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"
Big Time Vaudeville Big Time Vaudeville Big Time Vaudeville was a series of black and white, 9- to 10-minute, short films resembling the Vitaphone Varieties and also produced by Warner Brothers and Vitaphone (at the Brooklyn studios in New York). These consisted of four to six vaudeville acts and are historically interesting with many performers rarely seen on film. In 1934, Warner Bros. released four Pepper Pots titled “Vaudeville Reel” that featured several acrobatic acts, dancers, singers and comedians appearing on a stage, much like a vaudeville show. Their success prompted the studio to fashion a new series using the same set-up. Since