America After Dark 5

Another Allan Grant photo, taken at the Civic Playhouse. Variations on this photo: I've seen a version where Gummo is cruelly cropped out, another where the photo is damaged at the top center, and another where the imperfection has been electronically repaired.

You can see more poses here:
http://gummogallery.blogspot.com/2011/12/america-after-dark.html http://gummogallery.blogspot.com/2012/02/america-after-dark-2.html
http://gummogallery.blogspot.com/2012/04/america-after-dark-3.html
http://gummogallery.blogspot.com/2012/06/america-after-dark-4.html

Five Marx Brothers part two

Harpo, Zeppo, Chico, Gummo, Groucho. California, 1938. Photo by Peter Stackpole. Harpo seems to enjoy being a snappy dresser, perhaps to let people know he isn't his on-screen character. Nobody else could be bothered to wear a tie. Groucho looks less than excited to be there.

Another pose from this session, dressed the same except Chico has removed his jacket:
http://gummogallery.blogspot.com/2011/09/five-marx-brothers.html

Marx family portrait

The five Marx brothers with their parents in New York City, 1915. From left to right; Groucho, Gummo, Minnie (mother), Zeppo, Frenchy/Frenchie (father), Chico, and Harpo. The four oldest boys are wearing stage makeup and costumes.

This photo was also published in a reverse-image:

Another variation: Air-brushed by an unidentified editor:

America After Dark 3

Gummo, Zeppo, Chico, Groucho, Harpo

Groucho's in promotion mode, holding up the theater program for the play that Chico is in: The 5th Season. Civic Playhouse, Los Angeles. Zeppo has a halo (hardly appropriate) because some long-ago newspaper photo editor needed a solo photo of Zeppo and airbrushed the area around Zeppo's head. Not a great photo of Gummo, as his eyes are closed. Microphone hanging above. Photos from this session are important to me, because we will (probably) never see the interview. It may not longer exist. Rare enough to see all five brothers together.

You can see more poses here:
http://gummogallery.blogspot.com/2011/12/america-after-dark.html
http://gummogallery.blogspot.com/2012/02/america-after-dark-2.html

Mr. Green's Reception

Mr. Green's Reception (1913)

Gummo (and his ears) are in the center of the top row. Chico (and his hair) are second from the left in the middle row. Groucho (and his newsboy cap) are between two women on the right of the middle row. Harpo (and his thick but receding hair) are kneeling on the front left.

Monkey Business was evidently based on two routines the Marx Brothers did during their early days in vaudeville (Home Again and Mr. Green's Reception), along with a story idea from one of Groucho's friends, Bert Granet, called The Seas Are Wet.

No idea where this photo was taken. The show played the Bijou Theatre in Knoxville Tennessee, among other places.

Uncle Julius

Gummo, Groucho and Harpo, posing with their uncle/manager Julius Schickler.

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.

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