Marx and his brothers respected his opinions and asked him on several occasions to write some material for them. According to Marx, when Shean visited, he would throw the local waifs a few coins so that when he knocked at the door he would be surrounded by adoring fans. Minnie's brother was Al Schoenberg, who shortened his name to Al Shean when he went into show business as half of Gallagher and Shean, a noted vaudeville act of the early 20th century. His father was Simon 'Sam' Marx, who changed his name from Marrix, and was called 'Frenchie' by his sons throughout his life, because he and his family came from Alsace in France. His mother was Miene 'Minnie' Schoenberg, whose family came from Dornum in northern Germany when she was 16 years old. The only known photo of all five Marx brothers with their parents in New York City, 1915 from left: Groucho (aged 25), Gummo (aged 22), Minnie (mother), Zeppo (aged 14), Frenchie (father), Chico (aged 28), and Harpo (aged 27) The Marx family lived there 'for about 14 years,' Groucho also told Cavett. Just across the street were the oldest brownstones in the area, owned by people including the well-connected Loew Brothers and William Orth. It was populated with European immigrants, mostly artisans. His older brother Harpo, in his memoir Harpo Speaks, called the building 'the first real home they ever knew'. The Marx children grew up in a turn-of-the-century building on East 93rd Street off Lexington Avenue in a neighborhood now known as Carnegie Hill on the Upper East Side of the borough of Manhattan.

Marx stated that he was born in a room above a butcher's shop on East 78th Street, 'Between Lexington & 3rd', as he told Dick Cavett in a 1969 television interview. Julius Henry Marx was born on October 2, 1890, in Manhattan, New York. These exaggerated features resulted in the creation of one of the most recognizable and ubiquitous novelty disguises, known as Groucho glasses: a one-piece mask consisting of horn-rimmed glasses, a large plastic nose, bushy eyebrows and mustache. His distinctive appearance, carried over from his days in vaudeville, included quirks such as an exaggerated stooped posture, spectacles, cigar, and a thick greasepaint mustache and eyebrows. He also had a successful solo career primarily on radio and television, most notably as the host of the game show You Bet Your Life. He made 13 feature films as a team with his siblings the Marx Brothers he was the third-born of the brothers. He is generally considered to have been a master of quick wit and one of America's greatest comedians. Julius Henry ' Groucho' Marx ( / ˈ ɡ r aʊ tʃ oʊ/ Octo– August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, singer, stage, film, radio, television star and vaudeville performer.

Groucho and me book