Marx Brothers of "The Big Store" the team announced they were retiring from the screen. Four years later, however, Chico persuaded his brothers to make two additional films, "A Night in Casablanca" (1946) and "Love Happy" (1949), to alleviate his severe gambling debts. Both pictures were released by United Artists. From the 1940s onward Chico and Harpo appeared separately and together in nightclubs and casinos. Chico fronted a big band, the Chico Marx Orchestra (with 17-year-old Mel Tormé as a vocalist). Groucho made several radio appearances during the 1940s and starred in "You Bet Your Life", which ran from 1947 to 1961
Chico Marx a rendition of "The Beer Barrel Polka". Chico became the unofficial manager of the Marx Brothers after their mother, Minnie, died in 1929. As manager, he cut a deal to get the brothers a percentage of a film's gross receipts—the first of its kind in Hollywood. Furthermore, it was Chico's connection with Irving Thalberg of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer that led to Thalberg's signing the Brothers when they were in a career slump after "Duck Soup" (1933), the last of their films for Paramount. For a while in the 1930s and 1940s, Chico led a big band. Singer Mel Tormé began his professional