Julius Henry Marx (Groucho) on the left and Adolph Marx (Harpo) on the right holding a rat terrier dog, c. 1906
Gallery of Harpo Marx
Young Harpo Marx
Gallery of Harpo Marx
Young Harpo Marx
College/University
Career
Gallery of Harpo Marx
1911
1911 newspaper advertisement for a Marx Brothers appearance (l–r: Harpo, Groucho, Gummo)
Gallery of Harpo Marx
1915
The only known photo of the entire Marx family, c. 1915. From left: Groucho, Gummo, Minnie (mother), Zeppo, Sam (father), Chico, and Harpo.
Gallery of Harpo Marx
1917
Sheet music (1917) for one of the songs from Home Again; from left: Harpo, Groucho, Chico, Gummo
Gallery of Harpo Marx
1921
Harpo Marx playing the harp
Gallery of Harpo Marx
1931
Four of the five Marx Brothers in 1931 (top to bottom: Chico, Harpo, Groucho and Zeppo)
Gallery of Harpo Marx
1946
in A Night in Casablanca (1946)
Gallery of Harpo Marx
1948
The Marx Brothers (clockwise: Groucho, Chico, and Harpo Marx) by Yousuf Karsh in 1948
Gallery of Harpo Marx
1957
The five brothers, just prior to their only television appearance together, on the Tonight! America After Dark, hosted by Jack Lescoulie, February 18, 1957; from left: Harpo, Zeppo, Chico, Groucho and Gummo
Gallery of Harpo Marx
1959
Harpo and Chico Marx in "The Incredible Jewelry Robbery" (1959)
Gallery of Harpo Marx
1960
Marx as the "mechanical man" in "A Silent Panic" (1960)
Gallery of Harpo Marx
Members and associates of the Algonquin Round Table: (standing, left to right) Art Samuels and Harpo Marx; (sitting) Charles MacArthur, Dorothy Parker, and Alexander Woollcott
The five brothers, just prior to their only television appearance together, on the Tonight! America After Dark, hosted by Jack Lescoulie, February 18, 1957; from left: Harpo, Zeppo, Chico, Groucho and Gummo
Members and associates of the Algonquin Round Table: (standing, left to right) Art Samuels and Harpo Marx; (sitting) Charles MacArthur, Dorothy Parker, and Alexander Woollcott
Connections
Brother: Chico Marx
1930
Chico Marx around 1930
adopted son: Jimmy Marx
1954
Los Angeles
Harpo Marx and three of his children wearing Harpo wigs in Los Angeles, 1954
Father: Samuel Marx
Mother: Minnie Marx
Brother: Groucho Marx
portrait of Groucho Marx
Brother: Zeppo Marx
Brother: Gummo Marx
Gummo Marx
Uncle: Al Shean
Spouse: Susan Fleming
adopted son: Bill Marx
adopted son: Alexander Marx
Christmas with Harpo. Bill is sitting next to Harpo, Minnie in the middle, Alex on the bottom left and Jimmy on the bottom right. (Photo provided by Bill Marx)
Daughter: Minnie Marx Eagle
Christmas with Harpo. Bill is sitting next to Harpo, Minnie in the middle, Alex on the bottom left and Jimmy on the bottom right. (Photo provided by Bill Marx)
Arthur "Harpo" Marx was an American comedian, actor, mime artist, and musician, and the second-oldest of the Marx Brothers.
Background
Harpo was born on November 23, 1888, in Manhattan. The Marx children grew up on East 93rd Street off Lexington Avenue in a neighborhood now known as Carnegie Hill on the Upper East Side of the borough of Manhattan. The turn-of-the-century building that his brother Harpo called "the first real home they ever knew" was populated with European immigrants, mostly artisans.
Harpo's parents were Sam Marx (called "Frenchie" throughout his life) and his wife, Minnie Schoenberg Marx. Minnie's brother was Al Shean. Marx's family was Jewish. His mother was from East Frisia in Germany, and his father was a native of Alsace in France and worked as a tailor.
Education
As a child, Harpo was apparently infatuated with music. He rejoiced when his family bought a piano. He then fell into despair when he found out that they could only afford to let one brother have piano lessons. His brother Chico Marx ended up with the lessons, which he did not take seriously. Harpo, of course, later mastered the harp.
