars, Minnie seemed to relax. She continued to give advice, but she felt less need to be directly involved in their career. In fact, as the mother of stars, she became a kind of celebrity herself. In her last years, she became coquettish, especially with newspapermen. In 1929 a reporter asked if she was planning to travel with the upcoming tour of Animal Crackers. "No," she replied, "I've done enough trouping. But I'll sneak in every once in a while to see that they give a good show."

By the late 1920s the boys were ready for the next step in their career: films. Earlier in the decade the four brothers and others had put up the money to produce a silent movie, Humor Risk (or Humorisk). They filmed it at a vacant lot in Fort Lee, New Jersey, and in a New York City studio. Apparently Groucho played a villain, Chico an Italian, Harpo a detective, and Zeppo a lover. Details are sketchy because the film was so bad that the brothers destroyed it.

Their representative, the William Morris Agency, offered The Cocoanuts and the Marx Brothers to Paramount Pictures for $75,000. Walter Wanger, Paramount's man in New York City, took the offer to Adolph Zukor, head of the Hollywood-based studio. Zukor refused the deal, saying the price was too high. Chico met with Zukor, buttered him up, and got not only the contract but also a raise to $100,000. The Cocoanuts was shot at Paramount's studio in Astoria, Long Island. The Marx Brothers filmed during the days and performed Animal Crackers on Broadway during the evenings.

The Cocoanuts was released in May 1929. In it the boys try to cash in on the Florida land boom. Minnie was as proud as she could be. Unfortunately it was the only Marx Brothers film she would ever see. She died soon afterward at the age of sixty-five. But her creation, the Marx Brothers team, was just beginning its most productive years.

When they finished the stage run of Animal Crackers, they filmed it, again at Paramount's Astoria studio. In this movie they attend a high-society party that is thrown into turmoil when a valuable oil painting and its two copies become mixed up. The film was released in 1930.

The Marx Brothers made the rest of their films in Hollywood. The first three were again for Paramount. In Monkey Business (1931) the boys stow away on a ship, disrupt another high-society party, and reluctantly catch some crooks. Horse Feathers (1932) is a spoof of college life, especially football. Duck Soup (1933) satirizes the effects of nationalism, including war. A highlight of Duck Soup is the famous mirror scene, in which Harpo, who is being chased by Groucho, accidentally smashes a large mirror and then pretends to be Groucho's mirror image in a series of intricate and hilarious moves.

The first five Marx Brothers movies were wild conglomerations of pure madcap energy and anarchy. Plots were barely started before the boys began to destroy them by shifting attention to a series of tangential comedy routines showcasing the brothers in various combinations. They were zany outsiders who thumbed their noses at the Establishment: high society (often personified by the stately actress Margaret Dumont, their favorite comic foil), big business, educational institutions, government, police, and powerful figures of every kind (such as ship captains and big-time gangsters). They never played Jews, but they exuded the Jewish urban experience through their streetwise New Yorkese, their ingenious (albeit eccentric) debates reminiscent of the Talmud, and especially their sense of alienation from the mainstream of society. Only rarely did they obliquely hint at their Jewishness. For example, in Animal Crackers when partygoers praise Groucho (Captain Spaulding) as an "African explorer," Groucho replies, "Did someone call me schnorrer?" In the same film, another hint peeks out in an exchange between Chico and Abie the fish peddler, now posing as a wealthy art patron named Chandler. Chico: "Well, how did you get to be Roscoe W. Chandler?" Abie: "Say, how did you get to be an Italian?" Chico: "Never mind. Who's confession is this?"

The principal figure on the screen was Groucho, who wore an ill-fitting frock coat, a carryover from his days as the schoolmaster in the vaudeville schoolroom act and a parody of the uniform of the society that he mocked. He also had a painted-on mustache, constantly smoked and flicked a cigar, insinuatingly twitched his eyebrows, and uttered savage wisecracks at virtually everyone and everything.

