Episode 26: Harpo Marx

The Man. The Myth. The Curly Wigged, Harp Playing Legend. 

Transcript

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Hey everybody, I'm Shannon, and welcome to the They Hid What Podcast. On this podcast, I explore parts of history that have been kept hidden or swept under the rug. In this week's episode, I will be discussing Harpo Marx. Let's get into it. That must mean that Harbour Marks never shut up. Adolph Marks was born in New York on November 23, 1888. He was the third of six children born to Sam and Minnie Marx. The Marx family lived in what is now Carnegie Hill on the Upper East Side of Manhattan at East 93rd Street and Lexington Avenue. Sam Marx, Adolph's father, was French-born and a tailor, while Minnie was from Germany and was the sister of a comedian vaudeville performer. The family was poor and Jewish, which brought on a lot of bullying for the kids at school. The Marx brothers Leonard, Adolph, Julius, Milton, and Herbert attended New York Public School number 86. Adolph struggled with school. He was on his second attempt at the second grade when he was being relentlessly bullied just for being Jewish. The kids would call him Addy and would literally throw him out of the window of their classroom when the teacher wasn't around. The final time this happened to young Adolf was the last one. At eight years old, he decided to walk home that day and never return to school. He had to do something to fill his time, though, so he took on odd jobs with his brother Leonard, who was also only a year older. The two boys sold newspapers, worked in butcher shops, and Adolf became an errand boy. Music, however, was Adolf's passion. The family owned a piano but could only afford lessons for one child. Leonard was the eldest and he was the chosen one, but that didn't stop Adolf. Everything Adolph knew about the piano and how to play it was from listening into Leonard's lessons. He never once learned how to read or write music, but he taught himself everything through the sounds he heard through his brother's lessons. Not being in school as a kid led Adolf into trouble. Leonard stepped in and got Adolf a job playing the piano in silent films. Now remember, Leonard was the brother that was able to take piano lessons, so he could play just about any song that was put in front of him. Adolph could only play two songs. He was clever though, and he would change the tempo of the songs to match the scene of the movie. When Adolph was 22, his mother Minnie sent him a harp and told him to learn to play it. Simple enough, right? Once again, Adolf taught himself how to play the instrument. He would mimic what he saw in a picture at the corner store and then just played around with the sound. Leonard took over the piano playing for Silent Films full time while Adolph played the harp. It took Adolf three years to learn that his harp wasn't even tuned properly. He did eventually get some pointers and help from Mildred Dilling, who taught him the proper way to play the harp. Mildred is a bit of a legend in the harp world and taught Adolf for more than 30 years. He would often call Mildred and play a piece of music that he was struggling with, and she would coach him over the phone. If you're interested, one of Adolf's harps was donated to the State of Israel and is now in an Israeli orchestra. Around January 1910, Mother Minnie put Adolf, Julius, and Milton together for a vaudeville act called The Three Nightingales. Minnie wanted the boys to be a singing group, but they would always goof off on stage. Word started to spread about their antics, and they decided to rebrand as the Marx Brothers. Also around this time, Adolf changed his name to Arthur. Now Arthur had trouble memorizing his lines. After one terrible performance, a reviewer said Arthur's character was great until he spoke. Marx's uncle wrote a script for the boys and only gave Arthur three lines. Arthur huffed that, well maybe I won't talk at all. Instead of trying to help Arthur memorize lines, his brothers Julius and Milton suggested that his character just be silent. This wasn't a terrible idea. Yes, Arthur had trouble with his lines, but he also had great comedic timing. His most popular gag was pulling random objects out of his oversized jacket. He also created a signature face that he made into every screen performance. This face was called the Gookie. It was an imitation Arthur did of a cigar clerk he knew named Mr. Gurky. Arthur explained, quote, Mr. Gherky got so absorbed that he had no idea what a comic face he was making. His tongue lulled out in a fat roll, his cheeks puffed out, and his eyes popped out and crossed themselves. Arthur first used this face in the play Fun in High School around 1910. Arthur was also famous for his curly hair. This was actually a wig and went through many iterations before he found the perfect one. You see, in a black and white film, a blonde wig would appear white. So Arthur dyed his wig pink so that it would appear blonde on film. They then switched from pink to red, also wearing the wig in stage performances, and occasionally donned a blonde wig. The