Chico Marx

The Con Man Who Saved the Business

Leonard Marx was never Italian. The accent that made him a millionaire was a cheap act, perfected on the streets of New York to keep local gangs from beating him up. Before becoming a movie star, he was a hustler who learned to survive thanks to his quick mind and a natural charm that disarmed anyone.

He was the eldest brother and the one who truly pulled the strings of the group. While Groucho brought the wit and Harpo the mime, Chico made sure the contracts weren't a swindle for the family. But his true passion was not film or theater, but betting.

And he did it between poker games.

In 1934, the Marx Brothers' career seemed over after the box office failure of Duck Soup. Paramount wanted nothing to do with them. It was Chico, playing bridge with Irving Thalberg, who secured the contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer that rescued their legacy from oblivion.

He secured a percentage of the gross profits, something unthinkable for the time. Thanks to that financial move came films like A Night at the Opera in 1935 and A Day at the Races in 1937. Without his persistence in the studio offices, film history would be much duller today.

His piano technique was a circus act. He wasn't after academic perfection but visual impact, because he knew the audience wanted to be entertained. He shot at the keys with his index finger as if it were a pistol and played impossible arpeggios with one hand while scratching his head with the other.

But behind the laughter was a devastating gambling addiction. His brothers had to set up a special bank account for him because Chico could lose the pay from an entire movie in a single night of gambling. His debts were so constant that the group was forced to take on mediocre projects just so the creditors wouldn't break his legs.

The Decline and Gambling Debts

During the 1940s, he led his own orchestra, the Chico Marx Orchestra, in an effort to plug his financial holes. He wasn't interested in music as high art. It was pure economic survival, a way to pay the bookies who chased him across the country.

In 1946, they filmed A Night in Casablanca solely to shore up Chico's finances. Their brothers had already retired in practice, but they accepted the job to keep their eldest brother from ending up in poverty or in jail. So they put their mustaches and wigs back on one last time for a studio feature film.

And the gamble paid off.

He appeared on television programs such as The College Bowl in 1950. His energy was no longer the same, but he kept that air of a professional con man that made him magnetic in front of the camera. Because Chico never stopped performing, not even when the studio lights went off and he sat down at a card table.

He made his last appearance alongside Harpo in an episode of The General Electric Theater titled The Incredible Jewel Robbery in 1959. There was no dialogue in that appearance. It was a dry return to the roots of vaudeville before his health deteriorated for good.

He died at his Hollywood home on October 11, 1961 from a heart condition. He was 74 years old and left behind an almost nonexistent inheritance due to his compulsive gambling addiction and poor investments.