The day after the movie won nine Oscars, M.G.M telephone operators were instructed to answer all phone calls with "Hello, M-Gigi-M."
The entire film was written, cast and ready to shoot in four and a half months.
The film was going to be produced by Gilbert Miller, and would be based on Anita Loos's 1954 stage musical. However, producer Arthur Freed had developed an interest in Colette's story in 1953. It took Freed $125,000 to get the rights from Colette's widower, and $87,000 to get the rights from Anita Loos (both had held on to the rights and the film could not be made without them).
The film won all 9 Academy Awards that it was nominated for, more than any other film at that point in Oscar history. That record has since been eclipsed by Ben-Hur (11 wins), The Last Emperor (9 wins), Titanic (11 wins) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (11 wins).
The song "I Remember It Well" was adapted from writer Alan Jay Lerner's script for Kurt Weill's 1948 musical "Love Life".
The song "I'm Glad I'm Not Young Anymore" was inspired by a discussion from an aging Maurice Chevalier about his waning interest in wine and women in favor of performing for cabaret audiences.
The song "Say A Prayer for Me Tonight" was meant to be sung by the British Eliza Doolittle in "My Fair Lady." This can be seen in the verse: "Onto your Waterloo, whispers my heart / Pray I'll be Wellington, not Bonaparte." Being sung by a French girl, this is considered an arguably strange sentiment to express. However, the French lost at Waterloo, and Gigi is hoping to win this "epic battle," so to speak.
The songs "She is Not Thinking of Me" and "I Remember It Well" were filmed by an uncredited Charles Walters, as Vincente Minnelli was overseas working on a new project. The first song had originally been shot in Maxim's, but Alan Jay Lerner was unhappy with the way it turned out and at great expense a Maxim's set was recreated on a soundstage and reshot.
The soundtrack album is on the front cover of the Pink Floyd album Ummagumma.
The title song was Alan Jay Lerner's favorite of all his compositions. Also, in his semi-biography, "On the Street Where I Live" Lerner stated that in the song "She is Not Thinking of Me" the line "She's so ooh-la-la-la, so untrue-la-la-la" was the one line in his career that it took him the longest time to write.
When Alan Jay Lerner met Leslie Caron in London to discuss the film with her, he was surprised to discover that Caron, who was of French birth, had become so immersed in the English culture that she had lost her French accent.
When the film was originally completed, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe were unsatisfied at first; Lerner felt it had slow action and was twenty minutes too long. He proposed changes that would cost Arthur Freed an additional $300,000, which Arthur Freed was dead against spending. The songwriting team offered to buy 10% of the film for $300000, and then offered $3 million for the print. Impressed with their faith in the film, MGM executives agreed to the changes, which included eleven days of considerable reshooting and put the project $400,000 over budget. However, the test screenings of the film changed from favourable (before the change) to affectionate (after the change), and Lerner felt the film was finally complete.
When the stage production of 'My Fair Lady' was trying out in Philadelphia, producer Arthur Freed tackled songwriter Alan Jay Lerner about doing a film musical for him. Lerner had a pre-existing contract with MGM and owed Freed another musical. After reading Colette's novel, he knew he had found the right material to fulfill that contract.
With only four letters, this movie has the shortest title of any film to win the Oscar for Best Picture. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is the longest.
Writers Colette and Alan Jay Lerner chose Audrey Hepburn for the title role, which she performed on stage in 1952. Unfortunately, in 1958 Hepburn was busy with other films and could not commit.