Around 1919 the act was spruced up and redubbed variously “N’Everything” and ” The Marx Brothers’ Revue”. The one remaining change was for Gummo to be replaced by Zeppo, which happened in 1918. And Chico had only joined the act recently. Harpo had not only spoken, but played an Irishman. Then when they had incorporate comedy, Groucho had initially played a German character. There had been many previous incarnations of the act. Then in 1914, he was hired to write an entire sketch for them and their little company, which was called “Home Again” (legend has it that he wrote it on a piece of butcher paper though, to use a Smith and Dale phrase “I’m dubious”.) “Home Again” is said to have set in cement the Marx Brothers’ characters as we would forever know them. Green’s Reception”, and for this Sheen was hired to contribute gags and jokes and other suggestions. In 1912, they expanded it into a much more elaborate production called “Mr. The boys themselves had devised their first sketch “Fun in Hi Skule” (with assistance from Shean). So, at crucial times in their career when they were expanding, he was the natural person for them to approach to craft them an act. The Marx Brothers’ uncle, sometime star of the act of Gallagher and Shean, not only inspired the boys to go into show business, but was an influence in their own early attempts to create an act ( Groucho and Chico especially are acorns off of Al Shean’s tree). In the case of the Marx Brothers, some “got” them, some didn’t. All of the great comedians worked with other writers, often many writers to sustain their act. But the demand for novelty in show business is relentless. And of course they were famous for their ability to improvise funny business right on the spot. They created their own act, and in their early vaudeville days, their own material. In essence, their primary writers were the Marxes themselves. The frequency has picked up again recently because of the recent revival of I’ll Say She Is.) Having recently written about the directors and producers of the team’s Hollywood films, today we discuss some of the people who wrote for their act, for both stage and screen. (We observe this morning with satisfaction but not surprise that, after Charlie Chaplin, the Marx Brothers are the vaudeville act about whom we have blogged the most. In which we continue our ongoing series of Marx Brothers posts.
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