It’s more than a little ironic, given how famous they became, that none of the Marx Brothers particularly wanted to go into show business. Groucho wanted to be a doctor or a writer. Chico wanted to gamble his life away (and was eventually given the opportunity). Harpo could think of nothing better than to play the piano on a ferryboat, and Zeppo, the most pugnacious of the brothers, wanted to be a prizefighter. That they succeeded in Hollywood is a tribute to the determination and tenacity of one person – their indomitable mother, Minnie.

Tomorrow at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m, under the auspices of the 92nd Street Y, Makor will be presenting the first in a series of screenings of Marx Brothers classics under the heading “On Your Marx!” at the Makor/Steinhardt Center, 35 W. 67th Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue. To morrow’s film is “Duck Soup,” followed by “Animal Crackers” (January 14), “Horse Feathers” (January 21), and “A Day at the Races” (January 28).

Because of the 92nd Street Y connection, it’s practically a homecoming of sorts for the brothers, who, unlike the immigrant Russian Jews who streamed through Ellis Island in the early years of the last century and ended up on the Lower East Side, grew up on the Upper East Side – 179 E. 93rd Street between Third and Lexington, to be exact. It is in that neighborhood roughly 100 years ago that Chico spent his time trying to hustle a game at the local pool hall or pawning one of his brothers’ possessions for gambling money; Groucho walked along 93rd Street reading pulp novels of romance and adventure (in later years his idol would be Somerset Maugham); and Harpo was thrown out the window of P.S 86 by his fellow students, ending his formal education a wee bit prematurely (he was 8 years old at the time).

You can see and hear traces of the streets of New York in their movies, as in “Animal Crackers,” when Groucho pronounces “oil painting” as “erl painting.” Or when Harpo makes the face known to Marxians as a “Gookie,” which he discovered by watching a man in the window of a Lexington Avenue store so engrossed in his work rolling cigars that he didn’t notice he would stick his tongue out, cross his eyes, and puff out his cheeks while doing so – or notice that a young boy was standing out in the street watching him and making the same face. And of course, their first two movies, including “Animal Crackers,” were based on their Broadway hits and filmed in Astoria, giving us a rare glimpse of what the Broadway musicals of the 1920s looked and sounded like.

For comedy fans, it doesn’t get better in the sound era than the Marx Brothers. Movie buffs should definitely take a trip to 67th Street to see some of their best films this month: It might be the most fun you can have on a Saturday night this winter with your pants on.