On July 21, fun-loving freeloaders and comic thrillseekers showed up in droves to Grant Park for a free outdoor showing of the Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup–and to attempt to set the Guinness world record for most people wearing Groucho glasses at one time. The stunt was a joint effort by the Chicago Outdoor Film Festival and the Goodman Theatre, which had high-level staffers passing out free glasses and pumping up the crowd as part of a sly promotion for its revival of Animal Crackers, which premieres September 18.

I, along with my wife and little dude, were among those on hand who wondered if we could beat the record of 4,077 glasses set in Missouri two years ago. It looked like it would be a close call for a while, but ultimately we felt confident Chicago would prevail. As my son said, “We’re going to be in the Dennis Book of World Records!”

Well, (almost) exactly right, kid! Guinness has ruled that a whopping 4,436 of us were officially present to set the record, the Mayor’s Office of Special Events and the Goodman report in a joint release.

Mayor Daley used the occasion to oh-so-subtly promote the city’s Olympic bid, saying, “I hope this is one of many records yet to be broken in the City of Chicago.”

Say the magic word, Mr. Mayor, and get a $500 million guarantee…

By the way, Tuesday night marks the closing night of the Chicago Outdoor Film Festival, with Tootsie starting at 8pm. No word yet on whether the city will try to set the world record for most cross-dressing Dustin Hoffman impersonators, but there will be ticket giveaways from The Second City, tied loosely to the fact that co-star Bill Murray is an alum and the theater’s turning 50 this year. So you’ve got that going for you. Which is nice.