Notable Names Database

URL	nndb.com
Commercial?	Yes
Type of site	Online biographical database
Registration	no
Available language(s)	English
Owner	Soylent Communications
Launched	August 7, 2002
Current status	Active

The Notable Names Database (NNDB) is an online database of biographical details of over 37,000 people of note. NNDB describes itself as an "intelligence aggregator" of those it determines to be noteworthy, but mostly to identify connections between people.^[1]

Entries[link]

Each person has an executive summary giving a brief description of NNDB's opinion of his or her notability.^[2] All have summaries of their vital statistics, such as name, pseudonyms, place of birth, place of death, cause of death, location of their remains, religious beliefs, gender, race or ethnicity, sexual orientation, family members, partners, boyfriends or girlfriends or one-night stands and nationality. Some of the entries have a brief biography (usually trivia), while others have no extra biographical information at all. Entries may contain summaries of the organisations they belong to, illnesses, phobia, addictions, drug use, criminal records and other data. In the case of authors, actors and film directors, the article lists the person's work in chronological order. NNDB also has articles on films and music groups.^[2] Readers may suggest additions, corrections, URLs, emails or images through a form on the website; they are later vetted by an NNDB staff member.^[3] A former feature was the "Level of Fame" assigned by NNDB from "Niche" to "Icon."^[4]

NNDB Mapper[link]

The NNDB Mapper, a visual tool for exploring connections between people, is also available, which requires Flash 7 and JavaScript.^[5] The interface allows the user to map how various individuals and institutions are connected.

References[link]

External links[link]

• NNDB - Notable Names Database
• NNDB Mapper
• Soylent Communications

This article's references may not meet Wikipedia's guidelines for reliable sources. Please help by checking whether the references meet the criteria for reliable sources. (February 2011)

The Names Database is a social network, owned and operated by United Online, the parent company of Classmates.com, with headquarters in Orem, Utah. Unlike most social networks, it requires that new registrations include five email addresses of friends or acquaintances. The site immediately checks the validity of the addresses, disallowing fraudulent information.

Ownership and operations[link]

While it is owned by Classmates Online, the Names Database is kept under a separate web name. To obtain the full access to the site, users must submit more than 20 e-mail addresses or buy a US$12 subscription. As of July 28, 2007, the site boasts over 33 million users.

Acquisition by Classmates Online[link]

The company was acquired by Classmates.com for $10 million from creator, Gabriel Weinberg (founder of Duck Duck Go), in March 2006, transferring responsibility and duties to a larger company. The database had about 20 million users at the time of sale, meaning the email addresses were bought for about 50 cents per user. Despite the acquisition, the site still relies on word of mouth and friend referrals to grow.

Membership and expansion[link]

To initially access the database, one must supply five valid email addresses, usually belonging to friends or family. After registration, the names of all people in the database are fully searchable. However, contact with these members is limited until 25 addresses are supplied or a subscription fee is paid. As of October 2006, subscriptions can be purchased for one or three year periods. A non-searchable static version of the database is also available, which lists names and high school affiliations.

The word of mouth method operation of the database has caused it to grow rapidly. In 2006, the home page reported a membership of over 30 million. Additionally, the database contains information about more than 50 million people, ranging from world leaders to high school students.

Record removal[link]

The site provides option of removing one's listing in the database. The removal process does indeed remove all information from the static database as claimed by the website. It doesn't even give you an option to delete. It on the other hand ask for around 24 people to be refereed before unlocking the account.^[1]

Privacy risk[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Before entering data one should be aware of the privacy risk: "You grant Opobox a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, transferable, royalty-free right to (a) use, copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, modify, translate and reformat Your Information in any media now known or not currently known..."

The data collection policies of Names Database allow the data to be used for spamming. There is also some concern about the posting of the personal information of children, though the site forbids such actions.

When entering other peoples information such as their email address, you then become personally liable for the use of that information and you have most likely not asked permission to use said information in such a way. To avoid problems, always have written permission from those people whose email addresses you are submitting. It may be a paid service, but on the site there is no information to confirm payment and the service provider supplies no site contact that may remedy any disputed payment.

Apart from privacy risks, confidence tricksters are now also using the Names Database in an attempt to achieve their obscure goals. Any new e-mail address can actually afford a fraudster any identity on the database. By registering e-mail addresses at any of the free e-mail facilities such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, etc., they create duplicate identities or identities that closely resemble actual people on the database. Unsuspecting users trying to reconnect with old friends or schoolmates can thereby actually contact a fraudster, thinking they are sending a message to a known person. The confidence trickster then tries to solicit further private information, and is known to use 419 Nigerian Letter or Advance-fee fraud methods to further entrap their victims.

