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...

‘It was the Nasa of puppetry’: how we made 1990 kids movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The performers and director of the original TMNT film describe how they battled hellish costumes and slippery sets to bring their tale of family bonding and kung fu to life

Steve Barron (director): [Hong Kong production company] Golden Harvest didn’t know whether to use creature suits or hand-drawn animation like Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The cartoon series was becoming quite popular so they thought: “Maybe the cartoon characters could come into a live-action film?” I thought: “No. This has to be real and in the sewers where it’s moody.” I didn’t get anything cinematic from the cartoon. I did from the comic book.

Josh Pais (Raphael): They flew us to London to get body casted. I was in the back room of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop with my arms out to the side suspended by ropes. They started covering my body in plaster and did the back of my body first. Then they started my front, neck and my face. They put straws in my nose so I could breathe. The plaster gets warm as it sets and everything was heating up. I couldn’t hear and things started accelerating so I went inward. Later, they said they kept me in longer than they needed to see if I’d freak out.

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