Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were a prominent comedy group that originated in vaudeville and achieved significant success on Broadway during the 1920s. Comprising four brothers—Chico, Harpo, Groucho, and, later, Zeppo—they gained fame for their unique blend of slapstick humor and sharp verbal wit. They were born to Jewish immigrants in New York City and began their entertainment careers in various stage productions. The transition to film began in 1929 with their first sound feature, "The Cocoanuts," which capitalized on the innovations in film sound and showcased their comedic talents.
Despite early setbacks in both film and stage, the Marx Brothers found success through clever collaborations with writers like George S. Kaufman. They became known for their iconic performances alongside actress Margaret Dumont, who often played a foil to their antics. Over the years, the Marx Brothers starred in twelve feature-length films, receiving an Honorary Academy Award in 1974, and their comedic influence can be seen in the works of later comedians. Their legacy is marked by a distinctive style that blended absurdity and sharp dialogue, leaving a lasting impact on the world of comedy and film.
Subject Terms
Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were one of the biggest comedy acts in vaudeville, starring in three hit shows on Broadway during the 1920s. As a result of the decade’s innovations in film sound, the Marx Brothers also starred in their first feature film with sound in 1929.
Born to Jewish immigrants Samuel and Minnie Marx in New York City, the Marx Brothers were Leonard (stage name Chico), Adolph (Harpo), Julius Henry (Groucho), and Herbert Manfred (Zeppo). However, Zeppo did not join the act until 1918, when he was called on to replace the second youngest brother, Milton (Gummo) Marx, who left show business to join the Army during World War I. In the years leading up to the 1920s, the four Marx Brothers became one of the most widely recognized acts in vaudeville, under the management of their mother. The Marx Brothers toured extensively between 1914 and 1918 in the musical comedy Home Again, written by Minnie’s brother, Al Shean. The show was renamed N’ Everything, and it opened as The Marx Brothers Revue on February 7, 1919, in Chicago and ran through December 1920.
Financial Setbacks and Broadway Success
Inspired by former vaudevillian Charlie Chaplin’s success in film, the Marx Brothers attempted to launch their own film careers in 1920 with a self-financed short film. Chico, Groucho, and Zeppo each contributed one thousand dollars to the six-thousand-dollar budget. The two-reel film Humor Risk was shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey, with players from the N’ Everything cast. However, the comic characters Chico and Groucho had developed on stage did not translate well to silent film, because they relied heavily on humorous dialogue and wordplay. The resulting film was a disaster for which no distributor could be found.
Afterward, the Marx Brothers returned to vaudeville, where their show The Twentieth Century Revue went bankrupt in 1923. The Brothers found themselves unemployed and without prospects; before their plans to dissolve the act could be realized, however, Chico brokered a deal with theater producer Joseph M. Gaites. With Gaites’s help, the Marx Brothers compiled two recently failed musicals by playwrights Will and Tom Johnstone into a revised show entitled I’ll Say She Is!
I’ll Say She Is! opened in Philadelphia on May 29, 1923. The show made the Brothers extremely wealthy, also garnering them the approval of New York’s intellectual elite. Within a year of touring with I’ll Say She Is!, the Brothers had bounced back from financial ruin and were headed for Broadway. When the show opened at the Casino Theatre on Broadway on May 19, 1924, drama critic Alexander Woollcott was in attendance. He became instantly enamored with the shenanigans of Harpo, praising his performance in a review for the Sun newspaper. Woollcott met Harpo after the show the next night and subsequently invited the performer to join the literary and intellectual group known as the Algonquin Round Table.
From Stage to Screen
The Marx Brothers’ next show, The Cocoanuts, was a satire of the Florida land boom of the 1920s, written by Algonquin Round Table member George S. Kaufman with coauthor Morrie Ryskind, also featuring songs by Irving Berlin. The Cocoanuts opened on Broadway on December 8, 1925, and ran for 377 performances. The Brothers took the show on tour in 1927, and it ran through much of 1928. This production was significant in its addition of entertainer Margaret Dumont to the Marx Brothers’ ensemble of performers. Dumont, who portrayed a dignified lady of society, was the ideal contrast for the Brothers. She would play their foil in two stage productions and seven films, and she was sometimes referred to affectionately as the fifth Marx Brother.
Animal Crackers, the second Marx Brothers collaboration with writers Kaufman and Ryskind, opened at the Forty-Fourth Street Theatre on Broadway on October 23, 1928, and ran for 171 performances. Again the Brothers were joined by Margaret Dumont. For a period during the show’s run, the Brothers spent their free time on Long Island, filming the screen adaptation of The Cocoanuts. With the Warner Bros. sound picture The Jazz Singer (1927), film had finally developed enough to communicate the Marx Brothers’ verbal comedy. The motion picture studio Paramount Pictures, scrambling to match the output of talking pictures by film studio Warner Bros., optioned the commercially proven The Cocoanuts performance on film for $100,000. The film premiered in New York on May 3, 1929.
The Cocoanuts was an enormous financial success for Paramount, yet the decade ended with great losses for the Marx Brothers. Minnie Marx suffered a stroke and died in the early hours of September 14, 1929, and Groucho and Harpo went into debt after losing more than $250,000 each in the stock market crash of October 1929. Fortunately for the Marx Brothers, The Cocoanuts had established them as Hollywood stars, and they continued making successful films.
Impact
With the popularization of talking motion pictures, the Marx Brothers escaped the waning medium of vaudeville to pursue a career in film. The Brothers received top billing in twelve feature-length films between 1930 and 1950, and they were awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 1974. The comedic style of the Marx Brothers influenced many later screen comedians, paving the way for such comedies as the film M*A*S*H (1970) and the early works of actor and film director Woody Allen.
Bibliography
Ellis, Allen W. “Yes, Sir: The Legacy of Zeppo Marx.” Journal of Popular Culture 37, no. 1 (2003): 15–27. Explores Zeppo’s contribution to the Marx Brothers’s act.
Louvish, Simon. Monkey Business: The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2000. Debunks many myths and rumors surrounding the Marx Brothers’ personal lives and careers, showcasing lengthy passages from their film scripts.
Kanfer, Stefan. Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000. Links Groucho Marx’s difficult personal life to his trademark comedic style.
Marx, Groucho. Groucho and Me. 1959. New York: Da Capo Press, 1995. The story of the Marx Brothers as related by Groucho through a series of anecdotes.
Marx, Harpo, and Rowland Barber. Harpo Speaks! 1962. New York: Limelight Editions, 2010. Details Harpo’s childhood, his time with the Algonquin Round Table, and his experiences as a bachelor.