[1] Harry explained on a Joe Franklin TV interview that the family name was pronounced "joe-ACK-him", and that eldest brother Al, a vaudeville dancer, adopted a new professional name after he saw the name "Ritz" on the side of a laundry truck.

[2] In 1934 Educational Pictures, producers of short subjects, hired "The Three Ritz Brothers" to make a series of six two-reel comedies in New York.

They frequently broke into songs and dances during their feature comedies, and often did celebrity impersonations (among them Ted Lewis, Peter Lorre, Tony Martin, and even Alice Faye and Katharine Hepburn).

Fox chief Darryl F. Zanuck always viewed Harry Ritz as the star of the act, with Al and Jimmy as excess baggage.

Zanuck then arranged to loan the brothers out to Republic Pictures, a minor-league "budget" studio known for westerns and serials.

In 1940 they moved to Universal Pictures, where they were scheduled to star in The Boys from Syracuse but were removed from that production and reassigned to make brash B comedies with music.

In the 1950s they made guest appearances on network television (including All Star Revue, a 1952 comedy hour broadcast live, in which the Ritzes dominated the action and earned rave reviews).

The Ritzes were appearing at the New Orleans Roosevelt Hotel in December 1965 when Al died of a sudden heart attack.

In Blazing Stewardesses the Ritzes were cast as replacements for The Three Stooges, who dropped out of the film when Moe Howard's declining health forced the trio to cancel.

In 1979, television producer Garry Marshall (Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley) prepared an American version of the British sitcom Are You Being Served?

In his 1976 film Silent Movie, Mel Brooks paid tribute to the Ritz Brothers by casting Harry in a cameo (he is the fellow leaving a tailor's shop).

They received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1987, in response to a campaign led by comedians Jan Murray, Red Buttons, Milton Berle, and Phyllis Diller.