Groucho Marx undistinguished vaudeville singing group billed as "The Four Nightingales". The brothers Julius, Milton (Gummo Marx) and Arthur (originally Adolph, but Harpo Mark from 1911) and another boy singer, Lou Levy, traveled the U.S. vaudeville circuits to little fanfare. After exhausting their prospects in the East, the family moved to La Grange, Illinois, to play the Midwest. After a particularly dispiriting performance in Nacogdoches, Texas, Julius, Milton, and Arthur began cracking jokes onstage for their own amusement. Much to their surprise, the audience liked them better as comedians than as singers. They modified the then-popular Gus Edwards comedy skit "School Days"
Arthur Marx comedy "The Good Guys" and four episodes of the ill-fated "Life with Lucy". Marx was also co-creator of the TV series "Mickey" starring Mickey Rooney. Marx wrote both fiction (often humorous) and non-fiction (often show-biz related) pieces for magazines throughout his career. Along with Fisher, he co-authored the play "The Impossible Years", which ran for three seasons on Broadway and starred Alan King, and "Minnie's Boys", a musical about the Marx Brothers' vaudeville years that starred Shelley Winters. They also wrote "My Daughter's Rated X", which won the Straw Hat award for best new comedy on the summer stock circuit,