Editing Groucho Marx (section)

== Early life ==
Groucho was born Julius Henry Marx on October 2, 1890, in [[Manhattan]], New York City.<ref>The WWI draft registration of 1917 as Julius Henry Marx in Chicago, Illinois uses October 2, 1890. The 1900 census has him born in October 1890.</ref> Marx stated that he was born in a room above a butcher's shop on East 78th Street, "Between [[Lexington Avenue|Lexington]] and [[Third Avenue|Third]]", as he told [[Dick Cavett]] in a 1969 television interview.<ref name="Cavett19690613"/> Later in life, in discussing the Brothers' names during his [[Carnegie Hall]] concert, Groucho said that he was named after his unemployed uncle Julius, who lived with his family. The family believed that Julius was a rich uncle hiding a fortune, and Groucho believed that his naming was an attempt to get into Julius's will. "And he finally died, and he left us his will, and in that will he left three razor blades, an 8-ball, a celluloid dicky, and he owed my father $85 beside."<ref name="Groucho Live At Carnegie Hall">Groucho Live at Carnegie Hall</ref>

The Marx children grew up in a turn-of-the-century building at 179 East 93rd Street off Lexington Avenue in a neighborhood now known as [[Carnegie Hill]] on the [[Upper East Side]] of the borough of Manhattan. His older brother [[Harpo Marx|Harpo]], in his memoir ''Harpo Speaks'', called the building "the first real home I knew".<ref>{{cite book |title=Harpo Speaks |first1=Harpo |last1=Marx |author-link1=Harpo Marx |first2=Barber (with) |last2=Rowland |publisher=[[Limelight Editions]] |location=New York |year=1961 |edition=1985 with new [[Afterword]]s |page=19 |isbn=0-87910-036-2|url=https://archive.org/details/harpospeaks00marx/page/18/mode/2up?q=real+home |access-date=November 8, 2023 }}</ref> It was populated with European immigrants, mostly artisans. Just across the street were the oldest [[brownstone]]s in the area, owned by people including the well-connected Loew Brothers and William Orth. The Marx family lived there "for about 14 years", Groucho also told Cavett.

[[File:Early marx brothers with parents.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|left|The only known photo of all five Marx brothers with their parents in New York City, 1915; from left: Groucho (aged 25), Gummo (aged 22), Minnie (mother), Zeppo (aged 14), Frenchie (father), Chico (aged 28), and Harpo (aged 27)]]
The Marx family was Jewish.<ref>{{cite web|author=Gary Baum|title=L.A.'s Power Golf Clubs: Where the Hollywood Elite Play|date=June 23, 2011|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/las-power-golf-clubs-hollywood-205072|newspaper=[[The Hollywood Reporter]]}}</ref> Mother [[Minnie Marx|Miene "Minnie" Schoenberg]], and her family came from [[Dornum]] in northern Germany when she was 16 years old. Father [[Sam Marx|Simon "Sam" Marx]], changed his name from Marrix, was called "Frenchie" by his sons throughout his life, because he and his family came from [[Alsace]] in France.<ref>{{cite web|last=Bland|first=Frank|title=The Marx Brothers Family|url=http://www.marx-brothers.org/biography/marxes.htm|access-date=May 15, 2012}}</ref> Minnie's brother was Al Schoenberg, who shortened his name to [[Al Shean]] when he went into show business as half of [[Gallagher and Shean]], a noted [[vaudeville]] act of the early 20th century. According to Marx, when Shean visited, he would throw the local waifs a few coins so that when he knocked at the door he would be surrounded by adoring fans. Marx and his brothers respected his opinions and asked him on several occasions to write some material for them.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

Although Minnie Marx did not have an entertainment industry career, she had intense ambition for her sons to go on the stage like their uncle. While pushing her second son Leonard ([[Chico Marx]]) in piano lessons, she found that Julius had a pleasant soprano voice and the ability to remain on key. Julius's early career goal was to become a doctor, but the struggling family's need for additional income forced him out of school at the age of twelve. By that time Julius had become a voracious reader, particularly fond of [[Horatio Alger]] and [[Frank Merriwell]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Siegel |first=Lee |title=Groucho Marx: The Comedy of Existence |date=2016 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-21663-9 |series=Jewish Lives |location=New Haven, CT |pages=6}}</ref>

After a few stabs at entry-level office work and jobs suitable for adolescents, Marx took to the stage as a boy singer with the Gene Leroy Trio, debuting at the [[Ramona Park#Ramona Theater Pavilion|Ramona Theatre]] in [[Grand Rapids, Michigan]], on July 16, 1905.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bader|first=Robert S.|title=Four of the Three Musketeers: The Marx Brothers on Stage|date=2016|publisher=Northwestern University Press|location=Evanston, IL|page=31|isbn=9780810134164}}</ref> Marx reputedly claimed that he was "hopelessly average" as a vaudevillian, but this was typical Marx, wisecracking in his true form. By 1909, Minnie Marx had assembled her sons into an undistinguished vaudeville singing group billed as "The Four Nightingales". The brothers Julius, Milton ([[Gummo Marx]]) and Arthur (originally Adolph, but [[Harpo Marx]] from 1911) and another boy singer, Lou Levy, traveled the U.S. vaudeville circuits to little fanfare. After exhausting their prospects in the East, the family moved to [[La Grange, Illinois]], to play the Midwest.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}
 
Supposedly, after a particularly dispiriting performance in [[Nacogdoches, Texas]], Julius, Milton, and Arthur began cracking jokes onstage for their own amusement. Much to their surprise, the audience liked them better as comedians than as singers. They modified the then-popular [[Gus Edwards (vaudeville)|Gus Edwards]] comedy skit "School Days" and renamed it "Fun In Hi Skule". The Marx Brothers performed variations on this routine for the next seven years.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

For a time, all the brothers performed using ethnic accents, a common schtick in vaudeville. Leonard, the oldest, developed the Italian accent he used for his entire career, to convince some roving bullies that he was Italian, not Jewish. Arthur, the next oldest, donned a curly red wig and became "Patsy Brannigan", a stereotypical Irish character. His discomfort when speaking on stage led to his uncle Al Shean's suggestion that he stop speaking altogether and play the role in mime. Julius's character from "Fun In Hi Skule" was an ethnic German, so Julius played him with a typical Teutonic accent. After the sinking of the {{RMS|Lusitania}} in 1915, public [[anti-German sentiment]] was widespread, and Marx's German character was booed, so he dropped the accent and developed the fast-talking wise-guy character that became his trademark.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

The Marx Brothers became the biggest comedic stars of the [[Palace Theatre (New York City)|Palace Theatre]] in New York, which billed itself as the "Valhalla of Vaudeville". Brother Chico's deal-making skills resulted in three hit plays on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]]. No other comedy routine had ever so infected the Broadway circuit. All of this stage work predated their Hollywood career. By the time the Marxes made their first movie, they were already major stars with sharply honed skills; and by the time Groucho was relaunched to stardom in television on ''[[You Bet Your Life]]'', he had been performing successfully for half a century.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}