Oliver Hardy was originally cast as Summers, the butler, in this short film, but had to be replaced before filming by Stan Laurel. Hardy had been injured in a cooking accident (which also forced his removal from the cast of the Mabel Normand movie Raggedy Rose, already in production at the time of the accident) and was still recovering when filming for 'Get 'em Young' began.
In Montreal, 9 January 1927, at the Laurier Palace theatre, 78 people died during a showing of this film. A fire broke out in the projection room, and was quickly under control, but the audience, consisting mostly of children, panicked and stampeded towards the exits; those in the gallery became trapped in the stairwell, and the 78 died of being crushed. 77 of the dead were 16 years old or younger.