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Julius Henry Marx made his debut on the vaudeville stage in 1905 at the age of 15. He was soon joined by his brothers Milton (Gummo) and Adolph (Harpo). They were a singing group at first and highly unsuccessful until Julius (Groucho) began to insult an audience in Nacogdoches Texas after much of the audience had abandoned the theater in mid song to watch a runaway mule on the street outside. His witty repartee was much more entertaining than the singing, so the Marx brothers became a highly successful comedy act.

The Marx Brothers, by this time including the eldest, Leonard (Chico) and the youngest, Herbert (Zeppo) went on to star on Broadway and then in Hollywood films starting with one of the earliest talkies, “The Cocoanuts,” in 1929. This clip, from a 1939 film “At The Circus” introduces Groucho’s signature song, “Lydia the Tattooed Lady.” He would continue to sing this song throughout his life when appearing on television or before live audiences - probably some dead ones too.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 at 3:10 am and is filed under movies, music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.