The Marx Brothers were a popular team of sibling comedians who appeared in vaudeville, stage plays, film, and television.Born in New York City, the Marx Brothers were the sons of Jewish immigrants from Germany. Their mother, Minnie Schönberg, was from Dornum in East Frisia, and their father Simon Marrix (whose name was changed to Sam Marx, and who was nicknamed "Frenchy") was a native of Alsace, now part of France, and worked as a tailor. [1] The family lived in the then-poor Yorkville section of New York City's Upper East Side, between the Irish, German and Italian Quarters.
The brothers were from a family of artists, and their musical talent was encouraged from an early age. Harpo was hopelessly untalented on the guitar and piano (he boasts in his autobiography[7] that he only knew two songs, and that he could only play them with one finger); however, he became a dedicated harpist, which gave him his nickname. Chico was an excellent pianist, and Groucho played the guitar and sang.
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, mainly as a singer. By 1907, he and Gummo were singing together in 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.
Another famous entertainer became part of the family when Jack Benny married Sadye Marks (aka Mary Livingstone), their cousin.
The brothers were from a family of artists, and their musical talent was encouraged from an early age. Harpo was hopelessly untalented on the guitar and piano (he boasts in his autobiography[7] that he only knew two songs, and that he could only play them with one finger); however, he became a dedicated harpist, which gave him his nickname. Chico was an excellent pianist, and Groucho played the guitar and sang.
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, mainly as a singer. By 1907, he and Gummo were singing together in 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.
Another famous entertainer became part of the family when Jack Benny married Sadye Marks (aka Mary Livingstone), their cousin.
Paramount
The Marx Brothers' stage shows became popular just as Hollywood was changing to "talkies". They signed a contract with Paramount and embarked on their film career. Their first two released films (they had previously made — but not released — one short silent film titled Humor Risk) were adaptations of Broadway shows: The Cocoanuts (1929) and Animal Crackers (1930). Both were written by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind. Following these two feature-length films, they made a short film that was included in Paramount's twentieth anniversary documentary, The House That Shadows Built (1931), in which they adapted a scene from I'll Say She Is. Their third feature-length film, Monkey Business (1931), was their first that was not based on a stage production. Horse Feathers (1932), in which the brothers satirized the American college system and Prohibition, was their most popular film yet, and won them the cover of Time. It included a running gag from their stage work, where Harpo revealed having nearly everything in his coat. At various points in Horse Feathers Harpo pulls out of his coat: 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. In another famous sketch, shown in Animal Crackers, Harpo drops a full banquet's worth of silverware out of his sleeve, followed by a coffeepot. In The Cocoanuts, he takes scissors and cuts off a singer's dress, unhooking her bra and holding it up to show that it has three cups.
Their last Paramount film, Duck Soup (1933) — directed by the most highly regarded director they ever worked with, Leo McCarey — is the higher rated of two Marx Brothers films to make the American Film Institute's "100 years ... 100 Movies" list (the other film being A Night at the Opera). It did not do as well as Horse Feathers, but was the sixth-highest grosser of 1933. The film also led to a feud between the Marxes and the village of Fredonia, New York. Freedonia, of course, was the name of the fictional country in Duck Soup, and the city fathers wrote to Paramount and asked the studio to remove all references in the film to Freedonia because "it is hurting our town's image." Groucho fired back a sarcastic reply asking them to change the name of their town because "it's hurting our picture."
The Marx Brothers left Paramount because of disagreements over creative decisions and financial issues.
MGM, RKO, and United Artists
Their last Paramount film, Duck Soup (1933) — directed by the most highly regarded director they ever worked with, Leo McCarey — is the higher rated of two Marx Brothers films to make the American Film Institute's "100 years ... 100 Movies" list (the other film being A Night at the Opera). It did not do as well as Horse Feathers, but was the sixth-highest grosser of 1933. The film also led to a feud between the Marxes and the village of Fredonia, New York. Freedonia, of course, was the name of the fictional country in Duck Soup, and the city fathers wrote to Paramount and asked the studio to remove all references in the film to Freedonia because "it is hurting our town's image." Groucho fired back a sarcastic reply asking them to change the name of their town because "it's hurting our picture."