References[link]

1. ^ "Remove your information". http://namesdatabase.com/support.pl?q=removing. Retrieved 2011-02-12. 

External links[link]

• Names Database Home
• Forum discussion on 'www.devhardware.com'
• Forum discussion on 'www.blakjak.net'
• A Phish Called NamesDatabase

Alexander Woollcott
Woollcott in 1939 photographed by Carl Van Vechten
Born	(1887-01-19)January 19, 1887 Phalanx, New Jersey
Died	January 23, 1943(1943-01-23) (aged 56) New York City, New York
Resting place	Hamilton College, Clinton, New York
Occupation	Drama critic, essayist, playwright, editor, actor, raconteur, radio personality
Alma mater	Hamilton College
Relative(s)	Walter Woollcott (father), Frances Grey Bucklin Woollcott (mother)

Alexander Humphreys Woollcott (January 19, 1887 – January 23, 1943) was an American critic and commentator for The New Yorker magazine and a member of the Algonquin Round Table.

He was the inspiration for Sheridan Whiteside, the main character in the play The Man Who Came to Dinner (1939) by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart,^[1] and for the far less likable character Waldo Lydecker in the 1944 film Laura (1944). He was convinced he was the inspiration for Rex Stout's brilliant detective Nero Wolfe, but Stout, although he was friendly to Woollcott, said there was nothing to that idea.^[2]

Biography[link]

Alexander Woollcott was born in an 85-room house, a vast ramshackle building in Colts Neck Township, New Jersey, near Red Bank. Called the North American Phalanx, it had once been a commune where many social experiments were carried on in the mid-19th century, some more successful than others. When the Phalanx fell apart after a fire in 1854, it was taken over by the Bucklin family, Woollcott's maternal grandparents. Woollcott spent large portions of his childhood there among his extended family. His father was a ne'er-do-well Cockney who drifted through various jobs, sometimes spending long periods away from his wife and children. Poverty was always close at hand. The Bucklins and Woollcotts were avid readers, giving young Aleck (his nickname) a lifelong love of literature, especially the works of Charles Dickens.

He also lived with his family in Kansas City, Missouri; in that city he attended Central High School, where teacher Sophie Rosenberger "inspired him to literary effort" and with whom he "kept in touch all her life."^[3] With the help of a family friend, Dr. Alexander Humphreys (after whom he was named), Woollcott made his way through college, graduating from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, in 1909. Despite a rather poor reputation (his nickname was "Putrid"), he founded a drama group there, edited the student literary magazine and was accepted by a fraternity.

In his early twenties he contracted the mumps, which apparently left him mostly, if not completely, impotent. He never married or had children, although he had a large number of female friends, most notable of whom were Dorothy Parker and Neysa McMein, to whom he actually proposed the day after she had just wed her new husband, Jack Baragwanath. Wollcott once told McMein that “I’m thinking of writing the story of our life together. The title is already settled.” McMein: “What is it?” Woollcott: “Under Separate Cover.”^[4])

Woollcott joined the staff of The New York Times as a cub reporter in 1909. In 1914 he was named drama critic and held the post until 1922, with a break for service during World War I. In April 1917, the day after war was declared, Woollcott volunteered as a private in the medical corps. Posted overseas, Woollcott was a sergeant when the intelligence section of the American Expeditionary Forces selected him and a half-dozen other newspaper men to create an official newspaper to bolster troop morale. As a roving correspondent of Stars and Stripes, Woollcott witnessed and reported the horrors of the Great War from the point of view of the common soldier. After the war he returned to the The New York Times, then transferred to The New York Herald in 1922 and to The World in 1923. He remained there until 1928.^[5]

One of New York's most prolific drama critics, he was an owlish character whose caustic wit either joyously attracted or vehemently repelled the artistic communities of 1920s Manhattan. He was banned for a time from reviewing certain Broadway theater shows.^[6] As a result he sued the Shubert theater organization for violation of the New York Civil Rights Act, but lost in the state's highest court in 1916 on the grounds that only discrimination on the basis of race, creed or color was unlawful.^[7] From 1929 to 1934 Woollcott wrote a column called "Shouts and Murmurs" for The New Yorker. He was frequently criticized for his ornate, florid style of writing and, in contrast to his contemporaries James Thurber and S. J. Perelman, he is little read today, although his book, While Rome Burns, published by Grosset & Dunlap in 1934, was in 1954 named by critic Vincent Starrett as one of the fifty-two "Best Loved Books of the Twentieth Century".

Woollcott's review of the Marx Brothers' Broadway debut, I'll Say She Is, helped the group's career from mere success to superstardom and started a life-long friendship with Harpo Marx. Harpo's two adopted sons, Alexander Marx and William (Bill) Woollcott Marx, were named after Woollcott and his brother, Billy Woollcott.

