Herbert Manfred "Zeppo" Marx (February 25, 1901 – November 30, 1979) was an American comedic actor, theatrical agent, and engineer. He was the youngest and last survivor of the five
Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. Five of the Marx Brothers' thirteen feature films were selected by the American Film Institute (AFI) ...
. He appeared in the first five Marx Brothers feature films, from 1929 to 1933, but then left the act to start his second career as an engineer and theatrical agent.
Early life
Zeppo was born in
Manhattan, New York City
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...
, on February 25, 1901. His parents were
Sam Marx
Samuel Marx (born Simon Marx; October 23, 1859 – May 10, 1933) was the father of American entertainment group (the) Marx Brothers, stars of vaudeville, Broadway and film, and the husband of Minnie Marx, who served as the group's manager.
Lif ...
(called "Frenchie" throughout his life), and his wife,
Minnie Schönberg Marx. Minnie's brother was
Al Shean
Abraham Elieser Adolph Schönberg (May 12, 1868 – August 12, 1949), known as Al Shean, was a comedian and vaudeville performer. Other sources give his birth name variously as Adolf Schönberg, Albert Schönberg, or Alfred Schönberg. He is mos ...
, who later gained fame as half of the vaudeville team
Gallagher and Shean
Gallagher & Shean was a highly successful musical comedy double act in vaudeville and on Broadway in the 1910s and 1920s, consisting of Ed Gallagher (1873–1929) and Al Shean (1868–1949); Shean was the maternal uncle of the Marx Brothers.
C ...
. Marx's family was Jewish. His mother was from
East Frisia
East Frisia or East Friesland (german: Ostfriesland; ; stq, Aastfräislound) is a historic region in the northwest of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is primarily located on the western half of the East Frisian peninsula, to the east of West Frisia ...
in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and his father was a native of
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, and worked as a tailor.
Name
As with all of the Marx Brothers, different theories exist as to where Zeppo got his stage name: His older brother
Groucho
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, stage, film, radio, singer, television star and vaudeville performer. He is generally considered to have been a master of quick wit an ...
said in his
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...
concert in 1972 that the name was derived from the
Zeppelin
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...
airship. Zeppo's ex-wife
Barbara Sinatra
Barbara Ann Blakeley Oliver Marx Sinatra (March 10, 1927 – July 25, 2017) was an American model, showgirl, socialite and the fourth wife of Frank Sinatra.
Early life
Barbara Ann Blakeley was born on March 10, 1927 in Bosworth, Missouri ...
repeated this in her 2011 book, ''Lady Blue Eyes: My Life with Frank''. His older brother
Harpo offered a different account in his 1961 autobiography, ''Harpo Speaks!,'' claiming there was a popular trained chimpanzee named Mr. Zippo, and that "Herbie" was tagged with the name because he liked to do chin-ups and acrobatics like the chimp did in its act. The youngest brother objected to being likened to a chimpanzee and it was altered to "Zeppo." In a rare TV interview years later, Zeppo said that Zep is Italian-American slang for baby and as Zeppo was the youngest or baby Marx Brother, he was called Zeppo (BBC Archives).
Career
Early career and The Marx Brothers
Zeppo replaced brother Gummo in the Marx Brothers' stage act when the latter was drafted into the Army in 1918. At that time, Zeppo was employed as a mechanic for the
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...
. He had no desire for a show business career, but the team's mother, Minnie, insisted he replace Gummo because she wanted to maintain the act as a foursome. Zeppo remained with the team and appeared in their successes in
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
,
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
, and the first five Marx Brothers films as the
straight man
The straight man is a stock character in a comedy performance, especially a double act, sketch comedy, or farce. When a comedy partner behaves eccentrically, the straight man is expected to maintain composure. The direct contribution to the ...
and romantic lead until 1933. He also made a solo appearance in the
Adolphe Menjou
Adolphe Jean Menjou (February 18, 1890 – October 29, 1963) was an American actor. His career spanned both silent films and talkies. He appeared in such films as Charlie Chaplin's ''A Woman of Paris'', where he played the lead role; Stanley Ku ...
comedy ''
A Kiss in the Dark'' (1925) as Herbert Marx. It was described in newspaper reviews as a minor role though his performance was praised by the ''
New York Sun
''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York ...
