March Marx Magic

MARCH MARX MAGIC

BY BEN ROBINSON

originally published 2001

One of my earliest magical memories is seeing The Cocoanuts, the 1929 early talking picture starring the fabulous four Marx Brothers. What particularly sticks in my head is the scene where Penelope, played by Kay Francis, rests in her hotel room and says with relief, "Alone at last!" Then Harpo rises through the center of the mattress as if he were Nessie raising her prehistoric head from the depths of a Scottish locke. To me the Marx Brothers were magical and surrreal, each quality feeding the other. I was fortunate to be able to join the 1960's counter-culture adoption of the brothers' work when I was a young teen. Marx mania fit well with the Age of Aquarius crowd.

In 1974 I wrote to Groucho in California reminding him that 50 years earlier in September of 1924 he and his brothers became Broadway stars. Groucho wrote back and sent me the photo at right.

The next year, through a relative who knew Groucho, I was taken as a surprise to meet the 85 year-old comedian in his home in Trousdale Estates, a section of Los Angeles. It was shortly after Xmas and we spent about an hour-and-a- half with "the one and only Groucho." It was one of the greatest experiences of my life to meet this man with whom I was essentially obsessed. He was frail and attended to by two nurses. The one comment that was typically Groucho occured during a moment of

embarassment. He was wearing Marx Brothers-patterned pajamas with a draw string waist. When I returned to his room, he was getting out of bed and his pants fell down, exposing more of Groucho than I ever expected to see! He bent down to pick up his pants, and slyly said to all present, "I go for laughs." It was a glimmer of the inspiration that made him a legend.

Maxine Marx & Ben Robinson in NYC, 1997.

In 1994, through the courtesy of my friend Mike Makman, the celebrated children's entertainer known as Professor Putter, I was introduced to Chico's daughter, the great Maxine Marx. Maxine is a character in her own right and I made sure to bring my copy of her book about her father for her autograph.

Maxine told me a great deal about her father, uncles and the Marx family, and shared her remarkable family photo albums.

Later I interviewed her for a book I was writing, and spent the evening with her watching Duck Soup. Maxine even showed me a great card trick that her father was fond of performing, which I transcribed for publication in a magician's magazine.

I was elated to discover over the years that the Marx Brothers' grandfather was a magician and a strongman in a traveling show. He had quite a life and you can read about this remarkable man, Laff Schoenberg, below.

To me, the Marx Brothers humor speaks of freedom: Groucho insulted dignity; Harpo was a magical clown wearing a magician's top hat and able to do anything, and Chico held it all together, always the deft comedian and dazzling pianist.

When you think about it, this timeless team expresses a more magical feeling than is generally gotten from most magician's performances.

The famous Marx-Lennon stamp, iussed by the Government of Abkhazia (Robinson collection).

A rare depiction of Harpo as he appeared to a cartoonist after he returned to the United States in 1933 as the first American artist to perform in the Russia under Stalin's artistic exchange program during "The 5 Year Plan."

Laff Schoenberg and his wife on their golden wedding anniversary.

ONE OF THE GREAT UNKNOWNS:

LAFF SCHOENBERG

By Ben Robinson

He was the father of one-half the well known vaudeville singing and comedy team Gallagher and Shean. And the father of one of the backstage legends in show business, a mother with the tenacious streak of a terrier: Minnie Marx. He was the grandfather to her five boys, who became some of the most famous screen comedians of all time: The Marx Brothers. This illustrious German was named Laff* Schoenberg -- a magician who toured the spas and music halls of Germany in a large covered wagon with his wife. Laff practiced ventriloquism and juggling and his wife, Fanny, played the harp for dancing after the magician's performance. The family resided in Dornum, Germany after their less than successful tours. It was his grandmother's harp that intrigued Harpo as a boy. Schoenberg's wife died in 1898 shortly after she and her husband celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary.

This was just a few years after Minnie Marx brought her parents from Germany to live with her brood on East 93rd Street in New York City. This was Yorkville; the Irish-German section of town. The family language was German. To his grandsons, the older couple were respectively called Opie and Omie.

We know very little about Schoenberg, except that he liked to play a card game called Skat, and never quite mastered the English language. He was a grand showman and religious teacher to his grandsons, and when the family was broke, he took to the streets soliciting work as an umbrella repairman. Often Harpo would accompany his grandfather as an employee in this enterprise: he swung the tin can that fanned the coals in their small, portable blacksmithing operation. They had few customers. He swung the tin can that fanned the coals in their small, portable blacksmithing operation. They had few customers.

An extremely rare still of Harpo blowing a smoke bubble during their first film.

Schoenberg's success as a magician was small, and when moving pictures came into vogue, he preferred to be as informed as possible about this "greater magic."

He was successful in tutoring his grandson Adolph (later to become Harpo) in German. Harpo recalls in his autobiography Harpo Speaks! that his grandfather loved New York, and loved to vote illegally. Harpo quotes his grandfather saying (as he lighted a cigar with pride) "Ah, we are lucky to be in America! This is true democracy."

In addition, Schoenberg also taught his grandson sleight of hand, misdirection and pickpocketing, which facilitated Harpo's free rides on the elevated subway to ball games at the Polo grounds. He beguiled the boy for hours with the ability to pull coins out of his nose, ears and the air! Later, Harpo relates, his grandpa would teach him to palm pennies. Obviously, this showman must have been quite a character; as he inspired his daughter and son to join the theater, and his five grandchildren (there were five sons, who participated in the act known as The Four Marx Bros. at different points in history) were swept up in their mother's frenzy to achieve stardom at the turn of the century.

Harpo , the magical clown, circa 1930.

Of all the Marx Bros. Harpo exhibited a good deal of magic in their movies: removing a cup of steaming coffee from his pants, burning a candle at both ends, blowing soap bubbles from his mouth, milking a glove as a cow's udder and riding a neon Pegasus to elude the bad guys. If Laff Schoenberg never made it to the big time, his talents certainly spread to his relatives. Because of the famous family members we can finally thank this little-known performer. At the very least, Schoenberg's skills were appreciated by his grandsons who took the magic of another era into the talking pictures which Schoenberg so loved.

Laff Schoenberg fathered 11 children. After his wife died, he still chased women well into his 90's.

He died at the age of 101 in 1919.

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*The author of this article discovered Grandpa Schoenberg's first name quite by accident. Upon meeting the famous song writer, Irving Caeser (Tea For Two), a discussion broke out about the Marx Bros. whom Caeser knew. Caeser also knew the old magician and spoke well of his talents.