Radio[link]

Billed as The Early Bookworm, Woollcott was first heard on CBS Radio in October 1929, reviewing books in various timeslots until 1933. His CBS show The Town Crier, which began July 21, 1933, opened with the ringing of a bell and the cry, "Hear ye, hear ye!", followed by Woollcott's literary observations punctuated with acidic anecdotes. Sponsored by Cream of Wheat (1934–35) and Grainger Tobacco (1937–38), it continued until January 6, 1938. He had no reservations about using this forum to promote his own books, and the continual mentions of his book While Rome Burns (1934) made it a bestseller.

Reputation[link]

He was one of the most quoted men of his generation. Among Woollcott's classics is his description of the Los Angeles area as "Seven suburbs in search of a city" — a quip often attributed to his friend Dorothy Parker. Describing The New Yorker editor Harold Ross, he said: "He looks like a dishonest Abe Lincoln." He claimed the Brandy Alexander cocktail was named for him.

Woollcott was renowned for his savage tongue. He dismissed a notable wit and pianist: "There is absolutely nothing wrong with Oscar Levant that a miracle can't fix." He greeted friends: "Hello, Repulsive." When a waiter asked him to repeat his order, he demanded "muffins filled with pus."^[8]

His judgments were frequently eccentric. Dorothy Parker once said: "I remember hearing Woollcott say reading Proust is like lying in someone else's dirty bath water. And then he'd go into ecstasy about something called, Valiant Is the Word for Carrie, and I knew I had enough of the Round Table." ^[9]

Wolcott Gibbs, who often edited Woollcott's work at The New Yorker, was quoted in James Thurber's The Years with Ross on Woollcott's writing:

"Shouts and Murmurs" was about the strangest copy I ever edited. You could take every other sentence out without changing the sense a particle. Whole department [sic], in fact, often had no more substance than a "Talk [of the Town]" anecdote. I guess he was one of the most dreadful writers who ever existed.

Hotel des Artistes

After being kicked out of the apartment he shared with The New Yorker founders Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, Woollcott moved first into the Hotel des Artistes on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, then to an apartment at the far end of East 52nd Street. The members of the Algonquin Round Table had a debate as to what to call his new home. Franklin P. Adams suggested that he name it after the Indian word "Ocowoica", meaning "The-Little-Apartment-On-The-East-River-That-It-Is-Difficult-To-Find-A-Taxicab-Near". But Dorothy Parker came up with the definitive name: Wit's End.

Woollcott yearned to be as creative as the people with whom he surrounded himself. Among many other endeavors, he tried his hand at acting and co-wrote two Broadway shows with playwright George S. Kaufman, while appearing in two others. He also starred as Sheridan Whiteside, for whom he was the inspiration, in the traveling production of The Man Who Came to Dinner in 1940.^[1] He also appeared in several cameos in films in the late 1930s and 1940s. He was caricatured twice in Warner Brothers cartoons in 1937: as "Owl Kott" in The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos, and as the town crier in Have You Got Any Castles?, playing almost identical roles in each.

Politically, Woollcott called for normalization of U.S.-Soviet relations. He was a friend of reporter Walter Duranty, even though he described him as a "man from Mars."^[10] He was also a friend of Soviet foreign minister Maxim Litvinov, and traveled to the USSR in the 1930s, as well as sending his friend Harpo Marx to Moscow on a comedy tour in 1934. Yet he was attacked viciously in the left-wing press after his visit to the Soviet Union for his less than laudatory depiction of the "worker's paradise."

Towards the end of Woollcott's life he semi-retired to Neshobe Island in Lake Bomoseen in Vermont, which he had purchased. Shortly before he died, Woollcott admitted: “I never had anything to say.”^[11]

Thurber in The Years With Ross also reports Woollcott describing himself as 'the best writer in America', but with nothing in particular to say; Wolcott Gibbs made a similar criticism of himself;^[12] both men had a background of journalism and theatrical criticism, their principal literary efforts being judgments upon the efforts of others. Both were reluctant to test their talent with any boldly original work. Woollcott was primarily a storyteller, a retailer of anecdotes and superior gossip, as many of his personal letters reveal.^[13] His letters also reveal a warm and generous heart and a self-effacing manner distinct from his waspish public persona, and his many lasting and close friendships with the theatrical and literary elite of his day.

Woollcott was friends with actress Katharine Cornell and it was he who bestowed the moniker "First Lady of the Theatre" upon her.^[14] He often gave her extremely favorable reviews, and also her husband's productions, director Guthrie McClintic.

