Terry and company are depicted as arriving in France aboard the French liner SS Normandie. It entered service in 1935 and was the fastest liner across the Atlantic, only to be later surpassed by the RMS Queen Mary and finally the SS United States. She remains the most powerful steam turbo-electric passenger ship ever built. She was seized in New York City at the beginning of WW2 and had begun to be converted into a troopship when she caught fire and capsized in February 1942. All plans to return her to service failed to materialize and she was scrapped in 1946.
The Schnickelfritz Band, from Minnesota, whose oddball comical numbers were interpolated into this film after principal production was completed, were fore-runners of (and may have inspired) one of the most popular comedy acts of the 1940s and 50s, Spike Jones and His City Slickers. Jones and his merry band specialized in slapstick parodies of popular songs, which included silly sound effects, frequent use of slide trombones and snidely melodramatic vocals. The band broke up shortly after doing the film.
Edward Brophy, who plays pistol-packing patron-of-the-arts Mike Coogan, enjoyed a long and varied career as a character actor, and is probably best remembered for his voice over work as Timothy Mouse, who gives the title character (a shy, big-eared circus elephant) the courage to fly in the Walt Disney classic Dumbo (1941).
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