When M-G-M asked Jerome Kern what he thought about Robert Walker portraying him, Kern said it was fine but wanted to hear his wife's opinion. He phoned her from the studio and she told him to stay there, portray himself and send Walker home to her.
Judy Garland, who played real-life singer-dancer Marilyn Miller, was pregnant with her first daughter, Liza Minnelli. She was placed behind stacks of dishes while singing "Look For the Silver Lining", but it was not to hide her belly as some have thought, because moments before her number, she is shown walking over to the set and even during her song as she is standing behind the dishes, her abdomen is not disguised.
Released on March 1, 1947, the MGM Records soundtrack album made from Till the Clouds Roll By (1946), originally presented on a 78 r.p.m. album set, was the first soundtrack album ever made from a live-action movie musical. Previously, the only movie musical soundtrack released on records was that of Disney's Schneewittchen und die sieben Zwerge (1937). (The authentic soundtrack album of MGM's Das zauberhafte Land (1939), with the movie cast, was not issued until 1956.)
During the "Who?" segment, Judy Garland and the chorus move smoothly down the staircase. They did this by standing on a slide that was hydraulically controlled. It was supposed to ease to a stop at the bottom but, instead, stopped abruptly. There is a quick cut that partly hides this, but it can still be seen as everyone suddenly gives a little lurch just before the cut.