Harpo or Ingrid Bergman—which of these?

[pjthompson]

I'm sending this one out especially for hominysnark but I do believe the rest of you will find it amusing, too.

Apparently, Warner Brothers threatened to sue the Marx Brothers because they were going to release A Night In Casablanca. They said the title of the movie infringed on their copyright for Casablanca. Groucho wrote a response which is—how you say?—Grouchoesque.

Here's an excerpt:

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.

You can read the whole thing here (and I urge you to do so, because it is, as stated above, completely Grouchoesque):

http://www.chillingeffects.org/resource.cgi?ResourceID=31

I first read about this here:

http://www.spurgeonworld.com/blog/archives/2006/07/groucho_marx_co.html

Comments

[hominysnark.livejournal.com]

Heee!

At least it's not a recent phenomenon.

[pjthompson]

No, grabby-greedy has been going on awhile, I think.