There was no master plan–if it got a laugh, they kept it in. Bit by bit, they developed the characters for which they would become famous: Groucho, the fast-talking con man with the loping walk Chico, the amazingly dense Italian with larceny in his heart and Harpo, the crazed mute who'd chase blondes and steal silverware. Harpo eventually realized he was funnier saying nothing, and Groucho ditched his character after the Lusitania was torpedoed. They did dialect humor: Groucho had a German accent, Chico an Italian one, and Harpo an Irish brogue. Starting as a musical act, they began to incorporate comedy and within a decade were one of the funniest, wildest turns in vaudeville. First Julius (Groucho), then Milton (Gummo, who never appeared in their movies), then Adolph (Harpo), then Leonard (Chico), and finally Herbert (Zeppo). One by one, in the early 1900s, the brothers were pushed onto the stage by their mother, Minnie. It is one of the great show biz stories of the 20th century. While most comic characters just try to fit in, here was a group tapping into the deeply American strain of anti-authoritarianism, expressing contempt for prestige and privilege, living by their own lights. In doing so, they help explain the enduring appeal of the Marx Brothers. Two new books, Stefan Kanfer's Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx and Simon Louvish's Monkey Business, attempt to answer this question. So how did these brothers, growing up poor on the streets of New York in the 1890s, become internationally known comic characters who have made all types of people laugh for almost a century now? You don't achieve that sort of popularity by being highbrow, and you certainly don't by performing scripts from Salvador Dali. They were a top vaudeville act that eventually hit it big in Hollywood. James Joyce refers to them (apparently) in Finnegans Wake.Īt the same time, the Marx Brothers were popular with a mass audience. George Bernard Shaw called them his favorite actors. Actually, artists and intellectuals have always been big fans. Called Giraffes on Horseback Salad, it was pure surrealism: mirrors with holes in them, musicians with roast chickens on their heads, Groucho ordering Harpo to round up dwarfs, Chico installing indoor rain, etc. Salvador Dali loved the Marx Brothers so much he wrote a screenplay for them. Monkey Business: The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers, by Simon Louvish, New York: St. Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx, by Stefan Kanfer, New York: Alfred A.
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