Editing Marx Brothers (section)

====Early Performances====
The brothers got their start in [[vaudeville]], where their uncle Albert Schönberg performed as [[Al Shean]] of [[Gallagher and Shean]]. Groucho debuted as a singer in 1905. In 1907, Minnie approached vaudeville director [[Ned Wayburn]] to produce Groucho in a singing act with Gummo; together with his own discovery, Mabel O'Donnell, they went on the road as "The Three Nightingales".{{sfn|Kanfer|2000|p=32}}By November of that year, Wayburn had moved on, and the act continued under Minnie's direction.  She replaced O'Donnell with a singer named Lou Levy.{{sfn|Kanfer|2000|p=33}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marx-brothers.org/acting/vaude_detail.htm?show_id=3|title=The Three Nightingales (1907) – The Marx Brothers|website=www.marx-brothers.org|access-date=2019-03-05|archive-date=March 6, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306043921/https://www.marx-brothers.org/acting/vaude_detail.htm?show_id=3|url-status=live}}</ref> 

The next year, having discovered at the last minute that she had accidentally booked the act as a quartet at a Coney Island venue, Minnie went to a movie house where Harpo was working, and demanded that he quit his job and join the act immediately.{{sfn|Kanfer|2000|p=34}}  Regardless of the fact that he didn't know the songs they were supposed to sing, Harpo went along, later remembering an inauspicious beginning: "With my first look at my first audience, I reverted to being a boy again.  I wet my pants. It was probably the most wretched debut in show business."{{sfn|Marx|Barber|1961|p=95}}  Harpo had become the fourth Nightingale. By 1910, he had officially changed his name from Adolph, which he had never liked, to Arthur.{{sfn|Bader|2022|p=403}}  The same year, the troupe, renamed "The Six Mascots", briefly expanded to include their mother Minnie and their Aunt Hannah.{{sfn|Bader|2022|p=402}}

One evening in 1909, a performance at the Opera House in [[Nacogdoches, Texas]] was interrupted by shouts from outside about a runaway mule. The audience hurried out to see what was happening. Groucho was angered by the interruption and, when the audience returned, he made snide comments at their expense, including "Nacogdoches is full of roaches" and "the jackass is the flower of Tex-ass". Instead of becoming angry, the audience laughed. The family then realized that it had potential as a comic troupe.{{sfn|Kanfer|2000|p=35-36}}{{efn|The time and place of this performance has been disputed. In his autobiography ''Harpo Speaks'', Harpo Marx stated that the runaway mule incident occurred in [[Ada, Oklahoma]].{{sfn|Marx|Barber|1961|p=112}} A 1930 article in the ''[[San Antonio Express-News|San Antonio Express]]'' newspaper stated that the incident took place in [[Marshall, Texas]].<ref>{{Cite news|title=Runaway Mules Gave Marx Bros. Cue to Comedy |work=[[San Antonio Express]] |date=July 20, 1930 }}</ref> However, most sources claim that it took place in Nacogdoches.  A story of a runaway horse can be found in Nacogdoches papers in late April of 1909, before the act started to focus on comedy, so author Robert Bader uses this date.{{sfn|Bader|2022|p=400}}}}

[[File:Four Marx Bros Mr Green Reception New Orleans Times-Democrat 11 May 1913.png|thumb|1913 advertisement for "Green's Reception" at the Greenwall. Left to right, Groucho, Chico, Harpo and Gummo.|right]]

Over time, the act evolved from singing with comedy to comedy with music. The brothers' comedy sketch ''Fun in High School'' (sometimes styled ''Fun in Hi Skule'') featured Groucho as a German-accented teacher presiding over a classroom that included students Harpo, Gummo, and, after he joined the act in 1912, Chico.{{sfn|Louvish|2000|p=76}} The brothers toured successfully with ''Fun in High School'' for several years, sometimes alternating with a comedy billed as ''Mr. Green's Reception'', a similar production in which the schoolmaster and his students were portrayed as older characters.{{sfn|Kanfer|2000|p=41}}

In early 1911, Chico was working at music publishing firm [[Shapiro, Bernstein & Co.]], when the founder of that company, Maurice Shapiro, died.{{sfn|Bader|2022|p=125}} Chico quit immediately,{{efn|It is not clear why Chico quit immediately when Shapiro died. Robert Bader hypothesizes that he may not have wanted to work for Bernstein.{{sfn|Bader|2022|p=126}}}} convincing a young tenor, Aaron Gordon, to tour with him in vaudeville.{{sfn|Bader|2022|p=407}}{{sfn|Marx|1980|p=9}}  At the time, there was a successful vaudeville act called ''The Two Funny Germans'', starring Bill Gordon and Nick Marx; with Minnie's encouragement, Aaron Gordon and Chico Marx adopted Italian accents (Chico's reputedly based on that of his barber) and toured as Marx and Gordon.{{sfn|Bader|2022|p=126}}  Gordon left the act in the fall of that year,{{sfn|Bader|2022|p=128}} and, after failing to break through with two other partners, Chico finally joined his brothers' comedy act in September of 1912.{{sfn|Bader|2022|p=133}}