#Marx brothers

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Buster Keaton (writer, uncredited), Groucho Marx, and Chico Marx during the making of "At the Circus" (1939) 

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The Marx brothers: Harpo, Zeppo, Chico, and Groucho, in Animal Crackers, dressed as musketeers, 1928, at the 44th St. Theater. Book by George S. Kaufman & Morrie Ryskind. Music & lyrics by Bert Kolmar and Harry Ruby. Costumes by Mabel Johnston. Set by Raymond Sovey.

Margaret Dumont was also in the cast and, in the ensemble, a young dancer named Hermes Pan, who would go on to choreograph many of Fred Astaire's movies. The show ran for 191 performances, which in those days meant it was a great hit.

Photo: Vandamm via the NYPL

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Chico Marx reading a book of nature stories by famous authors, 1947

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The Marx Brothers classic comedy

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Duck Soup (Leo McCarey, 1933).

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Harpo Marx, November 23, 1888 – September 28, 1964.

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THE MARX BROTHERS AND ALLAN JONES IN A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (1935)

images from imdb

(thank you to @zagreus for a correction on a previous post!)

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Bette Davis as Groucho Marx at the Hollywood Canteen

One of the founders of the Hollywood Canteen, actress Bette Davis, is one of its most indefatigable workers and persevering performers. Bette appears almost nightly for the service men. But the distinguished actresses' appearances are hardly dignified, nor even glamorous. Twice awarded Oscars for fine acting, Bette stoops to captivate her G.I. audiences with a hilarious takeoff on Groucho Marx. Here's Bette Acquiring the Marxian eyebrows and moustache at the hands of Perc Westmore, makeup expert.

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The Marx Brothers left vaudeville and stepped up to the legitimate theater in 1924 with a show called I'll Say She Is. Unlike their subsequent shows such as Animal Crackers and The Cocoanuts, it was never turned into a movie, although one historian has said that "Every Marx Brothers film contains material and situations that can be traced back to I'll Say She Is." Groucho called it "probably the funniest show we ever did."

I'll Say She Is toured for a year and a half before arriving on Broadway in May, 1924. No one expected it to succeed; the Broadway engagement was just a sop to the brothers, who had been threatening to leave the show unless it went to New York.

But the critics loved it. "It is a bright-colored and vehement setting for the goings-on of those talented cutups, the Four Marx Brothers," wrote Alexander Woollcott in the New York Sun, who went on to single out Harpo for special praise.

Maybe it was being on Broadway that led the brothers to bill themselves, in the program, as Herbert, Leonard, Julius H., and Arthur Marx. Not that anyone was fooled.

The show ran for 313 performances, which was excellent for the time. The brothers were lionized by New York society, and Harpo was invited to join the Algonquin Round Table.

Above: Harpo, Groucho, Zeppo, and Chico, with Lotta Miles, in the sketch called "Napoleon's First Waterloo," in which Groucho played Boney. Source: illsaysheis.com

Below: a handbill from the performance of November 17, 1924. Source: NYPL

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Zeppo and Chico Marx having lunch at the Brown Derby in 1932