''.
In ''Lady Blue Eyes'', Barbara Sinatra, Zeppo's second wife, reported that Zeppo was considered too young to perform with his brothers, and when Gummo joined the Army, Zeppo was asked to join the act as a last-minute stand-in at a show in Texas. Zeppo was supposed to go out that night with a Jewish friend of his. They were supposed to take out two Irish girls but Zeppo had to cancel to board the train to Texas. His friend went on the date and was shot a few hours later by an Irish gang that disapproved of a Jew dating an Irish girl.
As the youngest and having grown up watching his brothers, Zeppo could fill in for and imitate any of the others when illness kept them from performing. Groucho suffered from appendicitis during a Chicago engagement, and Zeppo filled in for him ably.
![Time Magazine Cover Marx Brothers](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Time_Magazine_Cover_Marx_Brothers.jpg)
"He was so good as Captain Spaulding in ''Animal Crackers'' that I would have let him play the part indefinitely, if they had allowed me to smoke in the audience", Groucho recalled. However, a comic persona of his own that could stand up against those of his brothers did not emerge. As critic Percy Hammond wrote, sympathetically, in 1928:
One of the handicaps to the thorough enjoyment of the Marx Brothers in their merry escapades is the plight of poor Zeppo Marx. While Groucho, Harpo, and Chico are hogging the show, as the phrase has it, their brother hides in an insignificant role, peeping out now and then to listen to plaudits in which he has no share.
The popular assumption that Zeppo's character was superfluous was fueled in part by Groucho. According to Groucho's own story, when the group became the Three Marx Brothers, the studio wanted to trim their collective salary, and Groucho replied, "We're twice as funny without Zeppo!"
[''Duck Soup''](_blank)
– ''Encyclopædia Britannica
The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various time ...
''. Groucho later said of his brother: "Except for the chorus girls, being a straight man in the Marx Brothers wasn't fun for him. He wanted to be a comedian, too, but there just wasn't room for another funny Marx Brother. ... But offstage, he was the funniest one of us".
Zeppo had great mechanical skills and was largely responsible for keeping the Marx family car running. He later owned a company that machined parts for the war effort during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Marman Products Co. of Inglewood, California, later acquired by the Aeroquip Company. This company produced a motorcycle, called the
Marman Twin
The Marman Twin was a motorcycle produced by Marman Products of Inglewood, California (owned by Zeppo Marx, Herbert "Zeppo" Marx) in 1948 and 1949. The engine was a drone airplane engine from World War II, manufactured by Jack & Heintz Aircraft Co. ...
,
[Marman Twin – Herbert Zeppo Marx – Marx Brothers](_blank)
and the
Marman clamp
A Marman clamp is a type of heavy-duty band clamp; it allows two cylindrical objects to be clamped together end-to-end with a ring clamp. It is sometimes also known as a "Marman ring". It consists of a circular strap with an interior V-shaped groo ...
s used to hold the "
Fat Man
"Fat Man" (also known as Mark III) is the codename for the type of nuclear bomb the United States detonated over the Japanese city of Nagasaki on 9 August 1945. It was the second of the only two nuclear weapons ever used in warfare, the fir ...
"
atomic bomb
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...
inside the
B-29 bomber
The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 Fly ...
''
Bockscar
''Bockscar'', sometimes called Bock's Car, is the name of the United States Army Air Forces B-29 bomber that dropped a Fat Man nuclear weapon over the Japanese city of Nagasaki during World War II in the secondand most recent nuclear attack in ...
''. He obtained patents for a wristwatch that monitored the pulse rate and alarmed if the heartbeat became irregular and a therapeutic pad for delivering moist heat to a patient.
He also founded a large theatrical agency with his brother Gummo. During their time as theatrical agents, Zeppo and Gummo represented numerous screenwriters and actors, including their brothers.