Death and legacy[link]

Woollcott was still not saying anything—at great length—when, on January 23, 1943, he appeared on his last radio broadcast,^[15] as a participant in a Writers' War Board panel discussion on the CBS Radio program The People's Platform. Marking the tenth anniversary of Adolf Hitler's rise to power, the topic was "Is Germany Incurable?" Panelists included Woollcott, Hunter College president George Shuster, Brooklyn College president Henry Gideonse, and novelists Rex Stout and Marcia Davenport. The program's format began as a dinner party in the studio's private dining room, with the microphones in place. Table talk would lead into a live network radio broadcast, and each panelist would begin with a provocative response to the topic. "The German people are as guilty of Hitler as the people of Chicago are of the Chicago Tribune," Woollcott stated emphatically, and the panelists noted Woollcott's physical distress.^[16] Ten minutes into the broadcast, Woollcott commented that he was feeling ill, but continued his remarks. "It's a fallacy to think that Hitler was the cause of the world's present woes," he said. Woollcott continued, adding "Germany was the cause of Hitler."^[17] He said nothing further. The radio audience was unaware that Woollcott had suffered a heart attack. He died at New York's Roosevelt Hospital a few hours later, aged 56,^[18] of a cerebral hemorrhage.^[19]

He was buried in Clinton, New York, at his alma mater, Hamilton College, but not without some confusion. By mistake, his ashes were sent to Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. When the error was corrected and the ashes were forwarded to Hamilton College, they arrived with 67¢ postage due.^[20]

At the time of his death, Woollcott had completed the editorial work on his last book, As You Were, an anthology of fiction, poetry and nonfiction for members of the armed forces. The idea of creating a much-needed "knapsack book" for service members reportedly came to Woollcott while he was staying at the White House in November 1942. An experienced anthologist, he drew on the knowledge of soldiers' reading preferences he gained while he was editor of Stars and Stripes during World War I, and also asked for nominations from friends including Stephen Vincent Benét, Carl Sandburg and Mark Van Doren. Like his final radio broadcast, As You Were was a contribution to the war for which Woollcott waived all royalties and planned to donate profits to welfare organizations. The book was published by the Viking Press in March 1943.^[21]

Broadway[link]

• Wine of Choice [Play, Comedy] Starring: Alexander Woollcott as Binkie Niebuhr (February 21, 1938 - March 1938)
• The Dark Tower [Play, Melodrama] Written by Alexander Woollcott & George S. Kaufman (November 25, 1933 - January 1934)
• Brief Moment [Play, Comedy] Alexander Woollcott as Harold Sigrift (November 9, 1931 - February 1932)
• The Channel Road [Play, Comedy] Written by Alexander Woollcott & George S. Kaufman (October 17, 1929 - December 1929)

Films[link]

• Mr. W's Little Game (1934) Woollcott's only short subject, set in a nightclub. The peevish "Mr. W." grudgingly plays a word game with a blonde (Marion Martin, in her first film) and a waiter (Leo G. Carroll).
• Gift of Gab (1934) Alexander Woollcott, cameo in Universal Pictures feature
• The Scoundrel (1935) This Oscar-winning film was made by Woollcott's friends Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, and starred longtime Woollcott friend Noël Coward. Woollcott appears in a supporting role.
• Babes on Broadway (1941) Woollcott has a cameo in this Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland musical.

Film portrayal[link]

Woollcott was portrayed by the actor Earl Montgomery in the 1962 film Act One, by the actor Jock Livingston in the 1968 musical film Star!, and by the actor Tom McGowan in the 1994 film Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle.^[22]

Quotes[link]

• "All the things I really like to do are either immoral, illegal, or fattening."
• "I'm tired of hearing it said that democracy doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. We are supposed to work it."
• "Many of us spend half of our time wishing for things we could have if we didn't spend half our time wishing."
• "Germany was the cause of Hitler as much as Chicago is responsible for the Chicago Tribune."
• "There is no such thing in anyone's life as an unimportant day."
• "His huff arrived and he departed in it."
• "A hick town is one where there is no place to go where you shouldn't go."
• "The English have an extraordinary ability for flying into a great calm."
• "At 83, George Bernard Shaw's mind was perhaps not quite as good as it used to be, but it was still better than anyone else's."
• "I have no need of your God-damned sympathy. I only wish to be entertained by some of your grosser reminiscences."
• "It comes from the likes of you!... Take what you can get! Grab the chances as they come along! Act in hallways! Sing in doorways! Dance in cellars!"

