Minnie Marx

Marx was born Miene Schönberg in Dornum, Kingdom of Hanover. Her parents Fanny née Salomons (Yiddish: פאַני סאַלאָמאָן שאָנבערג; 1829-April 10,1901) and Levy "Lafe" Schönberg (Yiddish: לעווי שאָנבערג; 1823-1919) were members of the local Jewish community. Her mother was a yodeling harpist, her father a ventriloquist. Her younger brother, Abraham Elieser Adolf, the future "Al Shean," was born in 1868.

About 1880 the family emigrated to New York City, where Minnie married Samuel "Frenchie" Marx in 1884.

Her son Manfred died in infancy in 1886. Her other children were Leonard Joseph (born 1887), Adolph (1888), Julius (1890), Milton (1892) and Herbert (1901), who would grow up to perform as the Marx Brothers.

While managing the Marx Brothers, she went under the name of Minnie Palmer, so that booking agents would not know that the agent representing the Marx Brothers was their mother. She played the harp.

As a tribute to her, all the brothers' daughters were given names that began with 'M': Chico with Maxine; Harpo with Minnie; and Groucho with Miriam and Melinda. Gummo and Zeppo had no daughters.

Minnie lived long enough to see her sons' 1929 film debut in The Cocoanuts, but died later that year of a stroke.

Marx died from a stroke on September 13, 1929, aged 64. She was buried at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Glendale, Queens. When her husband died four years later, he was buried next to her.

Marx and some of her sons appear briefly as characters in Glen David Gold's novel Carter Beats the Devil; the narrative identifies her as Minnie Palmer, and only gradually offers clues that the struggling vaudeville act traveling with her are the later-famous Marx Brothers. Marx (played by Shelley Winters) was also the main character in the stage musical Minnie's Boys.