The Marx Brothers left Paramount because of disagreements over creative decisions and financial issues.
MGM, RKO, and United ArtistsZeppo left the act to become an agent and went on to build with his brother Gummo one of the biggest talent agencies in Hollywood, helping the likes of Jack Benny and Lana Turner get their starts. Groucho and Chico did radio, and there was talk of returning to Broadway. At a bridge game with Chico, Irving Thalberg began discussing the possibility of the Marxes coming to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and they signed, now known as "The Three Marx Brothers," or simply "The Marx Bros."
Unlike the free-for-all scripts at Paramount, Thalberg insisted on a strong story structure, making them into more sympathetic characters, interweaving their comedy with romantic plots and non-comic musical numbers, while the targets of their mischief were largely confined to clear villains. Thalberg was adamant that these scripts had to include a "low point" where all seems lost for both the Marxes and the romantic leads. In a June 13, 1969, interview with Dick Cavett, Groucho said that the two movies made with Thalberg (A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races) were the best that they ever produced.
Another idea of Thalberg's was that before filming would commence on an upcoming picture, the Marx Brothers would try out its material on the vaudeville stage, working on comic timing and learning what earned a laugh and what didn't.
The first film that the brothers shot with Thalberg was A 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 of Il Trovatore into chaos. The film (which includes a scene where they cram an amazing number of people into a tiny stateroom on a ship) was a great success, and was followed two years later by the even bigger hit A Day at the Races (1937), where the brothers cause mayhem in a sanitarium and at a horse race (this sequence includes Groucho and Chico's famous "Tootsie Frootsie Ice Cream" sketch). However, during shooting in 1936, Thalberg died suddenly, and without him, the brothers didn't have an advocate at MGM.
After a short experience at RKO (Room Service, 1938), the Marx Brothers made three more films before leaving MGM, At the Circus (1939), Go West (1940), and The Big Store (1941). Prior to the release of The Big Store, the team announced their retirement from the screen, but Chico was in dire financial straits; to help settle his gambling debts, the Marx Brothers made another two films together, A Night in Casablanca (1946) and Love Happy (1949), both of them released by United Artists.
Unlike the free-for-all scripts at Paramount, Thalberg insisted on a strong story structure, making them into more sympathetic characters, interweaving their comedy with romantic plots and non-comic musical numbers, while the targets of their mischief were largely confined to clear villains. Thalberg was adamant that these scripts had to include a "low point" where all seems lost for both the Marxes and the romantic leads. In a June 13, 1969, interview with Dick Cavett, Groucho said that the two movies made with Thalberg (A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races) were the best that they ever produced.
Another idea of Thalberg's was that before filming would commence on an upcoming picture, the Marx Brothers would try out its material on the vaudeville stage, working on comic timing and learning what earned a laugh and what didn't.
The first film that the brothers shot with Thalberg was A 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 of Il Trovatore into chaos. The film (which includes a scene where they cram an amazing number of people into a tiny stateroom on a ship) was a great success, and was followed two years later by the even bigger hit A Day at the Races (1937), where the brothers cause mayhem in a sanitarium and at a horse race (this sequence includes Groucho and Chico's famous "Tootsie Frootsie Ice Cream" sketch). However, during shooting in 1936, Thalberg died suddenly, and without him, the brothers didn't have an advocate at MGM.
After a short experience at RKO (Room Service, 1938), the Marx Brothers made three more films before leaving MGM, At the Circus (1939), Go West (1940), and The Big Store (1941). Prior to the release of The Big Store, the team announced their retirement from the screen, but Chico was in dire financial straits; to help settle his gambling debts, the Marx Brothers made another two films together, A Night in Casablanca (1946) and Love Happy (1949), both of them released by United Artists.
