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11 unusual facts about Marx brothers


Balinese Room

Operated by Sicilian immigrant barbers-turned-bootleggers Sam and Rosario Maceo, the Balinese Room was an elite spot in the 1940s and 1950s (Galveston's open era), featuring entertainment by Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, George Burns, The Marx Brothers and other top acts of the day.

Frank Albertson

He was featured in Alice Adams (1935) as the title character's brother, and in Room Service (1938) he played opposite the Marx Brothers.

Henry Armetta

In 1941, he memorably played the father of a large Italian family shopping for beds in The Big Store opposite the three Marx Brothers.

Henry Roquemore

Many of his roles were uncredited parts in Western movies, but he also appeared in major films including Meet John Doe, The Little Foxes, The Magnificent Ambersons, and the Marx Brothers film Yours for the Asking.

Jim Ferrier

In June 1954, Ferrier appeared on the television game show You Bet Your Life hosted by Groucho Marx, of Marx Brothers fame.

Magic satchel

A running gag in the Marx Brothers films was for Harpo Marx's character to be carrying any given item at any given time, and to produce it at will.

Michigan Building

In addition to films in its prime years, the theatre hosted performances of bands led by John Philip Sousa, Benny Goodman, Jimmy Dorsey and Harry James as well as live performances by The Marx Brothers, Betty Grable and Bob Hope.

Public nuisance

In the Marx Brothers film Duck Soup, Groucho Marx plays the president of the mythical land of Freedonia.

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

The name includes an old spelling of Coconut, Cocos nucifera, which was used in the popular Marx Brothers movie The Cocoanuts of 1929.

Trond Kirkvaag

which was inspired by such diverse influences as the absurd humour of Monty Python; the nonsensical, wordy Blackadder; Not the Nine O'Clock News; the childlike mime-esque Mr. Bean, made famous by Rowan Atkinson; and even the slapstick of the silent movie era and the quick-fire wise-cracking of the Marx Brothers.

William A. Seiter

Among the many stars directed by Seiter during his long career were Shirley Temple, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Henry Fonda, Margaret Sullavan, Jack Haley, Deanna Durbin, Jean Arthur, John Wayne, Fred MacMurray, Lucille Ball, Rita Hayworth and the Marx Brothers.


Bosworth, Missouri

Barbara Marx, who was first married to Zeppo Marx, one of the Marx Brothers (from 1959 until their divorce in 1973), then to Frank Sinatra (from 1976 until his death in 1998), was born in Bosworth.

Duck Soup to Nuts

The title of the cartoon refers to the old expression "soup to nuts", and coincidentally or otherwise turns out to be an amalgam of the titles of the Marx Brothers classic Duck Soup and the Three Stooges film Soup to Nuts.

Marjorie White

Early biographies of James Cagney, the Marx Brothers and Bing Crosby typically gave birthdates occurring five years after the actual event.

Merritt B. Gerstad

After beginning as a cinegrapher on films for Universal, he worked for MGM, working with director Tod Browning on (the lost) London After Midnight (1927) and Freaks (1932), and Sam Wood on the Marx Brothers A Night at the Opera (1935).

Miller Symphony Hall

Throughout its history, Symphony Hall has been host to a wide variety of musical and theatrical performances, including Plácido Domingo, Phyllis Curtin, Rudolf Serkin, John Corigliano, Carol Channing, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Sarah Bernhardt, John Barrymore, Bing Crosby, Benny Goodman and the Marx Brothers.

Production of gramophone records

Home recording equipment made a cameo appearance in the 1941 Marx Brothers film, The Big Store.

Satrap

The title is also used by the College of 'Pataphysics as Transcendent Satrap for certain of its members, among which were counted such peoples as Marcel Duchamp, Jean Baudrillard and the Marx brothers.

Sodium bicarbonate

Sodium bicarbonate, as 'bicarbonate of soda', was a frequent source of punch lines for Groucho Marx in Marx brothers movies.

The Mad, Mad, Mad Comedians

The show included such segments as a Marx Brothers skit, which was a reworking of a scene from their Broadway play I'll Say She Is (1924).

The Norconian Resort Supreme

Actress Kay Francis was in charge of hospital morale, and she saw to it that many of the stars who frequented the resort now entertained the patients; including The Three Stooges, the Marx Brothers, Abbott and Costello, Jack Benny, Harry James, Marlene Dietrich, Gary Cooper, Kay Kyser, James Cagney, Clark Gable and dozens of others.

William C. Conner

In a 1981 decision later reversed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in a case brought by Harpo Marx's widow Susan Fleming, Conner ruled that the producers of A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine had improperly used the Marx Brothers characters in their Broadway theatre production and that the publicity rights of the comedians, even after their deaths, overrode the First Amendment claims of the show's creators.