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Adolph Arthur Marx, known as Harpo Marx, (November
23, 1888 – September 28, 1964) was one of
the Marx Brothers, a group of Vaudeville
entertainers who later experienced tremendous
success in making film comedies. His trademarks
were that he never talked in any of the Marx
brothers films, that he played the harp, and that
he frequently used props in sight gags — for
instance, when he is told in one film that he
cannot burn a candle at both ends, he immediately
produces a candle burning at both ends from inside
his coat.

In January of 1910, Harpo joined two of his
brothers to form "The Three Nightingales". When
the Marx Brothers were playing in vaudeville,
Harpo was inspired to develop his "silent" routine
after reading a review of one largely ad-libbed
performance. The theater critic wrote, "Adolph
Marx performed beautiful pantomime which was
ruined whenever he spoke".

Harpo got his stage name during a card game: the
dealer called him "Harpo" because he played the
harp. His other brothers were given names to match
their personalities or hobbies; his brother
Leonard became "Chicko" (Chico Marx|Chico) because
he was always chasing women ("chicks"), and his
brother Milton became "Gummo Marx|Gummo".

He taught himself to play the harp, and played it
in an unconventional manner with an idiosyncratic
tuning of the strings.  While he later learned
that he did not play the instrument in the
accepted manner, his fame with the instrument drew
musicians from all around to learn his style.

Harpo changed his name to Arthur shortly before
World War I. There was a great deal of anti-German
sentiment in America during the first World War,
and he thought Adolph sounded "too
Germany|German".

Harpo married actress Susan Fleming on September
28, 1936. The couple adopted four children (Bill,
Alex, Jimmy and Minnie.)

Harpo was good friends with theater critic
Alexander Woollcott and because of this became a
regular member of the Algonquin Round Table.
Harpo, who was quiet in his personal life, said
his main contribution was to be the audience of
that group of wits.

In 1955, Harpo made a memorable appearance on
Lucille Ball's popular sitcom, I Love Lucy, in
which they re-enacted the famous mirror scene from
the classic Marx Brothers movie, Duck Soup. 

In 1961, Harpo published his autobiography, Harpo
Speaks. In it he tells one story of a man who
didn't believe he could actually talk. Many people
believed he was actually mute. In fact, recordings
of his voice can be found on the internet,
documentaries, and on bonus materials of Marx
Brothers DVDs. In one story, he had a fairly
distinguished voice like a professional announcer,
though he did have a New York accent his entire
life (for example: "girls" he would pronounce
"goils.")  See, for instance,
http://www.marx-brothers.org/living/bbc2_hm.wav
this audio recording.

On September 28, 1964, Harpo died after open heart
surgery.

== Further Reading ==

* Marx, Harpo. Harpo Speaks. ISBN 0879100362 

==External link==
*http://www.clown-ministry.com/History/marx-brothe
rs/harpo-marx.html biography of Harpo Marx
*http://www.clown-ministry.com/Resources/marx-brot
hers/HarpoSpeaks.html review of Harpo Speaks