"Academy Award Theater" broadcast a 30 minute radio adaptation of the movie on June 29, 1946 with Fredric March reprising his film role.
"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on
September 13, 1937 with Janet Gaynor, Lionel Stander and May Robson reprising their film roles.
"Screen Director's Playhouse" broadcast a 30 minute radio adaptation of the movie on June 16, 1950 with Fredric March reprising his film role.
"The Screen Guild Theater" broadcast a 30 minute radio adaptation of the movie on November 17, 1940 with Adolphe Menjou reprising his film role.
David O. Selznick originally rejected the story, as films about Hollywood had generally failed, but was persuaded to do the film by his wife Irene Mayer Selznick. Writer-director William A. Wellman had alternately suggested a sequel to The Public Enemy, titled "Another Public Enemy".
Plans were announced in 1938 for a sequel entitled Heartbreak Town, about a child actor but it was never made.
Sometimes erroneously stated as Lana Turner's film debut as an extra in the scene at Santa Anita, but Turner's daughter Cheryl Crane has confirmed that Turner did not appear in this film.
The celebrated final line of the film was an afterthought. The original scene had Esther arriving at the Chinese Theater and collapsing in the forecourt sobbing, "Oh, Norman! Norman!" The scene was reshot two ways: with the familiar "Mrs. Norman Maine" tagline and the oddly irrelevant "Hello, everybody, this is Vicki Lester."
The character of Norman Maine was based on several real actors, including John Barrymore, John Gilbert, and John Bowers, who drowned off Malibu during the film's production.
The first all-color film nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
The funeral scene was inspired by the funeral of Irving Thalberg, where fans swarmed around his widow Norma Shearer outside the church. A similar scene occurred at Jean Harlow's funeral two months after the film's release.
The movie's line "Hello, everybody. This is Mrs. Norman Maine." was voted as the #52 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.
The Oscar that Janet Gaynor receives in the film is her own Oscar, which she won for her role in 7th Heaven.
When the drunken Norman Maine character raucously interrupts the Oscar presentation, it was déja vu for Janet Gaynor. She had brought her sister to the Academy Awards ceremony in 1929, when she won the first Best Actress Oscar ever awarded, for 7th Heaven. Her sister became very drunk and completely out of control, thoroughly embarrassing Gaynor.