Groucho alternately romanced and insulted the pompous Margaret Dumont, who symbolized conventional society. In Animal Crackers, for example, he "woos" her with these lines: "You've got beauty, charm, money--you have got money, haven't you? Because if you haven't, we can quit right now." The Groucho- Dumont relationship was a condensed, recurring version of the basic Marx Brothers approach to life: the boys functioned on the fringe of society, willing to participate in some of its activities (as when Groucho courts, and promises marriage to, Dumont) but unwilling to take it seriously (as when Groucho insults Dumont and expresses frank interest in her money and in other women). It is important to note that Groucho's insults never profoundly hurt Dumont's feelings. She functioned in the Marx Brothers movies not as a rounded person but as an abstract embodiment of all the worldly powers that the boys lacked. Her large physical size, great wealth, influential social status, and haughty manner were all grist for Groucho's comedy mill. But the barbs of a physically, financially, and socially little guy like Groucho could not faze the mighty Dumont. Indeed, the purpose of the insults was never to hurt Dumont but to demonstrate Groucho's attitude toward the powers that she represented.

Groucho performed comic songs with a unique nasal twang and a lovable mockery. In Animal Crackers he sings the nonsense song "Hello, I Must Be Going" and part of the self-descriptive "Hooray for Captain Spaulding," which later became his theme song. In Horse Feathers he expresses the essence of the Marx Brothers spirit when he sings "Whatever It Is, I'm against It"; later he accompanies himself with a guitar as he sings "Everyone Says, 'I Love You.'"

Chico's screen humor centered on his use of a mock Italian accent (which he had perfected in his trouble-dodging youth) and his misuse of the English language. In The Cocoanuts his fractured English generates an extended comic scene when he confuses viaduct and why a duck. In Duck Soup, when Groucho asks, "Have you got a license [to sell peanuts]?" Chico replies, "No, but my dog, he's got millions of 'em." Every Marx Brothers film is filled with such Chicoisms.

He also provided the films with many melodious moments at the piano, playing popular tunes, light classical pieces, and jazzy variations. He applied comedy even to his pianism, as in his technique of "shooting the keys": pointing his index finger like a pistol, using his thumb as a "trigger," and striking a key with the end of his index finger, as if it were a bullet.

Harpo portrayed a totally uninhibited childlike mute. His stage character became mute when Al Shean's script for Home Again accidentally left Harpo with only a few lines. Shean compensated for his oversight by asking Harpo to use pantomime. Thus was created one of the world's most beloved pantomimists.

In Harpo's wide-eyed innocence, he gave himself over completely to his instincts, from simple exuberance, as when he wildly stamps documents and a bald man's head at a passport inspection in Monkey Business, to lechery, as when he literally chases women, honking at them with a bicycle horn, in many films. His brothers frequently played straight men to his zaniness, as when Groucho, in The Cocoanuts, feeds Harpo flowers. In every Marx Brothers movie, Harpo pulls his "Gookie."

His characteristic props included a bicycle horn, a trench coat, and a fright wig. He used the horn to "communicate." The trench coat had recesses where he stored all sorts of objects, such as stolen silverware, which dropped out at embarrassing moments, sometimes in front of policemen. In vaudeville he had used a red wig, but the red showed up too dark on the screen in The Cocoanuts. From Animal Crackers on, he wore a blond wig.

Harpo created many beautiful musical interludes with his harp playing. He had received no formal lessons on the instrument, which he tuned eccentrically. But he became a highly skilled harpist, equally adept, like Chico on the piano, at popular tunes, light classical pieces, and jazzy variations.

Zeppo played the straight man to Groucho and sometimes supplied the romantic relief, as in Monkey Business: he got the girl but not the gags. He also contributed to the musical fare, as when he sings the romantic ballad "Everyone Says, 'I Love You'" in Horse Feathers.

The Marx Brothers were just as wild and unpredictable in real life as they were in their movies. While filming, they tended to wander off in all directions between shots. Chico was usually the hardest to get back on the set because he became so engrossed in his card games. And when the director finally got all the boys together again, he found that they refused to do a scene the same way twice. Each take was altered with ad-libs--the same performance style the brothers had used on the vaudeville stage.

