Harpo Marx

Arthur "Harpo" Marx (born Adolph Marx; November 23, 1888 – September 28, 1964) was an American comedian, actor, mime artist, and musician, and the second-oldest of the Marx Brothers. In contrast to the mainly verbal comedy of his brothers Groucho Marx and Chico Marx, Harpo's comic style was visual, being an example of both clown and pantomime traditions.

Harpo Marx playing the harp (circa 1926)

Quotes

• No worse than a bad cold.
  • Comment on the musical Abie's Irish Rose
  • As quoted in "Confidential Guide: Comedy and Things Like That," Life (January 8, 1925), p. 19; and "Chips: Not Up to Snuff" by David Brock, Times Colonist (October 24, 1955), p. 4; and Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies (2001 ed): Art. Marx Brothers p. 297

Harpo Speaks! (1961)

Autobiography, co-written by Rowland Barber

• I was the same kind of father as I was a harpist - I played by ear.

• Like the East Side tenement, our house was seldom without the sound of music or laughter or questions being asked or stories being told.

• Susan, an only child who never had any roots, and I, a lone wolf who got married 20 years too late, were adopted by the kids as much as they were by us.

• Many years ago a very wise man named Bernard Baruch took me aside and put his arm around my shoulder. "Harpo my boy," he said, "I'm going to give you three pieces of advice, three things you should always remember." My heart jumped and I glowed with expectation. I was going to hear the magic password to a rich, full life from the master himself. "Yes sir?" I said. And he told me the three things. I regret that I've forgotten what they were.

• If I'm trapped in a theatre, and a show starts disappointingly, I have a handy way of avoiding it: I fall asleep.

About

• Harpo, she's a lovely person. She deserves a good husband. Marry her before she finds one.
  • Harpo Speaks!

• O, Harpo Death and thy clanking harp, hear!
  • poem, Gregory Corso: Army

• exclusively verbal humor have been conveyed by Harpo Marx, who with Charles Chaplin, Jimmy Savo, and Danny Kaye, ranks as a master artist of pantomime.
  • Muriel Rukeyser The Life of Poetry (1949)