[ Louvish, Simon. ''Monkey Business: The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers''. Thomas Dunne Books; 1st U.S. edition (2000). Als]
e-text at Google Books
/ref>
Personal life
On April 12, 1927, Zeppo married Marion Benda (birth name Bimberg). The couple adopted two children, Timothy and Thomas, in 1944 and 1945, and later divorced on May 12, 1954. On September 18, 1959, Marx married Barbara Blakeley, whose son, Bobby Oliver, he wanted to adopt and give his surname, but Bobby's father would not allow it. Bobby simply started using the last name "Marx."
Blakeley wrote in her book, ''Lady Blue Eyes'', that Zeppo never made her convert to Judaism. Blakeley was of Methodist faith and said that Zeppo told her she became Jewish by "injection."
Blakeley also wrote in her book that Zeppo wanted to keep her son out of the picture, adding a room for him onto his estate, which was more of a guest house as it was separated from the main residence. It was also decided that Blakeley's son would go to military school, which according to Blakeley, pleased Zeppo.
Zeppo owned a house on Halper Lake Drive in Rancho Mirage, California
Rancho Mirage is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. The population was 17,218 at the 2010 census, up from 13,249 at the 2000 census, but the seasonal (part-time) population can exceed 20,000. Incorporated in 1973 and located ...
, which was built off the fairway of the Tamarisk Country Club Tamarisk Country Club is a private country club in Rancho Mirage, California, established in 1952. The club had 65 original investors, including Jack Benny, George Burns, Danny Kaye, and the Marx Brothers. Ben Hogan was the club's first golf profes ...
. The Tamarisk Club had been set up by the Jewish community, which rivaled the gentile club called The Thunderbird. His neighbor happened to be Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...
. Along with brothers Groucho and Harpo, Zeppo later attended the Hillcrest Country Club with friends such as Sinatra, George Burns
George Burns (born Nathan Birnbaum; January 20, 1896March 9, 1996) was an American comedian, actor, writer, and singer, and one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, radio, film and television. His arched eyebr ...
, Jack Benny
Jack Benny (born Benjamin Kubelsky, February 14, 1894 – December 26, 1974) was an American entertainer who evolved from a modest success playing violin on the vaudeville circuit to one of the leading entertainers of the twentieth century with ...
, Danny Kaye
Danny Kaye (born David Daniel Kaminsky; yi, דוד־דניאל קאַמינסקי; January 18, 1911 – March 3, 1987) was an American actor, comedian, singer and dancer. His performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and ...
, Sid Caesar
Isaac Sidney Caesar (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2014) was an American comic actor, comedian and writer. With a career spanning 60 years, he was best known for two pioneering 1950s live television series: ''Your Show of Shows'' (1950 ...
, and Milton Berle
Milton Berle (born Mendel Berlinger; ; July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002) was an American actor and comedian. His career as an entertainer spanned over 80 years, first in silent films and on stage as a child actor, then in radio, movies and tel ...
.
Blakeley became involved with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a nonprofit, tertiary, 886-bed teaching hospital and multi-specialty academic health science center located in Los Angeles, California. Part of the Cedars-Sinai Health System, the hospital employs a staff of over 2 ...
and had arranged to show ''Spartacus
Spartacus ( el, Σπάρτακος '; la, Spartacus; c. 103–71 BC) was a Thracian gladiator who, along with Crixus, Gannicus, Castus, and Oenomaus, was one of the escaped slave leaders in the Third Servile War, a major slave uprising ...
'' (featuring Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch; December 9, 1916 – February 5, 2020) was an American actor and filmmaker. After an impoverished childhood, he made his film debut in ''The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'' (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. Do ...
) for charity, selling tickets and organizing a post-screening ball. At the last minute, Blakeley was told she could not have the film so Zeppo went to the country club and spoke to Sinatra, who agreed to let him have an early release of a film he had just finished named ''Come Blow Your Horn
''Come Blow Your Horn'' is Neil Simon's first play, which premiered on Broadway in 1961 and had a London production in 1962 at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Simon rewrote the script more than two dozen times over several years, resulting in a hit ...
''. Sinatra also flew everyone involved to Palm Springs for the event.
