Harpo Marx – Clown, Musician, And Dad

Arthur “Harpo” Marx (born Adolph Marx) was an American comedian, actor, mime artist, and musician, and the second-oldest of the Marx Brothers.  Although the comedy of his brothers Groucho Marx and Chico Marx, Harpo’s style was visual, exemplifying both clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish blond wig and was silent in all his movie appearances, instead blowing a horn or whistling to communicate. One of his most well-known props was a bulb-horn that he tucked under his belt.

Harpo was born on November 23, 1888, in Manhattan, New York City.  He grew up 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 was situated in a neighborhood populated with European immigrants, mostly artisans”.

Harpo’s parents were Sam Marx (“Frenchy”) and his wife, Minnie. His mother was from East Frisia, Germany, and his father, a tailor, was born in Alsace-Lorraine, now called Alsace-Moselle, France.

Harpo received little formal education and dropping out of Public School at age eight He began to work in numerous odd jobs with his brother Chico to contribute to the family income, including selling newspapers, working in a butcher shop, and as an errand office boy.

In January 1910, Harpo joined two of his brothers, Julius (later “Groucho”) and Milton (later “Gummo”), to form “The Three Nightingales”, later be renamed “The Marx Brothers”. Numerous legends (unverified) try to explain the origin of the “silent” character in the brothers’ act. In his memoir, Groucho wrote that Harpo simply wasn’t very good at memorizing dialogue, and thus was ideal to portray the archetypal Vaudeville role of the “dunce who couldn’t speak.”^[26]

Harpo was self-taught on the harp, with one exception: Mildred Dilling, the professional harpist finally taught Harpo proper harp technique and collaborated with him regularly when he had difficulty composing.. Dispute Harpo’s musical talent, he never learned to read nor write music. Upon his death, one of Harpo’s harps was donated to the State of Israel, and eventually found a home in an Israeli orchestra.

On September 28, 1936 Harpo was married to actress Susan Fleming. Their marriage was life-long.  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 a kid in every window, waving goodbye.”

“Dad always said there were two Harpos – the actor and the man. The actor was the one who horsed around with his brothers and pulled all sorts of junk from that bottomless pit of a trench coat. But it was also the man who sat down and played the harp. (Bill Marx, www.harposplace.com)

Bill said that after the release of MGM’s The Big Store in 1941 and the Marx Brothers’ first retirement, Harpo did a lot of solo work with USO shows performing at Army bases and hospitals. And in the late 1940s, he toured with a musical show called “Harpo’s Concert Bazaar.”

In November of 1951, Harpo made his debut on the Colgate Comedy Hour with Donald O’Connor. For the next 11 years TV audiences never knew when he might appear unexpectedly. He signed a contract with NBC in 1952 to make odd appearances on various shows Once, he co-hosted NBC’s Comedy Hour with Uncle Chico. He also appeared on the All Star Revue… and in one of NBC’s first-ever color broadcasts, on a Christmas special called “Season’s Greetings” on December 17, 1953.

One of those appearances was one of my personal favorites. That was his memorable appearance on I Love Lucy, TV’s #1 show at the time, in April of 1955. It was later voted one of the top 10 episodes of I Love Lucy.

Harpo Marx died on September 28, 1964 (his 28th wedding anniversary), at age 75 in a West Los Angeles hospital.  Harpo’s death was said to have hit the surviving Marx brothers very hard. Groucho’s son Arthur, who attended the funeral with most of the Marx family, later said that Harpo’s funeral was the only time in his life that he ever saw his father cry.