Julius Marx

Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, and singer who performed in films and vaudeville on television, radio, and the stage. He is considered one of America's greatest comedians.

Marx made 13 feature films as a team with his brothers, who performed under the name the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third born. He also had a successful solo career, primarily on radio and television, most notably as the host of the game show ''You Bet Your Life mustache (later a real mustache) and eyebrows.

Early life

Groucho was born Julius Henry Marx on October 2, 1890, in Manhattan, New York City. Marx stated that he was born in a room above a butcher's shop on East 78th Street, "Between Lexington and Third", as he told Dick Cavett in a 1969 television interview. Later in life, in discussing the Brothers' names during his Carnegie Hall concert, Groucho said that he was named after his unemployed uncle Julius, who lived with his family. The family believed that Julius was a rich uncle hiding a fortune, and Groucho believed that his naming was an attempt to get into Julius's will. "And he finally died, and he left us his will, and in that will he left three razor blades, an 8-ball, a celluloid dicky, and he owed my father $85 beside."Groucho Live at Carnegie Hall

The Marx children grew up in a turn-of-the-century building at 179 East 93rd Street off Lexington Avenue in a neighborhood now known as Carnegie Hill on the Upper East Side of the borough of Manhattan. His older brother Harpo, in his memoir ''Harpo Speaks'', called the building "the first real home I knew". It was populated with European immigrants, mostly artisans. Just across the street were the oldest brownstones in the area, owned by people including the well-connected Loew Brothers and William Orth. The Marx family lived there "for about 14 years", Groucho also told Cavett.

The Marx family was Jewish. Mother Miene "Minnie" Schoenberg, and her family came from Dornum in northern Germany when she was 16 years old. Father Simon "Sam" Marx, changed his name from Marrix, was called "Frenchie" by his sons throughout his life, because he and his family came from Alsace in France. Minnie's brother was Al Schoenberg, who shortened his name to Al Shean when he went into show business as half of Gallagher and Shean, a noted vaudeville act of the early 20th century. According to Marx, when Shean visited, he would throw the local waifs a few coins so that when he knocked at the door he would be surrounded by adoring fans. Marx and his brothers respected his opinions and asked him on several occasions to write some material for them.

Although Minnie Marx did not have an entertainment industry career, she had intense ambition for her sons to go on the stage like their uncle. While pushing her second son Leonard (Chico Marx) in piano lessons, she found that Julius had a pleasant soprano voice and the ability to remain on key. Julius's early career goal was to become a doctor, but the struggling family's need for additional income forced him out of school at the age of twelve. By that time Julius had become a voracious reader, particularly fond of Horatio Alger and Frank Merriwell.

After a few stabs at entry-level office work and jobs suitable for adolescents, Marx took to the stage as a boy singer with the Gene Leroy Trio, debuting at the Ramona Theatre in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on July 16, 1905. Marx reputedly claimed that he was "hopelessly average" as a vaudevillian, but this was typical Marx, wisecracking in his true form. By 1909, Minnie Marx had assembled her sons into an undistinguished vaudeville singing group billed as "The Four Nightingales". The brothers Julius, Milton (Gummo Marx) and Arthur (originally Adolph, but Harpo Marx from 1911) and another boy singer, Lou Levy, traveled the U.S. vaudeville circuits to little fanfare. After exhausting their prospects in the East, the family moved to La Grange, Illinois, to play the Midwest.

Supposedly, after a particularly dispiriting performance in Nacogdoches, Texas, Julius, Milton, and Arthur began cracking jokes onstage for their own amusement. Much to their surprise, the audience liked them better as comedians than as singers. They modified the then-popular Gus Edwards comedy skit "School Days" and renamed it "Fun In Hi Skule". The Marx Brothers performed variations on this routine for the next seven years.

For a time, all the brothers performed using ethnic accents, a common schtick in vaudeville. Leonard, the oldest, developed the Italian accent he used for his entire career, to convince some roving bullies that he was Italian, not Jewish. Arthur, the next oldest, donned a curly red wig and became "Patsy Brannigan", a stereotypical Irish character. His discomfort when speaking on stage led to his uncle Al Shean's suggestion that he stop speaking altogether and play the role in mime. Julius's character from "Fun In Hi Skule" was an ethnic German, so Julius played him with a typical Teutonic accent. After the sinking of the in 1915, public anti-German sentiment was widespread, and Marx's German character was booed, so he dropped the accent and developed the fast-talking wise-guy character that became his trademark.

The Marx Brothers became the biggest comedic stars of the Palace Theatre in New York, which billed itself as the "Valhalla of Vaudeville". Brother Chico's deal-making skills resulted in three hit plays on Broadway. No other comedy routine had ever so infected the Broadway circuit. All of this stage work predated their Hollywood career. By the time the Marxes made their first movie, they were already major stars with sharply honed skills; and by the time Groucho was relaunched to stardom in television on ''You Bet Your Life in 1905 when he joined up with an act called The Leroy Trio. He answered a newspaper want ad by a man named Robin Leroy who was looking for a boy to join his group as a singer. Marx was hired along with fellow vaudeville actor Johnny Morris. Through this act, Marx got his first taste of life as a vaudeville performer. In 1909, Marx and his brothers had become a group act, at first called The Three Nightingales and later The Four Nightingales. The brothers' mother, Minnie Marx, was the group's manager, putting them together and booking their shows. The group had a rocky start, performing in less than adequate venues and rarely, if ever, being paid for their performances. Eventually brother Milton (Gummo) left the act to serve in World War I and was replaced by Herbert (Zeppo), and the group became known as the Marx Brothers. Their first successful show was ''Fun In Hi Skule'' (1910).

Motion pictures

Marx made 26 movies, including 13 with his brothers Chico and Harpo. Marx developed a routine as a wisecracking hustler with a distinctive chicken-walking lope, an exaggerated greasepaint mustache and eyebrows and an ever-present cigar, improvising insults to stuffy dowagers (frequently played by Margaret Dumont) and anyone else who stood in his way. As the Marx Brothers, he and his brothers starred in a series of popular stage shows and movies.

Their first movie was a silent film made in 1921 that was only shown once, in the Bronx, and is believed to have been destroyed shortly afterward. A decade later, the team made their last two Broadway shows—''The Cocoanuts'' and ''Animal Crackers''—into movies. Other successful films were '' Monkey Business'', ''Horse Feathers'', '' Duck Soup'' and '' A Night at the Opera''. One quip from Marx concerned his response to Sam Wood, the director of ''A Night at the Opera''. Furious with the Marx Brothers' ad-libs and antics on the set, Wood yelled in disgust: "You can't make an actor out of clay." Marx responded, "Nor a director out of Wood."

Marx also worked as a radio comedian and show host. One of his earliest stints was a short-lived series in 1932, '' Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel,'' costarring Chico. Though most of the scripts and discs were thought to have been destroyed, all but one of the scripts were found in 1988 in the Library of Congress.
In 1947, Marx was asked to host a radio quiz program ''You Bet Your Life

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