The film's soundtrack album became one of the most successful movie albums ever released, more successful than the 1943 original Broadway cast album of "Oklahoma!", although the Broadway production was the biggest stage hit of its time, and for many years after. The film soundtrack album continues to be a popular seller even to this day.
The general release version, shot in CinemaScope, is the one that played most theatres throughout the USA. This version was not released until late 1956, after the first-run Todd-AO version had played New York for more than a year and after the film versions of two other Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II stage musicals, "Carousel" and "The King and I", had already been released throughout the United States.
The interiors were shot at MGM in autumn of 1954, the first time that an outside production company not releasing through MGM was allowed to film a feature there.
The movie was purposely filmed with very little camera movement, and editing, to give it the Broadway feel. (Actors occasionally stumble over a line like on stage.)
The musical that this film is based on was originally entitled "Away We Go!" The title was changed to "Oklahoma!" after the popularity of that song with the play's initial audiences. It was the first Broadway musical in which every single song had a direct relation to the plot, and in which there were none that were simply musical interludes. (Even "Show Boat", which actually is the first Broadway musical in which most of the songs have a direct relation to the plot, originally had one or two numbers which were simply thrown in so that something could be going on while the scenery was being changed, or even to suit certain cast members who perforned "specialties" in the original 1927 production. These specialties were deleted from later productions of "Show Boat".)
The original Broadway production of "Oklahoma!" opened at the St. James Theater in New York City on May 31, 1943 and ran for 2,212 performances, setting a record for a musical.
The poignant scene in "Many a New Day", where the blonde "Goon Girl" Lizanne Truex rests her head on the shoulder of Shirley Jones, came on the 43rd take. Director Fred Zinnemann was unhappy with the way the girls gathered around Ms. Jones, and he came up with this idea.
The song "It's a Scandal! It's a Outrage!" was omitted from the film. It was sung by Ali Hakim and the Male Chorus, and they expressed their "outrage" at "fathers with shotguns" in the song.
The song "Kansas City" was edited for censors. Will sang it, "I could swear that she was padded from her shoulders to her heel. And then she started dancing and her dancing made me feel that every single thing she had was absolutely real." In the original play script it went, "I could swear that she was padded from her shoulders to her heels. And later in the second act when she began to peel. She proved that everything she had was absolutely real."
The song "Lonely Room" (sung by Jud) was omitted from the film. In the song, Jud explains his bitter resentments and deep frustrations. Possibly this was considered too strong for 1955 film-goers.
The two teens infatuated with Will Parker were an invention of director Fred Zinnemann and choreographer Agnes de Mille. Lizanne Truex (blonde) and Jane Fischer (brunette) were originally slated to appear only in the "Kansas City" routine. Zinneman and de Mille liked the girls' work so much that they decided to add them - and their characters "The Goon Girls" - to the entire film. Zinnemann wanted the part of "Ado Annie" to be played comically, but Gloria Grahame kept putting a sexy twist to the part, so he told the "Goon Girls" that he would use them more extensively as comic relief to compensate for Ms. Grahame's interpretation. They appeared in every dance scene and had more screen time than some of the co-stars. Since the girls were going to have so much exposure, there was some discussion as to what to call them. Zinnemann said that because they were always "gooning" (fooling) around, they should be called "Goon Girls", and the epithet was born. Truex also had three one-liners, somewhat unusual for ensemble dancers. While waiting for the film to be released, she joined the European tour of the stage version of "Oklahoma!" which starred
The world premiere was preceded by a parade of fringed surreys, led by then-Oklahoma Gov. Raymond Gary (1908-1993, governor 1955-1959), which made its way from the St. James Theater, where the stage version of "Oklahoma" had opened 12 years earlier, to the Rivoli Theater for the film premiere. There, standing atop a carpet of transplanted Oklahoma soil, Gov. Gary helped raise the Oklahoma state flag from the theater staff and officially proclaimed the Rivoli to be Oklahoma territory.
This is the first Todd-AO production and the first of three such productions to be shot twice, first at 24 fps (to produce the general-release version in 35 mm) and finally at 30 fps (to produce the roadshow version in 70 mm). The 35 mm version is presented in CinemaScope; the 70 mm version is presented in Todd-AO.
This was Fred Zinnemann's first musical, and it cost a then-astronomical $6.8 million.
Tone deaf, Gloria Grahame, who played Ado Annie, sang without dubbing, which required that her songs to be edited together from recordings made almost literally note by note.
When asked about her distinctive haircut in the film, Lizanne Truex said that because of the innocent tomboyish behavior of her "Goon Girl" character, the studio hair stylist changed her "Pixie Cut" to a "Bowl Cut" - "Like the little kids of the period were given." During the filming, she was primping before a mirror backstage, bemoaning the results, with Jane Fischer looking on. Director Fred Zinnemann included that charming vignette in the "Many a New Day" dance routine at the suggestion of Agnes de Mille, who happened to see the incident and liked what she saw.