Minnie Marx was born Miene Schönberg in Dornum, Germany. Her parents Fanny née Salomons (1829–1898) and Levy/Levi "Lafe" Schönberg (1823–1919) were members of the local Jewish community. The fifth of Levy Schönberg and Fanny Sophie Salomons's nine children. Her younger brother Abraham Elieser Adolf "Al" was born in 1868. About 1878 the family emigrated to New York City, Levy and Hänne travelling ahead together in 1877, where Minnie married Samuel "Frenchie" Marx in 1884.
While managing the Marx Brothers, she also went under the name of Minnie Palmer, so that booking agents would not know that the agent representing the Marx Brothers was actually their mother. She played the harp as did her mother and her son, Harpo Marx.
Care should be taken to not conflate Minnie Marx's "Minnie Palmer" with the Broadway actress, Minnie Palmer (1857-1936), who had started her theatrical career when Minnie Schönberg was only ten-years-old in Dornum. Numerous articles at the time, and since, did conflate the two, incorrectly attributing Minnie Palmer's acting credits to the mother of the Marx Brothers.
On the 8th June 1900, the Marx family was living at East 93rd Street, Manhattan. Home at the time were Samuel (40), a merchant, and tailor; his wife, Minnie (36); their children: Pauline* (15); Leo (13); Adolph (12); Julius (10); and Milton (8);and Minnie's mother: Fanny Schönberg.[1]
On the 25th April 1910, the Marx family were boarders in lodgings on Cabernet Avenue, Chicago. Home at the time were the head of the household: Pennsylvania-born Jennie G Home (41); her nephew: Pennsylvania-born Richard J Lillis (26), an electrician with a telephone company; the Marx's: Samuel (48), a commercial traveller selling cloaks; Minnie (45), an actress on circuit; Adolph/Harpo (21); Julius/Groucho (19); Milton/Gummo (17), all actors on circuit; and the youngest: 9-year-old Herbert (not yet known as Zeppo); and Minnie's sister: 47-year-old Hänne, known at the time as Anna Scheckler, an actress on circuit; and Hänne's (second) husband: German-born Julius E Scheckler (44), also a commercial traveller selling cloaks.[2]
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Minnie is 24 degrees from Herbert Adair, 18 degrees from Richard Adams, 22 degrees from Mel Blanc, 25 degrees from Dick Bruna, 24 degrees from Bunny DeBarge, 31 degrees from Peter Dinklage, 23 degrees from Sam Edwards, 20 degrees from Ginnifer Goodwin, 24 degrees from Marty Krofft, 18 degrees from Junius Matthews, 17 degrees from Rachel Mellon and 21 degrees from Harold Warstler on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.