After Duck Soup Zeppo left the team. Possessing fine talent and potential, he became frustrated by his lack of good material in the films. He soon opened what came to be one of the largest talent agencies in show business.

The first five Marx Brothers movies, all made for Paramount, were dominated by the boys' comic anarchy, often at the expense of plot and production values (such as direction and camera work). Their methods bordered on the surreal and appealed to a rather narrow urban audience. Today those films are widely admired as classics, even masterpieces. But at the time, Paramount did not regard the team as a great asset. Sensing that attitude, the Marx Brothers left the studio over creative and financial disagreements.

At about that time, one of Chico's card-playing friends was Irving Thalberg, head of production at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Thalberg convinced Louis B. Mayer, the studio chief, that the three Marx Brothers could become profitable, and in September 1934 the boys signed with MGM.

Through Thalberg's influence, their next two films were made with firmer plots, stronger production values, and broader audience appeal, largely by making the characters more sympathetic, by adding more love interest, and by including more noncomic musical numbers.performed by other cast members. An important technical change was to slow down the pace of the jokes. Previously the brothers had blurted out their jokes at such a rapid-fire clip that audiences often laughed through the best gags, missing them completely. Thalberg arranged for the boys to go on tour, testing and polishing their material in front of live audiences. With this procedure, writers could change lines and the boys could adjust their timing before filming took place.

The first result of Thalberg's efforts was A Night at the Opera (1935). In it the boys pave the way for the happiness of two young opera singers by deflating an unfair opera director and an egotistical tenor. A highlight of the film is the stateroom scene: Groucho wants to set up a private rendezvous with Margaret Dumont, but events overwhelm him, and the three Marx Brothers and a crowd of other people (such as maids, engineers, and stewards) gradually squeeze into the tiny room; when Dumont, anxious not to be seen by anyone, opens the door to visit Groucho, the bodies pour out at her feet. The film was a tremendous critical and financial success.

When not filming, the boys were still up to their old tricks. They disliked the director, Sam Wood, because he had denigrated their humor as being adolescent. At the end of shooting A Night at the Opera, they arranged for an old plowhorse, dragging a broken-down carriage, to be brought onto the set. The three brothers came out of their dressing rooms formally attired in white tie and tails. Tipping their high silk hats to Wood, Chico and Groucho sat in the carriage while Harpo climbed onto the horse and dangled a carrot in front of the animal, which proceeded to carry the boys off the stage. This episode was a crystal-clear example of the Marx Brothers' use of apparently "adolescent" humor to satirize pomposity.

In their next MGM film, A Day at the Races (1937), the boys help a young woman raise money for her sanatorium by assisting her boyfriend's horse in winning a big race. It was another great success.

However, in 1936, while the team was shooting A Day at the Races, Thalberg died. His efforts had helped the Marx Brothers reach the zenith of their popularity. But with Thalberg gone, their later movies never rose to the same level.

In Room Service (RKO, 1938) the penniless trio struggle to stay in a hotel till they can find a backer for the play they want to produce. In At the Circus (MGM, 1939) they save a circus from bankruptcy, and Groucho sings the delightfully risqué "Lydia, the Tattoed Lady."

In Go West (MGM, 1940) the boys help a young couple by doing battle with western villains. The rousing finale is a train chase in which they literally tear their train apart to fuel the wood-burning engine. In The Big Store (MGM, 1941) they save a department store from crooks.

After The Big Store the team split up for several years to live in semiretirement. But then they got together again, chiefly because Chico, the inveterate gambler, needed the money.

In A Night in Casablanca (United Artists, 1946) they uncover Nazi refugees in a North African hotel. Their last film as a team was Love Happy (United Artists, produced 1949, released 1950), in which they search for stolen diamonds. The story was conceived by Harpo, who, for the first time, had the limelight.

All three brothers were in the movie The Story of Mankind (Warner Bros., 1957) but not as a team; each appeared in scenes that did not include the two other brothers. The last time that all three appeared together on a screen was in the television play "The Incredible Jewel Robbery" (1959) on General Electric Theater.