Sinatra began to invite Blakeley and Zeppo to his house two or three times a week. He would also send champagne or wine to their home, as a friendly gesture. Blakeley and Sinatra began a love affair, unbeknownst to Zeppo. The press eventually got wind of it, snapping photos of Blakeley and Sinatra together or asking her questions whenever she was spotted. Both she and Sinatra denied the affair.
Zeppo and Blakeley divorced in 1973. Zeppo let Blakeley keep a 1969 Jaguar and agreed to pay her $1,500 () a month for 10 years. Sinatra upgraded Blakeley's Jaguar to the latest model. Sinatra also gave her a house which had belonged to Eden Hartford
Eden Hartford (born Edna Marie Higgins; April 10, 1930 – December 15, 1983) was an American film actress from 1957 to 1962. She is best known as the third wife of comedian Groucho Marx from 1954 until their divorce in 1969.
She was born to ...
, Groucho Marx's third wife. Blakeley and Sinatra continued to date and were constantly hounded by the press until her divorce became final. Blakeley and Sinatra were married in 1976.
Zeppo was accused of beating up 37-year old Jean Bodul, the future wife of mobster Jimmy Fratianno
Aladena James Fratianno (born Aladena Fratianno; November 14, 1913 – June 29, 1993), also known as "Jimmy the Weasel", was an Italian-born American mobster who was acting boss of the Los Angeles crime family. After his arrest in 1977, Fratianno ...
, in 1973; a jury awarded her $20,690 in 1978.
Zeppo became ill with cancer in 1978. He moved to a house on the fairway off Frank Sinatra Drive. The doctors thought the cancer had gone into remission but it returned. An ailing Zeppo turned to Blakeley for support and she accompanied him to doctor's appointments and treatment. Zeppo spent his last days with Blakeley's family.
Death
The last surviving Marx Brother, Zeppo died of lung cancer
Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...
at the Eisenhower Medical Center
The Eisenhower Medical Center (EMC) is a not-for-profit hospital based in Rancho Mirage, California, serving the Coachella Valley region of Southeastern California. It was named one of the top one hundred hospitals in the United States in 2005.
...
in Rancho Mirage on November 30, 1979, at the age of 78. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
.
In his will, Zeppo left stepson Bobby Marx a few possessions and enough money to finish law school. Both Sinatra and Blakeley attended his funeral.
Legacy
Zeppo introduced Jack Benny
Jack Benny (born Benjamin Kubelsky, February 14, 1894 – December 26, 1974) was an American entertainer who evolved from a modest success playing violin on the vaudeville circuit to one of the leading entertainers of the twentieth century with ...
to his wife Mary Livingstone
Mary Livingstone (born Sadya Marcowitz, later known as Sadie Marks; June 25, 1905–June 30, 1983) was an American radio comedienne and actress. She was the wife and radio partner of comedian Jack Benny.
Enlisted casually to perform on her h ...
.
Several critics have challenged the notion that Zeppo did not develop a comic persona in his films. James Agee
James Rufus Agee ( ; November 27, 1909 – May 16, 1955) was an American novelist, journalist, poet, screenwriter and film critic. In the 1940s, writing for ''Time Magazine'', he was one of the most influential film critics in the United States. ...
considered Zeppo "a peerlessly cheesy improvement on the traditional straight man." Along similar lines, Gerald Mast
Gerald Mast (May 13, 1940 – September 1, 1988) was an author, film historian, and member of the University of Chicago faculty. He was a contributor to the modern discipline of film studies and film history.
Life and career
Mast was born in Los ...
, in his book ''The Comic Mind: Comedy and Movies'', noted that Zeppo's comedic persona, while certainly more subtle than his brothers', was undeniably present:
eadded a fourth dimension as the cliché of the omanticjuvenile, the bland wooden espouser of sentiments that seem to exist only in the world of the sound stage. ... e is
E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''e'' (pronounced ); plur ...
too schleppy, too nasal, and too wooden to be taken seriously.
