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iamsce t1_ja7jekd wrote

What's up with their parents giving them such fucked up names?

Are they ethnic names from the old country?

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Rob_T_Firefly t1_ja7kt8z wrote

Those are their stage names which stuck, they had standard names given them by their parents.

Groucho was born Julius, Chico was born Leonard, Zeppo was Herbert, and Harpo was born Adolph (which he later decided to change to Arthur.) Not seen in this photo is fifth Marx Brother Gummo, born Milton, who had left the act before they made the jump from Vaudeville to film.

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isecore t1_ja7lwr3 wrote

Technically they're nicknames which became stage-names. Groucho was nicknamed that because he was often in charge of the "grouch bag" i.e. he took care of the money when they were doing vaudeville. Chicos nickname originates from often playing womanizing characters, i.e. Chicks. Harpos nickname comes from his obsession with playing the harp. There are at least two (unconfirmed) theories for Zeppos nickname, it was either derived from the word "Zeppelin" or from imitating a monkey named Mr Zippo.

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DavoTB t1_ja7wugf wrote

Clarifying: Chico “chased the chicks,” as he put it. He was known for this at a young age. It wasn’t given for the characters he played.

Zeppo’s nickname was an evolving story. Sometimes Groucho told the “zeppelin “ story, but sometimes they intimated he was called the name after “a circus freak” that they had seen. One website states that the nickname was based on the German word for “kid.”

Chico’s daughter stated on a documentary that they called him “Zeb” when they owned a farm. They would call each other “Zeke” or “Zeb.” and it later changed to Zeppo.

The other brother, (who was in the group before the films), was “Gummo,” named because he used to wear gumshoes.He left to enlist in the service, and later became a well-known agent in Hollywood.

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isecore t1_ja806px wrote

Thanks for adding that useful info!

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whereyouatdesmondo t1_ja8hecr wrote

You don’t always have to aggressively announce your pop culture illiteracy, you can always look up the simple answer.

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