Groucho Marx

Groucho Marx — comedian with roots in the Russian Empire

Groucho Marx was the intellectual engine of the Marx Brothers — the rapid-fire wit, the greasepaint moustache, the cigar, and the devastating one-liner. From Broadway to Hollywood to You Bet Your Life on radio and television, he was one of the most recognisable comic figures of the 20th century.

Tracing the roots — Ger/Rus

His mother Minnie Schoenberg came from a Jewish family with roots in the Russian Empire borderlands. She was the driving force behind the Marx Brothers' career, managing them from vaudeville to Hollywood stardom. Groucho's comedy — anarchic, anti-authoritarian, gleefully subversive — is the comedy of immigrant outsiders dismantling every form of pretension.

A career defined by ambition