'Eddie Fisher' owned 65% of this film, and Howard Hughes owned the remaining 35%. Debbie Reynolds' salary was $150,000.
Around 1956, singer Eddie Fisher and his agent Lew Wasserman were discussing roles for Fisher's acting debut. A project being discussed at the time was "What Makes Sammy Run?" by Budd Schulberg and Stuart Schulberg. Fisher wanted to play aggressive producer Sammy Glick, "the ultimate Jewish hustler. I knew a lot of real Sammy Glicks and I felt confident that was a character I could play." Lew Wasserman decided that the character was too much of a classic negative Jewish stereotype and that it would be bad for Fisher to play it. So Fisher went in the complete opposite direction (in retrospect, perhaps too far) with then-wife Debbie Reynolds in this squeaky clean comedy that Fisher hated, made to capitalize on the birth of their daughter, future Star Wars "Princess Leia" Carrie Fisher. The Schulberg project was eventually produced in 2 parts as "Sunday Showcase (1959)"
{What Makes Sammy Run?: Part 1 (#1.2)} and "Sunday Showcase (1959)"
{What Makes Sammy Run?: Part 2 (#1.3)} with Larry Blyden in t