Brownielocks and The 3 Bears
present our 2001 Halloween Costume as
(Yes, there were 5 Marx Brothers folks!)

Cast of Characters

Groucho (real name  Julius Henry) is Brownielocks
Chico (real name Leonard) is MaMa Bear- Brenda
Zeppo (real name Herbert) is PaPa Bear - Barney
Harpo (real name Adolph or Arthrur) is Baby Bear - Billy
and
Gummo (real name Milton) is a hand puppet!

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Marx Brothers Trivia Information

There is an enormous amount of information on the Marx Brothers, both on the net and in many books. Some books have been published by each individual brother, and some by their children.  Because they also had a 70-year career in the entertainment field (vaudeville, Broadway and then Hollywood) the amount of data on everything is overwhelming.

After spending 3 days visiting numerous sites, I've decided to give you a Reader's Digest version of what information I read.  For further knowledge, you'll have to get on the search engines and discover all the sites yourself. 

I'd like to say that I am not plagiarizing, but telling the information in my own format. I also will add, I can't verify all the facts I read are true as only 3 sites listed their sources and all the rest did not.

Here is just a brief overview of 5 brothers and their life.
I am not giving information regarding their movies, radio, etc.
I'll leave that up to the other sites.
Nor do I go into details about stuff with anecdotes, quotes, etc.That can be found on other sites as well. I'm providing just the facts that were basically on several sites.

 

Here is a brief summation about each brother. 
Since there is so much one could share, I'll just give you some of the basic facts and leave out all the details of the movies, etc.

As far as "How Did The Marx Brothers Get Their Names?
all I could find out from an "Interview With Groucho" is what he said. And it appears a good vaudeville friend named Art Fischer came up with them during a card game. Their mother never game them their stage names.

First of all, they all have their nicknames ending in an "O". Why? One view is that it's based on "Knocko The Monk" comic strip. Another feeling is that back when they were growing up, it was cool and hip to have an "O" at the end of your name.  Remember Dobie Gillis? Remember Maynard G. Krebs the beatnik?  Everything was "Daddy-O" and stuff back then.

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Chico
(Leonard)

Chico loved a good time, always had a smile on his face and loved to charm the ladies. Perhaps this might be why he was him mom's favorite?  He loved a good game of pinochle and well, he ended up having a gambling problem where his brothers were always bailing him out of his financial responsibilities.  He is the one who worked the longest, not necessarily because he loved it, but because he had to due to all his gambling debts.  He was the brother who is said to have the most guts and kept his brother's spirit's up during the down times of their career. He had the insight to see that the musical tabloid show were becoming hot and to get the group into that style of entertainment.  Chico played in every vaudeville act and film.  He assisted Groucho's radio show as well. His best comedy style was off-beat Italian accents.

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Harpo
(Adolph or Arthur)

Harpo was born Adolph. But during WWI due to the negative cloud that surrounded that name because of Germany, he changed it to Arthur.

Harpo is probably the 2nd most popular Marx Brother, next to Groucho. The reason is because of his unique look that stood out from his other brothers, he played the harp (not many did) and he never said a word, making him very funny.

But, the truth is Harpo wasn't really mute at all.  On Broadway he did speak.
But he had a problem remembering lines and he had a bad habit of just making up stuff and being spontaneous.  It was hard for the others to follow and well, the critiques just slammed him.  Thus he decided to just shut up@  And he discovered he got more laughs and more attention that way.

He wore the blonde wig because it made him stand out against his other dark-haired brothers and because it photographed well in black and white.

His harp knowledge ( I assume) was taught to him by his grandmother who was also a harpist.  All the harps he played he owned. And he never played the same harp twice in any movie. His two very favorite harps were actually gold-leafed Lyon & Healy Grands Model #24.  After his death, they were donated to an orchestra in Israel to be used, not stuck in a glass case and just looked at.   So that is what was done. Plaques were put on the harps stating they were Harpo Marx's , but they are being played.

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Groucho
(Julius Henry)

 Groucho has been the most famous, and the most prolific and active of all the brothers, even though he is the 3rd in the group as far as age.  He's written a few books, had his own radio show, was the host of a game show for a while as well as starred with his brothers right from the start in vaudeville, Broadway and film.  He's done guest appearances and done interviews the most as well.  Since some WebPages are devoted just to him, I  recommend you visit those rather than me restating a lot of information.  Groucho was most famous for his snappy wit of one-liners, and of course the glasses, cigar and the moustache.

Personally, he is the one who married and divorced the most.

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Gummo
(Milton)

 Gummo is probably the silent or unknown brother of the group? Not many of us have ever heard of him outside of the Marx Brothers real devoted fan followers.
I admit, I didn't until I did this research.

With all due respect to his surviving family, putting him as a hand puppet was not meant as demeaning.  We just did not know about him until later on. But Gummo wasn't into the show business activity as much as the other brothers. And, he was actually the first brother ever to step up on a stage before the rest of them.

How? Gummo would appear with his Uncle Julius in his ventriloquism act. Thus, this is why to honor this we made him a puppet.  He performed on Broadway with his brothers for a while, but stopped to join the Army before they became big stars on stage and in Hollywood.  It was then that Zeppo replaced his brother as part of the group. 

Upon returning from the war, Gummo chose to go into ladies apparel and fabrics as a business. But after a while the lure of entertainment called him and he returned to the business with his brothers as their manager and as a partner in a talent agency.

 

There is no more information on him.
We assume he remained happily married until his death. Well, we hope so.

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Zeppo
(Herbert)

Zeppo was the youngest, fought a lot and he won a lot in those fights. And yet, he was the straight man in the group taking over Gummo's roles when he joined the Army.  But Zeppo always seemed to be in the shadow of older brothers. Yet, they considered him the most funny of the group.

Off-stage he was a whiz with mechanics and kept the car they all owned running. He also held many patents.

Besides being a performer, he helped maintain parts as doing his fair share during the war effort; he grew grapefruits; he did commercial fishing; and he became a partner in Gummo's talent agency business.

Since he was the last to survive, he got stuck in the middle of Groucho's estate battles in court.

 

Our Midi is "Duck Soup"
Here is a genuine recipe for Duck Soup

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