America After Dark

Gummo, Zeppo, Chico, Groucho, Harpo

Chico's wearing stage makeup, but many people assume he's pale because he's old and ill. They're posed in, of all places, a coat room in a theater. This photo was taken when the Marx Brothers appeared on Tonight!: America After Dark, which was in The Tonight Show timeslot until Jack Paar arrived. There are several other photos from this session; this is the most familiar one because it was distributed to newspapers to promote America After Dark.

Duck Soup

Groucho, Zeppo, Harpo, Chico and Gummo on the set of Duck Soup

Four Nightingales

Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Gummo Marx, Lou Levy

"By 1909, Minnie Marx successfully managed to assemble her sons into a low-quality vaudeville singing group. Billed as "The Four Nightingales", Julius (Groucho Marx), Milton (Gummo Marx), Arthur (originally Adolph; Harpo Marx), and another boy singer, Lou Levy, traveled the U.S. vaudeville circuits to little fanfare. After exhausting their prospects in the East, the family moved to La Grange, Illinois, to play the Midwest.
After a particularly dispiriting performance in Nacogdoches, Texas, Julius, Milton, and Arthur began cracking jokes onstage for their own amusement. Much to their surprise, the audience liked them better as comedians than as singers."

Here's the same photo in sepia:

Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Gummo Marx, Lou Levy

Look at the photo on the wall directly above Harpo's hat.

The Four Nightingales Vs The Marx Brothers:

Left: The Four Nightingales, Right: The Marx Brothers (Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Groucho Marx, Zeppo Marx

Five Marx Brothers

Zeppo, Groucho, Chico, Gummo, Harpo

There are, of course, other photos of the five Marx brothers together. This one might be in an office (my guess based mostly on the industrial-strength lamps). A rare photo where Zeppo does not have a cigarette in his hand. Perhaps an official publicity photo (note the code in the lower right corner), but to promote what?  It looks too early to be promoting the 1950 book "The Marx Brothers" by Kyle Crichton. If Gummo were standing up straight, he might be the tallest Marx brother. Dig those wide lapels.

This is the Army, Mr. Marx

Gummo Marx, WWI

Not an outtake from Duck Soup.

formal portrait, white tie

Gummo Marx

...or, if you prefer, a cropped low-rez version in sepia:

Gummo Marx