wig and the silence of his character actually saved him. Arthur was bald, so no one would recognize him without the wig. And if no one ever heard his voice, they would have no idea that they were speaking to him. It's very clever. I've been calling these men by their birthnes, but now it's time that we adopt their stage names. It was at a card game in or around 1915 with friend Art Fisher that Arthur was called Harpo for the first time. Why? Because he played the harp. Julius became Groucho because he was known to be moody. Leonard was Chico because he was a ladies' man. And Milton was Gummo because he wore silent rubber soled shoes. He liked to sneak up on people backstage and scare them. Herbert was known as Zeppo after the Zeppelin aircraft, but the nickname isn't credited to Artfisher. Milton or Gummo left the group to serve in World War I and Herbert, Zeppo, took his place. But this film was only screened once. In May of 1924, the Marx brothers were making their Broadway debut in a musical comedy called I'll Say She Is. A reporter for The Sun, Alexander Walcott, was in the audience to review the show. Alexander's review was titled, quote, Harpo Marx and some brothers' hilarious antics spread good cheer at the casino. In the review, he said, quote, We should be grateful for these four talented cut-ups, but especially for the silent brother, that sly, unexpected, magnificent comic among the Marxes. Perhaps the show was actually that good, and perhaps it deserved this rave review. But Alex had somewhat different motives. He was absolutely smitten with Harpo after seeing this performance. The next day, Alex requested a backstage invite to meet with Harpo, and he was welcomed, but Harpo let Alex know that he thought the review had slighted the other Marx brothers. However, Harpo liked the way Alex left and invited him to a poker game at one of his haunts, the Algonquin. These two men stayed friends until Alex's death in 1943. Alex was in love with Harpo the entire time. And while Harpo knew this, he never led Alex on. Even though they exchanged cards each year on the date of the anniversary of when they met, even though Harpo named two of his children after Alex, Alex was just more. He used his connections to help the Marx brothers get gigs. He helped teach Harpo how to read and write, and he was Harpo's best friend. In 1925, Harpo performed in the film Too Many Kisses and had one line. But it was a silent movie, so no one heard his voice. The film The Coconuts in 1929 was what's called a talkie, which is one of the first movies with sound. Harpo starred alongside Groucho, Chico, and Zeppo. Harpo's role was to be Chico's partner. His job was to play charades to tell Chico of Groucho's problem, and also just to annoy Chico. Within a few years, the brothers were stars. In 1932, the Marx brothers were given a radio show by NBC. Groucho and Chico got paid$3,000 a week for just a half hour's work, all while poor Harpo couldn't participate. This is also the year that Harpo met his future wife Susan Fleming at a dinner party. Susan was a former Ziegfeld-Follies girl and was mildly obsessed with Harpo. She said that from the moment she met Harpo, she found him, quote, a warm, fun, darling man to talk to. She followed Harpo around for four years and proposed to him three times. He relented on the third attempt and they married in secret on September 28, 1936, not telling his brothers until after. At the time of their wedding, Harpo was 48 and Susan was 28. One of Harpo's friends had a big mouthful. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt heard about the wedding from a mutual friend a month later and leaked the secret by publicly sending Harpo a telegram. After the marriage, Susan stopped working and became Harpo's assistant, and the two adopted four children. Harpo had said he wanted, quote, so many kids that whenever we go out, there can be one in every window waving to us. Harpo was very much a family man and enjoyed being with his children. His eldest son Alex said, quote, My dad was the most childlike adult I've ever known. Not child-ish, an unattractive quality that suggests a certain selfish insensitivity. That wasn't dad at all. No. He took the world in the way a child does, with lots of wonder and very little judgment, with the delight of someone for whom everything is new and delightful. Now Harpa was the dad of the family, and he set ten rules for the family to live by, but I don't think they're what you expect. Rule number one Life has been created for you to enjoy, but you won't enjoy it unless you pay for it with some good hard work. This is one price that will never be marked down. Rule number two. You can work at whatever you want to as long as you do it as well as you can and clean up afterwards, and you're at the table at mealtime and in bed at bedtime. Number three, respect what others do. Respect dad's harp, mom's paints, Billy's piano, Alex's set of tools, Jimmy's designs, and Minnie's menagerie. Four, if anything makes you sore, come out with it. Maybe the rest of us are itching for a fight too. Five, if anything strikes you as funny, out with that too. It lets all the rest of us have a laugh. 