Trivia

According to her 1975 autobiography, "Doris Day: Her Own Story" (co-written with A.E. Hotchner), Miss Day attended a show-biz party the night before she planned to leave for New York City. Also at the gathering was lyric writer Sammy Cahn who, taking Doris aside, explained that she would be the right match for the Cahn-Jule Styne score of this upcoming film. When, at Mr. Cahn's urging, Doris sang "Embraceable You" (music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin) for the party crowd, she was heard by director Michael Curtiz, who then asked her to test for the role of Georgia Garrett.

This was Doris Day's first acting role, and she was extremely naive about how movies were made. She wrote in her autobiography that the first scenes to be filmed would be aboard the cruise ship, and on the first day, she walked onto the sound stage and asked when they would be leaving for the boat. The crew broke up laughing.

Although she had 4th billing in this film, her screen debut, audience reaction to Doris Day was so strong and immediate that Warners signed her to a 7 year contract, during which she appeared in dozens of films and became a Top Ten Box Office star.

Doris Day and Jack Carson, who met while making this film, had a brief romance.

When she saw herself in the dailies early in this film's production, Doris Day claims she was so embarrassed by her own performance she asked director Michael Curtiz to recommend a drama coach. "No, no!" Curtiz replied, "You're a natural just as you are - if you learn how to act, you'll ruin everything."