I first met Harpo at a party as is typical in Hollywood. I sat next to him and
Fanny Brice. He had taken her to the party because he felt she would be entertaining, and he loved to be entertained. At a dinner party held in the home of
Samuel Goldwyn in 1932, Fleming was seated next to
Harpo Marx and found him fascinating. Fleming was happy to leave show business, serving as Marx's "valet" and raising their four children, whom they had adopted. In addition to his widespread interest in playing musical instruments, including his trademark harp, Fleming helped foster her husband's interest in painting; she would make elaborate frames for his paintings, as well as creating her own works of art. The two collected many artworks, which Fleming donated widely after her husband's death. In 1956, they moved to
Rancho Mirage, California, with three out of the four other
Marx Brothers;
Gummo,
Zeppo and
Groucho building homes nearby. Fleming became active in local community affairs, was the first woman on the board of
College of the Desert and was elected to the
Palm Springs Unified School District Board of Education. In a 1981 decision later overruled by the
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in a case brought by Fleming, federal judge
William C. Conner ruled that the producers of
A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine had improperly used the
Marx Brothers characters in their
Broadway theatre production and that the
publicity rights of the comedians, even after their deaths, overrode the First Amendment issues raised by the show's creators. In April 1980, Conner refused to issue a
preliminary injunction and allowed producer
Alexander H. Cohen to open the show as planned. ==Death==