Trivia of Zeppo Marx

 Trivia of Zeppo Marx (25 February 1901 - 30 November 1979)

*He was the youngest of the five Marx Brothers (After Chico, Harpo, Groucho,Gummo Marx). Zeppo replaced brother Gummo in the Marx Brothers' stage act when Gummo was drafted into the army in 1918.He had no desire for a showbusiness career, but their mother, Minnie Marx insisted that he replace Gummo because she wanted to maintain the act as a foursome. Zeppo remained with the team in vaudeville, Broadway and the first five Marx Brothers films as the straight man and romantic lead.

*Since he'd missed out when his brothers received their nicknames, he was given one by his siblings. He was always practicing acrobatics, so he was named "Zippo" -- after "Mr. Zippo," the star of a well-known chimpanzee act. Feeling it was unflattering, he insisted it be Zeppo. Another version of this story , was that his name was changed to "Zeppo" in honor of the then popular "Zepplin".

*According to Marc Eliot's Cary Grant biography (2005): "While the rest of the country preferred Groucho, Zeppo, the good-looking straight man and romantic lead, was [Grant's] favorite, the one whose foil timing he believed was the real key to the act's success." Grant even modeled his early Hollywood look and persona off of Zeppo.

*One of Zeppo's best movie appearances was in Horse Feathers (1932), where he sang "Everyone Says I Love You," displaying a fine tenor voice used in the Marx Brothers' stage hits.

*Duck of Soup (1933) was his final film.After the film's premiere, he quit The Marx Brothers, citing a dissatisfaction with movie acting overall, and a weariness with being the butt of jokes regarding him as the "unfunny" Marx brother.Reportedly, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini banned the film from Italy because he thought it was a direct attack on him. When news of this reached The Marx Brothers, they were reportedly ecstatic.After retiring from the screen, Zeppo founded a large theatrical agency with his brother Gummo and they represented numerous screenwriters and actors, including their brothers.

*He was a serious amateur machinist, and among the products his company, Marman, developed in the late 1940s was a 2-cylinder motorized bicycle, the Marman Twin (produced 1948-1949). Unfortunately, his bike was unable to compete with the more established Whizzers, despite being far more powerful. These bikes are highly collectible today.

*On September 18, 1959, Zeppo married Barbara Blakeley.Barbara was involved with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and had arranged to show Spartacus (1960) for charity, selling tickets and organizing a post-screening ball. At the last minute, Barbara was told that she could not show the film, so Zeppo spoke to Sinatra, who gave them an early release of the recently completed Come Blow Your Horn (1963). Sinatra also flew everyone involved to Palm Springs for the event.Sinatra began to invite Barbara and Zeppo to his house two or three times per week, and often sent champagne and wine to their home. Barbara and Sinatra began a love affair without Zeppo's knowledge, and press photos were published showing them together.Zeppo and Barbara divorced in 1973. He allowed her to keep a 1969 Jaguar and agreed to pay her $1,500 (equivalent to $9,900 in 2022) per month for 10 years. Barbara and Frank Sinatra continued to date and were hounded by the press until her divorce became final; they married in 1976.

*In real life, he was supposedly the funniest of his brothers despite always playing the straight man in their films.At the time of his death, he was the last surviving of The Marx Brothers.