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
Zeppo Marx to the Marx Brothers' initial success was as a Marx Brother who could 'pass' as a normal person. None of Zeppo's replacements (Allan Jones, Kenny Baker and others) could assume this character as convincingly as Zeppo, because they were actors, and Zeppo was the real thing, cast to type" (562). Zeppo's comic persona was further highlighted in the "dictation scene" of "Animal Crackers". In his book "Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Sometimes Zeppo", Joe Adamson analyzed the scene, showing how it revealed Zeppo's ability to one-up Groucho with simple, plain-English rebuttals. In the scene, Groucho dictates a letter to his lawyer,