Minnie Marx Minnie Marx Minnie Marx (born Miene Schönberg, 9 November 1865 or 1864 – 13 September 1929) was the mother and manager of the Marx Brothers, wife of Sam Marx, and the sister of vaudeville star Al Shean. Marx was born Miene Schönberg in Dornum, Germany. Her parents Fanny née Salomons (1829–1898) and Levy "Lafe" Schönberg (1823–1919) were members of the local Jewish community. Her mother was a yodeling harpist, her father a ventriloquist. Her younger brother, Abraham Elieser Adolf, the future "Al Shean", was born in 1868. About 1880 the family emigrated to New York City, where Minnie married Samuel
Silent comedy Charley Chase, Stan Laurel (who made a commercially successful transition into talking pictures in the team Laurel & Hardy), along with many others. In the early years of "talkie" films (beginning in 1927, see "The Jazz Singer") a few actors continued to act silently for comedic effect, most famously Charlie Chaplin, whose last great "silent" comedies "City Lights" (1931) and "Modern Times" (1936) were both made in the sound age. Another late example was Harpo Marx, who always played a mute in the Marx Brothers' films. Another important legacy of silent film comedy was the humor in animated cartoons. Even