The two days spent in Denison by a song and dance trio of brothers in the 1920's would change their lives and make them internationally famous.  It would be the most important stop they ever made as their career moved along the street of By-and-By, Vaudeville was in its prime then, and success on the circuit of tank town theaters was the route to New York.

There were five brothers in this remarkable family, but only three siblings were aiming at Broadway.  Their specialty was a singing and dancing act which also included a female performer, and their director and manager was the boy's Aunt Hannah.  They had been well-received in their Texas appearances, although the lady singer seemed to be perpetually off-key.  Except for occasional changes in the music, however, the show hadn't varied - until it was booked into the Denison Opera House for matinee and evening shows on Friday and Saturday.  They had been hired as a special feature to entertain a convention of school teachers meeting at the time.

Although their music apparently had its charms, the theater manager decided that four such shows would leave a sour note with the audience.  He insisted that they omit the singing and do a comedy sketch each evening - a change for which he offered them $100 an astounding figure at the time.

Money became the mother of invention, and a humorous sketch called, "Fun in Hi Skule", was born.  Aunt Hannah and the girl vocalist were the students; the elder brother was the teacher, and another a scholar with a German accent.  The third brother, with his boyish looks and a rather vacant expression, became the half-witted country moron.  Costumes and props were hard to come by on short notice, but the class dummy was identified by a dirty red wig made of cotton and frayed pieces of rope by Aunt Hannah.

The new act was such a hit in Denison that it was repeated when the group moved on to Nacogdoches (which also alleges to be the place where the team got its start - a claim denied in a biography written by the son of one of the performers).  As the troupe rolled across Texas, the show was applauded at every stop and soon it was attracting national attention.  The Marx Brothers were on their way to becoming the nation's most loved family comedy team.  Groucho, Gummo and Harpo - the three who originated the show - were joined later by Chico and Zeppo, and the original sketch was expanded into movies, radio and television shows and stage performances.  One thing, however, never changed.  Harpo later acquired a floppy tan coat, an auto horn and a cane.  But the red wig he wore that night in Denison remained a part of his stage costume until his death.

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