VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: Chico Marx Faked Heart Attack to Avoid Vegas Engagement

According to this dubious story, Chico Marx — the smooth-talking, lovably chaotic Marx brother — faked a heart attack to get out of a Las Vegas engagement he no longer wished to honor.

His more famous brothers, Groucho and Harpo, rushed to town, panic-stricken, only to discover their older sibling completely fine. He had paid off a friendly doctor to exaggerate his condition.

“The story is that the heart attack never happened and that was just an excuse to explain the cancellation,” a reader wrote to Las Vegas Advisor last month. “The real reason was that he was losing too much money gambling while he was in town.”

On March 25, 1947, Chico Marx was reported to have suffered a heart attack five days before — after opening night of a two-week residency of music and comedy with his big band at the Nevada Biltmore (located at Main Street and Bonanza Road downtown).

According to the Associated Press story shown at right, the episode was serious enough to force Chico to announce his retirement from show business.

Myth Understood

The “faked heart attack” angle does not come from 1947. It does not appear in any newspaper, studio memo, union record, or gossip column of the era. It’s not in the memoirs written by Groucho or Harpo, Arthur Marx’s books, or any biography of the Marx Brothers.

Chico was a compulsive gambler, though. He blew through millions of dollars during his lifetime on card games, pool, horseracing, and sports betting, starting at 9 years old.

His wealthier brothers, who bailed him out on the regular, eventually took control of his finances and placed him on an allowance until his death. They even reportedly shot 1946’s A Night in Casablanca (after officially announcing their retirement) partially to help a bankrupted Chico pay off his gambling debts.

Chico also had a reputation for avoiding obligations whenever he could. Biographers and family accounts describe him as unreliable, evasive, and adept at disappearing whenever responsibility came knocking. They mention Chico missing rehearsals and meetings and then making excuses — though never skipping shows.

Because Chico’s public image was tied to degenerate gambling and broken promises, later storytellers found it easy to reinterpret his 1947 Vegas heart attack. The internet — which never met a historic anecdote it didn’t want to conspiratorialize — stitched these assumptions together into a story that felt inevitable: It was a classic con job.

Did you know?

Did you know?

Because his character spoke with a fake Italian accent, people assumed his name was pronounced “Cheeko.” Instead, Leonard Marx was dubbed “Chicko” for his other consuming passion, chasing women, at which he was much more successful than gambling. A typesetter once dropped the “k” from his name in a program, and the brothers let the error stick.

But by this point in his life, Chico’s health was catching up to him. He was about to turn 60, walked with a noticeable stoop, and was frequently short of breath.

And the most direct evidence that Chico did not fake his 1947 heart attack to get out of his appearance comes from the AP report itself. Nevada Biltmore manager Jack Walsh told the wire service that, despite his illness, Chico appeared every night afterward to honor his engagement — with a physician in attendance backstage.

Chico Marx was a man who needed to work, not one trying to get out of it. In fact, three months after his Vegas run, he was back on stage in London at the Casino Theatre and London Palladium.

Bonus Myth

Something else happened three months after Chico’s Vegas heart attack…

Mobster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, who operated the Flamingo for the mob, was assassinated in Beverly Hills.

According to a myth presented as fact on Chico’s Internet Movie Database bio, “when a check written by Chico was found in mobster Bugsy Siegel’s wallet at the time of his death, Chico was interrogated by police.”

The bio also claims that Groucho later commented: “Chico was lucky that Bugsy was shot. If Bugsy had tried to cash that check, it would have bounced. Then Bugsy would have shot Chico.”

The claim and the Groucho quote are both bogus. While busting a previous myth — that Siegel was found with three $50 bills on him — we dug up primary sources listing and photographing the exact contents of Siegel’s pockets and wallet.

No uncashed Chico check was among them.

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