While this interpretation of Zeppo's comedic contributions could seemingly be considered a contemporary reappraisal of his role in the Paramount pictures, more astute film reviewers were apparently in on the joke as far back as the release of ''I'll Say She Is,'' the team's 1924 Broadway hit. In its review of the play, ''The New York Daily News
The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...
'' calls Zeppo "the obliging audience of the family – the feeder who helps his brothers be funny by playing straight himself." When ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' reviewed their debut film ''The Cocoanuts
''The Cocoanuts'' is a 1929 pre-Code Musical film, musical comedy film starring the Marx Brothers (Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, and Zeppo Marx in his first starring role). Produced for Paramount Pictures by Walter Wanger, who is not cre ...
'' in 1929, it ranked all four Marx Brothers equally – "When the ''four'' Marx brothers are on the screen, it's a riot" mphasis added– and went on to describe each of the brothers' unique style of comedy, and praised Zeppo as "the handsome but dogged straight man with the charisma of an enamel washstand."
In his essay "The Marx Brothers: From Vaudeville to Hollywood," Roger S. Bader observes that the films that the Marx Brothers made as a trio after Zeppo left the group should generally be considered a different comedy team altogether, noting that "changes in the Marx Brothers’ screen personas ereimmediate and apparent," with less of vaudevillian-inspired anarchy and more in tune with standard Hollywood comedies where "love stories ereinjected in the plots omake their films more palatable to female moviegoers." Bader notes Zeppo's absence as a symptom of his older brothers' watered-down new act:
Their zaniness and anarchy would be heavily diluted at M-G-M as the studio found them a wider audience. … These are not vaudeville’s Marx Brothers. But in the Paramount films they certainly are the Marx Brothers of the stage – the FOUR Marx Brothers, as Minnie intended them to be. While Zeppo may not be as busy as his brothers, they function best as a quartet. Groucho may have had other capable straight men, but when Zeppo takes a letter to the honorable Charles H. Hoongerdoonger, Marx Brothers fans know he’s the best man for the job. … Those five films are one of the last links to the era when vaudeville was the primary form of entertainment in America – and the Four Marx Brothers were packing vaudeville theaters across the country. Of course they were still great as a trio in their later films, but if you want to know what it was like to see them on stage, you need to start with four of them – and their first five films.
In her book ''Hello, I Must be Going: Groucho & His Friends'', Charlotte Chandler
Lyn Erhard, better known under the pen name of Charlotte Chandler, is an American biographer and playwright. Chandler authored biographies of Groucho Marx, Federico Fellini, Billy Wilder, Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, Ingrid Bergman ...
defended Zeppo as being "the Marx Brothers' interpreter in the worlds they invaded. He was neither totally a straight man nor totally a comedian, but combined elements of both, as did Margaret Dumont
Margaret Dumont (born Daisy Juliette Baker; October 20, 1882 – March 6, 1965) was an American stage and film actress. She is best remembered as the comic foil to the Marx Brothers in seven of their films; Groucho Marx called her "practically ...
. Zeppo's importance to the Marx Brothers' initial success was as a Marx Brother who could 'pass' as a normal person. None of Zeppo's replacements ( Allan Jones, Kenny Baker and others) could assume this character as convincingly as Zeppo, because they were actors, and Zeppo was the real thing, cast to type" (562). Chandler's appraisal of Zeppo's role in the films – as an interpreter for his older brothers to the audience – was essentially confirmed by Groucho himself, who once noted that Zeppo's role was "handsome, obtuse, slightly wooden," and that he "brought logic to a basically illogical story," acting as "an intrusion" to their otherwise complete anarchy.
Zeppo's comic persona was further highlighted in the "dictation scene" of ''Animal Crackers
An animal cracker is a particular type of cracker, baked in the shape of an animal, usually an animal either at a zoo or a circus, such as a lion, a tiger, a bear, or an elephant. The most common variety is light-colored and slightly sweet, but ...
