Benjamin was forced to pause his career plans. If there’s one thing he hated, it was that pause. Like so many young men, he was ambitious, and he was certain he knew what was best for him. Also, like so many young men, his ambitions were put on hold by protective parents.

You can’t blame Benjamin’s parents. They were immigrants who came to the United States and worked hard to make a life for themselves. Benjamin’s father wanted him to join him in the family business. He had sacrificed a lot so his son could enjoy an easier life. Benjamin had no interest in his father’s line of work. He wanted to go out and see the world. His parents were exasperated. Why would he want to turn his back on the security they offered him and go off on such a hair-brained venture?

The problem, they were sure, was with Benjamin’s new friends. Even the best of children can become corrupted by bad company. At first glance, the five boys appeared to be good friends for Benjamin. Lenny, Julius, Adolf, Milt, and Herb came from a nice family. Like Benjamin, the brothers were born to immigrants who left Europe in hopes of a better life. Both sets of parents encouraged their sons to appreciate music, and all of the boys learned how to play an instrument.

The similarities pretty much ended there, however. Benjamin’s parents encouraged a quiet, dignified life. Quiet and dignified were the last things you would associate with the five brothers. They were loud, active, rambunctious, and prone to trouble. On top of that, they never seemed to stay in one place for very long.

Benjamin’s parents grudgingly put up with it when Benjamin became friends with the boys. They knew it couldn’t last long if history was any indication. Sure enough, it wasn’t long before Benjamin informed his parents that his new friends were leaving town. They breathed a sigh of relief that their son would soon be out from under his friends’ dubious influence.

Their relief was short-lived. Benjamin told his parents that the boys’ mother invited Benjamin to come with them. It was more than an invitation to become part of the family; she wanted him to be a part of their business.

Benjamin knew it was going to be a hard sell. He tried to appeal to his parents’ loftier goals for him and stressed that they wanted him for his musical ability. He would have a chance to focus on music like never before, and he would get paid for it. Isn’t that what his parents wanted all along?

Despite his most persuasive arguments, Benjamin’s parents could not be convinced. They gave persuasive responses. Leaving home and never having a stable home life was no way for a respectable boy to live. Continually being under the influence of those five unruly brothers would surely change Benjamin’s morals for the worse. The business plan was highly speculative and foolhardy.

At the end of the day, Benjamin yielded to his parents for one simple reason: he had no choice. At 17 years of age, he could do nothing without parental approval. Broken-hearted, he turned down the offer and said goodbye to the roving family as they moved away. He wasn’t willing to abandon his plans, but he grudgingly agreed to pause them — something he utterly hated doing.

Benjamin’s parents weren’t wrong. The business their son wanted to go into was highly speculative. Evidence of that is that only three of the five brothers remained in that business for the rest of their careers. The vast majority of those who try to make it big in that industry fail miserably. Those who risk everything to venture into the industry tell you that the risk is worth it for the chance to leave one’s mark.

The unruly boys who never stayed in one spot certainly left their marks. Well, technically, they left their Marx. They channeled their loud, energetic, and whacky personalities into their act as they traveled around the country, appearing in countless Vaudeville houses. Along the way, Julius, Leonard, Adolf, Herbert, and Milton became known by the names that 100 years later are still synonymous with comedic genius: Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Zeppo, and Gummo.

As for Benjamin, he missed out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become one of the Marx Brothers. That’s not to say that he never went into show business. His plans were simply paused. As much as he hated pausing, he knew that when the time was right, he could set out and try to make his own mark on the world.

A few years after Benjamin Kubelsky turned down the offer to play his violin during the madcap routines of the Marx Brothers, he was on the stage in his own right. He played the violin — and people laughed. When he told a joke, he learned that by pausing at just the right time, the audience laughed even harder. It wasn’t long before his name appeared on billboards in letters just as big as those of his old friends — not as one of the Marx Brothers and not even as Benjamin Kubelsky.

The boy whose ambitions were forcibly paused became the undisputed master of comedy timing. No one before or since has been able to pull as much laughter out of a well-timed pause as the could-have-been Marx Brother who we remember as Jack Benny.

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