Groucho and Chico appeared together briefly in a 1957 short film promoting the Saturday Evening Post entitled "Showdown at Ulcer Gulch," directed by animator Shamus Culhane, Chico's son-in-law. Then they worked together, but in different scenes, in The Story of Mankind (1957). In 1959, all three acted in a TV pilot, Deputy Seraph, to star Harpo and Chico as blundering angels; Groucho would appear in every third episode as their boss, the "Deputy Seraph" The pilot was never finished when it was discovered that Chico was seriously ill with arteriosclerosis; he could not remember his lines at all, and was uninsurable. Chico and Harpo did appear together in a half-hour film shot later that year for the General Electric Theater on CBS, The Incredible Jewel Robbery, a pantomime show with the pair as would-be jewel thieves. Groucho made a brief appearance in the last scene.
From the 1940s onward, Chico and Harpo made nightclub and casino appearances, sometimes together. Chico also fronted a big band, the Chico Marx Orchestra. Groucho began a career as a radio and television entertainer. From 1947 to 1961, he was the host of the quiz show You Bet Your Life (along with a money-bearing artificial duck) on NBC. He was also an author -- his writings include the autobiographical Groucho and Me (1959), Memoirs of a Mangy Lover (1964), and The Groucho Letters (1967). According to a September 1947 article in Newsweek, Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo all signed to appear as themselves in a biopic entitled The Life and Times of the Marx Brothers. In addition to being a non-fiction biography of the Marxes, the film would have also featured the brothers reenacting much of their previously unfilmed material from both their vaudeville and Broadway eras. Had the film come into fruition, it would have been the first time the Brothers had appeared as a quartet since 1933.
The 1957 talk show Tonight! America After Dark, hosted by Jack Lescoulie, may supply the only public footage in which all five brothers appeared. On October 1, 1962, Groucho introduced Johnny Carson to the audience of The Tonight Show as the new host.
In 1970, the Four Marx Brothers had a brief reunion (of sorts) in the animated ABC television special The Mad, Mad, Mad Comedians, produced by Rankin-Bass animation (of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer fame). The special featured animated reworkings of various famous comedians' acts, including W.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 had died), and Zeppo Marx (who left show business in 1933). Voice actor Paul Frees filled in for all three (no voice was needed for Harpo, who was also deceased). The Marx Brothers' segment was a reworking of a scene from their Broadway play I'll Say She Is, a parody of Napoleon which 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.
On January 16, 1977, The Marx Brothers were inducted into the Motion Picture Hall of Fame.
Many TV shows and movies have used Marx Brothers references. Animaniacs and Tiny Toons, for example, have featured Marx Brothers jokes and skits. Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda) on M*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.
Also noteworthy is the fact that Harpo Marx appeared as himself in a sketch on I Love Lucy in which he and Lucille Ball reprised the mirror routine from Duck Soup, with Lucy dressed up as Harpo.
A Marx testvérek kezdetben öten voltak: Julius „GROUCHO” Marx (1890-1977), Herbert „ZEPPO” Marx (1901-1979), Adolph „HARPO” Marx (1888-1964), Leonard „CHICO” Marx (1887-1961), Milton „GUMMO” Marx (1897-1977). Mielőtt a mozgóképek által meghódították volna Amerikát, tehetséges komédiásként keresték a mindennapi betevőjüket.Több éves tapasztalatszerzés után váltottak, az élő előadások helyett immáron filmvásznon kacagtatták a nagyérdeműt. Aztán idővel hárman maradtak, és tökélyre fejlesztették azt a műsort, ami a maga nemében páratlannak számít, és azóta sem sikerült senkinek még csak hasonlót sem produkálnia.Pedig a trió nem csinált semmi különlegeset, csupán a klasszikus némafilm (Chaplin és Keaton) örökségét ötvözték a hangosfilm nyújtotta előnyökkel, valamint - és ez itt a lényeg - hozzátették a saját egyéniségüket.Harpo nem igazán jeleskedik a viccmesélésben, helyette inkább, mivelhogy szerepe szerint néma, a helyzetkomikumok terén villog. És persze nagyot téved, aki szösziségét ártatlansággal párosítja. Ha ugyanis úgy hozza a helyzet, Harpo erőszakra is képes (gondoljunk csak a Botrány a cirkuszban struccos jelenetére), művészi hajlamait pedig hárfaközelben mutatja meg igazán.Ebben hasonlít Chicho testvérére, aki zongorajátékával ejti bámulatba hallgatóit, feldolgozásaival, vicces rövidkéivel oldja a próza mormolását. Egyébiránt szerepe szerint a gyökereire még emlékező olasz bevándorlót alakítja, aki gazdagságra vágyik.Hármójuk közül vitathatatlanul Groucho a legfotogénebb jelenség. Puszta felbukkanásával uralja a jeleneteket, amit nem csak tekintélyes vastagságú bajuszának köszönhet, hanem járásának is. Humora pedig akár nyersen bántó is lehetne - de mégsem az.Filmjeikben a hangsúly nem a cselekményen (az esetek többségében szerelmespárt kell pátyolgatniuk), hanem a vicceken, a helyzetkomikumon van. Legalább annyira nehéz beskatulyázni őket, mint Hofit. Ha úgy tartotta kedvük, nem tiszteltek semmit és senkit, miközben (Hofival ellentétben) messzire kerülték a káromkodást vagy az alpáriságot.Az eltelt évtizedek alatt megváltozott a közönség ízlése, így manapság már csak a rajongók körében osztatlan a sikerük, mivel filmjeik tempója egy másik, kényelmesebb kort idéz.Nem érzem túlzásnak azt a kijelentést, hogy Magyarországon legismertebb filmjük a Botrány az operában, amelynek poénjain - köszönhetően a televíziónak -, az arra kíváncsiak már több ízben is kacaghattak, de feltétlenül érdemes megnézni a Kacsalaves, Éjszaka Casablancában, Botrány a Vadnyugaton című filmjeiket is.A 2004-ben kiadott DVD-re nem lehet panasz (fekete fehér filmekről lévén szó nagy elvárásaink sem a képpel, sem a hanggal nem lehetnek). Extrák is vannak rajtuk, csak egyetlen lényeges részlet hiányzik: a magyar szinkron. Amikor ugyanis pergő párbeszéd szolgáltatja a humor tárgyát, a kötelező feliratbámulás csökkenti az élvezeti értéket. A filmek minden további nélkül megérdemelték volna ezt a többletet.
From the 1940s onward, Chico and Harpo made nightclub and casino appearances, sometimes together. Chico also fronted a big band, the Chico Marx Orchestra. Groucho began a career as a radio and television entertainer. From 1947 to 1961, he was the host of the quiz show You Bet Your Life (along with a money-bearing artificial duck) on NBC. He was also an author -- his writings include the autobiographical Groucho and Me (1959), Memoirs of a Mangy Lover (1964), and The Groucho Letters (1967). According to a September 1947 article in Newsweek, Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo all signed to appear as themselves in a biopic entitled The Life and Times of the Marx Brothers. In addition to being a non-fiction biography of the Marxes, the film would have also featured the brothers reenacting much of their previously unfilmed material from both their vaudeville and Broadway eras. Had the film come into fruition, it would have been the first time the Brothers had appeared as a quartet since 1933.
The 1957 talk show Tonight! America After Dark, hosted by Jack Lescoulie, may supply the only public footage in which all five brothers appeared. On October 1, 1962, Groucho introduced Johnny Carson to the audience of The Tonight Show as the new host.
In 1970, the Four Marx Brothers had a brief reunion (of sorts) in the animated ABC television special The Mad, Mad, Mad Comedians, produced by Rankin-Bass animation (of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer fame). The special featured animated reworkings of various famous comedians' acts, including W.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 had died), and Zeppo Marx (who left show business in 1933). Voice actor Paul Frees filled in for all three (no voice was needed for Harpo, who was also deceased). The Marx Brothers' segment was a reworking of a scene from their Broadway play I'll Say She Is, a parody of Napoleon which 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.
On January 16, 1977, The Marx Brothers were inducted into the Motion Picture Hall of Fame.