''. In his book ''Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Sometimes Zeppo'', Joe Adamson
Joe Adamson is an author of several books, including:
* ''Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Sometimes Zeppo: A History of the Marx Brothers and a Satire on the Rest of the World''
* ''Tex Avery, King of Cartoons''
* ''Bugs Bunny: 50 Years and Only One Grey ...
analyzed the scene, showing how it revealed Zeppo's ability to one-up Groucho with simple, plain-English rebuttals. In the scene, Groucho dictates a letter to his lawyer, which Zeppo takes down. Adamson noted,
There is a common assumption that Zeppo = Zero, which this scene does its best to contradict. Groucho dictating a letter to anybody else would hardly be cause for rejoicing. We have to believe that someone will be there to accept all his absurdities and even respond somewhat in kind before things can progress free from conflict into this genial mishmash. Groucho clears his throat in the midst of his dictation, and Zeppo asks him if he wants that in the letter. Groucho says, 'No, put it in the envelope.' Zeppo nods. And only Zeppo could even try such a thing as taking down the heading and the salutation and leaving out the letter because it didn't sound important to him. It takes a Marx Brother to pull something like that on a Marx Brother and get away with it.[Joe Adamson, ''Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Sometimes Zeppo: A History of the Marx Brothers and a Satire on the Rest of the World'', Simon & Schuster, Paperback (1983).]
In the same book, Adamson noted Zeppo's position as the campy parody of the juvenile romantic in his analysis of ''Horse Feathers
''Horse Feathers'' is a 1932 pre-Code comedy film starring the Marx Brothers. It stars the Four Marx Brothers (Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo), Thelma Todd and David Landau. It was written by Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, S. J. Perelman, and W ...
''. This tongue-in-cheek observation bolstered the theory of Zeppo's stiffness as a deliberate comic persona:
Each Marx Brother has his own form of comedy. Zeppo is at his funniest when he opens his mouth and sings. It has taken forty years, of course, for the full humor to come across. For a normal comedian this may be bad timing, but for a Marx Brother it's immortality. Almost every crooner of 1932 looks stilted and awkward now, but with Zeppo, who was never very convincing in the first place, the effect crosses the threshold into lovable comedy. "I think you're wonderful!" he oozes charmingly to Thelma Todd
Thelma Alice Todd (July 29, 1906 – December 16, 1935) was an American actress and businesswoman who carried the nicknames "The Ice Cream Blonde" and "Hot Toddy". Appearing in about 120 feature films and shorts between 1926 and 1935, she ...
, and we ''know'' he never met her before shooting started.
Critic Danél Griffin, who praises Zeppo as "that great comic parody of the schleppy juvenile role of the 1920s/30s musicals", believes that the onscreen dynamic between Groucho and Zeppo is one of the "key relationships between the individual Marx Brothers hat
A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...
shape their comedic strategy, not counting when the four of them are onstage together." Griffin points out that Zeppo is often the brother who puts ideas into Groucho's head that set up storylines and big laughs; he goes on to explain,
Zeppo’s onscreen relationship with Groucho has always been tricky to ascertain; Zeppo is generally Groucho's aloof secretary in their films, but he is seemingly capable of reducing Groucho to stunned silence with simple, plain-English rebuttals (see ''Animal Crackers
An animal cracker is a particular type of cracker, baked in the shape of an animal, usually an animal either at a zoo or a circus, such as a lion, a tiger, a bear, or an elephant. The most common variety is light-colored and slightly sweet, but ...
'') when Chico's snappy comebacks only fuel Groucho’s insults all the more. … Zeppo's parts are usually small, but he performs exactly what is required of him as an outwardly wooden fellow who is incapable of being rattled by a man whose business is to rattle.
Allen W. Ellis wrote in his article "Yes, Sir: The Legacy of Zeppo Marx":
Indeed, Zeppo is a link between the audience and Groucho, Harpo and Chico. In a sense, he ''is'' us on the screen. He knows who those guys are and what they are capable of. As he ambles out of a scene, perhaps it is to watch them do their business, to come back in as necessary to move the film along, and again to join in the celebration of the finish. Further, Zeppo is crucial to the absurdity of the Paramount films. The humor is in his incongruity. Typically he dresses like a normal person, in stark contrast to Groucho's greasepaint and 'formal' attire, Harpo's rags, and Chico's immigrant hand-me-downs. By most accounts, he is the handsomest of the brothers, yet that handsomeness is distorted by his familial resemblance to the others – sure, he's handsome, but it is a decidedly peculiar, Marxian handsomeness. By making the group four, Zeppo adds symmetry
Symmetry (from grc, συμμετρία "agreement in dimensions, due proportion, arrangement") in everyday language refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. In mathematics, "symmetry" has a more precise definit ...
