Mary Pickford was initially horrified to hear her recorded voice for the first time in this film: "That's not me. That's a pipsqueak voice. It's impossible! I sound like I'm 12 or 13!"
Mary Pickford ensured this movie's continued commercial success - which was critical for a film to qualify for an Academy Award - by waging an effective publicity campaign. Driving it was a contest for a fan to win the movie's standout costume - Howard Greer's "orchid dress" of silk organza. Its pretty, drop-waist skirt hung in petal-like tiers, while a silk orchid prettified its cummerbund. Pickford was photographed giving it away to the one among seven thousand contestants whose measurements matched her petite size four: Marie Hilkevitch, a grocery store checkout clerk.
Mary Pickford's longtime cameraman Charles Rosher was the original cinematographer, but "creative differences" resulted in his being let go and replaced by Karl Struss.
Mary Pickford is considered the first performer to have launched a publicity campaign to win an Oscar, unusual in that the Academy Awards had not yet earned cachet with either audiences or industry people in 1929. Decades later, publicity campaigns would became standard operating procedure within Hollywood.