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The Marx Brothers were a team of sibling comedians that appeared in vaudeville, stage plays, film and television.

Born in New York City, the Marx Brothers were the sons of Jewish immigrants from different parts of Germany. Their mother, Minnie Schönberg, originally hailed from Dornum in East Frisia, Germany, and their father Simon "Frenchie" Marrix (whose name was anglicized to Sam Marx) from Alsace, now a part of France. The family lived in the Upper East Side of New York City between the Irish, German and Italian Quarters.

The Marx Brothers

All brothers and their real names were

Manfred was born in 1885 and died in infancy
Chico
- Leonard, 1887-1961
Harpo
- Adolph (later Arthur), 1888-1964
Groucho
- Julius Henry, 1890-1977
Gummo
- Milton, 1892-1977
Zeppo
- Herbert, 1901-1979

Stage Beginnings

Born to a family of artists, the musical talent of the brothers was encouraged from an early age. Harpo was especially talented, and could play nearly any instrument; however, his focus was the harp, from which he derived his nickname, and which he often played on film. Chico was an excellent and histrionic pianist, and Groucho played the guitar.

They got their start in vaudeville, where their uncle Albert Schönberg was performing as Al Shean of Gallagher and Shean. Groucho's debut was in 1905, predominately as a singer. By 1907 he and Gummo were singing together as two-thirds of The Three Nightingales with Mabel O'Donnell. The next year, Harpo became the fourth Nightingale. By 1910, the group was expanded to include their mother and their Aunt Hannah, and the troupe was renamed The Six Mascots. One evening, a performance at the Opera House in Nacogdoches, Texas was interrupted by shouts from outside about a runaway mule. The audience hurried outside to see what was happening, and when they returned, Groucho, infuriated by the interruption, announced "Nacogdoches is full of roaches," and "The jackass is the flower of Tex-ass." Instead of becoming angry in return, the audience laughed, and afterward the family began to consider the possibility that they had potential as a comic troupe.

Slowly, the act evolved from singing with some incidental comedy to a comedy with some music, like their sketch set in a schoolroom (Fun in Hi Skule), featuring Groucho as a German-accented teacher presiding over a classroom which included students Harpo, Gummo and, by 1912, Chico. The last version of the school act, entitled Home Again, was written by Al Shean. Around this time, Gummo left the group to fight in World War I ("Anything is better than being an actor!"); Zeppo would replace him for their final vaudeville years, through their leap to Broadway, and the subsequent Paramount pictures.

During World War I, anti-German sentiments grew, and the family tried to hide their German origin. Harpo changed his real first name from Adolph to Arthur, and Groucho discontinued his "German" stage personality.

By this time the brothers, now The Four Marx Brothers, had begun to incorporate their unique brand of comedy into their act and to develop their characters. Groucho began to wear his trademark greasepaint moustache and to use a stooped walk; Harpo began to wear a red fright wig, carried a taxi-cab horn and never spoke; Chico started to talk in a fake Italian accent, developed off-stage to deal with neighbourhood toughs; and Zeppo adopted the schleppy, juvenile role of the straight man. The on-stage personalities of Groucho, Chico and Harpo were said to have been based on their actual traits (although, in real life, Harpo could talk). Zeppo, on the other hand, was considered the funniest offstage brother, despite his limited, straight stage roles. Being the youngest and having grown up watching his brothers, he was also the one who could fill in for, and nearly perfectly imitate, the others when illness kept them from a performance. "He was so good as Captain Spaulding that I would have let him play the part indefinitely, if they had allowed me to smoke in the audience," Groucho recalled.

Their stage names were coined by monologist Art Fisher during a poker game on the road, based both on the brothers' personalities and Knocko the Monk, a popular comic strip of the day which included a supporting character named "Groucho." Julius Marx was named Groucho for his saturnine disposition, for the fact that he carried his money in a "grouch-bag" for safe keeping, and/or after the comic strip's character, depending on which Marx Brother or associate one asks; Arthur was named Harpo because he played the harp, and Leonard named Chico (pronounced "Chick-o") after his affinity for the ladies ("chicks"). In his autobiography Harpo Speaks! (Limelight Editions, 1985, ISBN 0879100362), Harpo explains that Milton became Gummo because he crept about the theater like a gumshoe detective, and Herbert was dubbed Zeppo for his athletic prowess and ability to do chin-ups like "Zippo the Chimpanzee." However, in the 1993 documentary, The Unknown Marx Brothers, Groucho remarks in a taped interview that Zeppo was named after the first zeppelins, while Chico's daughter, Maxine, insists that Zeppo was named after "Zeke and Zeb" jokes, which were popular in the midwest when the Marx Brothers lived in Chicago.

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Actors - Marx Brothers

The Marx Brothers

Stage Beginnings

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