Books[link]

• Mrs Fiske: Her views on Actors, Acting and the Problems of Production (1917) - Minnie Maddern Fiske (1865–1932) was one of the foremost actresses of her day. Woollcott's first book is a study of her thoughts on the acting profession.
• The Command is Forward (1919) - A collection of his reportage and essays from Stars and Stripes.
• Shouts and Murmurs (1922) - Theatre articles. His column in The New Yorker was named after this book. The New Yorker revived the title as a catch-all for humorous pieces in the 1990s.
• Mr. Dickens Goes to the Play (1922) - A few chapters by Woollcott on Charles Dickens's love of the theatre and a great many reprinted selections from Dickens's writings.
• Enchanted Aisles (1924) - More theatre articles.
• The Story of Irving Berlin (1925) - The rags-to-riches story of the great composer.
• Going to Pieces (1928) - More stories of Woollcott's friends in and out of the theatre.
• Two Gentlemen and a Lady (1928) - A short book about dogs.
• While Rome Burns (1934) - It was Thornton Wilder who convinced Woollcott that his work was important enough to deserve reissue in book form. While Rome Burns was a surprise bestseller and further cemented Woollcott's reputation nationally. It is light reading but includes much that is amusing or quaint and one very fine piece, "Hands Across the Sea," about justice during the war. The book also contains "The Mystery of the Hansom Cab," Woollcott's account of the infamous Nan Patterson case. In 2008, The Library of America selected the piece for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American True Crime.
• The Woollcott Reader (1935) - An anthology of works by other writers that Woollcott felt deserved the public's attention. The pieces run several gamuts, from treacly biography to acid modernism.
• Woollcott's Second Reader (1937) - More of the same.
• Long, Long Ago (1943) - Issued just after his death, this follows in the steps of While Rome Burns but is not as good. The decline in his prose, as other interests drew on his time, is evident. Still, there are some amusing pieces, and it became another bestseller.
• As You Were (1943) - An anthology of other people's works, compiled by Woollcott for issue to servicemen in the Second World War. It is dedicated to Frode Jensen, a young Danish man whom Woollcott befriended and who was the closest to a son as Woollcott ever had.
• The Letters of Alexander Woollcott (1944) - A collection of his voluminous correspondence compiled by two of his dearest friends, Beatrice Kaufman and Joe Hennessey.
• The Portable Woollcott (1946) - An anthology of the best of Woollcott's writings.

See also[link]

• Have You Got Any Castles? - 1938 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon featuring a caricature of Woollcott as "The Town Crier."
• Woollcott may have been a member of the Fortean Society.
• The Woods Are Full Of Cuckoos - 1937 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon features an owl caricature of Woollcott (appropriately named "Owlcott") opening and closing the "Woodland Community Swing".

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alexander Woollcott

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Alexander Woollcott

• Alexander Woollcott at the Internet Broadway Database
• Alexander Woollcott at the Internet Movie Database
• Algonquin Round Table Walking Tours
• The Great Radio Hoax of 1935
• Works by Alexander Woollcott at Project Gutenberg
• Alexander Woollcott at Find a Grave
• Guide to Alexander Woollcott’s correspondence, MS Am 1449, at Houghton Library, Harvard University

Adolph "Harpo" Marx (later Arthur "Harpo" Marx) (November 23, 1888 – September 28, 1964) was an American comedian and film star. He was the second-oldest of the Marx Brothers. His comic style was influenced by clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish wig, and never spoke during performances (he blew a horn or whistled to communicate). Marx frequently used props such as a horn cane, made up of a lead pipe, tape, and a bulbhorn, and he played the harp in most of his films.

Early life and career[link]

Harpo was born in New York City. He grew up in a neighborhood now known as Carnegie Hill on the Upper East Side (E 93rd Street off Lexington Avenue) of Manhattan. The turn-of-the-century building that Harpo called "the first real home they ever knew" (in his memoir Harpo Speaks), was populated with European immigrants, mostly artisans – which even included a glass blower. Just across the street were the oldest brownstones in the area, owned by people like the well-connected Loew Brothers and William Orth.

Harpo's parents were Sam Marx (called "Frenchie" throughout his life) and his wife Minnie Schoenberg Marx. Minnie's brother was Al Schoenberg, who changed his name to Al Shean when he went into show business. He was half of Gallagher and Shean, a noted vaudeville act of the early 20th century.

Harpo had little formal education, for he quit grade school during his second attempt to pass the second grade. According to Harpo's autobiography, he was once thrown out of the window of his classroom (from the first floor) by two big Irish kids, as he was the only Jew in the class and was very small for his age. Upon returning to the classroom, Harpo would lie to his teacher, saying he had gone to the restroom to avoid worse bullying. This happened about three or four times a day until Harpo finally left New York Public School 86 for good. He started working numerous odd jobs alongside his brother Chico to contribute to the family income some of which including selling newspapers, working in a butcher shop, or as an errand office boy.^[1]

In January 1910, Harpo joined two of his brothers, Julius (later "Groucho") and Milton (later "Gummo"), to form "The Three Nightingales". Harpo was inspired to develop his "silent" routine after reading a review of one of their performances which had been largely ad-libbed. The theater critic wrote, "Adolph Marx performed beautiful pantomime which was ruined whenever he spoke."

