History Trivia / MyFairLady

* CreatorBacklash: Creator/AudreyHepburn felt miscast as Eliza Doolittle and felt that Creator/JulieAndrews should have got it.

* OldShame: Jack Warner deeply regretted turning Creator/JulieAndrews down in favor of Creator/AudreyHepburn.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Jack Warner (also personally producing the film this time) refused to let Creator/JulieAndrews reprise the role of Eliza that she'd originated on stage. Andrews got the last laugh as she instead did a little movie called ''Film/MaryPoppins'', winning an Oscar for which she even thanked Warner. That film made her a big enough star that the next year she was the one playing [[Film/TheSoundOfMusic a role originated by someone else onstage]].
* GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion: When the film was given an 8K restoration in 2015, the sharp digital scans of the original negative revealed details that were never visible on any print before, including Audrey Hepburn's teeth fillings and the adhesive for Rex Harrison's toupee. The restoration team digitally removed these things, feeling that the filmmakers would not have wanted the public to see them.

* OldShame: Jack Warner regretted having to turn Creator/JulieAndrews down in favor of Creator/AudreyHepburn.

* IWantYouToMeetAnOldFriendOfMine: Audrey Hepburn's earliest film role was a brief part in ''Film/TheLavenderHillMob'', in which Alfred Doolittle's actor Stanley Holloway was one of the leads.

** Creator/JamesCagney was originally offered the role of Alfred Doolittle. When he pulled out at the last minute, it went to the man who played it on Broadway, Stanley Holloway.

** During tryouts, Higgins tried to cheer Eliza up with a PepTalkSong called "Come to the Ball." The song was cut due to the show's excessive length, though a portion of it remains in the patter section of "I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face" - making it a DarkReprise of a song that isn't actually in the show.

* WorkingTitle: ''Liza'', ''Lady Liza'', ''My Lady Liza'', ''Fanfaroon''[[note]] An old-fashioned term meaning "braggart," presumably referring to Higgins. [[/note]], and ''Come to the Ball''. The title didn't officially become ''My Fair Lady'' until the second week of rehearsals.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The concept of a ''Theatre/{{Pygmalion}}'' musical was first proposed by producer Cheryl Crawford, as a vehicle for Mary Martin with songs by Creator/RodgersAndHammerstein''. Even after Lerner and Lowe took on the project instead, Mary Martin was still the first choice for the role of Eliza, but she turned it down.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Jack Warner (also personally producing the film this time) refused to let Creator/JulieAndrews reprise the role of Eliza that she'd originated on stage. Andrews got the last laugh as she instead did a little movie called ''Film/MaryPoppins'', winning an Oscar for which she even thanked Warner. That film made her a big enough star that the next year she was the one playing [[Film/TheSoundOfMusic roles originated by others onstage]].

** Creator/CaryGrant refused the role of Henry Higgins, telling Jack Warner not only would he not be in the film, he wouldn't go and see it unless Creator/RexHarrison was cast. Creator/PeterOToole was also offered the role, but he wanted too much money. Creator/RichardBurton, Creator/NoelCoward, Creator/TrevorHoward, Creator/RockHudson, Creator/LaurenceOlivier, Creator/MichaelRedgrave and Creator/GeorgeSanders were all considered for the role.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Jack Warner (also personally producing the film this time) refused to let Creator/JulieAndrews reprise the role of Eliza that she'd originated on stage. Andrews got the last laugh as she instead did a little movie called ''Film/MaryPoppins'', winning an Oscar for which she even thanked Warner. That film made her a big enough star than the next year she was the one playing [[Film/TheSoundOfMusic roles originated by others onstage]].

** Another curious example occurs in the song "The Street Where You Live", when Freddy sings the line, "People stop and stare, they don't bother me / For there's nowhere else on earth that I would rather be". The rhyme would completely fail in American English, where "rather" rhymes with "gather". Fortunately, Freddy is singing the Queen's English, in which "rather" rhymes with "father". They rhyme ''still'' fails in British English, because of the subtle distinction that Brits (and, indeed, most English speakers) make between the short "o" of "bother" and the long "a" of "father". However, most Americans make no such distinction (except for the traditional Boston accent): for them, "father" and "bother" are a perfect rhyming pair![[note]]This conflation, known as the "father-bother merger", is one of the distinguishing features of North American English.[[/note]] So the rhyme works -- but only if it's ''said'' by a Brit and ''heard'' by an American.

* LifeImitatesArt: When she was cast in the demanding role of Eliza, Creator/JulieAndrews was only twenty had never acted in anything more complex than ''Theatre/TheBoyFriend''. During rehearsals, director Moss Hart dismissed the rest of the cast and coached her, word by word, through the dialogue, telling her how to deliver every line and essentially acting as the real-life Higgins to her Eliza.

* LifeImitatesArt: When she was cast in the demanding role of Eliza, Creator/JulieAndrews was only twenty had never acted in anything more complex than ''TheBoyFriend''. During rehearsals, director Moss Hart dismissed the rest of the cast and coached her, word by word, through the dialogue, telling her how to deliver every line and essentially acting as the real-life Higgins to her Eliza.

** "Say A Prayer For Me Tonight" was written for this show, but cut and used later in ''Gigi''.

* RecursiveAdaptation: ''My Fair Lady'' is based as much on the 1938 film version of ''Pygmalion'' as the original stage version, making it a case of stage -> screen -> stage.

* StarMakingRole: For Julie Andrews.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Jack Warner (also personally producing the film this time) refused to let Creator/JulieAndrews reprise the role of Eliza that she'd originated on stage. Andrews got the last laugh as she instead did a little movie called ''Film/MaryPoppins'', winning an Oscar for which she even thanked Warner.

* AccidentallyCorrectWriting: A frequently-cut verse of "You Did It" has Higgins quoting Karpathy as saying "She's as Hungarian as the First Hungarian Rhapsody!". No points for guessing which nationality said music isn't.

* WagTheDirector: The reason Higgins interrupts "Without You" before it can finish is that Rex Harrison felt Higgins would not stand silently and let Eliza sing to him without interruption; in one performance he actually walked offstage during the number to prove his point. (The original ending of the number was restored for the cast recording.)

** Also, Creator/JeremyBrett as Freddy was dubbed by Bill Shirley (AKA [[Disney/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians Roger]] (singing) and [[Disney/SleepingBeauty Prince Philip]]). Out of all of them, Brett was the one who ''could'' sing (look him up on Website/YouTube), but his singing voice was thought too mature for Freddy. Brett was apparently not informed that he would be dubbed until afterwards. And he was ''pissed''.