An accomplished, self-taught pianist, Jack Lemmon wrote the theme for the movie Ein Sommer in Manhattan (1980).
Producer Michael Douglas amended the shooting schedule of Das China-Syndrom (1979) to allow Jack Lemmon to attend rehearsals for the Broadway stage play of Ein Sommer in Manhattan (1980). Douglas was enormously grateful to Lemmon as he remained ready to start work at very short notice for over a year before production started and in the process cost himself a lot of other work. Lemmon agreed to play his role in that movie as early as 1976 and Douglas returned the favor.
Jack Lemmon once said of his character Scottie Templeton: "If I had to choose one role as my favorite this has got to be it!". Lemmon once said of "Tribute"'s story, it's "the most fascinating mixture of comedy and drama that I've found since Das Appartement (1960)".
Prior to the film's source play opening on Broadway, playwright Bernard Slade and producer Morton Gottlieb sold the film rights to the Paramount Pictures studio for more than US $1 million. On the play's big opening night party at Tavern on the Green, Gottlieb gave payment in full checks to investors without even having to rely on monies from the film sale.