Although Groucho may have once joked “we’re twice as funny without Zeppo”, the older brothers couldn’t deny that Zeppo was an exceptional comedian and naturally the funniest. You have permission to edit this article. The agency was highly successful, managing the careers of stage- and screen writers and actors including Lucille Ball, Fred MacMurray, Jean Harlow, Lana Turner, Barbara Stanwyck (with whom he also owned a thoroughbred horse ranch) and of course the Marx Brothers. "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. Although critics and fans agree that the Marx Brothers were at their unhinged best during their tenure at Paramount Pictures, the comedians' time at the studio was marred by financial disputes. He was with his relatives. The Marx name and fi nancial security he'd offered [6] However, a comic persona of his own that could stand up against those of his brothers did not emerge. In 1934 he stopped performing to become a theatrical agent, and in 1937 became a partner in the agency Marx, Miller and Marx with brother Gummo and Allan Miller. After the incident, Zeppo took Blakeley to Europe, and accepted more invitations to parties when they arrived back in the States. and it was only a matter of time before gravity would draw me inexorably 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. The Mystery Science Theater 3000 character TV's Frank revealed in episode 323 featuring Sax Rohmer's The Castle of Fu Manchu, that while he was working at Arby's, he was given the nickname of "Zeppo" due to his supposed sense of humor. Zeppo's ex-wife Barbara Sinatra repeated this in her 2011 book, Lady Blue Eyes: My Life with Frank. Our love affair began almost thirty years later, long before we took the wedding-day vows that were to last for more than two decades. who opened Frank's shows said, "I know what that charade is, [19] Along similar lines, Gerald Mast, 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: [He] added a fourth dimension as the cliché of the [romantic] juvenile, the bland wooden espouser of sentiments that seem to exist only in the world of the sound stage. I can see you right now in the kitchen, bending over a hot stove. Herbert Manfred "Zeppo" Marx (February 25, 1901 – November 30, 1979) was an American actor, comedian, theatrical agent, and engineer. Frank was that he loved to laugh. Singer's last wife, Barbara Marx Sinatra, discusses couple's 22-year marriage. me and my son, Bobby, were all that was left of our once promising In the Marx Brothers Scrapbook, which was put together by Richard Anobile from interviews with Groucho and those who knew him, Groucho said, "Zep wants to have the odds in his favor. Zeppo is at his funniest when he opens his mouth and sings. The press eventually got wind of the affair, snapping photos of Blakely and Sinatra together, or asking Blakeley questions whenever they spotted her. appreciated what he had done even though I had never seen his rolled away like tumbleweed. He asked if anyone Blakeley was of Methodist faith and said that Zeppo told her she became Jewish by "injection". 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 offers no explanation, are wonderful in their pure absurdity. Yet the youngest Marx had a whole second career away from the limelight and made an impressive and influential contribution to society. What I saw that night was a glimpse of the complex inner One was the big Irish kid in my class and the other was a bigger Irish kid." Most 'rats' played golf early in the morning, when it …