Harpo got his stage name during a card game at the Orpheum Theatre in Galesburg, Illinois. The dealer (Art Fisher) called him "Harpo" because he played the harp.^[2][3] (In Harpo's autobiography, he says that mother Minnie Marx sent him the harp.) Harpo learned how to hold it properly from a picture of an angel playing a harp that he saw in a five-and-dime. No one in town knew how to play the harp, so Harpo tuned it as best he could, starting with one basic note and tuning it from there. Three years later he found out he had tuned it incorrectly, but he could not have tuned it properly; if he had, the strings would have broken each night. Harpo's method placed much less tension on the strings.^{[citation needed]} Although he played this way for the rest of his life, he did try to learn how to play correctly, and he spent considerable money hiring the best teachers. They, however, spent their time listening to him, fascinated by the way he played.^[3] In his movie performances he played the harp with his own tuning.

In his autobiography Harpo Speaks (1961), Harpo recounts how Chico got him jobs playing piano to accompany silent movies. Unlike Chico, Harpo could play only two songs on the piano, "Waltz Me Around Again, Willie" and "Love Me and the World Is Mine", but he adapted this small repertoire in different tempos to suit the action on the screen. He was also seen playing a portion of Rachmaninoff's "Prelude in C# minor" in A Day at the Races and chords on the piano in A Night at the Opera, in such a way that the piano sounded much like a harp, as a prelude to actually playing the harp in that scene.

Harpo had changed his name from Adolph to Arthur by 1911. This was due primarily to his dislike for the name Adolph (as a child, he was routinely called "Ahdie" instead). Urban legends stating that the name change came about during World War I due to anti-German sentiment in the US or during World War II because of the stigma that Adolf Hitler imposed on the name are groundless.^[4]

In film[link]

Harpo Marx playing the harp.

His first appearance was in the 1921 film Humor Risk, with his brothers, although according to Groucho, it was only screened once and then lost. Four years later, Harpo appeared without his brothers in Too Many Kisses, four years before the brothers' first widely-released film, The Cocoanuts (1929). In Too Many Kisses, Harpo spoke the only line he would ever speak on-camera in a movie: "You sure you can't move?"^{[citation needed]} Fittingly, it was a silent movie, and the audience only saw his lips move and saw the line on a title card.

In the Marx Brothers' movie At the Circus (1939), however, Harpo "speaks" in a movie with the brothers in the scene in which he visits the room of Little Professor Atom (Jerry Maren) and sneezes, clearly saying "At-choo!". In A Night in Casablanca, Harpo also "speaks" in the scene where he is taste-testing Groucho's food by acting like a seal and vocalizing seal sounds. It is also implied that Harpo is singing (baritone) in the opening scene of Monkey Business (1931), where the four Marx Brothers, stowed away in barrels aboard a cruise liner, sing a four-part harmony of "Sweet Adeline."

The Marx Brothers (from top, Chico, Harpo, Groucho, and Zeppo Marx)

Harpo became famous for prop-laden sight gags, in particular the seemingly infinite number of odd things stored in his topcoat's oversized pockets. In the film Horse Feathers (1932), Groucho, referring to an impossible situation, tells Harpo that he cannot "burn the candle at both ends." Harpo immediately produces from within his coat pocket a lit candle burning at both ends. Earlier in the film a man on the street asks him for money for a cup of coffee, and he subsequently produces a steaming cup complete with saucer, from inside his coat. As author Joe Adamson put in his book, Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Sometimes Zeppo, "The president of the college has been shouted down by a mute."

Harpo often used facial expressions and mime to get his point across. One of his facial expressions, which he used in every Marx Brothers film and stage play, beginning with Fun in Hi Skule, was known as "the Gookie." Harpo created it by mimicking the expression of Mr. Gehrke, a New York tobacconist who would make a similar face while concentrating on rolling cigars.^[3][5]

Harpo further distinguished his character by wearing a "fright wig". Early in his career it was dyed pink, as evidenced by color film posters of the time and by allusions to it in films, with character names such as "Pinky." It tended to show as blonde on-screen due to the black-and-white film stock at the time. Over time, he darkened the pink to more of a reddish color, again alluded to in films with names such as "Rusty."

His non-speaking in his early films was occasionally referred to by the other Marx Brothers, who were careful to imply that his character's not speaking was a choice rather than a disability. They would make joking reference to this part of his act. For example, in Animal Crackers his character was ironically dubbed "The Professor." In The Cocoanuts, this exchange occurred:

<poem> Groucho: Who is this? Chico: Dat's-a my partner, but he no speak. Groucho: Oh, that's your silent partner! </poem>

In later films Harpo was put into situations where he would repeatedly attempt to convey a vital message to another person, but only did so through nonverbal means. These scenes reinforced the idea that the character was unable to speak.

