This was a turbulent time in the Marx Brothers' career. Paramount Pictures was nearing bankruptcy and a reorganization of the studio brought fears that money due the Brothers would never be paid; as a result, the Marxes threatened to leave Paramount and start their own company, Marx Bros., Inc. Their first planned independent production was a film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical "Of Thee I Sing", with Norman McLeod leaving Paramount to direct. During late 1932 and early 1933, Groucho and Chico were also working on "Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel", a radio show written by Nat Perrin and Arthur Sheekman; there was even, at one time, talk of casting the two as their radio characters for the new film (an idea that was eventually used in the later Marx Brothers film "The Big Store").