Harpo speaks! New recordings reveal mute Marx brother chatting with audience

The comedy legend, who adopted his silent persona because of stage nerves, did occasionally address his audience, as revealed by a new archive release Groucho was the cigar-chomping wit with the improbable moustache, Chico was the piano-playing rustic grifter and Zeppo played the straight man and the lover. But as any Marx Brothers fan knows, Harpo was the pantomime, who cracked up the audience without saying a word, dressed in his tattered raincoat and curly wig. His persona was childlike and mischievous but also musical – he let his harp and his taxi horn do the talking. But now we get to see, or rather hear, a new side to Harpo Marx. A very special recording has been unearthed of Harpo in 1964 speaking to an audience, in character. Arthur “Harpo” Marx was born Adolph Marx in New York in 1888. He started performing with his brothers in 1910, and his nickname probably came about because of his instrument of choice – he was an entirely self-taught musician. By 1915, due to his nerves a...

Infinity According to Florian review - mission to save Ukraine’s extraordinary modernist masterpiece

Oleksiy Radynski chronicles the visionary architect Florian Yuriev’s drive to rescue Kyiv’s Institute of Information from destruction after he was given weeks to live

The extraordinary mind of Florian Yuriev, a visionary Ukrainian architect and artist, visualises an astonishingly holistic view of the world. His abstract paintings brim with geometric colourful shapes and patterns that also carry a sonic component, as each shade has their own tonality. On his piano, whose keys are marked with their designated colours, Yuriev played out his painterly compositions, breaking down the barrier between sound and vision. Shot towards the end of Yuriev’s life, Oleksiy Radynski’s passionate documentary follows the architect’s tireless efforts to save one of his modernist masterpieces from destruction.

Once deemed impossible to build, his design for a cultural centre that later became Kyiv’s Institute of Information reflects the utopian optimism of the space age. Nicknamed the “Flying Saucer” building for its futuristic look, the structure features a disc-shaped theatre perched on a horizontal glass-and-steel hall. With their high ceilings and cavernous curves, the interior of the auditorium evokes a sense of calm and openness. The equilibrium, however, is interrupted by construction noises coming from outside: an intrusive shopping mall might soon merge into Yuriev’s design.

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