Trivia / Show Boat

• AFIS 100 Years 100 Songs:
  • #24, "Ol' Man River" (from 1936 film)
• AFIS Greatest Movie Musicals: #24 (1936 film)
• Cast the Expert: James Whale filled the 1936 movie with cast members who had done the show onstage, Charles Winninger, Helen Morgan, Sammy White and Francis X. Mahoney starred in the original 1927 Broadway production reprising their parts as Cap'n Andy Hawks, Julie LaVerne, Frank Schultz and "Rubber Face" Smith. Paul Robeson was in the 1928 West End Premiere and reprised Joe on Broadway in 1932. Irene Dunne was Magnolia in the US Touring Production of 1929.
• Dawson Casting: Irene Dunne was 38 in the 1936 movie, twenty years older than her character. She was eight years older than her leading man.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The 1936 film was incredibly difficult to find for a long while as MGM brought the rights when they planned to make their remake from the 1940s and once they eventually did, the movie was then unofficially banned because of Paul Robeson being blacklisted in the 1950s, it would only get a wide re-release after his death and was finally shown on Cable in 1983.
  • Also, the 1936 film wasn't on DVD for a long time. There had been a video and a Laserdisc release, but apart from a Brazilian release in 2003, the first big DVD came in 2014 and only as part of the Warner Home Video's Archive Collection of mail-order films and then in 2020 Criterion finally made a commercial release which came and the Blu-ray version.
  • The 1936 soundtrack was never officially been released apart from Allan Jones' songs being released on an album and there was a bootleg by a company called Xeno.
• Fake Mixed Race: Julie was played in the 1936 film by the very white Helen Morgan. Likewise, the 1951 film filled the role with Ava Gardner. Has been averted, though, as there was a production with Lonette Mc Kee as Julie.
• What Could Have Been: In the 1940s MGM brought the rights for the movie to remake the movie with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. However, it fell through and the 1951 movie was made instead.

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