#Markx brothers movie#

Four years later Paramount Studios signed them to a movie deal. In 1925, the Marx Brothers graduated from music hall obscurity when their Broadway stage production The Cocoanuts proved a huge hit. Perelman, would eventually write one-liners for the team. Some of the greatest humorists of the period, including George S. The trademark Marxian style, honed on stage and perfected on film, was marked by a fast pace, absurdist situations, and witty dialogue. Gummo performed with his brothers early in the group's career, but he left the act around 1918.

Zeppo, the least known of the quintet, mostly stood around with nothing to do. Harpo Marx chased pretty girls, honked a toy horn, and erected a legend around the fact that he never spoke. Chico (he pronounced it 'Chick-O') donned a silly pointed hat and affected an Italian immigrant's accent. Groucho, often seen as the leader of the group, perfected the persona of a wisecracking finagler with his painted-on mustache, arched eyebrows, and ever-present cigar. In musical revues and stage shows throughout the 1910s and 1920s, the Marx Brothers began developing the comic personae they would later immortalize on film. Reference sources disagree about the brothers' dates of birth, but Groucho's son, Arthur Marx, declares the following order in his 1988 memoir My Life with Groucho: A Son's Eye View : 'Leonard (Chico) 1887 Arthur (Harpo) 1888 Julius (Groucho) 1890 Milton (Gummo) 1897 Herbert (Zeppo) 1901.' Chico died in 1961, Harpo in 1964, Groucho and Gummo in 1977, and Zeppo in 1979. The five Marx Brothers were born in New York City to Samuel, a tailor, and Minna Palmer Schoenberg Marx (the 'Minnie' of the musical Minnie's Boys), an ambitious stage-mother type-her brother was Al Shean of the vaudeville comedy team Gallagher & Shean-who thought show business would provide opportunities for her sons.

Though never an enormous hit in their time, the Marx Brothers lived to see their reputation with critics and audiences grow to legendary proportions, and they are especially remembered for their appearances in much-revived films like Duck Soup (1933), A Night at the Opera (1935), and A Day at the Races (1936). Two of the brothers, Groucho and Harpo, performed on television in later years: Harpo as a novelty entertainer and, most notably, Groucho as the host of his own game show, You Bet Your Life. The Marx Brothers comedy team was comprised of three brothers stage-named Groucho, Harpo, and Chico (though two other brothers, Gummo and Zeppo, were included in the act for brief periods) whose madcap antics and semi-slapstick routines earned them a reputation as some of the zaniest performers of their time, with frequent appearances in vaudeville, musical comedy, radio, and film.

Markx brothers