Harry Cohn, the head of Columbia, paid $1 million for the film rights, intending it to be a vehicle for his hottest female star, Rita Hayworth. His star, however, wasn't interested as she'd just married Prince Aly Khan. One thing Cohn didn't want was for Judy Holliday to reprise her Broadway role. He relented when he saw how effectively George Cukor used her in Adam's Rib.
Garson Kanin claimed that he modeled the part of the obnoxious junk dealer Harry Brock after Harry Cohn, but that the studio chief never realized it.
Garson Kanin sold Born Yesterday to Columbia Pictures for $1 million, setting a record for the highest price ever paid for a film property.
Garson Kanin wrote that Marilyn Monroe made a screen test for this film in 1948 before signing a two-picture contract. Those who saw it thought it was excellent, but Columbia head Harry Cohn did not take the trouble to walk six steps from his desk to his projection room to watch it.
Paul Douglas, who created the role of Harry Brock on stage, turned down the chance to play him in the movie adaptation because the part had been considerably reduced for the film. He later went on to star opposite Judy as Edward L. McKeever in the 1956 film, The Solid Gold Cadillac where Judy once again plays a ditsy blonde who ends up outsmarting her opponents.
After Rita Hayworth put her career on hold due to her recent marriage to Prince Aly Khan, Harry Cohn was forced to recast the part of Billie Dawn. He considered a host of candidates rumored to have included Celeste Holm, Marie McDonald, Evelyn Keyes, Paulette Goddard, and Ida Lupino. He finally found the perfect Billie Dawn with the actress who had created the part 4 years before on Broadway.
In his autobiography, Garson Kanin wrote that Harry Cohn paid the record $1 million for the films rights because he had heard that Kanin said he "wouldn't sell the rights to Harry Cohn for any amount - not even a million dollars."
The "teapot" referred to was "Teapot Dome Scandal", an unprecedented bribery scandal and investigation during the administration of President Warren G. Harding.
The Broadway production of "Born Yesterday" opened at the Lyceum Theater on February 4, 1946 and ran for 1642 performances. Judy Holliday reprises her role in the movie.
The part of Billie Dawn was written by Garson Kanin for Jean Arthur. A couple of nights before the play was due to open, Arthur abruptly dropped out and Judy Holliday was drafted in. Arthur was briefly considered for the film version, but turned the part down. A move to loan out Lana Turner from MGM for the role of Billie Dawn was later abandoned.
To help build up Judy Holliday's image, particularly in the eyes of Columbia Pictures chief Harry Cohn, Katharine Hepburn deliberately leaked stories to the gossip columns suggesting that her performance in Adam's Rib was so good that it had stolen the spotlight from Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. This got Cohn's attention and Holliday won the part in Born Yesterday.
To help facilitate shooting, George Cukor decided to rehearse Born Yesterday as if it were still a stage play. For two weeks, the cast worked on their lines while a construction crew built a 300-seat mini-theater within one of the studio's sound-stages. It was there that Judy Holliday, William Holden and Broderick Crawford gave six performances in front of a live audience so that Cukor could precision-time the pacing of the film's jokes.