Cut Song: Gershwin's score runs to over three hours of music, and is rarely performed complete; the original production, the only one he was alive to see, cut a lot of material including the opening Jazzbo Brown Blues, the Buzzard Song, and the "Oh, Doctor Jesus" sextet,note One reason for the cuts was that Gershwin chose to bypass opera houses and open the piece on Broadway, which necessitated cutting the show to a reasonable length, as well as lessening the demands on the singers, who would be expected to perform it every night. while a successful 1942 revival went even further, cutting much of the recitative and replacing it with dialogue. Uncut performances have become more common since the 1970s, though still relatively rare.
Samuel Goldwyn greatly admired the 1953 Broadway performance and wanted to produce his own adaptation.
Sammy Davis Jr. really wanted to appear in this film and mounted a pressure campaign that included Frank Sinatra personally lobbying Samuel Goldwyn. Goldwyn eventually acquiesced — despite promising Ira Gershwin's wife that he wouldn't cast Davis — to get the pestering to stop.
Bury Your Art: The 1959 film adaptation was pulled from distribution after producer Samuel Goldwyn's license expired in 1974. The estate of George Gershwin have consistently refused to let the film become publicly available again despite repeated requests to do so; it has never been released on home video as a result. Gershwin's brother and collaborator Ira called the film a "piece of shit" and reportedly ordered Goldwyn to destroy every surviving print of the film. However, the Library of Congress still kept its copy (which was submitted for copyright purposes) and digitized it for public viewing; a high-quality film print would also surface in time for a 2007 screening at Manhattan's Ziegfeld Theatre.
Contractual Obligation Project: Sidney Poitier didn't want to star in the film but his agent had made assurances to Samuel Goldwyn that Poitier could be convinced, which could have been construed as a verbal contract and left Poitier vulnerable to a lawsuit. Not wanting to risk trouble that could prevent him from starring in The Defiant Ones, which he really wanted, Poitier begrudgingly agreed to appear.
Creator Killer: The financial failure of this film meant it was the last Samuel Goldwyn ever produced.
Executive Meddling: Samuel Goldwyn wanted to be as faithful to the 1953 Broadway production as possible and wouldn't let director Otto Preminger exert any creative control.
Keep Circulating the Tapes: The 1959 film adaptation can't legally be reissued without permission from the Gershwin estate, and they've vetoed any reissue from happening. A few prints do survive (as does the original camera negative), but they are rare. Even poor-quality bootleg copies are hard to find. Despite this, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress, and was inducted into the National Film Registry, with the library possessing a digital copy of the film.
Non-Singing Voice: Sidney Poitier couldn't sing so he was dubbed by Robert McFerrin. Dorothy Dandridge was a professional singer but lacked the operatic soprano range needed so she was dubbed by Adele Addison.
