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70-478: Arthur " Harpo " Marx (born Adolph Marx ; November 23, 1888 – September 28, 1964) was an American comedian, actor, mime artist , and harpist , and the second-oldest of the Marx Brothers . In contrast to the mainly verbal comedy of his brothers Groucho and Chico , Harpo's comic style was visual, being an example of vaudeville , clown and pantomime traditions. In all of his movie appearances, he wore

140-508: A performance art . In earlier times, in English, such a performer would typically be referred to as a mummer . Miming is distinguished from silent comedy , in which the artist is a character in a film or skit without sound. Jacques Copeau , strongly influenced by Commedia dell'arte and Japanese Noh theatre, used masks in the training of his actors. His pupil Étienne Decroux was highly influenced by this, started exploring and developing

210-606: A Secret , Here's Hollywood , Art Linkletter's House Party , Groucho's You Bet Your Life , The Ed Sullivan Show . In November 1961, he guest-starred with Carol Burnett in an installment of The DuPont Show of the Week entitled "The Wonderful World of Toys". The show was filmed in Central Park and featured Marx playing " Autumn Leaves " on the harp. Other stars appearing in the episode included Eva Gabor , Audrey Meadows , Mitch Miller and Milton Berle . A visit to

280-462: A blonde wig. Over time, he darkened the pink to more of a reddish color, which films again alluded to with character names, such as the name of his character in A Night in Casablanca , "Rusty". His non-speaking in his early films was occasionally referred to by the other Marx Brothers, who were careful to imply that his character's not speaking was a choice rather than a disability. In reality,

350-439: A brief surprise appearance by Groucho. In 1960, Marx appeared in his first dramatic role, in an episode of The DuPont Show with June Allyson titled "A Silent Panic". Harpo plays a deaf-mute who witnesses a gangland murder while working as a "mechanical man" in a department store window. In 1961, to publicize his autobiography Harpo Speaks! , he appeared on The Today Show , Play Your Hunch , Candid Camera , I've Got

420-662: A curly reddish blonde wig and did not speak, instead blowing a horn or whistling to communicate. Marx frequently employed props such as a horn cane constructed from a lead pipe, tape, and a bulbhorn. Harpo was born on November 23, 1888, in Manhattan , New York City. He grew up in a neighborhood now known as Carnegie Hill (known at the time as Yorkville) on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, on East 93rd Street off Lexington Avenue . The turn-of-the-century tenement that Harpo later called "the first real home I can remember"

490-518: A dance form, has been adopted by various theatre practitioners as well. Before the work of Étienne Decroux there was no major treatise on the art of mime, and so any recreation of mime as performed prior to the twentieth century is largely conjecture, based on interpretation of diverse sources. However, the twentieth century also brought a new medium into widespread usage: the motion picture. The restrictions of early motion picture technology meant that stories had to be told with minimal dialogue, which

560-403: A halo and ascends to the heavens). Friz Freleng 's 1936 Merrie Melodies cartoon The Coo-Coo Nut Grove caricatured Harpo, one of multiple celebrities appearing as an animal, as a bird with a red beak who chases a "woman" who is later revealed to be Groucho . Harpo also took an interest in painting. Some of his works can be seen in his autobiography, in which he recalls having tried to paint

630-471: A harp that once belonged to Marie Antoinette . After Dilling's death in New York on December 30, 1982, Indiana University received part of her collection of 124 harps. In the 1920s, Dilling commissioned Browne & Buckwell to make a non-pedal harp with an "Egan-like mechanism and seven ditals". Her Celtic Single Action Harp, Dilling Model, is a non-pedal harp with seven levers on the top that control

700-561: A jar of pickles. After Dilling graduated from high school, her mother took her and her sister to New York, where they continued their musical studies. Dilling played for the Central Presbyterian Church 's services, where she earned money to pay for her and Charlene's musical studies. Through this job she met other musicians, including soloists from the Metropolitan Opera , and played in special events in

