Trivia / State Fair

• California Doubling: The 1962 version is set in Texas, but was filmed at Mooney's Grove Park in Visalia, California.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Richard Rodgers expressed doubts that a Screen-to-Stage Adaptation of State Fair would turn out well, since he saw it as simply "a story about a bet". (For the record, the Broadway version ran only three months, at least partially because of competition with RENT.)
  • Whenever 20th Century Fox re-releases the Rodgers and Hammerstein Collection of movies on home video, they tend to either leave out or delay the 1962 State Fair, the most-panned R&H film in their library. It even became the only entry in the Collection never to receive a Laserdisc set.
• Cut Song: The 1945 movie had a deleted reprise of "Isn't It Kinda Fun?", sung by Wayne in the shower. The 1962 version tweaked this into a reprise of "That's For Me" (Wayne sang it instead of Emily in this version).
• Denial of Digital Distribution: The 1962 and 1976 versions remain absent from all digital retailers.
• Dyeing for Your Art: the naturally brunette Ann-Margret first dyed her hair red for this movie (either as a Mythology Gag to Vivian Blaine from the 1945 film or to show Emily more clearly as a 'scarlet woman'). She realised how good it looked on her, and kept it that way for several decades afterward.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The 1933 version has apparently never received a VHS or DVD release. However, 20th Century Studios does sell digital copies of it now.
• Non-Singing Voice:
  • The 1945 version had Margy portrayed by Jeannie Crain and dubbed by Louanne Hogan, who went on to dub any other movie in which Crain sang.
  • The 1945 version also had Pat portrayed by Dana Andrews, and dubbed by someone else. Ironically, Andrews could sing well - he'd originally come to California to be an opera singer, not an actor - but decided not to tell the studio. He hoped that this would make it easier for the singer they already hired to find work.
  • The 1962 version had Margy portrayed by Pamela Tiffin and dubbed by Anita Gordon.
• Post-Release Retitle: Some TV broadcasts of the 1945 version used the title It Happened One Summer, to avoid confusion with the remake. Eventually, the remake's critical and financial failures lessened the chance of people mistaking the '45 movie for it.
• Production Posse: The director of the 1945 version, Walter Lang, later directed the movie version of The King and I.
• What Could Have Been: 20th Century Fox originally announced that Walter Lang would return to direct the 1962 remake, in TODD-AO. Instead, José Ferrer directed it, in the cheaper CinemaScope format.

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