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 Matys Brothers their hands) and began recording polka music for the Sunnyside and Select labels during the late 1950s and early 1960s. "Rummy Polka" was a hit for them in 1959, and the Matys Brothers scored their biggest hit in 1963, "Who Stole the Keeshka?" In the 1960s and 1970s, the brothers, John, Walt, Emil and Gene, toured the west coast. They appeared in the 1960s at The Showboat in Las Vegas, The Holiday Hotel downtown Reno, NV, and The Commercial Hotel in Elko, Nevada. The brothers also incorporated comedy into their act, some rehearsed, but most of them did not. Some