Herbert Manfred "Zeppo" Marx (February 25, 1901 – November 30, 1979) was an American comedic actor and businessman. He was the youngest, and last survivor, of the five Marx Brothers. He appeared with his brothers on Broadway during the 1920s and in the first five Marx Brothers feature films from 1929 to 1933, usually performing in a more subdued style than his brothers and serving as a romantic lead and/or straight man. After Duck Soup (1933), he abandoned acting for subsequent careers as an engineer and theatrical agent.
Early life Marx was born in Manhattan. His parents were Sam Marx (called "Frenchie" throughout his life) and Minnie Schönberg Marx. Minnie's brother was Al Shean, who later gained fame as half of the vaudeville team Gallagher and Shean. His mother was from East Frisia in Germany and his father was a tailor from Alsace, France.
Name As with all of the Marx Brothers, various theories exist regarding the origin of Zeppo's stage name. His older brother Groucho said in his Carnegie Hall concert in 1972 that the name was derived from the Zeppelin airship, and Zeppo's ex-wife Barbara Sinatra repeated this claim in her 2011 book Lady Blue Eyes: My Life with Frank. In his 1961 autobiography Harpo Speaks!, older brother Harpo said that there was a trained chimpanzee named Mr. Zippo that Herbert would imitate, but when Herbert objected to being named after a chimp, it was altered to Zeppo. In a rare television interview years later, Zeppo said that "Zep" was Italian-American slang for "baby", and the name fit as he was the youngest of the brothers.
Career Early career and the Marx Brothers Zeppo replaced brother Gummo in the Marx Brothers' stage act when Gummo was drafted into the army in 1918. Zeppo had been employed as a mechanic for the Ford Motor Company. He had no desire for a show business career, but Minnie Marx insisted that he replace Gummo because she wanted to maintain the act as a foursome. Zeppo remained with the team in vaudeville, Broadway and the first five Marx Brothers films as the straight man and romantic lead until leaving the act following Duck Soup in 1933. He also appeared, without his brothers, performing a minor role in the Adolphe Menjou comedy A Kiss in the Dark (1925), billed as Herbert Marx. His performance was praised by the New York Sun.
Barbara Sinatra (Zeppo's second wife) said that he was considered too young to perform with his brothers, but when Gummo joined the army, Zeppo was asked to join the act as a last-minute replacement at a show in Texas. He and a Jewish friend were supposed to have a date with two Irish girls, but Zeppo canceled in order to board the train to Texas. Several hours later, his friend was shot by a gang that disapproved of Jews dating Irish girls.
Having watched his brothers for many years, Zeppo could imitate and stand in for any of the others when illness kept them from performing live on stage, most notably stepping in for Groucho during a tour of their greatest scenes when Groucho was recovering from appendicitis. This tour took place around the release of the film Animal Crackers. Groucho said: "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."Marx, Arthur. My Life with Groucho: Growing Up with the Marx Brothers. Barricade Books (June 1992) However, Zeppo did not develop his own comic persona to play against those of his brothers. Critic Percy Hammond wrote in 1928: One of the handicaps to the thorough enjoyment of the Marx Brothers in their merry escapades is the plight of poor Zeppo Marx. While Groucho, Harpo, and Chico are hogging the show, as the phrase has it, their brother hides in an insignificant role, peeping out now and then to listen to plaudits in which he has no share.The Theater : Poor Zeppo Marx !, The Pittsburgh Press, November 18, 1928.
The popular assumption that Zeppo's character was superfluous was fueled in part by Groucho. According to Groucho's own story, when the group became the Three Marx Brothers, the studio wanted to trim their collective salary, and Groucho replied, "We're twice as funny without Zeppo!"Duck Soup – Encyclopædia Britannica. Groucho later said of his brother: "Except for the chorus girls, being a straight man in the Marx Brothers wasn't fun for him. He wanted to be a comedian, too, but there just wasn't room for another funny Marx Brother. ... But offstage, he was the funniest one of us".
Zeppo was mechanically adept and largely responsible for keeping the Marx family car running. He later owned Marman Products Co., which machined parts for the war effort during World War II.Aeroquip Corporation." International Directory of Company Histories, edited by Tina Grant, vol. 16, St. James Press, 1997, pp. 7-9. The company produced a motorcycle called the Marman TwinMarman Twin – Herbert Zeppo Marx – Marx Brothers as well as the Marman clamps used to hold the atomic bombs inside the B-29 bombers Enola Gay and Bockscar. He obtained patents for a wristwatch that monitored pulse rate and sounded an alarm if the heartbeat became irregular,US Patent and Trademark Office; "Cardiac Pulse-Rate Monitor", filed July 14, 1967 & issued October 21, 1969; , "Method and Watch Mechanism for Actuation by a Cardiac Pulse", a continuation-in-part filed November 20, 1967, issued February 11, 1969. and a therapeutic pad for delivering moist heat to a patient.: inventor Zeppo Marx; "Vapor Delivery Pad for Distributing Moist Heat", filed June 14, 1950, issued March 18, 1952.
The 2024 book by Robert S Bader Zeppo: The Reluctant Marx Brother said that Zeppo was deeply associated with gangsters, and was called to testify before a grand jury in 1958 about missing funds in a gambling syndicate. According to Bader his brothers were so worried about his associates and high-stakes gambling that they considered disowning him; but they were always personally close.