770-485: A kid in every window, waving goodbye." Harpo was good friends with theater critic Alexander Woollcott , alongside whom he became a regular member of the Algonquin Round Table . He once said his main contribution was to be the audience for the quips of other members. In their play The Man Who Came to Dinner , George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart based the character of "Banjo" on Harpo. Harpo later played

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840-478: A mime, and his later films had only minimal dialogue, relying instead on many subtle expertly choreographed visual gags. Tati, like Chaplin before him, would mime out the movements of every single character in his films and ask his actors to repeat them. Mime has been performed on stage, with Marcel Marceau and his character "Bip" being the most famous. Mime is also a popular art form in street theatre and busking . Traditionally, these sorts of performances involve

910-423: A mime. The mime was distinguished from other dramas by its absence of masks, and by the presence of female as well as male performers. Stock characters included the lead (or archymimus[a] ), the stooge or stupidus, and the gigolo , or cultus adulter. In Medieval Europe, early forms of mime such as mummer plays and later dumbshows evolved. In early nineteenth-century Paris, Jean-Gaspard Deburau solidified

980-461: A name he disliked (as a child, he was routinely called "Ahdie" instead), to "Arthur" by 1911. The similarity to the name of prominent Chicago show business attorney Adolph Marks may have further encouraged the change. Urban legends stating that the name change came about during World War I due to anti-German sentiment in the US, or during World War II because of the stigma that Adolf Hitler imposed on

1050-678: A nude female model, but that he had frozen up because he simply did not know how to paint properly. The model, pitying Marx, taught him some basic brush strokes. Eventually, the original project was abandoned in lieu of a painting, by the model herself, of a fully-clothed Harpo. Marx himself was the subject of a sketch by Salvador Dalí , who was Harpo's friend and wrote the screenplay Giraffes on Horseback Salad . Harpo recorded an album of harp music for RCA Victor ( Harp by Harpo , 1952) and two for Mercury Records ( Harpo in Hi-Fi , 1957; Harpo at Work , 1958). Harpo made television appearances through

1120-788: A recital for UNESCO in Paris in October 1968. In 1971 she visited Iceland, where she was a soloist with the Iceland Symphony. There she had some of her last performances with her sister Charlene, who died in 1972. Dilling was one of the founders of the American Harp Society in 1962 and served as a judge in many of its national student contests. She also frequently served as a judge for the Ruth Lorraine Close Awards. From 1964 until 1982, she held

1190-544: A self-taught harpist who wanted to learn the proper techniques. She introduced him to Renié. Dilling was the first solo harpist to broadcast in Ireland. The BBC sent her on a tour of its stations and she performed as a guest artist with broadcasting studio orchestras throughout the UK and Ireland. She played with NBC's afternoon Chamber Music Series, performing every work then available for harp and string quartet. She performed at

1260-631: A steaming cup, complete with saucer, from inside his coat. Also in Horse Feathers , he has a fish and a sword, and when he wants to go to his speakeasy, he stabs the fish in its mouth with his sword to give the password, "Swordfish". In Duck Soup , he produces a lit blowtorch to light a cigar. Harpo often used facial expressions and mime to get his point across instead of speaking. One of his facial expressions, which he used in every Marx Brothers film and stage play, beginning with Fun in Hi Skule ,

1330-672: A successful vaudeville and film comedy team. Actress Priscilla Lopez played Gino, a character based on Harpo, in 1980's Broadway send-up of Hollywood filmmaking A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine . This role earned Lopez a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical. Les Marsden portrayed Harpo in Groucho: A Life in Revue , written by Groucho's son, Arthur Marx, and Robert Fisher. The play, held at

1400-566: A trench coat with over-large pockets, red wig (he switched to a blond one for every film after The Cocoanuts because the red wig photographed dark in black-and-white), top hat, the comical horn heard in his movies, and his ever-present harp. In time, his talent earned him an international reputation as he performed in films as well as in stage shows around the globe. His talent extended to piano and clarinet (on which he played When My Dreams Come True in The Cocoanuts ), which, as he had with

