[DiogenesLamp]

If you can find a copy of Harpo Speaks, you should get it. It’s one of the best books about the brothers but also a remarkable document of its time. He was a member of the Algonquin Group in NYC, part of Hollywood royalty, and was one of the first Americans to go to Russia in the 1930s. That chapter alone is worth the price of the book. For many years, I lived near their old tenement in the 90s on the East Side.

I've been meaning to get a copy for quite some time. I'll have to make more efforts for it.

I believe there is some video available of Harpo talking. I never watched it, though.

After you told me that, I went to Youtube and found it. Harpo had a wonderful speaking voice! I don't understand what his son meant when he said he had a thick accent. His enunciation is perfect.

[PapaBear3625]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19prL2ue4pk

Harpo speaks

[miss marmelstein]

Go to Amazon and put in for “Harpo Speaks.” They are selling used copies for as low as $5 (and maybe even lower, I didn’t search that hard). It’s a really fun book and considered the best of all the Marx Brother histories.

Yeah, I always thought Harpo would talk just like Groucho. New Yorkese. I know that growing up they spoke Platt Deutche - their parents were immigrants from Alsace Lorraine, I believe. It may have belonged to Germany in those days...