Zasu Pitts' final film appearance. Suffering from cancer, she died during post-production several months after filming wrapped up and four months before the movie's release.
Stan Laurel turned down an invitation to appear in this film. When his partner Oliver Hardy died in 1957, Laurel pledged never to perform again. He never did.
Edie Adams almost didn't accept the role of Monica because her husband Ernie Kovacs was killed in an auto accident a few months earlier.
Jack Benny's cameo at the wheel of a Maxwell was considered inaccurate by his fans because it was missing one thing: Mel Blanc. Blanc supplied the sound of Benny's antique car on radio.
Cara Williams was originally named as one of the female leads, most likely the Edie Adams role.
Peter Falk improvised much of his dialog in the cab scene.
Phil Silvers held regular crap games on the set.
Phil Silvers injured himself in one of the later scenes of the movie and was replaced by a stunt double. In those later scenes his face is always away from the camera.
Phil Silvers, while filming the scene where he drives his car into the river, nearly drowned because he couldn't swim.
Bob Hope, Jackie Mason, George Burns and Red Skelton were all offered roles, but declined. Judy Holliday turned down a part because of poor health.
Don Rickles reportedly wanted to be in the movie but was never asked. He never let Stanley Kramer live it down, either, even heckling him about it from the stage whenever Kramer came to see Rickles' show.
Milton Berle said in an interview that in the scene where Ethel Merman hit him with her purse, it left him with a bump that lasted six months.
Ethel Merman's role was originally written as the father-in-law, and Groucho Marx was one of the choices to play it.
Marvin Kaplan said that he and Arnold Stang were given the job of "entertaining" Jonathan Winters during the periods in between his scenes.
Arnold Stang broke his left forearm just days before his scenes were shot. In all shots, he wears garage workman's gloves on both hands and his his left arm is always crooked, and held in place by a cast concealed under his garage uniform.
A dance sequence featuring The Shirelles was filmed but never used and appears to no longer survive. However, their uncredited performances of the title song and "31 Flavours" can still be heard on the soundtrack album.
Despite being released by Cinerama, this film was not shot in the three-strip Cinerama process, but was projected on the deeply curved original Cinerama screen upon original release, which was exclusively to Cinerama theatres, followed by release to "regular" theatres. It was shot in Ultra Panavision 70, a one-strip process that in no way resembled the original Cinerama effect.
During filming of the infamous "gas station" destruction, Jonathan Winters was accidentally left on stage and completely bound in thick tape. Hours later, when the cast returned from lunch, they found that he had not even been able to free his arms from the chair. In retaliation, Winters gave a three-hour lecture to Arnold Stang and Marvin Kaplan on forced potty training.