, and in the surrealistic
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...
worlds of the Paramount films, this symmetry upsets rather than confirms balance: it is chaos
Chaos or CHAOS may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Fictional elements
* Chaos (''Kinnikuman'')
* Chaos (''Sailor Moon'')
* Chaos (''Sesame Park'')
* Chaos (''Warhammer'')
* Chaos, in ''Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy''
* Cha ...
born of symmetry. That he is a plank in a maelstrom, along with the very concept of 'this guy' who is there for no real reason, who joins in and is accepted by these other three wildmen while the narrative
A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller (ge ...
offers no explanation, are wonderful in their pure absurdity. 'To string things together in a seemingly purposeless way,' said Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...
, 'and to be seemingly unaware that they are absurd, is the mark of American humor.' The 'sense' injected into the nonsense only compounds the nonsense.
In a eulogy for Zeppo written in 1979 for ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', columnist Tom Zito wrote:
Thank goodness for Zeppo, who never really cracked a joke on screen. At least not directly. He just took it from Groucho, in more ways than one. ... If Groucho, Chico and Harpo were the funny guys, Zeppo was the Everyman
The everyman is a stock character of fiction. An ordinary and humble character, the everyman is generally a protagonist whose benign conduct fosters the audience's identification with them.
Origin
The term ''everyman'' was used as early as ...
, the loser who'd come running out of the grocery store only to find the meter maid sticking the parking ticket on his Hungadunga.
Zeppo's performances produced this tribute from a prominent fan, written in Marc Eliot's 2005 biography
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...
of Cary Grant
Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904November 29, 1986) was an English-American actor. He was known for his Mid-Atlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing. He was one o ...
. Grant, a teenager performing in vaudeville under his real name, Archie Leach, loved the Marx Brothers. And as Eliot put it,
While the rest of the country preferred Groucho, Zeppo, the good-looking straight man and romantic lead, was Archie's favorite, the one whose foil timing he believed was the real key to the act's success. Not long after, Archie began to augment his already well-practiced "suave" Fairbanks look and dress with a Zeppo-like fancy bowtie
The bow tie is a type of necktie. A modern bow tie is tied using a common shoelace knot, which is also called the bow knot for that reason. It consists of a ribbon of fabric tied around the collar of a shirt in a symmetrical manner so that the ...
(called a jazz-bow, or jazzbo, during the Roaring Twenties) and copied his brilliantine hairstyle, adding Dixie Peach, a favorite pomade of American black performers and show business leads, by the palmful to his thick dark mop, to give it a molded, comb-streaked blue-black Zeppo sheen.
In his book ''The Anarchy of the Imagination: Interviews, Essays, Notes'', noted filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Rainer Werner Fassbinder (; 31 May 1945 – 10 June 1982), sometimes credited as R. W. Fassbinder, was a German filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the major figures and catalysts of the New German Cinema movement.
Fassbinder's main ...
included Zeppo on his list for the ten greatest film actors of all time.
In a June 2016 review of an Off-Broadway revival of ''I'll Say She Is
''I'll Say She Is'' (1924) is a musical comedy revue written by brothers Will B. Johnstone (book and lyrics) and Tom Johnstone (music). It was the Broadway debut of the Marx Brothers ( Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo). A revival of ''I'll Say ...
'', ''The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
''s Adam Gopnik
Adam Gopnik (born August 24, 1956) is an American writer and essayist. He is best known as a staff writer for ''The New Yorker,'' to which he has contributed non-fiction, fiction, memoir, and criticism since 1986.
He is the author of nine books ...
wrote:
Matt alters becoming Zeppo, is a reminder that the Marxes were never quite as good again after they lost their one straight man. The object of the Marxes' comedy is anarchy, but its subject is fraternity: they are in it together to the end. Zeppo's inclusion in the family made the others less like clowns and more like brothers.