Many TV shows and movies have used Marx Brothers references. Animaniacs and Tiny Toons, for example, have featured Marx Brothers jokes and skits. Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda) on M*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.
Also noteworthy is the fact that Harpo Marx appeared as himself in a sketch on I Love Lucy in which he and Lucille Ball reprised the mirror routine from Duck Soup, with Lucy dressed up as Harpo.
A Marx testvérek kezdetben öten voltak: Julius „GROUCHO” Marx (1890-1977), Herbert „ZEPPO” Marx (1901-1979), Adolph „HARPO” Marx (1888-1964), Leonard „CHICO” Marx (1887-1961), Milton „GUMMO” Marx (1897-1977). Mielőtt a mozgóképek által meghódították volna Amerikát, tehetséges komédiásként keresték a mindennapi betevőjüket.Több éves tapasztalatszerzés után váltottak, az élő előadások helyett immáron filmvásznon kacagtatták a nagyérdeműt. Aztán idővel hárman maradtak, és tökélyre fejlesztették azt a műsort, ami a maga nemében páratlannak számít, és azóta sem sikerült senkinek még csak hasonlót sem produkálnia.Pedig a trió nem csinált semmi különlegeset, csupán a klasszikus némafilm (Chaplin és Keaton) örökségét ötvözték a hangosfilm nyújtotta előnyökkel, valamint - és ez itt a lényeg - hozzátették a saját egyéniségüket.Harpo nem igazán jeleskedik a viccmesélésben, helyette inkább, mivelhogy szerepe szerint néma, a helyzetkomikumok terén villog. És persze nagyot téved, aki szösziségét ártatlansággal párosítja. Ha ugyanis úgy hozza a helyzet, Harpo erőszakra is képes (gondoljunk csak a Botrány a cirkuszban struccos jelenetére), művészi hajlamait pedig hárfaközelben mutatja meg igazán.Ebben hasonlít Chicho testvérére, aki zongorajátékával ejti bámulatba hallgatóit, feldolgozásaival, vicces rövidkéivel oldja a próza mormolását. Egyébiránt szerepe szerint a gyökereire még emlékező olasz bevándorlót alakítja, aki gazdagságra vágyik.Hármójuk közül vitathatatlanul Groucho a legfotogénebb jelenség. Puszta felbukkanásával uralja a jeleneteket, amit nem csak tekintélyes vastagságú bajuszának köszönhet, hanem járásának is. Humora pedig akár nyersen bántó is lehetne - de mégsem az.Filmjeikben a hangsúly nem a cselekményen (az esetek többségében szerelmespárt kell pátyolgatniuk), hanem a vicceken, a helyzetkomikumon van. Legalább annyira nehéz beskatulyázni őket, mint Hofit. Ha úgy tartotta kedvük, nem tiszteltek semmit és senkit, miközben (Hofival ellentétben) messzire kerülték a káromkodást vagy az alpáriságot.Az eltelt évtizedek alatt megváltozott a közönség ízlése, így manapság már csak a rajongók körében osztatlan a sikerük, mivel filmjeik tempója egy másik, kényelmesebb kort idéz.Nem érzem túlzásnak azt a kijelentést, hogy Magyarországon legismertebb filmjük a Botrány az operában, amelynek poénjain - köszönhetően a televíziónak -, az arra kíváncsiak már több ízben is kacaghattak, de feltétlenül érdemes megnézni a Kacsalaves, Éjszaka Casablancában, Botrány a Vadnyugaton című filmjeiket is.A 2004-ben kiadott DVD-re nem lehet panasz (fekete fehér filmekről lévén szó nagy elvárásaink sem a képpel, sem a hanggal nem lehetnek). Extrák is vannak rajtuk, csak egyetlen lényeges részlet hiányzik: a magyar szinkron. Amikor ugyanis pergő párbeszéd szolgáltatja a humor tárgyát, a kötelező feliratbámulás csökkenti az élvezeti értéket. A filmek minden további nélkül megérdemelték volna ezt a többletet.
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