# Is there any footage of Harpo Marx speaking (with his real voice?) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 27, 2006, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-footage-of-harpo-marx-speaking-with-his-real-voice/358409 "2006-05-27T03:10:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-footage-of-harpo-marx-speaking-with-his-real-voice/358409/1 "2006-05-27T03:10:56Z")
Just like it says. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-footage-of-harpo-marx-speaking-with-his-real-voice/358409/2 "2006-05-27T03:15:01Z")
Check [this](http://www.harpomarx.net/talking.html) for all I ever found. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-footage-of-harpo-marx-speaking-with-his-real-voice/358409/3 "2006-05-27T04:02:07Z")
Calling **Exapno**! Calling Mr. **Mapcase**! ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-footage-of-harpo-marx-speaking-with-his-real-voice/358409/4 "2006-05-27T13:41:58Z")
> [@don't ask](#): > > Check [this](http://www.harpomarx.net/talking.html) for all I ever found. Thanks for that link. I’ve also always wanted to see and hear Harpo talk. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-footage-of-harpo-marx-speaking-with-his-real-voice/358409/5 "2006-05-27T13:46:42Z")
Wow, he sounds exactly like my great-uncle Sol! ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-footage-of-harpo-marx-speaking-with-his-real-voice/358409/6 "2006-05-27T15:27:37Z")
I always figured he would have that New York-y Alte Kocker Voice, but damn, he sounds like he could be from _anywhere._ In fact, he sounds a lot like MY great-uncle Al, a bluecollar gentile bohunk who spent his entire life in and around Cleveland. ---
**Author:** ![beowulf573](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@beowulf573](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulf573)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-footage-of-harpo-marx-speaking-with-his-real-voice/358409/7 "2006-05-27T16:07:48Z")
FYI, [Harpo Speaks](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0879100362/sr=8-1/qid=1148745990/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-8578683-9820141?%5Fencoding=UTF8) is a great book if you’re interested hearing his story straight from the horses mouth. So to speak. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-footage-of-harpo-marx-speaking-with-his-real-voice/358409/8 "2006-05-27T16:31:01Z")
Interesting link; thanks. I’d heard a different story about why he never spoke on stage/film, though; it was in the book _Harpo Speaks!_ that **beowulf573** mentions (which is also the source of **Exapno Mapcase** ’s username). Harpo said in the book that he never spoke because his accent was so thick that it would turn off audiences. It doesn’t sound so bad now that I’m hearing it, though. I guess either the clip isn’t really representative of his accent, or the story in the book was a fabrication, or I’m misremembering the book. (These all strike me as equally probable.) ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-footage-of-harpo-marx-speaking-with-his-real-voice/358409/9 "2006-05-27T16:32:45Z")
I’m pretty sure you’re misremembering the book. I read it a few months ago and I remember the scene where he tells their mother that he’s not going to speak onstage again. He describes her looking sorry that his feelings have been hurt, but not disagreeing with his idea. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-footage-of-harpo-marx-speaking-with-his-real-voice/358409/10 "2006-05-27T16:36:17Z")
Yeah, that web page has everything known to be public about Harpo’s voice. He performed in a play at the Bucks County Playhouse in a straight speaking role, but there are no known recordings of it. **jackelope** , you believe something that was included in _Harpo Speaks_?That’s hilarious. Even the page numbers probably never happened. :o ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-footage-of-harpo-marx-speaking-with-his-real-voice/358409/11 "2006-05-27T17:01:20Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > **jackelope** , you believe something that was included in _Harpo Speaks_?That’s hilarious. Even the page numbers probably never happened. :o I ask in all seriousness: Is most of the book not true? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-footage-of-harpo-marx-speaking-with-his-real-voice/358409/12 "2006-05-27T17:42:44Z")
Let’s just say that very few of the stories in that book are repeated by serious writers in their own histories of the brothers, except when they’re saying, “however, Harpo writes that…” ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-footage-of-harpo-marx-speaking-with-his-real-voice/358409/13 "2006-05-27T21:38:17Z")
You mean to say he only _made up_ that three-way with Martha Graham and Pearl S. Buck in the Presidential Suite of the Fairmont Hotel on San Francisco’s Nob Hill? With the two-gallon can of Cretan cold-pressed olive oil and the cockatoo? ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-footage-of-harpo-marx-speaking-with-his-real-voice/358409/14 "2006-05-27T22:36:23Z")
> [@Ukulele Ike](#): > > You mean to say he only _made up_ that three-way with Martha Graham and Pearl S. Buck in the Presidential Suite of the Fairmont Hotel on San Francisco’s Nob Hill? With the two-gallon can of Cretan cold-pressed olive oil and the cockatoo? Well, he made up the cockatoo part. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-footage-of-harpo-marx-speaking-with-his-real-voice/358409/15 "2006-05-27T22:40:04Z")
> [@Eutychus](#): > > Well, he made up the cockatoo part. I don’t know; I heard Martha Graham enjoyed a cockatoo in her day . . . ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-footage-of-harpo-marx-speaking-with-his-real-voice/358409/16 "2006-05-27T22:48:54Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > I don’t know; I heard Martha Graham enjoyed a cockatoo in her day . . . Best joke I’ve ever read on the SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-footage-of-harpo-marx-speaking-with-his-real-voice/358409/17 "2006-05-27T23:11:44Z")
True, but what’s _really_ key is the straightman’s delivery.