Did the Marx Brothers Have Any Talents besides Comedy?

Zeppo Marx might have been the "straight man" among his brothers (Groucho, Chico, Harpo, and Gummo), but he got his chance to laugh all the way to the bank in other ways. The youngest member of the famous Marx Brothers comedy team, Zeppo (whose real name was Herbert Manfred Marx) had a knack for mechanical processes and founded the Marman Products Company in Inglewood, California, in 1941. The company's biggest (and most infamous) claim to fame was producing the clamps used to secure the atomic bomb dropped by the Enola Gay on Hiroshima during World War II. In fact, Marman clamps are still used in a variety of spaceflight systems, including the Cassini orbiter. In addition to his work on the Marman clamp, Zeppo Marx also earned two patents for early heart rate monitors and another patent for a heating pad.

Making their Marx:

• Groucho Marx hosted The Tonight Show for two weeks after Jack Paar quit. He also introduced Johnny Carson as the show's new host in 1962.
• The Marx Brothers originally wanted to be singers, but after a commotion caused by a runaway mule interrupted an early show, Groucho got the crowd roaring with laughter, and a comedy team was born.
• Chico once impersonated Harpo on the TV game show I've Got a Secret and got away with it.