In Feb. 1958, this film was being shown in many drive-in theaters on a double bill with Wild Weed. (Wild Weed was being shown with its alternate title "She Shoulda Said 'No'!")
Olympic star Jesse Owens was the film's pitchman in black theaters for a time.
Producer Kroger Babb had so much faith in this project that he determined that the film itself meet the accepted technical standards of a professional production. To achieve this, within the limits of his available capital, he approached one of Hollywood's leading poverty row studios, Monogram Pictures, to actually make the film. Monogram assigned producer Barney A. Serecky (as production supervisor), director of photography Marcel Le Picard, editor Richard Currier and especially director William Beaudine. This team had long experience with creating "one week wonders" on time and within meager budgets.
Screened to gender-segregated audiences.
The picture was phenomenally successful. Producer Kroger Babb said that each investor got back $63,000 for each $1000 he invested in the film.
There was a break in the film in which the audience was treated to a live lecture by "The Eminent Hygiene Commentator Elliot Forbes", entitled "The Secrets of Sensible Sex". The lecture featured a pitch for a book that would be sold to the audience. At one point there were over 25 units working, each accompanied by their own "Elliot Forbes".
When the film opened in Baltimore, Maryland, the theater was picketed by religious groups, the Catholic Legion of Decency gave it a "C" (Condemned) rating and the Maryland Board of Censors threatened to have it banned in the state. All of that publicity resulted in the picture doing $32,000 worth of business in the first week at a time when theater admission prices were 25 cents.
While the box office records of the 1940s are difficult to research, this is the consensus top-grossing picture of 1947.