Harpo did not grow up educated. As the only Jewish boy in his public school class, and small for his age, he was the object of frequent bullying. The bullying got to the point of Harpo being tossed out a window onto the street on a daily basis. At the age of eight, after being tossed out of the window once too often, Harpo left school permanently. Harpo began his street education at the age of eight, learning to fend for himself, find ways of earning money, and growing up with his fellow Marx Brothers.
Harpo went through a dizzying array of different jobs growing up, including tin can singer and pianist in a brothel. However, one thing constantly lurked in the background of his life — and that was The Plan.
Minnie had planned for her sons to succeed on the stage, and her will was indomitable. Scrimping money together, she bought a used piano, and even managed to pay for music lessons. However, she could only afford lessons for one son. Chico, who was supposed to pass on what he had learned to Harpo. However, Chico was not a very motivated student, and only passed on the little that he learned. Leaving Harpo with a repertoire of only two songs. Harpo had gained, and lost, a long series of jobs, and had finally come upon steady employment. In a movie theater playing piano to accompany the movies that were playing. By playing his two songs fast, slow, with different tempos and in different keys, he was able to muddle his way through. But that changed in 1910, when Minnie’s Plan now changed to include Harpo.
Harpo Speaks! autobiography of Harpo MarxAs Harpo said, “I was being shanghaied to join Groucho, Gummo, and Leo Levy. On a stage. In front of people. … It was probably the most wretched debut in the history of show business.” However wretched it might have been, Harpo was now part of the troupe. For the next several years, the group performed across the country in some of the worst vaudeville venues. They were honing their skills as a singing group — not a comedy. One notable moment from those years came when Minnie leased an instrument for Harpo to learn, in order to add more class to the group — a harp. The group, initially the Three Nightingales, and now the Four Nightingales, and later the Six Mascots, worked strictly as a singing group. This changed, as did the Marx Brothers’ fortunes, in 1912.
After one performance, away from Minnie’s watchful eye, the Marx Brothers’ singing act broke out into some of the madcap comedy for which they would later become famous. In response to a request for a different act for a second week’s engagement, they started performing a sketch titled “Fun in Hi Skule” (1912) which they had seen performed many times in vaudeville. This musical comedy gave them room to test out their comedic muscles. A later sequel, “Mr. Green’s Reception” (1913), followed afterward, as did “Home Again” (1914), “The Cinderella Girl” (1918), “On the Mezzanine Floor” (1921).
It was in “Home Again” that Harpo received a serious blow to his ego. Written with the assistance of Uncle Al Shean, it removed all spoken lines for Harpo. Uncle Al realized that Harpo simply couldn’t compete with the ad-lib verbal sparring that Chico and Groucho did nightly. Harpo didn’t agree, and simply ad-libbed his own material. Until a reviewer mentioned that Harpo was a talented pantomimist, who ruined his performance every time he opened his mouth. Harpo took the hint and remained mute for virtually the remainder of his professional life.
With their change from a musical group to a comedy act, their fortunes had improved, to playing the highest venues, culminating in performing at the Palace. Next came an English tour, where the Marx Brothers were extremely successful, including command performances for royalty. When they returned to America, their success had gone to their head, leading to their alienating E. F. Albee, the most influential man in vaudeville. Harpo and the other Marx Brothers were blacklisted.
Even though this was the lowest point in their professional lives, it was Harpo who, with a one-word speech, rallied his family together, to move on to greater heights. With vaudeville closed to them, there was only one legitimate venue left to them — Broadway. The Marx Brothers opened a new stage show, “I’ll Say She Is”. After 18 months of testing and fine-tuning, they opened in New York to great reviews. Most notably by Alexander Woolcott, who soon became Harpo’s best friend for many years.
Woolcott introduced Harpo to some of the most influential people in the country at the Algonquin round table — including Robert Benchley, Herbert Bayard Swope, George S. Kaufman, Harold Ross and Frank Adams, exposing him to a new world of ideas. Woolcott later invited Harpo to his island retreat where he became close friends with Dorothy Parker and many others.
The next several years were a combination of Harpo working on Broadway shows (“The Cocoanuts” in 1925, “Animal Crackers” in 1928), and playing with his friends from the Algonquin. The year 1929 should have been a wonderful year for Harpo. He and his brothers had completed their first film, “The Cocoanuts,” a filmed version of their stage show. However, two cataclysmic events occurred that year. In a personal tragedy, Harpo’s mother, Minnie, died after suffering a severe stroke. Harpo was with her at her deathbed and was the last of the Marx Brothers to see their mother alive. Also in 1929, Harpo and his brothers lost virtually everything in the stock market crash that signaled the beginning of the Great Depression.