1470-532: A two-week masterclass and workshop at UCLA . In 1970 she appeared on a BBC television broadcast. She held masterclasses in London whenever her touring schedule allowed it. Dilling had an extensive harp collection. She kept her harp that belonged to Evangeline Booth at home because it was too delicate to transport; it now resides in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She also owned

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1540-611: A weekly radio show on the NBC network every Sunday before the New York Philharmonic concert. After appearing on the Bing Crosby radio show, she gave many celebrities a few lessons on the harp, including Sir Laurence Olivier , Deanna Durbin , and Bob Hope and his daughter. The lessons were filmed as a part of Artist Films's "Twenty-four Great Musicians" series. For more than thirty years, Dilling taught Harpo Marx ,

1610-599: Is how he was billed during his Soviet Union appearances. Harpo, having no knowledge of Russian, pronounced it as "Exapno Mapcase". At that time, Harpo and the Soviet Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov became friends. During this time he served as a secret courier, delivering communiques to and from the US embassy in Moscow at the request of Ambassador William Christian Bullitt Jr. , smuggling

1680-798: The Walt Disney Production's Mickey's Polo Team , alongside Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy . Walt Disney would later feature Harpo (with Groucho and Chico) as one of King Cole's "Fiddlers Three" in the Silly Symphony Mother Goose Goes Hollywood . Harpo was also caricatured in Fleischer Studios' Popeye cartoon Sock-A-Bye Baby (1934), in which Harpo's harp playing awakens Popeye's baby resulting in Popeye punching Marx, apparently fatally (as suggested when Harpo develops

1750-649: The White House seven times for five different presidents. The State Department sent Dilling on three German tours, two in Holland, and two in Austria some time after 1948. They also sent her to Asia in 1961. In 1963–1964 Dilling again toured Asia, including the Middle East. The State Department sent her to Central and South America in 1966, and she toured Asia again, this time with Charlene, in 1967. She gave

1820-403: The off-Broadway Lucille Lortel Theatre, boasted a 264 show run from September 8, 1986, to May 3, 1987. Mime artist A mime artist , or simply mime (from Greek μῖμος , mimos , "imitator, actor"), is a person who uses mime (also called pantomime outside of Britain), the acting out of a story through body motions without the use of speech , as a theatrical medium or as

1890-504: The 1950s and 60s, including a 1955 episode of I Love Lucy , in which he and Lucille Ball re-enacted the famous mirror scene from Duck Soup . Both Marx and Ball, clad in his typical clothes, portray Harpo. He also appeared on NBC 's The Martha Raye Show circa 1950. Harpo and Chico appeared in the May 8, 1959, episode of General Electric Theater entitled "The Incredible Jewelry Robbery" entirely in pantomime . The episode concluded with

1960-634: The Circus (1939) contains a unique scene where Harpo is heard saying "A-choo!" twice, as he sneezes. In 1933, following U.S. diplomatic recognition of the Soviet Union , Harpo spent six weeks in Moscow as a performer and goodwill ambassador. His tour was a huge success, and the show ran for six weeks. Harpo's name was transliterated into Russian , using the Cyrillic alphabet , as "ХАРПО МАРКС," which

2030-526: The Harp (1938). Dilling was a follower of Christian Science , and as such did not drink or serve alcohol. Sometimes when staying with friends she would hide their alcohol because she felt that drinking was wrong. She once asked for a wheelchair in her travels in order to avoid carrying heavy luggage. She married banker Clinton Parker in 1943; Parker died in 1948. Dilling once told a harpist with an infected finger and an upcoming harp concerto to perform: "Read

2100-650: The United States with the quartet the De Reszke singers and the Irish tenor John McCormack . During World War II, Dilling played for servicemen. After the death of her husband in 1948, she toured Europe with her sister Charlene. Dilling performed with noted vocalists Alma Gluck , Frances Alda , Yvette Guilbert , Nelson Eddy , and brothers Édouard de Reszke and Jean de Reszke . She played with Charles Wagner's Community Concert Series over 2000 times. She held

