Gummo Marx a number of writers, and was well respected as a businessman. He rarely required contracts, believing that if the people he represented liked his work, they would stay with him; and if not, would seek representation elsewhere. Around the time he left his brothers' Vaudeville act, Marx applied for a patent for a clothes packing rack. On October 28, 1919, Marx was granted patent US1320335A. Gummo may have received his nickname because he had a tendency to be sneaky backstage, creeping up on others like a "gumshoe" (detective). Another explanation cited by biographers and family members is that Milton, the
Marx Brothers The first Marx Brothers/Thalberg film was "A Night at the Opera" (1935), a satire on the world of opera, where the brothers help two young singers in love by throwing a production of "Il Trovatore" into chaos. The film—including its famous scene where an absurd number of people crowd into a tiny stateroom on a ship—was a great success, and was followed two years later by an even bigger hit, "A Day at the Races" (1937), in which the brothers cause mayhem in a sanitarium and at a horse race. The film features Groucho and Chico's famous "Tootsie Frootsie Ice