Harpo Marx: Summary
- Recent Role:
- Himself on Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
- Birthday:
- 11-23-1888
- Birthplace:
- New York City,N.Y.
- Birth Name:
- Adolph Arthur Marx
Silent member of the Marx Brothers comedy team who was also famous for his harp playing abilities both on-stage and on-screen.
NEWS
Sorry there is no news for Harpo Marx at this time.
- 55 seconds of the Marx Brothers early silent film is on You Tube. It only has Harpo and someone else in that one scene. (edit)
- In his autobiography, Harpo Speaks, Harpo complains that all his life he craved black jellybeans and could never could get enough of them, but assures us that he finally achieved jellybean satisfaction one evening, at the movies with his friends George Burns and Gracie Allen. Apparently, Harpo fell asleep with a big bag of black jellybeans in his lap, spilled the beans all over the theater floor, woke up and accused Burns of having eaten his jellybeans! However, before dozing off, he'd had enough, and never craved them again.(edit)
- Harpo was a respected member of the Algonquin Roundtable, along with Dorothy Parker, Alexander Woolcott et al. Some of his friends from this group used to retreat to a private island where most of them would work on their writing projects and/or relax and play. Among the games they played were croquet and "murder," a day-long roleplay of sorts in which participants drew straws to see who'd play the murderer (secret) and who'd play the detective (open). The murderer would "kill" people by saying to them "you're dead" whereupon the victim would have to lie down and stay in place until evening, when the detective would question the living, trying to determine the killer's identity. Murderous Harpo was caught easily because he killed his lone victim, Alice Duer Miller, by writing "You're Dead" on a roll of toilet paper. (He misspelled it -- and was the only "illiterate" in that group.) Miller was stuck in the bathroom all day but claimed not to mind, as she'd brought her novel in progress with her and got lots of work done.(edit)
- One of Harpo's earliest gigs was playing piano in a house of ill repute... a job for which he almost wasn't hired to begin with because his employer mistook him for his older brother, Chico (who'd already held and lost the same position); their resemblance was uncanny.(edit)
- Gary Cooper occasionally served as Harpo's "interpreter" when he played benefits for servicemen during World War II.(edit)
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