Harpo Marx office boy. In January 1910, Harpo joined two of his brothers, Julius (later "Groucho") and Milton (later "Gummo"), to form "The Three Nightingales", later changed to simply "The Marx Brothers". Multiple stories—most unsubstantiated—exist to explain Harpo's evolution as the "silent" character in the brothers' act. In his memoir, Groucho wrote that Harpo simply wasn't very good at memorizing dialogue, and thus was ideal for the role of the "dunce who couldn't speak", a common character in vaudeville acts of the time. Harpo gained his stage name during a card game at the Orpheum Theatre in Galesburg, Illinois. The dealer (Art
The Time of Their Lives for Washington's Birthday". "The Time of Their Lives" was filmed at Universal Studios from March 6 through May 15, 1946. As in the duo's preceding film, "Little Giant", Abbott and Costello do not play friends or any kind of partners, but are simply individual members of the cast. Also as in the previous movie, Costello's character is largely the hero, while Abbott plays a somewhat unsympathetic dual role. The two comics' trademark vaudeville routines are absent, and in fact they speak directly to each other only during one scene at the beginning of the film. (This loosening of the comics'