Herbert Manfred Marx (1901 - 1979)

Born 25 Feb 1901 in New York City, New York

Ancestors

Died 30 Nov 1979 at age 78 in Rancho Mirage, California

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Biography

Herbert Marx is Notable.

American actor, theatrical agent, and engineer. He was the youngest son of Samuel Marx and Minnie Schönberg, who, with his siblings, gained fame as the five Marx Brothers. Known in show business as "Zeppo Marx", he became a multi-millionaire due to his engineering efforts. Marx appeared in the first five Marx Brothers movies, as a straight man and romantic lead, before leaving the team.

There are different theories as to where Herbert got his stage name "Zeppo": either derived from the Zeppelin airship, or from a popular trained chimpanzee named Mr. Zippo.

He later owned a company which machined parts during World War II, Marman Products Co. of Inglewood, California, later known as the Aeroquip Company.

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.^[1]

On April 12, 1927, Marx married Marion Benda. The couple adopted two children, Timothy and Thomas, in 1944 and 1945, and later divorced on May 12, 1954. On September 18, 1959, Marx married Barbara Blakeley, whose son, Bobby Oliver simply started using the last name "Marx". Marx and Blakeley divorced in 1973. Blakeley married Frank Sinatra in 1976. Marx became ill with cancer in 1978. The last surviving Marx Brother, Herbert Manfred "Zeppo" Marx died of lung cancer at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage on November 30, 1979. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean.

Sources

1. ↑ "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MKCQ-JY9 : accessed 8 June 2021), Adolph Marx in household of Jennie G Horne, Chicago Ward 6, Cook, Illinois, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 350, sheet 9A, family 185, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 246; FHL microfilm 1,374,259.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeppo_Marx
• Find A Grave: Memorial #2760