Sam Marx

Samuel Marx (born Simon Marx; October 23, 1859 – May 10, 1933) was the father of the American entertainers known as the Marx Brothers, stars of vaudeville, Broadway and film, and the husband of Minnie Marx, who served as the group's manager. Life and family According to his birth certificate, Marx was born as Simon Marx in Alsace, in France. Due to his place of birth, he was known as "Frenchie". His parents were Simon Marx and Johanna Haennchen Isaak. He came to the U.S. from France in 1880. He met Minnie in New York where he was working as a dance teacher. They married in 1884 and had six sons. Their first son, Manfred, born in 1885, died in infancy. The other children were Leonard (Chico), born in 1887, Adolph (Harpo) in 1888, Julius (Groucho) in 1890, Milton (Gummo) in 1892, and Herbert (Zeppo) in 1901. Marx was an excellent pinochle player and taught the game to his two eldest sons. Career Marx became a tailor, although apparently not a very good one. According to Groucho, he was a talented cook, often convincing the landlord to delay their rent pay time with a good meal. In his show An Evening With Groucho, Groucho reminisced about his father, Sam: Harpo put the bad tailoring down to the fact that Frenchie never took the time to measure a client for a suit, preferring to guess their size. He would then take the suits that clients had rejected, travel to New Jersey, and sell them door-to-door.