Editing Chico Marx (section)

==Stage persona==
Billing himself as Chico (pronounced as "Chicko"), he used an Italian persona for his onstage character. Stereotyped ethnic characters were common with vaudevillians. His questionable Italian ethnicity was specifically referred to twice on film: In their second feature, ''[[Animal Crackers (1930 film)|Animal Crackers]]'', he recognizes someone he knows to be a fish peddler from [[Czechoslovakia]] impersonating a respected art collector:

{{blockquote|{{dialogue
|r=Ravelli
|c=Chandler
|r|How is it you got to be Roscoe W. Chandler?|mood1=Chico
|c|Say, how did ''you'' get to be an ''Italian''?
|r|Never mind—whose confession is this?
}}}}

In ''[[A Night at the Opera (film)|A Night at the Opera]]'', which begins in Italy, his character, Fiorello, claims not to be Italian, eliciting a surprised look from [[Groucho Marx|Groucho]]:

{{blockquote|{{dialogue
|d=Driftwood
|f=Fiorello
|d|Well, things seem to be getting better around the country.|mood1=Groucho
|f|I don't  know, I'm a stranger here myself.|mood2=Chico
}}}}

A scene in the film ''[[Go West (1940 film)|Go West]]'', in which Chico attempts to placate an Indian chief of whom Groucho has run afoul, has a line that plays a bit on Chico's lack of Italian nationality, but is more or less proper Marxian wordplay:

{{blockquote|{{dialogue
|q=S. Quentin Quayle
|p=Joe Panello
|q|Can you talk Indian?|mood1=Groucho
|p|I was born in Indianapolis!|mood2=Chico
}}}}

There are moments, however, where his characters appear to be genuinely Italian; examples include the film ''[[The Big Store]]'', in which his character Ravelli runs into an old friend he worked with in Naples (after a brief misunderstanding due to his accent), the film ''[[Monkey Business (1931 film)|Monkey Business]]'', in which Chico claims his grandfather sailed with [[Christopher Columbus]], and their very first outing ''[[The Cocoanuts]]'', where Mr. Hammer (Groucho) asks him if he knew what an auction was, in which he responds "I come from Italy on the Atlantic Auction [Atlantic Ocean]!"  Chico's character is often assumed to be dim-witted, as he frequently misunderstands words spoken by other characters (particularly Groucho). However, he often gets the better of the same characters by extorting money from them, either by con or blackmail; again, Groucho is his most frequent target.

[[File:Chico Marx 1909.jpg|thumb|right|Chico Marx playing cards with himself; taken at [[Rockaway Beach, New York]], in July 1909, aged 22]]
Chico was a talented [[pianist]]. He originally started playing with only his right hand and fake playing with his left, as his teacher did so herself. Although he took lessons, Chico was a largely self-taught pianist. As a young boy, he gained jobs playing piano to earn money for the Marx family. Sometimes Chico even worked playing in two places at the same time. He would acquire the first job with his piano-playing skills, work for a few nights, and then substitute [[Harpo Marx|Harpo]] on one of the jobs. (During their boyhood, Chico and Harpo looked so much alike that they were often mistaken for each other.)

[[File:Chico Marx 1956.JPG|thumb|right|Chico playing his favorite piano at hotel in 1956]]
In the brothers' last film, ''[[Love Happy]]'', Chico plays a piano and [[violin]] [[duet]] with 'Mr. Lyons' ([[Leon Belasco]]). Lyons plays some ornate riffs on the violin; Chico comments, "Look-a, Mister Lyons, I know you wanna make a good impression, but please don't-a play better than me!"

[[File:Groucho and Chico Marx during A Day at the Races.jpg|thumb|left|Chico with Groucho on the set of ''[[A Day at the Races (film)|A Day at the Races]]'' (1937)]]
In a record album about the Marx Brothers, narrator [[Gary Owens]] stated that "although Chico's technique was limited, his repertoire was not." The opposite was true of Harpo, who reportedly could play only two tunes on the piano, which typically thwarted Chico's scam and resulted in both brothers being fired.

[[File:Marx Brothers 1931.jpg|left|thumb|150px|The Marx Brothers, from top: Chico, Harpo, Groucho, and Zeppo Marx]]
Groucho Marx once said that Chico never practiced the pieces he played. Instead, before performances he soaked his fingers in hot water. He was known for 'shooting' the keys of the piano. He played passages with his thumb up and index finger straight, like a gun, as part of the act. Other examples of his keyboard flamboyance are found in ''[[Go West (1940 film)|Go West]]'' (1940), where he plays the piano by rolling an apple over the keys  and ''[[A Night in Casablanca]]'' (1946), where he performs a rendition of "[[The Beer Barrel Polka]]".

Chico became the unofficial manager of the [[Marx Brothers]] after their mother, [[Minnie Marx|Minnie]], died in 1929.<ref name=NYTobit/> As manager, he negotiated with the studios to get the brothers a percentage of a film's gross receipts—the first deal of its kind in [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] which has become common practice today. Furthermore, it was Chico's connection with [[Irving Thalberg]], head of production at [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]], that led to Thalberg's signing the Brothers when they were in a career slump after ''Duck Soup'' (1933), the last of their films for [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]].

For a while in the 1930s and 1940s, Chico led a [[big band]]. Crooner [[Mel Tormé]] began his professional career singing with the Chico Marx Orchestra. Through the 1950s, Chico occasionally appeared on a variety of television anthology shows and some television commercials, most notably with Harpo (and a cameo appearance by Groucho) in "The Incredible Jewelry Robbery", a pantomime episode of ''[[General Electric Theater]]'' in 1959; This was the final appearance of the three Marx Brothers.

===Pronunciation and origin of name===
[[File:Chico Marx The College Bowl 1950.jpg|thumb|Chico starred in [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]'s 1950 comedy-variety series ''The College Bowl'' as a campus malt-shop owner who dispensed sodas and advice to the students.]]
His nickname ([[Marx_Brothers#Origin_of_the_stage_names|acquired during a card game]])<ref>{{cite book| last=Bader| first=Robert S.| title=Four of the Three Musketeers: The Marx Brothers On Stage| publisher=Northwestern University Press| year=2016| page=414| isbn=978-0-8101-3416-4}}</ref> was originally spelled ''Chicko''. A typesetter accidentally omitted the 'k', so his name became ''Chico'' but the Marxes still pronounced it "Chick-oh", although others sometimes mistakenly pronounced it "Cheek-oh". Numerous radio recordings from the 1940s exist in which announcers and fellow actors mispronounce the nickname, but Chico does not correct them.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}} As late as the 1950s, Groucho used the wrong pronunciation for comedic effect. A guest on ''[[You Bet Your Life]]'' told the quizmaster she grew up around [[Chico, California|Chico]] (California) and Groucho responded, "I grew up around Chico myself. You aren't Gummo, are you?" In most interviews, Groucho is heard correctly pronouncing it "Chicko", as in a Dick Cavett episode with Groucho talking to [[Dan Rowan]].

During Groucho's live performance at [[Carnegie Hall]] in 1972, he states that his brother got the name Chico because he was a "chicken-chaser" (early 20th century slang for womanizer).<ref>{{cite AV media| url=https://archive.org/download/OTRR_An_Evening_With_Groucho_Singles/AnEveningWithGroucho_06_MyFamily_HowWeGotOurNames.mp3| title=How We Got Our Names| people=Groucho Marx, Marvin Hamlisch, Dick Cavett| publisher=A&M Records| location=Beverly Hills, Calif| year=1972}}</ref>