However, in their late years, they did remain active in separate careers. Chico and Harpo had a dual stage act that they performed on tour. Each also did solo work on both stage and television. Chico, for example, hosted the television variety series The College Bowl (1950-51). Harpo's solo work included guest-starring in a 1955 episode of the television sitcom I Love Lucy, in which he and Lucy re-created the famous mirror scene from Duck Soup. He also published his autobiography, Harpo Speaks! (with Rowland Barber, 1961). Harpo finally broke his long professional silence in January 1963 when he announced his retirement onstage just after giving a performance in Pasadena, California.

Groucho's fame continued to grow after the team broke up. He served as the wisecracking host of the legendary quiz show You Bet Your Life on both radio (1947-51) and television (1950-61, for which he grew a real mustache to replace the painted-on one he had used on the stage and in movies). Groucho soloed in several films, including Copacabana (United Artists, 1947), Double Dynamite (RKO, 1951), A Girl in Every Port (RKO, 1952), and Skidoo (Paramount, 1968). He performed at comedy concerts, most memorably a 1972 one-man show at Carnegie Hall in New York City. In his last years, he made many television guest appearances, notably on Dick Cavett's talk show.

Groucho became a skilled writer. He wrote humorous books, including Beds (1930), a history of sleeping accomodations. Among his autobiographical books are Groucho and Me (1959), Memoirs of a Mangy Lover (1963), The Groucho Letters (1967), and The Groucho Phile (1976).

In their personal lives, the brothers were, according to Groucho, very close. During their vaudeville period, especially, they associated with each other almost constantly. In their film years, the bond was still there even though, as they grew older, they tended to become absorbed in their own separate families, friends, and interests.

One element they shared was their uncle Al Shean. He was wiped out by the economic crash of 1929, and his later work as a character actor on the stage and in films, such as San Francisco (1936) and Ziegfeld Girl (1941), did not give him financial security in his old age. The boys, remembering his kindness to them in their early years, supported him till his death in 1949.

In real life Chico was the footloose, fun-loving charmer in the family. He spent his money as soon as he made it, often exasperating his brothers, who worried about him and helped him. Harpo, for example, undertook late-in-life tours with Chico, not because Harpo wanted to but because Chico again needed the money.

Chico was a lifelong womanizer and gambler (especially on horse races and card games). He was very successful as the former, less so as the latter. In 1917 he married Betty Karp, a dancer. Nevertheless, while on a film set, he routinely used his trailer for seducing women. In fact, he often arranged for his girlfriends to be hired as movie extras so that they would be close at hand. Chico and Betty had a daughter, Maxine, who wrote the book Growing Up with Chico (1980). That marriage ended in divorce in the 1940s, and in 1958 he wedded the actress Mary De Vithas (also known as Mary Dee).

The real-life Harpo was much like his fictional character--sweet, gentle, and playful. Between takes on a film set, he would pull faces, jump up on a desk, swing from a chandelier, and otherwise lighten the tension. At heart he was basically a musician, and he loved to spend countless hours playing not only the harp but also the piano and the clarinet. In later years he painted in watercolors and casein. In 1936 he married the actress Susan Fleming. They adopted four children: William, Alexander, Minnie (named in honor of his mother), and James.

Groucho, in real life, was shy, thoughtful, and kindhearted, much in contrast with his smart-alecky fictional character. But his fame as a caustic wit in films was go great that he felt obligated to live up to his reputation in life as well. The conflict between his natural shyness and his desire to please others by insulting them often led him to great inner stress.

Though he satirized the Establishment in his movies, Groucho actually yearned for one of the Establishment's sacred cows: the security of wealth. He was ultraconservative with money.

In his late years Groucho became a cult figure among many film enthusiasts. But his own interests were wide. A well-read, articulate man, he corresponded with such literary notables as T.S. Eliot, James Thurber, and E.B. White. He was also a liberal activist, as in his support of George McGovern for the United States presidency in 1972.

