Marx Kardeşler: Revizyonlar arasındaki fark

[[Dosya:Marx Brothers 1931.jpg|thumb|Top to bottom: Chico, Harpo, Groucho and Zeppo (1931)]]

 

The brothers were from a family of artists, and their musical talent was encouraged from an early age. Harpo was hopelessly untalented on the guitar and piano (he boasts in his [[autobiography]]<ref>Marx, H., & Barber, R. (1961). ''Harpo Speaks!'' New York: B. Geis Associates.</ref> that he only knew two songs, and that he could only play them with one finger); however, he became a dedicated [[harpist]], which gave him his nickname. Chico was an excellent [[Piano|pianist]], and Groucho played the [[guitar]] and sang.

 

Another famous entertainer became part of the family when [[Jack Benny]] married Sadye Marks (aka [[Mary Livingstone]]), their cousin.<ref>{{cite web | title = Mary Livingstone Biography | work = Internet Movie Database | publisher = IMDB | url = http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0515331/bio | accessdate = 2007-10-03 }}</ref>

 

One evening in 1912, a performance at the Opera House in [[Nacogdoches, Texas]] was interrupted by shouts from outside about a runaway [[mule]]. The audience hurried outside to see what was happening. When they returned, Groucho, angered by the interruption, made snide comments about the audience, including "Nacogdoches is full of roaches" and "The jackass is the flower of Tex-ass". Instead of becoming angry, the audience laughed. The family then realized they had potential as a comic troupe.<ref>Stefan Kanfer, ''Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000), pgs. 35-36</ref>

 

Without makeup, wigs, or glasses, all of the Brothers were similar-looking, including their receding hairlines. Zeppo could pass for a younger Groucho, and played the role of his son in ''[[Horse Feathers]]''. In ''[[Duck Soup]]'', with Groucho, Harpo and Chico all made up in Groucho's greasepaint eyebrows and mustache, and his style of glasses, and with their heads covered by nightcaps, the three looked virtually identical, enabling them to carry off the "mirror scene" effectively.

 

The stage names for four of the five brothers were coined by [[Stand up comedy|monologist]] Art Fisher<ref name="Adamson">Joe Adamson, ''Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Sometimes Zeppo: A Celebration of the Marx Brothers '' New York: Simon and Schuster, 1973.</ref> during a [[poker]] game in [[Galesburg, Illinois]], based both on the brothers' personalities and [[Hawkshaw the Detective|Gus Mager's]] ''Sherlocko the Monk'', a popular [[Comic strips|comic strip]] of the day which included a supporting character named "Groucho". The reasons behind Chico's and Harpo's are undisputed, and Gummo's is fairly well established. Groucho's and Zeppo's are far less clear. Arthur was named Harpo because he played the [[harp]], and Leonard became Chico (pronounced, and originally spelled, "Chick-o") because of his affinity for the ladies ("chicks").

 

Maxine Marx reported in ''The Unknown Marx Brothers'' that the brothers listed their ''real'' names (Julius, Leonard, Adolph, Milton and Herbert) on playbills and in programs, and only used the nicknames behind the scenes, until [[Alexander Woollcott]] overheard them calling one another by the nicknames, he asked them why they used their own rather real names publicly when they had such wonderful nicknames. They replied, "That wouldn't be dignified." Woollcott answered with a belly laugh. Since Woollcott did not meet the Marx Brothers until the premiere of ''[[I'll Say She Is]],'' which was their first [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] show, this would mean they used their real names throughout their vaudeville days, and that the name "Gummo" never appeared in print during his time in the act. Other sources report that the Marx Brothers did go by their nicknames during their vaudeville era, but briefly listed themselves by their given names when ''I'll Say She Is'' opened because they were worried that a Broadway audience would reject a vaudeville act if they were perceived as low class.<ref>Stefan Kanfer, ''Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx.'' New York: Knopf, 2000.</ref>

 

