The Marx Brothers
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. 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. 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).
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. 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.
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