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Play it Again, Chico
While preparing their 1946 film A Night in Casablanca, the Marx Brothers received a legalgram from Warner Bros. noting that the forthcoming picture's title resembled Casablanca, which had been released approximately four years before. The lawyers demanded that the name be changed. Groucho Marx replied with a letter of his own:
Apparently there is more than one way of conquering a city and holding it as your own. For example, up to the time that we contemplated making this picture, I had no idea that the city of Casablanca belonged exclusively to Warner Brothers. However, it was only a few days after our announcement appeared that we received your long, ominous legal document warning us not to use the name Casablanca.
It seems that in 1471, Ferdinand Balboa Warner, your great-great-grandfather, while looking for a shortcut to the city of Burbank, had stumbled on the shores of Africa and, raising his alpenstock (which he later turned in for a hundred shares of common), named it Casablanca.
I just don't understand your attitude. Even if you plan on releasing your picture, I am sure that the average movie fan could learn in time to distinguish between Ingrid Bergman and Harpo. I don't know whether I could, but I certainly would like to try.
The entire letter is here, along with a description of the followup correspondence, in which Warner Bros. requested an outline of the film's story and Groucho replied that he would be playing "Bordello, the sweetheart of Humphrey Bogart."
[Hat tip: Bryan Alexander.]
Update: Snopes says that while Warners did contact the comedians with concerns about the movie, it didn't actually threaten to sue them, and that the Marxes spread the story as a publicity stunt. Meanwhile, Wes Ghering's The Marx Brothers: A Bio-Bibliography claims that Warners eventually did file a complaint, though "it was ironed out quickly in arbitration."
|11.18.08 @ 10:38AM|#
I am sure that the average movie fan could learn in time to
distinguish between Ingrid Bergman and Harpo.
That may have been true in 1946, but I don't think you could depend
on it today.
Lefiti|11.18.08 @ 10:42AM|#
Of course you morons love the Marx Bros. Your jokes yourselves. Get used to being never taken seriously.
|11.18.08 @ 10:44AM|#
Of course you morons love the Marx Bros. Your jokes
yourselves. Get used to being never taken seriously.
"I don't mind being killed insulted, but I resent
hearing it from a character whose head comes to a point!"
|11.18.08 @ 10:50AM|#
Lefiti couldn't distinguish between Harpo and Ingrid Bergman three times out of five.
Lester Hunt|11.18.08 @ 10:51AM|#
The story of the making of "A Night in Casablanca" is amusingly told in "Groucho and Me," Julius (Groucho) Marx's charming and funny autobiography. Highly recommended to all my fellow Marx Bros fans.
|11.18.08 @ 11:11AM|#
Never underestimate the power of smartly wielded stupidity when faced with plain old garden variety stupidity.
Ska|11.18.08 @ 11:11AM|#
Well, if anything, the last few days have shown that out-trolling trolls using their own pseudonym makes it even easier to ignore their posts.
Another Phil|11.18.08 @ 11:16AM|#
It figures that a bunch of market fundamentalists would enjoy spoofing trolls.
|11.18.08 @ 11:22AM|#
dick-cumming suckheads
I guess I'd be the sort of twisted moral midget that trolls a board
if I had that sort of confused take on human sexuality.
Lefiti|11.18.08 @ 11:25AM|#
Hi, guys!
My neighbors' wifi has been down all morning. What have you guys
been talking about?
Lefiti|11.18.08 @ 11:29AM|#
In this thread, we all post as Lefiti. Bonus points for Marx Brothers quotes. Penalty for Karl Marx quotes.
|11.18.08 @ 11:33AM|#
Can you name any comic actor out there that could have written that letter other than Steve Martin? I don't think that caliber of mind exists in Hollywood any more.
Lefiti|11.18.08 @ 11:36AM|#
You've got the brain of a four-year-old boy, and I'll bet he was glad to get rid of it.
|11.18.08 @ 11:40AM|#
For the record, feeding the troll is IMHO a bigger crime than
trolling. I hate the way Lefiti has been able to consume
threads.