2170-575: The action on the screen. He was also seen playing a portion of Rachmaninoff's "Prelude in C# minor" in A Day at the Races , and played piano in A Night at the Opera . Ultimately, he relinquished the piano to Chico in favor of his trademark harp, upon which he performed Nacio Herb Brown's 1935 song "Alone", which was sung in the film by Kitty Carlisle and Allan Jones. Harpo had changed his name from "Adolph",

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2240-442: The actor/actress wearing tight black and white clothing with white facial makeup. However, contemporary mimes often perform without whiteface. Similarly, while traditional mimes have been completely silent, contemporary mimes, while refraining from speaking, sometimes employ vocal sounds when they perform. Mime acts are often comical, but some can be very serious. Canadian author Michael Jacot's first novel, The Last Butterfly , tells

2310-670: The area as well as with the Central Presbyterian Church. She studied with Ada Sassoli and also had lessons from Carl Scheutze and Carlos Salzedo . In 1917, she went to Paris and studied under Henriette Renié , continuing to study with her in subsequent summers for more than thirty years. Dilling credits Renié with encouraging her career and love of the harp. In 1922 Dilling took five pupils with her to France. In 1911 she began performing professionally in Paris and toured Europe with Yvette Gilbert for several years with much success. Around this time, she also toured

2380-582: The brothers' act. In his memoir, Groucho wrote that Harpo simply was not very good at memorizing dialogue, and thus was ideal to portray the archetypal vaudeville role of the "dunce who couldn't speak." Differing stories exist regarding the origin of the Harpo stage name . The first suggests the pseudonym originated during a card game at the Orpheum Theatre in Galesburg, Illinois . In this version of

2450-515: The craft of mime in the theatre, but, through film, they had a profound influence on mimes working in live theatre decades after their deaths. Indeed, Chaplin may be the best-documented mime in history. Harpo Marx , of the Marx Brothers comedy team, continued the mime tradition in the sound film era, his silent persona working in counterpoint to the verbal comedy of his brothers Groucho and Chico . The famous French comedian, writer, and director Jacques Tati achieved his initial popularity working as

2520-476: The decision to remain silent began when Harpo received a negative review, part of which suggested that Harpo's portrayal of a fool was convincing only until he spoke. Soon after, the Brothers' uncle shared with Harpo a script he had written for them. Harpo was dismayed to find he had just three lines and said to his uncle, "Well, maybe I won't talk at all!" This was meant sarcastically, but his uncle genuinely liked

2590-412: The early 1930s wrote that Harpo "had a deep and distinguished voice, like a professional announcer", and like his brothers, spoke with a New York accent his entire life. According to those who personally knew him, Harpo's voice was much deeper than Groucho's, but it also sounded very similar to Chico's. His son, Bill, recalled that in private, Harpo had a very deep and mature soft-spoken voice, but that he

2660-400: The family income, including selling newspapers, working in a butcher shop, and as an office errand boy. In January 1910, Harpo joined two of his younger brothers, Julius (later "Groucho") and Milton (later "Gummo"), to form "The Three Nightingales", which would later be renamed "The Marx Brothers". Multiple unverified stories attempt to explain Harpo's evolution as the "silent" character in

2730-447: The film's tied-up hero before punching him). Fittingly, it was a silent film, and the audience saw only his lips move and the line on a title card. Harpo was often cast as Chico's eccentric partner-in-crime, whom he would often help by playing charades to tell of Groucho's problem, and/or annoy by giving Chico his leg, as an alternative to a handshake or simply to rest the leg. Harpo became known for prop-laden sight gags , in particular

2800-461: The first of the Marx's many talkies , but also for being the first film to feature an overhead camera shot , at least five years before Busby Berkeley's renowned first use of the technique in his 1936 film Lullaby of Broadway to film a kaleidoscopic women's dance routine. In Too Many Kisses , Harpo spoke the only line he would ever speak on-camera in a film: "You sure you can't move?" (said to

