"Dance of Victory" by Ray Henderson,Buddy G. DeSylva and Lew Brown was written for this movie, but not heard in the Fox Library print. Also, an elaborate background score was composed by the Fox music staff, but only Hugo Friedhofer's contribution remains on the release print.
First science fiction film made as a talkie, also as a musical.
Hearing that people fly "Rosenbergs" and "Goldbaums" instead of driving cars, Single-O comments that someone got revenge on 'Henry Ford' - a jab at the famed auto maker's well-known rabid anti-Semitism (now all but forgotten).
Images from this film, showing the elaborate model of a futuristic New York skyscape, are often mistakenly identified as scenes from Metropolis.
Of the series' credited cast members, only Maureen O'Sullivan (LN-18) and Joyzelle Joyner (Loo Loo / Boo Boo) were still alive during the actual 1980. O'Sullivan died on June 23, 1998 whereas Joyner died on November 30, 1980, coincidentally only one week after the 50th anniversary of the film's release.
The airplanes were designed and built by an aircraft engineer from the Douglas Aircraft Co. based on what he thought aircraft would look like in 1980.
The name of the character "Single-O" is a joke on his out-of-place status in the future world: "single-o" is an outdated term for a circus sideshow featuring a single person or object (as distinguished from the "ten-in-one" revolving show).
The spaceship became Dr. Zarkov's rocket in the Flash Gordon serial. Footage of the dance number featuring and idol was used in the serial as entertainment for Ming.