Fred Astaire thought the "Sluefoot" would become a huge dance craze. He was wrong.
Fred Astaire's wife died during filming, and between some takes he would retreat to his trailer and cry. That's why, in some scenes, his eyes look red and swollen.
Leslie Caron told Fred Astaire that she wanted to create her own costumes for the film. Astaire told her: "OK, but no feathers, please", recalling the utter exasperation he had with an elaborate ostrich feathered dress that Ginger Rogers insisted on wearing in Top Hat, earning Rogers the nickname of "Feathers". Feathers started shedding from Rogers' dress, creating a huge distraction during filming. The shedding feathers nightmare was hilariously recreated in a dance in Easter Parade with Astaire and Judy Garland.
Mitzi Gaynor was the studio's first choice to play Julie, but Fred Astaire personally asked for Leslie Caron.
Johnny Mercer had written lyrics for Fred Astaire to expound on the "History of the Beat," but in the release print, Fred sings only the verse, not the chorus, before going into his dance routine in his office.
In this film, The Pied Pipers brought back Johnny Mercer's endearing ballad "Dream," which had provided the quartet with a best-selling Capitol single in 1945.
The lyrics for the song "Dream" were changed slightly for this film. The line "Things never are as bad as they seem" in the classic, and better known, version were re-written and sung as "Dreams are just as real as they seem" to allow Leslie Caron's character to have some hope that her dreams would come true.
The song "Texas Millionaire" is the only time Astaire's singing voice was ever dubbed. The dub vocals were performed by Thurl Ravenscroft, known mostly for being the voice of Tony the Tiger.
There was no soundtrack album of the Johnny Mercer score issued in 1955, but Fred Astaire and Ray Anthony compensated with commercial discs. Mr. Astaire's 45 on RCA Victor found him singing a ballad version of the Oscar-nominated "Something's Gotta Give," along with the peppy "Sluefoot," which in the film served as a vocal for The Pied Pipers, backed by the Anthony band. Fred's next recording of "Something's Gotta Give," taken at a brisker tempo, turned up on an LP called "Fred Astaire Today," released by Kapp in 1959. Returning to 1955, Ray Anthony and His Orchestra had in the marketplace a Capitol revamp of four songs from the picture: "Sluefoot," "Something's Gotta Give," "Dream" and "Thunderbird" (the last cut an instrumental composed by Mr. Anthony and George Williams).
This musical was Fred Astaire's first and last for Twentieth Century-Fox. In addition, this film marked the final screen vocalizing by The Pied Pipers.