Intro

Hello and Welcome to this episode of the podcast, "The Mnemonic Tree", where we add a single mnemonic leaf to our Tree of Knowledge.

I’m Jans your mnemonic man and today's episode is on a group of five brothers that could have easily been six if it wasn’t for the unfortunate passing of the firstborn Manfred who died in infancy.

The Marx Brothers were a family comedy act rising to fame in vaudeville, Broadway, and eventually Hollywood. Some of their notable films included “Monkey Business”, “Duck Soup”, “A Night at the Opera”, “A Day at the Races”, and “At the Circus”.

Some of you out there may be aware or have heard of “A Night at the Opera”, and “A Day at the Races” through the Band Queen, as they actually named two of their albums after Marx movies.

Today’s mnemonic is on the five Marx Brothers’ stage names with their real names barely known.

So, with that being said, we will begin with a summary from Wikipedia.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marx_brothers_Tonight_Show.jpg

Wikipedia Summary

The Marx Brothers was an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in 14 motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. Five of the Marx Brothers' fourteen feature films were selected by the American Film Institute (AFI) as among the top 100 comedy films, with two of them, Duck Soup (1933) and A Night at the Opera (1935), in the top fifteen. They are widely considered by critics, scholars and fans to be among the greatest and most influential comedians of the 20th century. The brothers were included in AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars list of the 25 greatest male stars of Classical Hollywood cinema, the only performers to be included collectively.

The brothers are almost universally known by their stage names: Chico, Harpo, Groucho, Gummo, and Zeppo. There was a sixth brother, the firstborn, named Manfred (Mannie), who died in infancy; Zeppo was given the middle name Manfred in his memory.

The core of the act was the three elder brothers: Chico, Harpo, and Groucho, each of whom developed a highly distinctive stage persona. After the group essentially disbanded in 1950, Groucho went on to a successful second career in television, while Harpo and Chico appeared less prominently. The two younger brothers, Gummo and Zeppo, never developed their stage characters to the same extent as the elder three. Both left the act to pursue business careers at which they were successful, and for a time ran a large theatrical agency through which they represented their brothers and others. Gummo was not in any of the movies; Zeppo appeared in the first five films in relatively straight (non-comedic) roles. The early performing lives of the brothers owed much to their mother, Minnie Marx (the sister of vaudeville comic Al Shean), who acted as their manager until her death in 1929.

Extracted from: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx_Brothers]

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marx_Brothers_Library_of_Congress.jpg

Mnemonic

The Marx Brothers Mnemonic – CHuGGZ

(Picture the Marx Brothers at a bar chugging beer and playing a drinking game called CHuGGZ)

1. Chico

2. Harpo

3. Groucho

4. Gummo

5. Zeppo

Five Fun Facts

1. The boys originally sang in a group managed by their mother called “The Three Nightingales”.

2. Art Fisher who was a stand-up comedian gave the boys their nicknames based on their particular characteristics. For example:

• Chiko’s name came from “chicks” because he loved chasing girls

• Harpo because he loved playing the harp

• Groucho because he was cynical and often wore a “grouch bag” around his neck

• Gummo because he liked sneaking around like a detective hence Gumshoe (a detective)

• And; Zeppo because his original name of Zippo he found unflattering and as a result slightly modified to Zeppo. This was because Herbert liked to do chin-ups and acrobatics, and was thus named after a trained chimpanzee called Mr Zippo who performed such feats in his act.

3. Groucho would generally paint an exaggerated moustache and eyebrows to avoid unpleasant removal.

4. Harpo was self-taught on the harp, but could not read sheet music.

5. Groucho was actually offered the “Tonight Show” position following Jack Paar. He declined the position but did two weeks as a guest host, after which he introduced Johnny Carson.

Now apparently, when he was guest hosting, he interviewed a woman who had 14 children and he said “My god, that’s a lot of children! Why do you have so many children? The Lady replied “I love my husband” To which Marx replied, “Lady, I love my cigar, but I take it out of my mouth once in a while!”

NB: Though this story is plastered all over the internet it is probably most likely and unfortunately, not to be true on further research.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marx_Brothers_1946.jpg

Three Question Quiz

Q.1. Did Groucho host a show called “You Wish Your Life Was 100 percent real? True or False

Q.2. Which of the following is not a Marx Movie?

· Room Service

· Animal Crackers

· Duck Soup

· The Jazz Singer

Q.3. Did a spy magazine trick U.S. congressmen that a plot in “Duck Soup” to stop ethnic cleansing in Fictional Freedonia was real?

Bonus Q. Which one of these is the Broadway musical based on the early days of the Marx Brothers? Options are: The Fab Five, The Marx Brothers, or Minnie’s Boys

Mnemonic Recap

The Marx Brothers Mnemonic – CHuGGZ

(Picture the Marx Brothers at a bar chugging beer and playing a drinking game called CHuGGZ)

1. Chico

2. Harpo

3. Groucho

4. Gummo

5. Zeppo

Three Question Quiz Answers

Q.1. Did Groucho Marx host a show called “You Wish Your Life was 100 percent real? True or False

A. False. It was “You Bet Your Life”

Q.2. Which of the following is not a Marx Movie?

· Room Service

· Animal Crackers

· Duck Soup

· The Jazz Singer

A. The Jazz Singer

Q.3. Did a spy magazine trick U.S. congressmen that a plot in “Duck Soup” to stop ethnic cleansing in Fictional Freedonia was real?

A. True. Corrine Brown insisted that we need to take action and Steve Buyer concurred

Bonus Q. Which one of these is the Broadway musical based on the early days of the Marx Brothers? Options are: The Fab Five, The Marx Brothers, or Minnie’s Boys

A. Minnie’s Boys. Minnie was their mother. It opened in March 1970 at the Imperial Theatre on West 45th Street. It lasted for 2 months and 80 performances.

Word of the Week

badinage

[ bad-n-ahzh ]

noun

light, playful banter or raillery.

Example

There is no doubt there was a fair amount of badinage amongst the Marx brothers.

Extracted from: [https://www.dictionary.com/]

https://www.themnemonictreepodcast.com/

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-mnemonic-tree-podcast/id1591795132

https://open.spotify.com/show/3T0LdIJ9PBQMXM3cdKd42Q?si=fqmaN2TNS8qqc7jOEVa-Cw

References