The Marx Brothers' stage shows became popular just as [[Hollywood]] was changing to "[[History of cinema|talkies]]". They signed a contract with [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]] and embarked on their film career. Their first two released films (they had previously made — but not released — one short silent film titled ''[[Humor Risk]]'') were adaptations of Broadway shows: ''[[The Cocoanuts]]'' (1929) and ''[[Animal Crackers (film)|Animal Crackers]]'' (1930). Both were written by [[George S. Kaufman]] and [[Morrie Ryskind]]. Following these two feature-length films, they made a [[short film]] that was included in Paramount's twentieth anniversary documentary, ''[[The House That Shadows Built]]'' (1931), in which they adapted a scene from ''I'll Say She Is''. Their third feature-length film, ''[[Monkey Business (1931)|Monkey Business]]'' (1931), was their first that was not based on a stage production. ''[[Horse Feathers]]'' (1932), in which the brothers satirized the [[United States|American]] college system and [[Prohibition]], was their most popular film yet, and won them the cover of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]''. It included a running gag from their stage work, where Harpo revealed having nearly everything in his coat. At various points in ''Horse Feathers'' Harpo pulls out of his coat: a wooden mallet, a fish, a coiled rope, a tie, a poster of a woman in her underwear, a cup of hot coffee, a sword; and, just after Groucho warns him that he "can't burn the candle at both ends," a candle burning at both ends. In another famous sketch, shown in ''Animal Crackers'', Harpo drops a full banquet's worth of silverware out of his sleeve, followed by a coffeepot. In ''The Cocoanuts'', he takes scissors and cuts off a singer's dress, unhooking her bra and holding it up to show that it has three cups.

 

After a short experience at [[RKO]] (''[[Room Service (1938 film)|Room Service]]'', 1938), the Marx Brothers made three more films before leaving MGM, ''[[At the Circus]]'' (1939), ''[[Go West (film)|Go West]]'' (1940), and ''[[The Big Store]]'' (1941). Prior to the release of ''The Big Store'', the team announced their retirement from the screen, but Chico was in dire financial straits; to help settle his [[gambling]] debts, the Marx Brothers made another two films together, ''[[A Night in Casablanca]]'' (1946) and ''[[Love Happy]]'' (1949), both of them released by [[United Artists]].

 

Groucho and Chico appeared together briefly in a 1957 [[short film]] promoting the [[Saturday Evening Post]] entitled "Showdown at Ulcer Gulch," directed by animator [[Shamus Culhane]], Chico's son-in-law. Then they worked together, but in different scenes, in ''[[The Story of Mankind (1957 film)|The Story of Mankind]]'' (1957). In 1959, all three acted in a TV pilot, ''Deputy Seraph,'' to star Harpo and Chico as blundering angels; Groucho would appear in every third episode as their boss, the "Deputy [[Seraph]]" The pilot was never finished when it was discovered that Chico was seriously ill with [[arteriosclerosis]]; he could not remember his lines at all, and was uninsurable. Chico and Harpo did appear together in a half-hour film shot later that year for the ''[[General Electric Theater]]'' on [[CBS]], ''[[The Incredible Jewel Robbery]]'', a pantomime show with the pair as would-be jewel thieves. Groucho made a brief appearance in the last scene.

 

Also noteworthy is the fact that Harpo Marx appeared as himself in a sketch on ''[[I Love Lucy]]'' in which he and [[Lucille Ball]] reprised the mirror routine from ''Duck Soup'', with Lucy dressed up as Harpo.

 

Films with the Four Marx Brothers:

*''[[Humor Risk]]'' (1921), previewed once and never released; thought to be lost

**''[[A Kiss in the Dark]]'' (1925), released by Paramount (cameo)

 

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<nowiki>*</nowiki> (To avoid a possible lawsuit, this name was chosen instead of the intended "Quackenbush" after it was discovered that there was a real doctor by this name.)

 

*In [[1925]], Harpo was the first brother to appear on screen in a widely released film, having been cast in ''[[Too Many Kisses]]'' as "The Village Peter Pan." It was in this role that Harpo spoke the only line he would ever speak in front of a movie or TV camera: "You sure you can't move?" But as it was a silent movie, audiences ''still'' didn't hear his voice.