In other media[link]

In 1933, following U.S. diplomatic recognition of the Soviet Union, he spent six weeks in Moscow as a performer and goodwill ambassador.^[3] His tour was a huge success. He served as a secret courier during this time, delivering communiques to and from the US embassy in Moscow at the request of Ambassador William Christian Bullitt, Jr., smuggling the messages in and out of Russia by taping a sealed envelope to his leg beneath his trousers, an event described in David Fromkin's 1995 book In the Time of the Americans.^[6][7] In Harpo Speaks, Marx describes his relief at making it out of the Soviet Union, recalling how "I pulled up my pants, ripped off the tape, unwound the straps, handed over the dispatches from Ambassador Bullitt, and gave my leg its first scratch in ten days."^[8]

The Russia trip was later memorialized in a bizarre science fiction novella, The Foreign Hand Tie by Randall Garrett, a tale of telepathic spies which is full of references to the Marx Brothers and their films.^[9]

In 1936, he was one of a number of performers and celebrities to appear as caricatures in the Walt Disney Production of Mickey's Polo Team. Harpo was part of a team of polo-playing movie stars which included Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy. His mount was an ostrich. Walt Disney would later have Harpo (with Groucho and Chico) appear as one of King Cole's "Fiddlers Three" in the Silly Symphony Mother Goose Goes Hollywood.

Harpo was also caricatured in Sock-A-Bye Baby (1934), an early episode of the Popeye cartoon series created by Fleischer Studios. Harpo is playing the harp, and wakes up Popeye's baby, and then Popeye kills him. (After Popeye hits him, a halo appears over his head and he floats to the sky.)

Friz Freleng's 1936 Merrie Melodies cartoon The Coo-Coo Nut Grove caricatures Harpo and gives him a red beak. When he first appears, he is chasing a woman, but the woman later turns out to be Groucho.

Harpo also took an interest in painting, and a few of his works can be seen in his autobiography. In the book, Marx tells a story about how he tried to paint a nude female model, but froze up because he simply did not know how to paint properly. The model took pity on him, however, showing him a few basic strokes with a brush, until finally Harpo (fully clothed) took the model's place as the subject and the naked woman painted his portrait.^[10]

In 1955, Harpo made an appearance on the sitcom I Love Lucy, in which they re-enacted the famous mirror scene from the Marx Brothers movie Duck Soup (1933).^[11] In this scene, they are both supposed to be Harpo, not Groucho; he stays the same and Lucille Ball is dressed as him. About this time, he also appeared on NBC's The Martha Raye Show.

Marx as the "mechanical man" in "A Silent Panic".

Harpo recorded an album of harp music for RCA Victor (Harp by Harpo, 1952) and two for Mercury Records (Harpo in Hi-Fi, 1957; Harpo at Work, 1958).

Marx made a number of notable television appearances in the 1960s. In 1960, he appeared with Ernest Truex in an episode of The DuPont Show with June Allyson entitled "A Silent Panic". Marx plays a deaf-mute who, as a "mechanical man" in a department store window, witnesses a gangland murder. In 1961, he made guest appearances on The Today Show, Play Your Hunch, Candid Camera, I've Got a Secret, Here's Hollywood, Art Linkletter's House Party, Groucho's quiz show You Bet Your Life, The Ed Sullivan Show, and Your Surprise Package.

In 1962 he guest-starred with Carol Burnett in an installment of the DuPont Show of the Week entitled "The Wonderful World of Toys". The show was filmed in Central Park and featured Marx playing "Autumn Leaves" on the harp. A visit to the set inspired poet Robert Lowell to compose a poem about Marx.

Marx's two final television appearances came less than a month apart in the fall of 1962. He portrayed a guardian angel on CBS's The Red Skelton Show on September 25. He guest starred as himself on October 20 in the episode "Musicale" of ABC's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, a sitcom starring Fess Parker, based on the 1939 Frank Capra film.^[12]

Personal life[link]

He married actress Susan Fleming on September 28, 1936. Fleming's wedding to Marx was announced to the public when President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt sent the couple a telegram of congratulations that November. Marx had sent a thank you letter to Roosevelt in appreciation for a signed photograph of the President, in which Marx had stated that he was "in line for congratulations, too, having been married since September" in a ceremony that took place in an unspecified "little town up North".^[13] Unlike most of his brothers (bar Gummo), who were unlucky with love (Groucho was divorced three times, Chico once, and Zeppo twice), Harpo's marriage to Susan was lifelong. The couple adopted four children: Bill, Alex, Jimmy, and Minnie. When asked by George Burns in 1948 at how many children he planned to adopt, he answered: "I’d like to adopt as many children as I have windows in my house. So when I leave for work, I want a kid in every window, waving goodbye."^[14]

Harpo was good friends with theater critic Alexander Woollcott and because of this became a regular member of the Algonquin Round Table. Harpo, who was quiet in details about his personal life, said his main contribution was to be the audience in that group of wits. George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart based the character of "Banjo" in their play The Man Who Came to Dinner on Harpo. Harpo later played the role in Los Angeles opposite Alexander Woolcott who had inspired the character of Sheridan Whiteside.

