The Marx Brothers
(formed 1910, New York, USA; split up 1950, Hollywood, California, USA)

Five musical comedians who came from a showbusiness family and reinvented the vaudeville skit for the movies. Groucho was the wise-cracking one with the cigar and moustache, Harpo the dumb one who mimes and plays the harp, Chico the Italian one who plays the piano -- plus there were Zeppo and Gummo. Their manic combination of sight gags and improvised patter was at its height in the 1930s.