2870-602: The game may have instead taken place at the Galesburg Auditorium Theatre or the same town's Gaiety Theatre. Harpo learned how to hold the harp by emulating a harp-playing angel in a picture he saw in a five-and-dime . No one in town knew how to play the harp, so Harpo tuned it as best he could, starting with one basic note and tuning it from there. He began learning to play the instrument without lessons. Three years later, he found out he had tuned it incorrectly, but that his method placed much less tension on

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2940-508: The harp and violin. Freel was so taken with the music that she was determined that her future children would learn to play the violin and harp. Freel married Frank Dilling and Mildred was born on February 23, 1894, in Marion, Indiana . Dilling had a younger sister, Charlene. As there was no harp instruction available in Marion, Mildred studied the piano starting at age six while Charlene studied

3010-535: The harp, Harpo mostly learned independent of professional instruction. Marx's son Bill went on to display his own musical abilities, performing his own compositions on piano live in concert alongside harpist Carrol McLaughlin. In 2002, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California , Walk of Stars , located at 190 E. Tahquitz Way, was dedicated to Harpo's memory. Harpo was frequently invited to parties thrown by newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst . Marx

3080-484: The idea. His brothers would make joking reference to this part of his act. For example, in Animal Crackers , his character was ironically dubbed "The Professor". In The Cocoanuts , this exchange occurs: In later films, Harpo was repeatedly put in situations where he attempted to convey a vital message by whistling and pantomime, reinforcing the idea that his character was unable to speak. The Marxes' film At

3150-747: The latter's stock characters). It gradually began to replace the Atellanae as interludes [embolium] or postscripts [exodium] on the main theatre stages; became the sole dramatic event at the Floralia in the second century BC; and in the following century received technical advances at the hands of Publius Syrus and Decimus Laberius . Under the Empire mime became the predominant Roman drama, if with mixed fortunes under different emperors. Trajan banished mime artists; Caligula favored them; Marcus Aurelius made them priests of Apollo . Nero himself acted as

3220-534: The many attributes that have come to be known in modern times—the silent figure in whiteface. Analogous performances are evident in the theatrical traditions of other civilizations. Classical Indian musical theatre , although often erroneously labeled a "dance," is a group of theatrical forms in which the performer presents a narrative via stylized gesture, an array of hand positions, and mime illusions to play different characters, actions, and landscapes. Recitation, music, and even percussive footwork sometimes accompany

3290-478: The messages in and out of the Soviet Union by taping a sealed envelope to his leg beneath his trousers. Marx recounted his relief at his voyage's end: "I pulled up my pants, ripped off the tape, unwound the straps, handed over the dispatches from Ambassador Bullitt, and gave my leg its first scratch in ten days." In 1936, he rode an ostrich on a team of polo -playing film stars who appeared as caricatures in

3360-505: The name is taken from a single masked dancer called Pantomimus , although performances were not necessarily silent. The first recorded mime was Telestēs in the play Seven Against Thebes by Aeschylus . Tragic mime was developed by Puladēs of Kilikia; comic mime was developed by Bathullos of Alexandria. Mime ( mimius ) was an aspect of Roman theatre from its earliest times, paralleling the Atellan farce in its improvisation (if without

3430-500: The name, are groundless. His first screen appearance was in the film Humor Risk (1921), with his brothers, although according to Groucho it was screened only once and then lost . Four years later, Harpo appeared without his brothers as the "Village Peter Pan" in Too Many Kisses which predated the brothers' first collaborative film, The Cocoanuts , by four years. Not only is The Cocoanuts historical by virtue of being

3500-668: The performance. The Natya Shastra , an ancient treatise on theatre by Bharata Muni , mentions silent performance, or mukabhinaya . In Kathakali , stories from Indian epics are told with facial expressions, hand signals and body motions. Performances are accompanied by songs narrating the story while the actors act out the scene, followed by actor detailing without background support of narrative song. The Japanese Noh tradition has greatly influenced many contemporary mime and theatre practitioners including Jacques Copeau and Jacques Lecoq because of its use of mask work and highly physical performance style. Butoh , though often referred to as

