Green’s Reception) was the first glimpse of the Marx Brothers as we know them. The famous writer Alexander Wolcott advised them to officially adopt those stage names, which they did. It’s not clear why Herbert got the nickname Zeppo. Milton was named for the thick Gumshoes he always wore. Groucho had the most testy, temperamental attitude and so was named Groucho.
(Later “Chico”) Arthur obviously played the harp so he became Harpo. Leonard was a notorious ladies man or “chick chaser” and so was named Chicko. It was a comedian named Art Fisher (who was sharing a double-bill with the Brothers) who gave them their famous aliases. They even had a habit of wandering off the stage and into the audience. Plot wasn’t always important to the bohemian brothers because they frequently went off-script and started on improvised tangents. When Milton was drafted into the army, youngest brother Herbert was absconded from school by Minnie to replace him. Only Milton never found his comic center and was the most dispensable to the act. Leonard’s and Arthur’s musical talents on the piano and harp were incorporated into the act to add a touch of class and variety. Leonard’s character became more of a scam artist and Harpo realized that his verbal delivery was weak and so decided to play the role purely through pantomime and sleight-of-hand he’d learned from his grandfather. Julius dropped the German accent he was using (Because WW 1 had started and there was a lot of anti-German sentiment) and the dialogue allowed him to flex his sarcasm muscles. Green’s Reception (also written by Uncle Al Shean) which is where the brothers finally honed their famous screen personas. They were getting good laughs from the audience. The act was the turning point in the boy’s careers.
Julius played the teacher and the others were the unruly students. The four brothers, along with Minnie, Lou and Hannah did a variation of an old act called “school Daze” and asked Al Shean to help re-write it into an new version which they called “Fun in Hy Skule”. If she wanted the kids to perform, he just agreed.) He was a tailor but he was a meek fellow and Minnie always got her way. (Their father Sam “Frenchie” Marx, a native of Alsace-Lorraine, was not in show business. They basically had no choice but to go on stage at a young age. Having failed in show business herself and missing the footlights that her brother was enjoying, Minnie lived vicariously through her offspring. It seemed inevitable that the brothers would go into show business, especially since mother Minnie pushed them in that direction. Changing his name to Shean, he became half of the popular stage comedy team Gallagher and Shean. Minnie’s Brother Al would buck the trend and achieve a considerable level of fame on Vaudeville. Both of these skills would later be incorporated into Harpo’s act.) Their mother Minnie Schoenberg was a failed stage actress.
Their maternal grandparents were performers (Grandpa was a magician and Grandma was a harpist. The brothers came from a show business family.
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