He was a serious amateur machinist, and among the products his company, Marman, developed in the late s was a 2-cylinder motorized bicycle, the Marman Twin produced Unfortunately, his bike was unable to compete with the more established Whizzers, despite being far more powerful.
These bikes are highly collectible today. One of only two of The Marx Brothers to play a recurring role in their films not counting when they used their own names.
Since he'd missed out when his brothers received their nicknames, he was given one by his siblings. He was always practicing acrobatics, so he was named "Zippo" -- after "Mr. Zippo," the star of a well-known chimpanzee act. Feeling it was unflattering, he insisted it be Zeppo.
Another version of this story , was that his name was changed to "Zeppo" in honor of the then popular "Zepplin". At the time of his death, he was the last surviving of The Marx Brothers. He and his first wife adopted their only child, Timothy, in Officially left the brothers' comedy team to become an agent on March 30, His company, Marman Products, marketed and produced what came to be known as the Marman Clamp, which proved to have numerous applications in aircraft and aerospace, and is used to this day.
The company eventually grew to two factories employing more than workers. He was also the most traditionally handsome of the bunch with a lovely singing voice. After their contract with Paramount was up, Zeppo decided to leave the performing business entirely, becoming a theatrical agent for a number of Hollywood stars, including his brothers, due in large part with his frustrations of being the straight man and not getting to really show off his comedic chops.
While being the straight man is often a thankless task, they play an invaluable part in getting the laugh. A joke without the proper setup is merely a non sequitur, which on occasion can get a chuckle, but the release of a big laugh requires a proper context in which to generate that laugh. Spaulding dictates a letter to his secretary Jamison Zeppo for his lawyer. The contents of that letter are naturally absurd, filled with nonsense and strange punctuations. Throughout the scene, Jamison has to interrupt his boss with clarifications and questions, and the back and forth speed at which the two talk without ever stepping on one another truly amazes.
Zeppo has many of these kinds of back and forths with Groucho over the course of their five films. Part of why Zeppo has such a great rapport with Groucho, naturally, comes from growing up together as brothers and honing their skills not just in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in film, but also simply in their day to day lives. Most famously, he assumed the role of Captain Spaulding in Animal Crackers for a run on stage when Groucho came down with appendicitis.
Zeppo was the youngest of the five brothers. As a boy he was constantly involved in fights, which unlike Harpo or Groucho, he would win. He had a reputation for being quite the hooligan. It's always been Marx legend that Zeppo was placed into the act so that Minnie could keep him out of trouble. He took over the straight man and romantic lead roles from older brother Gummo.
He always seemed to be in the background, acting as a foil for Chico or Groucho. According to a newspaper article, he also made a solo appearance in the Adolphe Menjou comedy A Kiss in the Dark , but no known copy of the film exists, and it is not clear if he actually appeared in the finished film. It always seemed to Zeppo that he stood in everyone else's shadow. He hated not being allowed to be a comedian on stage. According to his brothers he was the funniest of them all.
Groucho is quoted as saying "When I had my appendix out, Zeppo took over for me. He was so good that it made me get better quicker". After Zeppo left the act, each film would have a Zeppo-like actor in it and none of them were as good at it as he was. Offstage Zeppo was reputed to be a mechanical wizard and would go through many careers in his lifetime. He got his start with machines early. When Gummo and Groucho bought a car back in the early vaudeville days it was Zeppo who kept it running.
He also worked machining parts for the war effort during WWII, grew grapefruits, ran a theatrical agency with Gummo and he was a commercial fisherman. Click here to read more about Zeppo's inventions. On 12 April , Zeppo married Marion Benda. The couple would adopt two children, Timothy, in and Thomas. They divorced on 12 May Zeppo and Blakely divorced in or Blakely later married singer Frank Sinatra.
At the end of his life Zeppo found himself in the middle of the disputes around Groucho's estate.
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