The Marx Brothers (clockwise: Groucho, Chico, and Harpo Marx) by Yusuf Karsh in 1948.

In 1961, Harpo published his autobiography, which was titled Harpo Speaks. In one chapter, he tells one story of a man who did not believe that Harpo could actually talk. Because Harpo never spoke a word in all of his movies and TV appearances, many fans and other people believed he really was mute. In fact, radio and TV news recordings of his voice can be found on the Internet, documentaries, and on bonus materials of Marx Brothers DVDs. In relating one story to a reporter who privately interviewed him in the early 1930s, the reporter wrote that "Harpo had a deep and distinguished voice like a professional announcer" and, like his brothers, he spoke with a New York accent his entire life (for example: "girls" he would pronounce "goyles", turkey would be "toy-kee", New Jersey would be "new joy-see", etc.); hear, for instance, these audio recordings.) In private, Harpo actually had a much deeper and more resonant speaking voice than Groucho, which some suspect may be the real reason he was dissuaded from ever speaking in the act. For reference, his voice was fairly similar to Chico's, perhaps too similar, which would be another reason he developed his unique silent stage persona. It is also possible that his deep, rich voice was completely at odds with his puckish and zany characters. One of his sons later told reporters that if Harpo had a high-pitched or squeaky voice, it might have worked with his performances, but the fact that his voice was naturally deep ruined his zany acts while performing on stage during one performance in the mid-1920s. He soon after adopted his mute mime personality which worked for the remainder of his career.

Harpo's final presence before the public came in early 1964, when he appeared on stage with singer/comedian Allan Sherman. Sherman burst into tears when Harpo, speaking for the first time to the audience, announced his retirement from the entertainment business. Comedian Steve Allen, who was in the audience, remembered that Harpo – after announcing his retirement from the stage – kept talking for several minutes to the theater audience about his career and how he would miss it all, and he kept verbally cutting Sherman off when he tried to speak. After a while, the sorrowful audience started tittering and giggling. Allen said that everyone found it charmingly ironic that the comedian Harpo Marx, having been mute on stage and screen for several decades, "wouldn't shut up!"

Marx was also an avid croquet player, and was inducted into the Croquet Hall of Fame in 1979.

Death[link]

Harpo Marx died on September 28, 1964, at age 75 after undergoing open heart surgery following a heart attack, barely six months after his retirement.^[15] Harpo's death was said to have hit the surviving Marx brothers very hard. Groucho's son Arthur Marx, who attended the funeral with most of the Marx family, later said that Harpo's funeral was the only time in his life that he ever saw his father cry.

Harpo was cremated and his ashes were reportedly sprinkled into the sand trap at the seventh hole of the Rancho Mirage golf course, on which he occasionally played. In his will, he donated his trademark harp to the State of Israel.^[5]

Legacy[link]

Harpo is most known for his signature outfit: trench coat, red wig, top hat, and a comical horn heard in his movies. He was also well-known for his talent to play the harp, even though he didn't know how to read music. For many moviegoers, Harpo Marx provided their first and only introduction to harp music. Today, thanks to late-night reruns of the old black and white Marx Brothers movies, Harpo continues to entertain audiences old and new. In fact, outside the professional harp community, he remains one of the best "ambassadors for the harp" the world has known. In time, his talent earned him an international reputation as he performed in movies as well as in stage shows around the globe.^[16]

Film portrayal[link]

Marx was portrayed by the actor J. M. Henry in the film Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994).^[17]

The character of Banjo in The Man Who Came To Dinner is based on Harpo Marx. He actually played Banjo in some stage performances.

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Marx, Harpo (1961). Harpo Speaks. New York: B. Geis Associates; New York: Limelight Editions, 1985. ISBN 0-87910-036-2
• Mitchell, Glenn (1996). The Marx Brothers Encyclopedia. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. ISBN 0-7134-7838-1

External links[link]

• Harpo Marx family website, run by his son Bill
• Harpo Marx at Find a Grave
• Harpo Marx at the Internet Movie Database
• Harpo Marx at the TCM Movie Database
• Harpo Marx at the Internet Broadway Database
• Clips of Harpo speaking