VERONICA PENOYER
Layout Editor
Freedonia Marxonia, a film festival and art symposium dedicated to celebrating the Marx brothers’ contribution to American culture, started last Thursday.
This celebration began as a way to show the connection between Fredonia and “Freedonia,” the setting of the Marx Brothers’ film, “Duck Soup.”
The Marx brothers were a popular family comedy group in the 1900s. Adolph “Arthur” Marx, Julius Henry Marx, Milton Marx and Herbert Manfred Marx starred in successful shows in vaudeville, Broadway and popular motion pictures, such as “Duck Soup,” under the stage names of Harpo, Groucho, Gummo and Zeppo. Each name allowed the brothers to develop highly distinctive stage personas with the exception of Gummo, who was never in any of the movies.
Their stage names were developed at a poker game. Monologist Art Fisher based them on their personalities and Gus Mager’s Sherlocko the Monk, a popular comic strip of the day.
Despite having their stage names created by Mager, their mother, Minnie Marx, was the genius behind the brothers performing lives; she was also their manager.
Reed Library hosted the annual event, displaying a graphic of Groucho’s face on a blue Fredonia t-shirt, life-sized drawings of Groucho and three portrait drawings that depicted the brothers’ success. All artwork was submitted by campus and community members with cash prizes offered for first, second and third place.
First prize went to Alexis Ziccardi, who created a digital art poster in Photoshop of Groucho. Second prize went to Freddy Drzewiecki for his colored pencil drawing of the brothers carrying the second “E” of Freedonia up a mountain. Third place went to Megan Lewandowski, who created Groucho’s glasses out of copper tubing.
As well as artwork, the history of the brothers was provided in showcases.
Each year the artwork depicts a certain theme that represents the brothers.
“This particular year, the theme is ‘Music and the Marx Brothers,’ where we present information about their musical backgrounds, the instruments each brother played, the composers who worked on their Broadway shows and movies, musical stars of the 1930s, etc.” said Cynthia Yochym, an organizer of the event after it was turned over to Reed Library at the end of 2013.
As well as interesting artwork, members of the Student Opera Theater Association (SOTA) sang “Hail Freedonia,” a song which originated from “Duck Soup.” SOTA led audience members in singing along.
As tradition, everyone celebrated the 125th birthday of Groucho with cake, followed by the customary photo with Groucho glasses.
When asked of the future of Freedonia Marxonia, Yochym has high hopes.
“If possible, I would like to see a new theme each year, based on some aspect of the Marx Brothers or a Marx Brothers movie, and always have it tie-into something relevant for Fredonia.”
The week continued with a film screening of “Duck Soup,” followed by a special edition of the “Lunch with The New York Times” series, which featured Douglas Canham, a 1987 Fredonia alumnus who paved the way to create “Freedonia Marxonia.” To end the weekend, a showing of “A Night at the Opera” was offered at the Fredonia Opera House.
The art exhibit will be on display until Oct. 25.
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