3570-741: The possibilities of mime, and developed corporeal mime into a highly sculptural form, taking it outside the realms of naturalism. Jacques Lecoq contributed significantly to the development of mime and physical theatre with his training methods. As a result of this, the practice of mime has been included in the Inventory of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in France  [ fr ] since 2017. The performance of mime originates at its earliest in Ancient Greece ;

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3640-572: The role in Los Angeles opposite Woollcott, himself the inspiration for the character of Sheridan Whiteside. In 1961, Harpo published his autobiography, Harpo Speaks! Because he did not speak in any of his film appearances, many moviegoers believed he actually was mute . In fact, radio and TV news recordings of his voice can be found on the Internet, in documentaries, and on bonus materials of Marx Brothers DVDs. A reporter who interviewed him in

3710-570: The same name ). Harpo's September 28, 1936, marriage to actress Susan Fleming became public knowledge the next month due to a congratulatory telegram sent by President Franklin D. Roosevelt . Harpo's marriage, like Gummo's, was lifelong (Groucho was divorced three times, Zeppo twice, and Chico once). The couple adopted four children: Bill , Alex, Jimmy, and Minnie. When he was asked by George Burns in 1948 how many children he planned to adopt, he answered, "I'd like to adopt as many children as I have windows in my house. So when I leave for work, I want

3780-443: The seemingly infinite number of odd things stored in his topcoat 's oversized pockets. In the film Horse Feathers (1932), Groucho, referring to an impossible situation, tells Harpo that he cannot "burn the candle at both ends". Harpo immediately produces from within his coat pocket a lit candle burning at both ends. In the same film, a homeless man on the street asks Harpo for money for a cup of coffee, and he subsequently produces

3850-517: The set inspired poet Robert Lowell to pen his poem Harpo Marx. Late 1962 brought Harpo's final pair of television appearances, which aired within a month of each other. He portrayed a guardian angel on the September 25 episode of CBS 's The Red Skelton Hour . His final role, opposite show star Fess Parker , was as himself on the October 20 episode, "Musicale", of ABC 's sitcom Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (based on Frank Capra's film of

3920-511: The story of a mime artist in Nazi-occupied Europe who is forced by his oppressors to perform for a team of Red Cross observers. Nobel laureate Heinrich Böll 's The Clown relates the downfall of a mime artist, Hans Schneir, who has descended into poverty and drunkenness after being abandoned by his beloved. Mildred Dilling Mildred Dilling's mother, Rachel Freel, grew up on a farm and once heard travelling musicians play

3990-475: The story, Marx was referred to by Art Fisher , the dealer that night, as "Harpo" because he played harp . However, this version of events is disputed, at least partially because the Orpheum Theatre was not constructed until late 1916, whereas Harpo later remembered acquiring the name in 1914. There is no dispute that Fisher coined the name, but some sources give an earlier date for its origin and suggest

4060-563: The strings. Despite Harpo's musical talent, he never learned to read or write music. Although he paid top musicians handsome fees to teach him "proper" harp-playing technique, he maintained his unique style his entire life (his "teachers," fascinated by his technique, spent their sessions watching and listening as Marx performed). The major exception was Mildred Dilling , the professional harpist who finally taught Harpo proper harp technique and collaborated with him regularly when he had difficulty composing. Upon his death in 1964, one of Harpo's harps

4130-511: The tuning of each note in a scale individually. Dilling used this kind of harp on her first European tour. Later, around 1980, she revisited the problem of a portable harp, and collaborated with carpenters Shawn Herman, Jody Nishman, and Arsalaan Fay. Fay still makes harps with what he calls "Dilling single-action levers". Dilling was called the "First Lady of the Harp". Harp students commonly use two of her harp music collections, Old Tunes for New Harpists (1934) and Thirty Little Classics for

4200-483: The violin. Mildred's instructor was Samuel Nussbaum at the Marion Conservatory of Music. The family moved to Indianapolis, where Mildred studied harp with Louise Schellschmidt at age 12. Upon receiving a harp for her 12th birthday, she was so excited that she "had to lie down for several minutes". At age 13, she started playing for social events, her first fee for a performance being a dozen carnations and