Harpo and his brothers, however, were better off financially than most of America. In 1930, their second film “Animal Crackers” was filmed, and in the next years “Monkey Business“. In between, Harpo and his brothers continued appearing on Broadway. He also appeared in the London Palace Theater early in 1931. Harpo also appeared in two movies in 1932, The House That Shadows Built, and the famous Marx Brothers’ film Horse Feathers. Harpo’s life was extremely busy. He made several movies (“Duck Soup” in 1933, “A Night at the Opera” in 1935). He also had the honor of being the first Western entertainer to perform in the U.S.S.R. in 1934.
In 1938, in addition to making the movie “Room Service“, Harpo had his name legally changed from Adolph to Arthur.
In 1939, America entered the second World War, and Harpo traveled around the world entertaining the troops during the duration. He continued to make movies as well, including “At the Circus” (1939), “Go West” (1940), “The Big Store” (1941), and appeared in “Stage Door Canteen” (1943), and “The All-Star Bond Rally” (1945). His film career continued with “A Night in Casablanca” (1946) and “Love Happy” in 1949. In addition to his movie roles, musical concerts, and benefit performances, raising his growing brood was a full-time job.
Harpo wasn’t done performing, however. He began appearing on television, on such shows as “Candid Camera” (1953), “The Colgate Comedy Hour” (1954), a classic episode of “I Love Lucy” (1955) where he played himself, “Playhouse 90” (1957), “The Incredible Jewel Robbery” (1959) — which was the last time the Marx Brothers performed together on film, “The June Allyson Show” (1960) — portraying a mute man, “The Red Skelton Show” (1962).
In 1961, Harpo publishes his autobiography, “Harpo Speaks!”. On September 28, 1964, after having experienced 3 prior heart attacks, Harpo died following open heart surgery.
None of the Brothers was religious in a strict sense. Although from a Jewish family, there is no evidence of them observing a kosher diet or, some of their weddings apart, observing any festivals after their own bar mitzvahs; and even that was attended by Groucho solely to collect the gift of a fountain pen. They celebrated Christmas in the same secular way as do many non-Christians, contradicting one account of an elderly Groucho rejecting (jokingly, if at all) a Christmas tree that had been brought in. The Marxes were proud of their heritage but refused to play on it.
Harpo seems to have been the most theologically inclined of the brothers, recording in his memoirs disgust at an anti-religious play he had seen in Russia, non-specific belief in a greater power and, on his death, leaving his harp to Israel.
Views
Quotations:
“If things get too much for you and you feel the whole world's against you, go stand on your head. If you can think of anything crazier to do, do it.”
“He looked like something that had gotten loose from Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.”
“In 1944 James Arthur and Minnie Susan were added to the Marx household.”
“In the house in Beverly Hills where our four children grew up, living conditions were a few thousand times improved over the old tenement on New York's East 93rd Street we Marx Brothers called home.”
“Like the East Side tenement, our house was seldom without the sound of music or laughter or questions being asked or stories being told.”
“The passing of an ordinary man is sad. The passing of a great man is tragic, and doubly tragic when the greatness passes before the man does.”
Membership
He became a regular member of the Algonquin Round Table.
Algonquin Round Table
Personality
As a comedian of the silent era, he wore a funny costume consisting of a wig of unruly curly red hair and a top hat. He never spoke on stage, and used his body language and a honking horn to communicate with his audience. Legend has it that he lacked the sharp wits to effectively say funny things to make the audience laugh and therefore his brothers did not allow him to speak. But he was not someone to be disheartened—he evolved into such an emotive mime artist that soon his popularity surpassed that of his brothers’.
Physical Characteristics:
Was seldom recognized when out of character because he was almost completely bald.
His height was 5 ft 5 1/2 in (1.66 m).
Interests
Sport & Clubs
Harpo was an avid croquet player.
Connections
In 1932, Harpo’s future wife, Susan Fleming, co-starred in the comedy “Million Dollar Legs” with W. C. Fields. Harpo had been a lifelong bachelor, and the thought of totally changing his life terrified him. However, the thought of living his life without Susan terrified him more. After a long, unofficial “engagement” Harpo and Susan were married on September 28, 1936.
Harpo and Susan adopted their first child, William Woolcott Marx. They later adopted Alex, Jimmy, and Minnie as well. William grew up as Billy, and became a musician in his own right. Billy composed and arranged two albums of harp music with his father Harpo.