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The Marx Brothers we were happy. At Christmas we didn't have a tree, just a branch, and we each hung up The Marx one of our black socks and got a half an orange each for Christmas. All our neighbours even had better garbage than we did. Harpo Brothers used to skate in Central Park with one ice skate he tied on. When my Aunt Hannah How did four nice little boys called Julius, cooked the clam chowder, she used the same Adolph, Leonard and Herbert grow up into pot she used for the laundry, and there was the Marx Brothers? Perhaps because they plenty of starch in both.' never really were nice little boys Although the Marx Brothers' theatrical characters were based on real people and actual experiences, their mannerisms and costumes were developed through trial and error during their years in vaudeville. For Groucho this all began in 1905 when he joined a ' travelling troupe as a boy soprano. He got the job out of economic necessity: 'I became an actor because I had an uncle in show business who was making $200 a week, and I wasn't making anything, not even an People who had known the Marx Brothers occasional girl.' before they became famous (when they were still Julius, Adolph, Leonard, Milton and Although the job didn't last long, and three Herbert), even before they entered show times he found himself stranded on the road business, all agreed that the five brothers without money, Groucho persisted. never had to create the characters they Eventually he landed work with the Gus played so convincingly on stage, screen, and Edwards school act - his first professional television - they already were those encounter with stage comedy. characters. A neighbour of the Marx family in New York City during the early 1900s Donkey business remarked: Three years later Minnie Marx gathered her 'They were wild youngsters with a talent for sons (Groucho, Gummo, and later Harpo) having fun. The place would be a shambles, together into a singing act called first The especially if Mrs Marx left them alone. They Three Nightingales, then The Six Mascots. would tear down the draperies. There was a She was their agent, and sometimes joined woman across the way. a doctor's wife, who the act with her sister, Hannah. Sam Marx used to send over notes saying that she was (known as Frenchie), the father of the Marx going to call the police, which probably made Brothers, stayed at home with the cooking them do it even more.' and housework, as well as a threadbare tailoring business. Apparently this pioneering The poor Marx brothers role- sharing worked out perfectly: Sam was a superb cook while, in Groucho's words: The Marx family was poor but, as Groucho said of his childhood: 'We didn't know it, so 'Minnie couldn't make anything except my much of what the Marx Brothers did father.' afterwards was influenced by it. Most notable of all, Harpo donned his famous red But as an agent she was unsurpassed. wig (later to become blond for the films) and Groucho often said: became himself; Groucho assumed a stern 'Without her, we wouldn't have been countenance and an air of unqualified anything. She was the most important authority: and Gummo played the juvenile woman in my life.' straight-man role that Zeppo later inherited. Then Chico joined the act as the confidently As a singing act the Marx Brothers were ignorant 'Eye-talian'. condemned to second-rate or even third-rate , vaudeville, and it was only by accident that All of the Marx Brothers shows that followed they discovered how funny they could be. Fun in Hi Skule, including the films and even Groucho described the moment: Groucho's TV programme, owed a great deal to it. You Bet Your Life was the same routine 'We were playing a small town in Texas, a but in modern dress, with Groucho still farming town. The farmers came in and tied playing Herr Teacher. Horse Feathers is Fun up their horses beside the Pantages Theatre. in Hi Skule graduated to college and We were doing a singing act. a mule runs Hollywood. As the great white hunter in away, and the whole audience left to catch Animal Crackers, the prime minister in Duck the mule. Then they came back. By this time Soup, or the bogus doctor in A Day at the we were so angry we started making Races, Groucho is still in many respects Herr sarcastic remarks. Like, "Nacogdoches is full Teacher, and his brothers play almost exactly of roaches" and "The jackass is the finest the same roles as in Fun in Hi Skule. flower of Texass." Instead of getting mad, the audience laughs. This is the first time we ever Harpo loses his voice did comedy like that.' This incident happened in 1912 during ii tour It was their uncle (Minnie's brother), Al through Louisiana. Texas and Oklahoma. Shean - himself a big star in American vaudevvvvvvvviiiiille - who had helped to School Marx crystallize further each brother's stage personality. Groucho was allowed to talk After their unexpected triumph they incessantly, while Harpo became mute, and attempted comedy whenever it seemed Chico played comic straight-man to both. appropriate, and in Denison, Texas, The Six According to Groucho, AI Shean felt that Mascots were received so enthusiastically Harpo's voice did not match his whimsical that they were invited to stay over, this time appearance. Harpo was disappointed, but with a guarantee. Wishing to please an accepted Uncle Al's dictum. Thereafter Harpo audience of teachers who were there for a talked professionally only once again during conference, Groucho wrote a comedy sketch his entire career. A quarter of a century later, based on the Gus Edwards school act. he spoke at the end of the stage tryouts for Groucho became Herr Teacher, Harpo played Go West. The brothers decided that this the stupid boy, and the other members of speech, whilst comically effective, departed the troupe, who included Gummo, became from the innocent Harpo character, and it the standard school act characters of that was omitted from the movie. In later life, day. This act was called Fun in Hi Skule, and after his retirement from films, Harpo would not accept any speaking engagements, and a harp with real strings he taught himself to requested that his family never allow a play, but in an unorthodox style that in later recording of his voice to be played. He felt years amazed professional harpists. that to allow his voice to be heard by the Before they were established as stars, public would be unfaithful and destructive to however, the Marx Brothers ran through a the character he had created. Groucho said number of what were then called musical the question he was most often asked was, tabloids: several thinly plotted scenes, as 'Can Harpo talk?' His answer was always, 'Of sumptuously mounted as a tight budget and course not.' difficult physical conditions would allow, By 1914, Mr Green's Reception, as Fun in Hi were held together by song, dance and Skule was now called, had established the comedy. In each of these shows the brothers Marx Brothers as rising vaudeville stars. They enriched their comic characters and were not yet, however, known by their developed routines that would serve them - famous 'O' names. This happened while they with variations - for decades. The sloping, were touring Illinois in 1914. Another stooping Groucho walk, for instance, performer on the bill with them had a happened by accident: penchant for giving nicknames to his friends. Julius became Groucho because of his serious demeanour. Adolph became Harpo for the 'I was just kidding around one day, and I obvious reason. Leonard became Chico started to walk funny. The audience liked it because of his passion for the chicks, as girls so I kept it in.' were then called. (Thus the correct After one failure, the Marx Brothers pronunciation of his name is 'Chicko') Milton appeared in the successful On the Mezzanine became Gummo because, as he later Floor, which, along with Home Again, toured explained: Great Britain in 1922. They opened at the 'I always had holes in my shoes, so I'd wear Coliseum in London. At first, the audience did rubbers, or gumshoes, over them even when not understand the Marx Brothers' humour it wasn't raining, and I got called Gummo.' and responded by throwing pennies onto the stage. In those days, Groucho recalled: Herbert was only 13 and at home in Chicago when his brothers were being renamed, but 'it was the custom when the audiences didn't he became Zeppo later. No one, especially like an act - a pretty dangerous custom, too, Zeppo, is certain why. They continued to use since the English penny was as large as a their real names until 1924, but the 'new' silver dollar.' names eventually took over. Groucho waded into the shower of coins and He stoops to conquer addressed the audience: hose days, Groucho recalled: Harpo's devotion to the harp was not 'We came all the way from America to accidental. His grandmother had played, in entertain you, so you might at least throw the family's travelling magic show in some shillings.' Germany, on a wondrous instrument without strings. As a child Harpo would also 'play' on His ad lib won over the audience, and their this harp which was stored in a closet in their entire British tour was enormously New York apartment, and when he finally got successful.
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