4270-461: Was "not verbose" like the other Marx brothers, instead preferring to listen and learn from others. Harpo expressed public support for Zionism and Israel since the 1940s. He often appeared as a speaker at pro-Israel functions throughout the country. He visited Israel in 1963. Harpo's final public appearance came on January 19, 1963, when he announced his retirement, causing singer/comedian Allan Sherman to burst into tears. Comedian Steve Allen , who

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4340-570: Was Jewish. His mother was from East Frisia , Germany, and his father, a tailor, was from Alsace , which was part of the Second French Empire at the time the elder Marx was born and for most of his childhood. Harpo received little formal education and dropped out of New York Public School 86 at age eight (mainly due to bullying) during his second attempt to pass the second grade. He began to work, gaining employment in numerous odd jobs alongside his older brother Chico to contribute to

4410-458: Was admitted to the intensive care unit of West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Los Angeles for a heart operation. Marx died in the hospital after surgery on September 28, 1964, aged 75. Harpo's death was said to have hit the surviving Marx brothers very hard. Groucho's son Arthur Marx , who attended the funeral with most of the Marx family, later said that Harpo's funeral

4480-519: Was donated to the State of Israel , and eventually found a home in an Israeli orchestra. Chico found Harpo some of his first jobs. He and Chico were co-workers, playing piano to accompany silent films . Unlike Chico, Harpo could play only two songs on the piano, "Waltz Me Around Again, Willie" and " Love Me and the World Is Mine ", but he adapted this small repertoire in different tempos to suit

4550-505: Was in the audience, remembered that Harpo spoke for several minutes about his career, and how he would miss it all, and repeatedly interrupted Sherman when he tried to speak. Allen remembered that although the audience found this rare speech from Harpo charmingly ironic, his personal opinion was that Harpo "wouldn't shut up!" Harpo, an avid croquet player, was inducted into the Croquet Hall of Fame in 1979. On September 26, 1964, Marx

4620-641: Was known as "the Gookie". Harpo created it by mimicking the expression of Mr. Gehrke, a New York tobacconist who would make a similar face while concentrating on rolling cigars. Harpo further distinguished his character by wearing a "fright wig". Early in his career, it was dyed pink, as evidenced by color film posters and by allusions to it in films, with character names such as "Pinky" in Duck Soup . This wig sometimes appeared blond on-screen due to black-and-white film stock. In some films, however, Harpo actually wore

4690-491: Was largely restricted to intertitles . This often demanded a highly stylized form of physical acting largely derived from the stage. Thus, mime played an important role in films prior to advent of talkies (films with sound or speech). The mimetic style of film acting was used to great effect in German Expressionist film . Silent film comedians like Charlie Chaplin , Harold Lloyd , and Buster Keaton learned

4760-687: Was portrayed by the actor J. M. Henry in the 1994 film Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle . Marx was portrayed by actor Daniel Fortus in the Broadway production of Minnie's Boys , a Broadway musical that ran for 64 performances at the Imperial Theatre from March to May 1970. The show focused on the early days of the Marx Brothers' act and the importance of their mother Minnie's strong hand in guiding and molding them into

4830-785: Was situated in a neighborhood populated with European immigrants, mostly artisans. The neighborhood hosted many historic homes and other buildings, such as the William Goadby Loew House (now the Spence School), the Congregation Shaare Zedek , and the Virginia Graham Fair Vanderbilt house . His parents were Sam Marx (known by his nickname "Frenchie"/"Frenchy") and his wife, Minnie Schoenberg Marx , sister of comedian and vaudeville performer Al Shean . Marx's family

4900-617: Was the only time in his life that he ever saw his father cry. In his will, Harpo Marx donated his trademark harp to the State of Israel , where it was later used in an Israeli orchestra. His remains were cremated at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery and a portion of his ashes were allegedly scattered in the sand trap at the 7th hole of a golf course in Rancho Mirage, California . Harpo's trademark outfit consisted of

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