After retiring from the screen, Zeppo founded a large theatrical agency with his brother Gummo and they represented numerous screenwriters and actors, including their brothers.Louvish, Simon. Monkey Business: The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers. Thomas Dunne Books; 1st U.S. edition (2000). Also e-text at Google Books
Personal life
Zeppo introduced Mary Livingstone to Jack Benny during a Passover seder; they married in 1926.
On April 12, 1927, Zeppo married Marion Benda (née Bimberg).Mallory Curley, Zeppo's Marion Benda and Valentino's Marion Benda: A Legacy of Confusion (Randy Press, 2016), p. 23. They adopted two children, Timothy and Thomas, in 1944 and 1945, and divorced on May 12, 1954. On September 18, 1959, Zeppo married Barbara Blakeley. He wanted to adopt and give his surname to her son Bobby Oliver, but Bobby's father would not allow it. However, Bobby did later use the last name of Marx.
Barbara, a Methodist, wrote in her book Lady Blue Eyes that Zeppo never forced her to convert to Judaism, but that he told her that she became Jewish by "injection".Sinatra, Barbara (2012). Lady Blue Eyes: My Life with Frank. Crown Archetype. p. 64. . Barbara also wrote that Zeppo wanted to keep her son at a distance and added a guest house separated from the main residence for him. Zeppo was reportedly pleased when the boy was sent to military school.
Zeppo owned a house on Halper Lake Drive in Rancho Mirage, California, near the residence of Frank Sinatra. Along with his brothers Groucho and Harpo, Zeppo was a member of the Hillcrest Country Club with friends such as Sinatra, George Burns, Jack Benny, Danny Kaye, Sid Caesar and Milton Berle.
Barbara became involved with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and had arranged to show Spartacus (1960) for charity, selling tickets and organizing a post-screening ball. At the last minute, Barbara was told that she could not show the film, so Zeppo spoke to Sinatra, who gave them an early release of the recently completed Come Blow Your Horn. Sinatra also flew everyone involved to Palm Springs for the event.
Sinatra began to invite Barbara and Zeppo to his house two or three times per week, and often sent champagne and wine to their home. Barbara and Sinatra began a love affair without Zeppo's knowledge, and the tabloid newspapers published photos showing them together. Barbara and Sinatra denied the affair until after she and Zeppo divorced in 1973.
In the divorce settlement, Zeppo allowed Barbara to keep a 1969 Jaguar XK-E, and agreed to pay her US$1,500 () per month for 10 years. Barbara and Frank Sinatra continued to date and were hounded by the press until her divorce became final; they married in 1976.
In 1973, 37-year old Jean Bodul, the future wife of mobster Jimmy Fratianno, accused Zeppo of assaulting her; she sued and a jury awarded her $20,690 in 1978 ().
Zeppo became ill with cancer in 1978. The disease went into remission but returned. An ailing Zeppo turned to his former wife Barbara for support and she accompanied him to medical appointments and treatment sessions. He spent his last days with her family.
Death Zeppo died of lung cancer at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage on November 30, 1979, at the age of 78. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean.
In his will, Zeppo left stepson Bobby Marx a few possessions and enough money to finish law school. Frank and Barbara Sinatra attended his funeral.
Legacy
While Zeppo is perceived as the Marx Brothers' "straight man", several critics have argued that he developed a unique comic persona. James Agee considered him "a peerlessly cheesy improvement on the traditional straight man."Joe Adamson. Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Sometimes Zeppo: A Celebration of the Marx Brothers. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1973. Along similar lines, Gerald Mast noted that Zeppo was "too schleppy, too nasal, and too wooden to be taken seriously."Mast, Gerald. The Comic Mind: Comedy and Movies, pp. 282, 285. University of Chicago Press, 1979. Reviewing the 1924 play I'll Say She Is, The New York Daily News called Zeppo "the obliging audience of the family – the feeder who helps his brothers be funny by playing straight himself.""Again the Old Casino Rocks with Laughter -- Marx Brothers and "I'll Say She Is" Grand Burlesque". New York Daily News. May 20, 1924. The New York Times described Zeppo as "the handsome but dogged straight man with the charisma of an enamel washstand."Cinema Year by Year, 1894–2001. London: Dorling Kindersley Limited, 2001, p. 205.
Other observers have noted that Zeppo's role often involved acting as an interpreter for the audience. In her book Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho & His Friends, Charlotte Chandler defended Zeppo as "the Marx Brothers' interpreter in the worlds they invaded." Groucho himself confirmed this, noting that Zeppo's role was "handsome, obtuse, slightly wooden" and that he "brought logic to a basically illogical story."Wilson, Victoria. A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940, p 427. Simon & Schluster, 2013. Allen W. Ellis further articulated this, describing Zeppo as "a link between the audience and Groucho, Harpo and Chico," and as being "crucial to the absurdity of the Paramount films" due to his incongruity: dressing like a normal person, in contrast to the more outlandish garb of his brothers.Ellis, Allen W. "Yes, Sir: The Legacy of Zeppo Marx" in The Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 37, No. 1, 2003, pp. 21-22.