Stage Names Quotes

“In Rockford, the four of us and a monologist named Art Fisher started up a game of five-card stud, between shows.
At that time there was a very popular comic strip called “Knocko the Monk,” and as a result there was a rash of stage names that ended in “o.” On every bill there would be at least one Bingo, Zingo, Socko, Jumpo or Bumpo.
There must have been a couple of them on the bill with us in Rockford and we must have been making cracks about them, because when Art Fisher started dealing a poker hand he said, “A hole card for- ‘Harpo.’ A card for-’Chicko.’ One for-” Now that he’d committed himself, he had to pass “o-names” all around the table.
The first two had been simple. I played the harp and my older brother chased the chicks. For a moment Art was stuck. Then he continued the deal. A card for “Groucho” (he carried his dough in a grouch-bag), and finally a card for “Gummo” (he had a gumshoe way of prowling around backstage and sneaking up on people).
We stuck with the gag handles for the rest of the game and that, we thought, was that. It wasn’t. We couldn’t get rid of them. We were Chicko, Harpo, Groucho and Gummo for the rest of the week, the rest of the season, and the rest of our lives.
Later, when we decided to make it official, and have our Art Fisher names put on the program, the typesetter made a mistake, and left the “k” out of Chicko. The power of the printed word being what it is, “Chico” is the way it has been spelled ever since.
Still later, Gummo left the act and was replaced by Herbie, the baby of the family. Herbie, since he was always chinning himself and practicing acrobatics, we named “Zippo.” “Mr. Zippo” was the star of a famous trained chimpanzee act. Our Zippo, understandably, felt that we were being very unflattering, and he insisted on spelling his stage name “Zeppo.”
You never could tell what you might be dealt in a poker game in those days.”
― Harpo Marx, Harpo Speaks!