Leonard "Chico" Marx ( CHICK-oh; March 22, 1887 – October 11, 1961) was an American comedian, actor, and pianist. He was the oldest brother in the Marx Brothers comedy troupe, alongside his brothers Arthur ("Harpo"), Julius ("Groucho"), Milton ("Gummo"), and Herbert ("Zeppo"). His persona in the act was that of a charming, uneducated but crafty con artist, seemingly of rural Italian origin, who wore shabby clothes and sported a curly-haired wig and Tyrolean hat. On screen, Chico is often in alliance with Harpo, usually as partners in crime, and is also frequently seen trying to con or outfox Groucho.
Leonard was the oldest of the Marx Brothers to live past early childhood, the first-born being Manfred Marx who died in infancy. In addition to his work as a performer, he played an important role in the management and development of the act in its early years.
Marx was born in Manhattan, New York City, on March 22, 1887. His mother Miene ("Minnie") Marx (née Schoenberg) was from Dornum in East Frisia. Around 1880, the family emigrated to New York City. His father, Samuel ("Sam" or "Frenchy"; born Simon) Marx, was a native of Mertzwiller, a small Alsatian village, and worked as a tailor. Minnie and Sam married on January 18, 1885. Their first child, Manfred, died of tuberculosis; Leonard was their second, and was followed in turn by Arthur, Julius, Milton, and Herbert.
Minnie came from a family of performers. Her mother was a yodeling harpist and her father a ventriloquist; both were funfair entertainers. Her brother was vaudeville comedian Al Shean, best known as one half of Gallagher and Shean. Harboring similar ambitions for Leonard - and in an attempt to keep him out of trouble - she purchased a secondhand upright piano and provided lessons for him.
By the age of nine, Leonard was a gambler, and by the age of eleven, he would stay out all night hustling pool. He lost his first job, in 1899, for playing craps on premises, and, in other jobs, would routinely gamble his money away on payday. In his mid-teens, with pressure from his parents to stop gambling, he left home, supporting himself by playing piano in nickelodeons and whorehouses. He also briefly toured with a circus as a wrestler, and later, a flyweight boxer.
By 1907, Chico was working at music publishing firm Shapiro, Bernstein & Co.. When the founder of that company, Maurice Shapiro, died in 1911, Chico quit immediately, convincing a young tenor, Aaron Gordon, to tour with him in vaudeville. At the time, there was a successful vaudeville act called The Two Funny Germans, starring Bill Gordon and Nick Marx; with Minnie's encouragement, Aaron Gordon and Chico Marx adopted Italian accents (Chico's reputedly based on that of his barber) and toured as Marx and Gordon. Gordon, who later said that he never saw a salary because Chico gambled away their earnings, left the act in the fall of that year.
Chico then briefly paired with his cousin Lou Shean. Marx soon found himself in trouble for picking up a 19 year old Indiana woman who was engaged to be married, and bringing her to Wisconsin with him, where they registered in a hotel as man and wife - a possible violation of the Mann Act. Although Chico escaped prosecution, Shean was frustrated by the experience. When Chico was later caught with a woman who was involved with a local theater manager, the manager fined the act and fired them; Chico tried to claim the fine was a business expense, and Shean quit.
Meanwhile, Chico's brothers Groucho, Harpo, and Gummo were touring in a production they called Fun in High School. Chico, who was touring with a new partner, contacted Minnie to suggest that they turn the act into a tabloid musical. Sources differ on what happened next. One story states that, without telling the other brothers, Minnie arranged for Chico to be at their performance in Waukegan, Illinois. As the act opened, Groucho and Harpo noticed that their brother was in the orchestra pit, playing the piano. Harpo threw an apple at Chico, who caught it and threw it at Groucho. As the brothers continued to throw fruit at each other, the audience yelled and clapped for more. Known dates for their Waukegan shows do not match up with those of Chico joining the act; the first verified appearance of them together was when Chico and his brothers shared a bill in August 1912.
Management of the act gradually transitioned from Minnie, who moved to Chicago and started managing other acts, to Chico. At Chico's instigation, the brothers expanded Fun in High School into a longer musical called Mr. Green's Reception. In addition to an entirely new second act, they incorporated Chico's then-partner George Lee and a dance act called the Harris Brothers. Groucho would later credit their ambition to Chico, saying that "Chico kept telling us we were good... Harpo and I were always scared."
In the spring of 1913, Chico spent time out of the act recovering from an operation. Neither he nor his brothers ever directly discussed the absence. Groucho mentioned later in life that Chico had been shot by the father of one of the women he seduced, and Robert Bader, author of Four of the Three Musketeers, suggests that the time off may have been to recover from a bullet wound.
The act thrived with Chico. In 1914, realizing that they needed better material to attract a larger audience, they enlisted their uncle Al Shean to help them write Home Again, a musical comedy about a group of American tourists returning from a trip to Europe. Home Again proved popular enough that the act started guaranteeing theater owners that they would bring in more than their average weekly receipts. Later that year, they moved from the small chain of Pantages theaters to the larger chain controlled by the United Booking Office.
Pronunciation and origin of name
It was during Chico's time in vaudeville that he acquired his nickname (during a card game). During Groucho's live performance at Carnegie Hall in 1972, he states that his brother got the name Chico because he was a "chicken-chaser" (early 20th century slang for womanizer). Chico's nickname was originally spelled Chicko. A typesetter accidentally omitted the 'k', so his name became Chico.
While the Marxes typically pronounced Chico as Chick-oh, others sometimes mistakenly pronounced it Cheek-oh. Numerous radio recordings from the 1940s exist in which announcers and fellow actors mispronounce the nickname, but Chico does not correct them. As late as the 1950s, Groucho used the wrong pronunciation for comedic effect. A guest on You Bet Your Life told the quizmaster she grew up around Chico, California, which is pronounced Cheek-oh. Groucho responded, "I grew up around Chico myself. You aren't Gummo, are you?" In most interviews, Groucho is heard correctly pronouncing it "Chicko", as in an episode of The Dick Cavett Show with Groucho talking to Dan Rowan.
When they later made films, as manager, Chico negotiated with the studios to get the brothers a percentage of a film's gross receipts—the first deal of its kind in Hollywood which has become common practice today. Furthermore, it was Chico's connection with Irving Thalberg, head of production at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, that led to Thalberg's signing the Brothers when they were in a career slump after Duck Soup (1933), the last of their films for Paramount.
For a while in the 1930s and 1940s, Chico led a big band. Crooner Mel Tormé began his professional career singing with the Chico Marx Orchestra.
Chico's chronic gambling addiction compelled him to continue working in show business long after his brothers had retired in comfort from their Hollywood income, and in the early 1940s, he found himself playing in the same small, cheap theater halls in which he had begun his career 30 years earlier. The Marx Brothers' film, A Night in Casablanca (1946), was produced after the team had officially retired and was made largely for Chico's financial benefit. Chico had filed for bankruptcy a few years prior. At around this time, the rest of the Marx brothers, finally aware of Chico's out-of-control gambling, took full control over his finances; they took all money away from Chico as he earned it and put him on an allowance to curb his constant betting and gambling. Chico stayed on the allowance until his death.