Zeppo Marx

Herbert Manfred Marx, known professionally as Zeppo Marx, was born on February 25, 1901, in Manhattan, New York, and died on November 30, 1979, in Rancho Mirage, California. The youngest of the five Marx Brothers, he outlived all of his siblings. His father, Sam Marx, known as "Frenchie," was a tailor from Alsace, France, and his mother, Minnie Schönberg Marx, was from East Frisia, Germany. Both parents were Jewish. Minnie's brother was Al Shean, who achieved fame as one half of the vaudeville duo Gallagher and Shean.

The origin of the name "Zeppo" has been explained in several conflicting accounts. Groucho Marx, speaking at his 1972 Carnegie Hall concert, attributed it to the Zeppelin airship. In his 1961 autobiography Harpo Speaks!, Harpo Marx claimed the name derived from a trained chimpanzee called Mr. Zippo that Herbert used to imitate, altered to Zeppo after Herbert objected to being named after a chimp. In a later television interview, Zeppo himself offered a different explanation, stating that "Zep" was Italian-American slang for "baby," a fitting designation as the youngest brother.

Marx entered show business not by choice but at his mother's insistence. Before joining the act, he had been working as a mechanic for the Ford Motor Company. When brother Gummo was drafted into the army in 1918, Minnie Marx required Zeppo to replace him in order to keep the group a foursome. According to Barbara Sinatra's 2011 memoir Lady Blue Eyes, Zeppo was called in as a last-minute replacement at a show in Texas. Having watched his brothers perform for years, he was capable of stepping in for any of them when illness intervened. Most notably, he substituted for Groucho in the role of Captain Spaulding during a tour of their greatest scenes while Groucho recovered from appendicitis, a tour that coincided with the release of the film Animal Crackers. Groucho later remarked that Zeppo performed the role so well that he would have allowed him to continue indefinitely, had he been permitted to smoke in the audience.

On Broadway, Marx appeared in three productions between 1924 and 1928. He performed in the revue I'll Say She Is and starred in the musical The Cocoanuts, and also appeared in the musical Animal Crackers. In these productions, as in the Marx Brothers' films, he functioned as the straight man and romantic lead rather than as a comic performer. Critic Percy Hammond observed in 1928 that while Groucho, Harpo, and Chico dominated the stage, Zeppo was confined to an insignificant role. Marx appeared in the first five Marx Brothers feature films from 1929 through 1933, departing the act after Duck Soup. He also appeared independently, without his brothers, in a minor role in the 1925 Adolphe Menjou comedy A Kiss in the Dark, billed as Herbert Marx, a performance that drew praise from the New York Sun.

After leaving the screen, Marx co-founded a theatrical agency with his brother Gummo. The agency represented numerous actors and screenwriters, including their brothers Groucho, Harpo, and Chico. Marx also pursued a career as an engineer and businessman. He owned Marman Products Co., which manufactured parts during World War II, including the Marman clamps used to secure the atomic bombs aboard the B-29 bombers Enola Gay and Bockscar, as well as a motorcycle called the Marman Twin. He obtained patents for a wristwatch designed to monitor pulse rate and trigger an alarm if the heartbeat became irregular, and for a therapeutic pad that delivered moist heat to patients.

Along with brothers Groucho and Harpo, Marx was a member of the Hillcrest Country Club, where fellow members included Frank Sinatra, Jack Benny, George Burns, Danny Kaye, Sid Caesar, and Milton Berle. Marx introduced Mary Livingstone to Jack Benny at a Passover seder, and the two married in 1926. On April 12, 1927, Marx married Marion Benda, born Marion Bimberg. They adopted two sons, Timothy in 1944 and Thomas in 1945, and divorced on May 12, 1954. On September 18, 1959, Marx married Barbara Blakeley. The couple owned a home on Halper Lake Drive in Rancho Mirage, near the residence of Frank Sinatra. Sinatra began inviting the couple to his home regularly and sent champagne and wine to their residence. Sinatra and Barbara subsequently began a relationship without Marx's knowledge, and tabloid photographs eventually brought the affair to public attention. Marx and Barbara divorced in 1973, after which Barbara and Sinatra continued their relationship and married in 1976. In the divorce settlement, Marx allowed Barbara to keep a 1969 Jaguar XK-E and agreed to pay her $1,500 per month for ten years.

In 1973, Jean Bodul accused Marx of assault. A jury awarded her $20,690 in 1978. The 2024 book Zeppo: The Reluctant Marx Brother by Robert S. Bader reported that Marx had deep associations with gangsters and was called to testify before a grand jury in 1958 regarding missing funds in a gambling syndicate. According to Bader, his brothers considered disowning him over his associates and high-stakes gambling, though they remained personally close to him.

Marx was diagnosed with cancer in 1978. After the disease went into remission and then returned, his former wife Barbara accompanied him to medical appointments and treatment sessions, and he spent his final days with her family. He died of lung cancer at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage on November 30, 1979, at the age of 78. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean. In his will, he left stepson Bobby Marx sufficient funds to complete law school, along with several personal possessions.