Awards and honors
In the 1974 Academy Awards telecast, Jack Lemmon
John Uhler Lemmon III (February 8, 1925 – June 27, 2001) was an American actor. Considered equally proficient in both dramatic and comic roles, Lemmon was known for his anxious, middle-class everyman screen persona in dramedy pictures, leadin ...
presented Groucho with an honorary Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
to a standing ovation. The award was also on behalf of Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo, whom Lemmon mentioned by name. It was one of Groucho's final major public appearances. "I wish that Harpo and Chico could be here to share with me this great honor," he said, naming the two deceased brothers (Zeppo was still alive at the time and in the audience). Groucho also praised the late Margaret Dumont
Margaret Dumont (born Daisy Juliette Baker; October 20, 1882 – March 6, 1965) was an American stage and film actress. She is best remembered as the comic foil to the Marx Brothers in seven of their films; Groucho Marx called her "practically ...
as a great straight woman who never understood any of his jokes.
In popular culture
On the television series ''Cheers
''Cheers'' is an American sitcom television series that ran on NBC from September 30, 1982, to May 20, 1993, with a total of 275 half-hour episodes across 11 seasons. The show was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions in association w ...
'', Lilith Crane
Lilith Sternin (formerly Sternin-Crane) is a fictional character on the American television sitcoms ''Cheers'' and ''Frasier'', portrayed by Bebe Neuwirth. The character first appears as a date for Frasier Crane, though mutual hostility and disc ...
said Zeppo was her favorite Marx brother.
A third-season episode of the television series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer
''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is an American supernatural fiction, supernatural drama television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon. It is based on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film), 1992 film of the same name, also written by W ...
'' was titled "The Zeppo
"The Zeppo" is episode thirteen of season three of ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer''. It was written by Dan Vebber, directed by James Whitmore, Jr., and first broadcast on January 26, 1999. Feeling left out by the gang, Xander ends up accompanying a stu ...
." This episode focuses on the perspective of the character Xander Harris
Alexander Lavelle Harris is a fictional character created for the action-horror/fantasy television series '' Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1997–2003). He was developed by Joss Whedon and portrayed throughout the television series by Nicholas Bre ...
; his position as ostensibly the least impressive or capable member of the cast is compared to Zeppo Marx.
The ''Mystery Science Theater 3000
''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. ...
'' character TV's Frank
''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. I ...
revealed in episode 323 featuring ''Sax Rohmer
Arthur Henry "Sarsfield" Ward (15 February 1883 – 1 June 1959), better known as Sax Rohmer, was an English novelist. He is best remembered for his series of novels featuring the master criminal Dr. Fu Manchu."Rohmer, Sax" by Jack Adrian in Da ...
's The Castle of Fu Manchu
''The Castle of Fu Manchu'' (german: Die Folterkammer des Dr. Fu Man Chu, lit=The Torture Chamber of Dr. Fu Manchu, es, El castillo de Fu-Manchu) is a 1969 film and the fifth and final Dr. Fu Manchu film with Christopher Lee portraying the ti ...
'', that while he was working at Arby's
Arby's is an American fast food sandwich restaurant chain with more than 3,300 restaurants system wide and third in terms of revenue. In October 2017, '' Food & Wine'' called Arby's "America's second largest sandwich chain (after Subway)".
Ar ...
, he was given the nickname of "Zeppo" due to his supposed sense of humor.
Filmography
Film
References
External links
*
*
*
''The Marx Brothers Council Podcast'' episode devoted to Zeppo
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marx, Zeppo
1901 births
1979 deaths
Male actors from Palm Springs, California
American male comedians
American male comedy actors
American male film actors
American male musical theatre actors
American male stage actors
American inventors
American people of German-Jewish descent
Jewish American male actors
Deaths from lung cancer in California
Male actors from New York City
Vaudeville performers
Marx Brothers
20th-century American male actors
Jewish American comedians
20th-century American comedians
20th-century American male singers
20th-century American singers