Trivia

Director Henry King went to the 1932 Iowa State Fair and Exposition in Des Moines with Stong and a camera crew at the invitation of the fair and filmed background material there. Joseph A. Valentine and Edwin Hammeras photographed background plates, atmospheric shots and race sequences at the fair and used the new Eastman Grayback Background Negative film stock. The rest of the production was shot an Eastman Supersensitive Negative stock and used two cameras wherever possible. Fox purchased three hogs from the fair, including the grand champion, Dike of Rosedale, who was cast as "Blue Boy."

State Fair (1933) was the sixth most popular movie at the U.S. box office for 1933.

When Fox released the remake of Amores de un día (1962), the studio ceased further distribution of the earlier versions so as not to compete with the remake's box office take. State Fair (1933) disappeared entirely for decades, not to be seen again until the 1990s. La feria de la vida (1945) version turned up on television with a new title, "It Happened One Summer," again to minimize confusion, as the 1962 version was also leased to local television stations.

The "Ding" who Abel believes will have a cartoon about the state fair in the next day's newspaper is the real-life editorial cartoonist Jay Norwood "Ding" Darling (1876-1962). Although highly popular and widely syndicated in his time, he is perhaps best known today for the National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island, Florida, named for him.

Cinematographers Joseph A. Valentine and Edwin Hammeras shot the location footage in Des Moines, IA.