6. If you have an impulse to do something that you're not sure is right, go ahead and do it. Take a chance. Chances are, if you don't, you'll regret it. Unless you break the rules about mealtime and bedtime, in which case, you'll sure as hell regret it. 7. If it's a question of whether to do what's fun or what is supposed to be good for you, and nobody is hurt whichever you do, always do what's fun. Eight. If things get too much for you and you feel the whole world against you, go stand on your head. If you can think of anything crazier to do, do that. 9. Don't worry about what other people think. The only person in the world important enough to conform to is yourself. And ten, anybody who mistreats a pet or breaks a poll cue is Dr. Month's pay. In 1933, Harpo became the first Goodwill ambassador. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt made Harpo the Goodwill Ambassador to Soviet Russia and sent Harpo to Moscow for six weeks. On his way there, Harpo passed through Hamburg and witnessed the early stages of Nazi Germany. Harpo vomited after realizing the harsh reality the Jewish people were living in. Once in Moscow, Harpo decided to perform as if on tour and became friends with Soviet foreign minister Maxim Litvinov. During this tour, Joseph Stalin assigned a government spy to accompany Harpo at all times. They monitored his phone calls and mail and made sure he didn't send any important information back to the United States. These spies didn't seem too great at their jobs, though. Harpo visited the American Embassy in Russia and while there was asked if he could take letters from the embassy to Moscow. Ambassador William Christian Bullett Jr. even asked Harpo to take a document back to the U.S. Harpo never knew what the document was, but he taped it to his leg and brought it out of Russia. After this secret mission, Harpo remarked, quote, I pulled up my pants, ripped off the tape, unwound the straps, handed over the dispatches from Ambassador Bullett, and gave my leg its first scratch in 10 days. Harpo had a streak of activism in him and expressed his public support for Zionism and Israel since the 1940s. He visited Israel in 1963 and often appeared as a speaker at pro-Israel functions throughout the United States. He also had some interesting antics. For example, Harpo was the neighbor for classical composer Sergei Rachmenenov. Sergei was constantly working on pieces at home and thus playing music at all hours. Harpo was getting pretty annoyed at hearing this music, so he played the same game. Harpo would play Sergei's music loudly out of his own windows so that Sergei could get a taste of his own medicine. This ploy worked a little too well. Sergei got so fed up that he ended up moving. At a different time, a pianist and composer Oscar Levant, who had been labeled Hollywood's most bizarre characters and least stable people, showed up at Harpo's door one night, and he didn't leave until 13 months later. Harpo recorded his first Harp album in 1952, and then two more in 1957 and 1958. The 50s were a busy time for Harpo as he also made dozens of TV appearances, including a notable episode of I Love Lucy, where he and Lucy recreate a scene from the famous Marx Brothers film Duck Soup. Harpo kept busy and continued to appear on TV in the early 60s, and in 1961, he released his autobiography, Harpo Speaks. Apparently, since Harpo never spoke in any of his film or stage roles, the public really thought that he couldn't speak. He could, of course. At the time, his voice was described by a reporter that had interviewed him as similar to Chico, but deeper than Groucho, and that it had a New York accent. I've listened to an alleged recording of Harpo, and he just sounds like a regular guy. Harpo's final public appearance was on January 19, 1963, when he announced his retirement. This is the first time that most people heard Harpo speak, and apparently he wouldn't shut up. It was reported that he spoke for several minutes about his career and would repeatedly interrupt another guest when they tried to speak. Harpo enjoyed retirement. He was already an avid croquet player and had bribed the landlords of a Manhattan parking garage to let him turn their roof into a makeshift croquet field. To the landlord's relief, the fire department shut down the croquet game once they heard about it. Harpo continued playing and was posthumously inducted into the Croquet Hall of Fame in 1979. Here's a Harpo Marx fun fact. He coined the term in the hot seat. During his social escapades, he attended parties at the famous mansion of William Randolph Hearst, and noticed that whenever somebody became less welcome, Hearst would seat them at the far end of the table near the fireplace. Being seated in the hot seat usually meant that he would soon stop receiving invitations. Arthur Harpo Marks passed away during open heart surgery on September 26, 1964. He has a look that's recognized across the globe, and I hope that today you learned more about the man under that curly wig. Come back next week to see what else has been hidden.