Groucho was married three times: from 1920 to 1942 to Ruth Johnson, who had been hired as Zeppo's dancing partner for the Marx Brothers' vaudeville act; from 1945 to 1951 to the aspiring singer-actress Kay Gorcey (originally Catherine Marie Dittig), who had previously been married to the actor Leo Gorcey, one of the Dead End Kids; and from 1954 to 1969 to the former model Eden Hartford (née Higgins), who had a bit part with him in The Story of Mankind. All the marriages ended in divorces.

His first marriage produced two children: Arthur and Miriam. Arthur became a prominent writer of movie and television scripts and of biographical-autobiographical books, including Son of Groucho (1972). The second marriage produced a daughter, Melinda, who, as a youth, performed as a singer-dancer-actress, sometimes appearing with her father, as on You Bet Your Life. There were no children from the third marriage.

In the 1970s he received secretarial help from the aspiring actress Erin Fleming. She eventually became his close personal companion and business manager.

In his final years Groucho was slowed down by a major heart attack and by several small strokes. His last few months of life were marred by a bitter legal battle between Erin Fleming and his son, Arthur, for the conservatorship of Groucho's considerable estate, the responsibility finally falling to Andy Marx, Arthur's son.

Zeppo was the true wit in the family--a real-life version of Groucho's fictional persona. He was also a shrewd businessman, as he proved with his successful talent agency. In 1927 he married the actress Marion Benda (née Bimberg), with whom he adopted two sons before divorcing in 1954. In 1959 he married the showgirl Barbara Blakeley, whose son, Bobby, he adopted; she divorced Zeppo in 1973 and later married Frank Sinatra. Zeppo's last public appearance came in 1977 when he testified in favor of Groucho's companion, Erin Fleming, in the conservatorship hearing.

Gummo, after leaving the act, ran his own dress-manufacturing business for some years. In the 1930s he joined Zeppo's talent agency, became a partner, and personally handled the Marx Brothers for the rest of their career as a team. He married Helen von Tilzer in 1929 and adopted her daughter, Kay. Gummo and Helen also had a son, Robert.

The deaths of the brothers were painful events for lovers of film comedy. Chico died in Beverly Hills, California, on October 11, 1961. Harpo died in Los Angeles, California, on September 28, 1964. Groucho died in Los Angeles on August 19, 1977. Gummo died in Palm Springs, California, on April 21, 1977. Zeppo died in Palm Springs on November 30, 1979.

Their unique film legacy, however, remains very much alive: a comedic tour de force of subtle unity within apparent chaos. Poor Minnie wanted her boys to stick to the script. But they simply could not do it. If they had, they would not have been the Marx Brothers. They would have been routine cardboard puppets no longer remembered today. Influenced by their theatrical grandparents, their vaudevillian uncle Al Shean, and their colorful, exuberant mother herself, the Marx Brothers saw the stage as simply a second home, where they could let their impulses run free. Eventually those impulses created the nearest thing to comic anarchy in film history. Yet every performance bore an indefinable logic, shaped not by a story line but by the nature of the Marx Brothers characters. The eye of their cyclone was family unity. Their offbeat world, with all its verbal confusion and wild physical antics going every which way, had a purpose: to set the Marx Brothers outside conventional society so that they could poke fun at it and make a case for individualism. In this context, nonsense makes sense. One can still visualize the Marx Brothers holding hands and skipping down a side road of life, heading nowhere in particular but enjoying their freedom. Together.

Filmography

Chico, Harpo, Groucho, Zeppo:

Humor Risk (or Humorisk, 1920s, unreleased)
The Cocoanuts (1929)
Animal Crackers (1930)
The House That Shadows Built (1931, short)
Monkey Business (1931)
Horse Feathers (1932)
Duck Soup (1933)

Chico, Harpo, Groucho:

A Night at the Opera (1935)
A Day at the Races (1937)
Room Service (1938)
At the Circus (1939)
Go West (1940)
The Big Store (1941)
A Night in Casablanca (1946)
Love Happy (1950)
The Story of Mankind (1957)

Harpo:

Too Many Kisses (1925)

Groucho:

Copacabana (1947)
Mr. Music (1950)
Double Dynamite (1951)
A Girl in Every Port (1952)
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957)
Skidoo (1968)