November 17, 1933 –
…Gentlemen, Chicolini here may talk like an idiot, and look like an idiot, but don’t let that fool you: he really is an idiot. I implore you, send him back to his father and brothers, who are waiting for him with open arms in the penitentiary. I suggest that we give him ten years in Leavenworth, or eleven years in Twelveworth.….
Unbelievable, but, a box office flop (at the time), The Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup opened on this date. (This film marks the last appearance of Zeppo Marx in a Marx Brothers film.)
Screenwriters Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar were standing on the set one day when an extra standing next to them said, “I don’t know who wrote this stuff but they ought to be arrested…they should be in a different business.” Kalmer, who was known as a rational and calm man, said to Ruby, “I’m going over to hit him. Who does he think he is? He’s just an extra!” But before fisticuffs erupted, Kalmer and Ruby were informed that Chico Marx had paid the extra to rib the screenwriters, just for the hell of it.
The Haus of Dcaligari 