HARPO MARX DIES AT 70

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30559, 30 September 1964, Page 17

HARPO MARX DIES AT 70

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) HOLLYWOOD, September 29.

Harpo Marx, the blond-wigged nonspeaking member of the famous Marx Brothers team, died today at Mount Sinai hospital after heart surgery. He was 70.

Harpo, whose real name was Arthur, was the second of the theatrical team to die. The piano-playing Chico died in 1961. Those surviving are Gummo, Zeppo and Groucho.

Harpo had been in semiretirement for five years and in January, 1963, announced he was retiring completely. Harpo started with his brothers in a vaudeville act called the Six Musical Mascots. It included his mother and his aunt.

Pushed on by his ambitious mother, Minnie Marx, the

team advanced to become the Four Nightingales and, finally, the Four Marx Brothers.

They went from vaudeville to the Broadway stage, scoring in such hits as “Coconuts” and “Animal Crackers.” Harpo’s role, which he was to play until the end of his career, was established early in the game. “LECHEROUS LOOK” He wore a blonde fright wig, a battered top hat and a lecherous look whenever a

pretty girl walked by. He would follow her at a rapid pace, honking the horn at the top of his cane.

The horn and gestures were his only mode of communication on stage and in film. He maintained professional silence until the end of his career. His other trademark

was the harp, which he played with professional skill. The Marxes made the transition to films with consummate skill, recreating the stage hits of “Coconuts” and “Animal Crackers” in the early 1930 s and following with “Monkey Business,” “Horse Feathers,” and “Duck Soup.” Zeppo, the non-comic juvenile of the team, then dropped out to become an agent. Groucho, Harpo and Chico went on to more films, including “A Night At the Opera,” “A Day At the Races,” “At the Circus,” “Go West,” and “The Big Store.” After “Love Happy,” in 1949 (in which the late Marilyn Monroe played a bit part) the Marxes split up. Groucho

became highly successful as a radio and then television quiz-master. AT NIGHT CLUBS Chico played night clubs

and concerts with an orchestra, and Harpo also appeared in night clubs, with an occasional guest appearance on television, sometimes playing the harp with symphony orchestras. Harpo brought an entirely new image to the harp, which was a somewhat ethereal instrument until he played it In films. His mother had made him practice for long hours as a boy and he was ah accomplished player. But, in between strains of serious melody, he would pick out odd notes and grimace comically along with it. Harpo leaves a widow, Susan—a former actress to whom he was married for 28 years—and four adopted children.