Minnie Marx
Minnie Marx (born November 9, 1865 as Miene Schönberg in Dornum , East Friesland , Kingdom of Hanover , † September 15, 1929 in New York , USA ) was the mother of the Marx Brothers and their manager.
Life
Miene Schönberg was the daughter of Louis (called Lafe) Schönberg, who earned his living as a ventriloquist at fairs , and Fanny, a yodelling harpist . She married Simon Samuel Marx on January 18, 1884, who was born in Mertzwiller in Alsace in 1861 , lived in New York from 1881 and called himself Sam Marx from then on. Sam Marx, who was usually called "Frenchie" because of his origins, was initially a dance teacher , then took up the profession of tailor in order to support his growing family, albeit poorly. The head of the family, which was joined by numerous relatives, was clearly Minnie, even if she was a bad housewife and an even worse cook. Her first son Manfred (* 1885) died of tuberculosis at the age of three . Her other sons Leonard “Chico” Marx (1887–1961), Adolph Arthur “Harpo” Marx (1888–1964), Julius Henry “Groucho” Marx (1890–1977), Milton “Gummo” Marx (1892–1977) and Herbert “Zeppo” Marx (1901–1979) formed the later famous comedian group “Marx Brothers”.
The picture that her sons drew of her varied greatly. Groucho replied (in his typical manner) when asked by a biographer whether Minnie had treated her sons differently: “Not at all. She despised us all. ”Harpo, on the other hand, said she was“ a lovely woman ”and“ Minnie's plan was very simple: she wanted […] to make her five sons successful stage stars. ”The success of her brother Al Shean , one of the most successful entertainers in the American theater around 1900, encouraged her to put her sons in the entertainment business as well, and without her pursuit of success the Marx Brothers would never have existed.
Minnie Marx was an excellent master of advertising and public relations , but she had hardly any talent for acting herself. For her, the dream of being on stage came true when she was almost fifty years old in a teenage role in the Six Mascots with Groucho, Gummo, Harpo, Minnie's sister Hannah and Freddie Hutchins. The response was moderate and so she decided to only pull the strings behind the scenes. From then on, Minnie Marx looked after the Marx Brothers as a manager with brief interruptions and led them through the most successful part of their career on Broadway .
She saw her sons switch to talkies ( The Cocoanuts , 1929), but then died of a stroke at the age of 63 after rehearsing the stage version of Animal Crackers .
The 1970 musical Minnie's Boys with Shelley Winters in the title role is about her life and her relationship with her sons.
Web links
- Minnie Marx in the database of Find a Grave (English)
- Minnie's Boys in the Internet Broadway Database (English)
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Marx, Minnie |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Schönberg, Miene (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Mother and manager of the Marx Brothers |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 9, 1865 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Dornum , East Frisia , Kingdom of Hanover |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 15, 1929 |
| Place of death | New York City , USA |