Now, if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce, they
taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does!
|11.18.08 @ 11:52AM|#
I like the eBay contextual ads for Richard Marx CDs.
BTW,
I remember when email addresses were required for commenting and
one of mine was banned for disagreeing with reason's musical
tastes.
Lefiti|11.18.08 @ 12:02PM|#
"My mother loved children - she would have given anything if I had been one."
Lefiti|11.18.08 @ 12:12PM|#
"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read."
DADIODADDY|11.18.08 @ 12:48PM|#
I didn't write that one either. Stop it you dick-cumming suckheads. crap I was supposed to sign that Lefti...
Harpiti|11.18.08 @ 12:51PM|#
Queen Latifah|11.18.08 @ 12:58PM|#
Damn dyslexic steals mah consonants.
Pasty-face lawyer, take a letter!
|11.18.08 @ 1:15PM|#
I shot an elephant, impersonating a conservative, in my pajamas, while blogging at pajamas media. What a conservative was doing in my pajamas I'll never know
Larry Craig|11.18.08 @ 1:19PM|#
What a conservative was doing in my pajamas I'll never
know
Nothing inappropriate, nothing non-consensual.
robc|11.18.08 @ 1:21PM|#
I havent read the entire letter (yet) but didnt Groucho point
out that they were the Marx Brothers before Warner Brothers was
founded and therefore Warner Bros didnt have the rights to use the
word "Brothers"? Or is that an urban myth?
Off to read the letter and find out myself.
robc|11.18.08 @ 1:24PM|#
Okay, it was the next paragraph. Apparently Jesse Walker doesnt
know biting humor when he reads it, not including the next
paragraph in the excerpt seems silly.
Or maybe he was just trying to force me to click thru.
|11.18.08 @ 1:28PM|#
Or maybe he was just trying to force me to click
thru.
All I need is another nine hundred and ninety nine people to click
that link, and I'll make a PENNY!
*rubs hands together*
Jesse Walker|11.18.08 @ 2:16PM|#
robc: I left out lots of good stuff. I originally did include that paragraph, but the quote was long enough as it was.
|11.18.08 @ 2:33PM|#
Lefiti's reasoning is so airtight a four-year-old child could
understand it!
(Run out and find me a four-year-old child; I can't make head or
tail out of it.)
Sam Grove|11.18.08 @ 2:44PM|#
h like dis one:
"Offhand, I can think of two Jacks-Jack of "Jack and the
Beanstalk," and Jack the Ripper, who cut quite a figure in his
day."
Lefiti|11.18.08 @ 3:04PM|#
left-titi | November 18, 2008, 1:55pm | #
I'm real, and I'm spectacular.
LOL! Winnah!
When pos[t]ers are banned...|11.18.08 @ 3:14PM|#
...do we get to know, or will we be stalking the ghost of this guy forever?
|11.18.08 @ 3:21PM|#
is the lef-titi the titi on the left of the person with the left leaning titi, or is a lef-titi actually on the right and only appears to be a leftist titi by someone standing opposite (not politically opposite, but physically opposite?) And where would a middle of the road titi appear?
Intertube Police|11.18.08 @ 3:41PM|#
it also ties nicely into the Lori Drew thread.
You people are all under arrest! This thread is under lockdown, as
of now.
Lefiti|11.18.08 @ 4:25PM|#
"Each according to his means, each according to his ability" Whoops, wrong Marx damn it! Well I guess that finishes me as part of the Lefiti Marx club. But you know I wouldn't want to be a member of a club that would have me as a member.
Grandpa Withers|11.18.08 @ 5:38PM|#
"I didn't write that - stop impersonating me, assholes!"
You have more than one asshole? How odd!
left-titi|11.18.08 @ 6:49PM|#
is the lef-titi the titi on the left of the
person
First of all, it's left-titi. My left. The one on your right.
Same principle as your left nut.
Buzzkill|11.18.08 @ 10:37PM|#
It'd be nice if the folks at Snopes were to cite their sources, but they claim the incident was just a \ clever publicity stunt.
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