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→From vaudeville to film
==From vaudeville to film==
==From vaudeville to film==
The years in burlesque and vaudeville were very successful, and in 1924 they hit the big-time on Broadway with ''I'll Say She Is'', a musical comedy that established their familiar personae: Chico the conniver with a heart of gold and a mangled Italian accent; Groucho the wisecracking master of timing and wit, leering on stage in a characterized stooped-over walk while wearing a greasepaint mustache and eyebrows; and Harpo as ''the silent frenzy''<ref>https://books.google.com/books?id=NEgEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA45&lpg=PA45&dq=the+silent+frenzy+harpo&source=bl&ots=7LNlPh7oyT&sig=MUsGtdQ7wFK68oG9LxYs7-xowM0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=OBn0VJCYKY_HsQTev4D4DA&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=the%20silent%20frenzy%20harpo&f=false</ref>, wearing a wig, top hat, and raggedy coat from which he pulled out everything from sledge hammers to candles to steaming cups of coffee to a full-grown dog, prancing on stage with unbridled emotion, whistles, horn honking, and facial expressions which included what he called a "gookie", something that could only be described as that of look of an angry, cross-eyed fish. Both Chico's piano playing and Harpo's harp were regularly performed, to the delight of audiences. ''I'll Say She Is'' also proved to be the the first appearance on stage for Zeppo, replacing Gummo who had left for managerial work.
1924 also led to a meeting with Alexander Woollcott, the leading drama critic of the time; his friendship with Harpo led to the Marx Brothers hob-nobbing with the elite of New York, despite their lack of a formal education. They would count as friends noted writers and composers such as T.S. Eliot, George Gershwin, George S. Kaufman, S.J. Perelman, and many others.
Beginning with 1929's ''The Cocoanuts'' and followed in 1930 with ''Animal Crackers'', the Marx Brothers took to the screen for a series of long-running and widely acclaimed musical comedies. Their 1933 ''Duck Soup'', which took potshots at the tin pot [[dictatorship]]s of prewar Europe, is frequently rated one of the greatest comedies of all time--and one of the major anti-war films of the 1930s.<ref>[http://www.filmsite.org/duck.html ''Duck Soup'' (1930)], filmsite.org. Retrieved January 18 2009.</ref>, although it opened to critical and commercial failure at the time of its release.
Beginning with 1929's ''The Cocoanuts'' and followed in 1930 with ''Animal Crackers'', the Marx Brothers took to the screen for a series of long-running and widely acclaimed musical comedies. Their 1933 ''Duck Soup'', which took potshots at the tin pot [[dictatorship]]s of prewar Europe, is frequently rated one of the greatest comedies of all time--and one of the major anti-war films of the 1930s.<ref>[http://www.filmsite.org/duck.html ''Duck Soup'' (1930)], filmsite.org. Retrieved January 18 2009.</ref>, although it opened to critical and commercial failure at the time of its release.