Trivia / The Babe Ruth Story

• Christmas Rushed: Due to Ruth's rapidly declining health, the film's production was rushed in order to release the film while the Bambino was alive.
• Colbert Bump: The Babe Ruth Story was typically only watched by people who are hardcore fans of baseball, Babe Ruth, or sports biopics before The Cinema Snob reviewed the movie, causing bad movie fans to take interest in it as well, some viewing the film as an unintentional comedy.
• Creator-Chosen Casting: William Bendix was personally chosen by Babe Ruth himself to play the title role.
• The Danza: Claire Hodgson Ruth is played by Claire Trevor.
• Dawson Casting: Taken to ludicrous extremes, with William Bendix, then pushing 40, playing the teenage Babe Ruth.
• Follow the Leader: This movie has a noticable amount of details that it shares with the 1942 film The Pride of the Yankees; both are sports biopics about Yankees players, with The Pride centering on Lou Gehrig, who were rendered unable to play due being stricken with a terminal illness that ultimately claimed their lives, both biopics tout their respective subject as the best baseball players of all time, and the last we see of either player is them going down a hallway, with Lou walking of his own accord while Babe is wheeled down one in a gurney. Considering that The Pride of the Yankees was a box office smash, revered by critics, and even nominated for Best Picture and Best Actor at the 1942 Oscars while winning Best Editing, it is likely that Allied Artists was attempting to replicate RKO's success.
• What Could Have Been: Jack Carson was originally cast as Babe Ruth, but could not be released from his contract with another studio.