Trivia: The second son of German/Alsatian immigrants Sam and Minnie Marx (the first son, Manfred, died in infancy), comedian Leonard "Chico" Marx was the oldest of the five siblings who would become internationally famous as The Marx Brothers. But when mother Minnie first organized younger brothers Groucho, Harpo and Gummo into a singing vaudeville act, Chico chose to go it alone as a free-lance pianist in orchestras, saloons, and "bawdy houses." Though a limited musician, Marx learned early on how to keep an audience enthralled. When Chico joined his brothers in a "schoolroom" act, he drew upon his expertise with dialects by playing a comic Italian. After their Broadway debut in 1924's I'll Say She Is, the Four Marx Brothers (Zeppo had replaced Gummo) were a big-money act. After their 1937 film A Day at the Races, the Brothers considered retiring from movies, but Chico's financial difficulties were a major factor in their decision to remain active. During the war years, Chico headed his own orchestra, and in the '50s he would pay his bills by headlining state fairs and other such barnstorming endeavors with his brother Harpo. In 1950, Chico made his dramatic TV debut in the half-hour Papa Romani. He was also a regular on the 1950 variety series College Bowl, and appeared briefly as an Italian monk in the Irwin Allen all-star film The Story of Mankind (1957) (Groucho and Harpo also showed up in separate sequences). Chico Marx's final professional appearance was with Harpo and (briefly) Groucho in the 1959 GE Theatre entry "The Incredible Jewel Robbery." Chico's daughter Maxine Marx was a prominent actor's agent, and briefly the wife of animated cartoon director Shamus Culhane.

Trivia: Born Adolph Marx (a name he later legally changed to Arthur), New York-native Harpo Marx was the second oldest member of the Marx Brothers comedy team. Dropping out of school in the 2nd grade (literally so -- he was thrown out the window by two older boys), Harpo took odd jobs to help support his family, but his first love was always music. Inheriting a harp from a relative -- hence his nickname -- Marx taught himself how to play, and soon became proficient in several instruments, even though he never learned how to read music. Pressed into service by his stagestruck mother, Harpo joined brothers Groucho and Gummo as part of a vaudeville act called the Four Nightingales. When older brother Chico joined the act, Harpo found that, thanks to the verbosity of Chico and Groucho, his stage role as red-wigged tough kid Patsy Brannigan was being alotted less and less dialogue in each performance. Eventually Harpo stopped talking onstage altogether. Marx would never utter a word while dressed in the top hat and battered raincoat of Harpo; instead, he expressed a wide arrange of emotions through whistles, horn honks and frenetic pantomime, taking time out from his lunatic behavior only when settling down to play his harp. When the Marx Brothers became the toast of Broadway in the '20s, Harpo was befriended by theatre critic Alexander Woollcott, who introduced the wide-eyed comedian to the most brilliant artistic and literary talents of the era. (When asked how he got along so well with such heady company, Harpo always claimed it was because he was the only member of the witty group who kept his mouth shut). Harpo settled down at the age of 48 to marry actress Susan Fleming; thereafter, except for his manic film appearances, he revelled in the life of a loving husband and father, adopting several children and raising them beautifully. While most of his professional work between 1919 and 1949 was done with his brothers, Harpo appeared by himself in the 1925 silent film Too Many Kisses, and spent several weeks filming Androcles and the Lion in 1952 before he was replaced by Alan Young. In 1949, Harpo was supposed to solo in a film comedy titled Love Happy, but the money men wouldn't ante up the budget unless his brothers Groucho and Chico also appeared in the film. Though professionally a "dummy", Harpo was a sharp businessman, instinctively making wise investments that would keep him wealthy for life; and though he was no babe in the woods in terms of life experiences, Harpo was widely regarded as one of the kindest and most even-tempered men in show business. After the Marx Brothers went their separate ways, Harpo continued making TV guest appearances in his traditional wig and costume; the most fondly remembered of these guest stints occured on a 1955 episode of I Love Lucy. He also appeared out of character on the 1960 Jane Wyman Theatre "Silent Panic" -- albeit as a deaf-mute, thereby maintaining his professional silence. In collaboration with Rowland Barber, Harpo Marx hilariously summed up his life in a 1961 autobiography Harpo Speaks, the last sentence of which was a characteristic "Honk! Honk!"

Trivia: American composer/screenwriter Harry Ruby dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player, but chose instead to pursue the career of "song plugger;" he would position himself at the pianos of major music-publishing houses, playing new tunes for the benefit of such clients as singers and record producers. In partnership with future film mogul Harry Cohn, Ruby managed to parlay a novelty ditty called "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" into a hit. Tired of promoting the works of others, Ruby began writing his own songs in collaboration with vaudeville hoofer Bert Kalmar. Like his lifelong friend Groucho Marx, Ruby's musical preferences ran to Gilbert-and-Sullivan patter, groan-inducing puns and surrealistic nonsense; all the same, his biggest hits were such "conformist" pieces as "Three Little Words," "I Wanna Be Loved By You" and "Who's Sorry Now?" Perhaps Kalmar and Ruby's best-remembered "stunt" piece was "Hooray For Captain Spaulding," which they wrote for the 1928 Marx Brothers musical Animal Crackers and which would ever after serve as Groucho's signature theme. Journeying to Hollywood in 1929, Kalmar and Ruby composed songs and wrote screenplays for such comedians as Eddie Cantor and Wheeler and Woolsey; the team also maintained its own publishing company. After the death of Bert Kalmar in 1947, Ruby curtailed his own professional activities, preferring to devote his time to his family (his wife was silent screen actress Eileen Percy) and to remain active in Beverly Hills civic activities. Ruby also acted from time to time in the '50s, appearing as himelf in Angels in the Outfield (1951) and guesting as a decidedly semitic Indian chief in the Irwin Allen all-star farrago The Story of Mankind (1957). In 1950, MGM produced a fanciful biopic about Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar, Three Little Words. Harry was played by Red Skelton and Fred Astaire costarred as Bert.