Marx Brothers

Harpo Marx — the "silent" Marx brother — can finally be heard speaking in a live album of recently recovered material, which was recorded just six months before he died in 1964.

Lee Siegel, author of Groucho Marx: The Comedy of Existence, wanted his biography to uncover the real man behind the iconic mustache. What Siegel found, he says, was "a thoroughgoing misanthrope."

One of opera's most comical and telling facts was that Giuseppe Verdi was poised at the height of his middle period -- between "Rigoletto" and "La…

Schwartz has an appreciation of the music in the new five-DVD box set The Marx Brothers Collection.

NPR's Alex Chadwick spoke with Robert Dwan, who helped create one of the most popular radio and television programs of all time, You Bet Your Life starring Groucho Marx. Dwan has written a new book about the 14 years the show was on the air, and provides some out-takes that weren't originally broadcast because of the prevailing censorship at the time. (8:32-9:32) {Stations: The book is: As Long as They're Laughing: Groucho Marx and You Bet Your Life, by Robert Dwan, published by Midnight Marquee Press, Baltimore, www.midmar.com}