The film was so financially successful it saved Warner Brothers from bankruptcy.
In the finale, dancers on stage pass a store named Reticker's. It was named after Warner Bros. art director Hugh Reticker, who labored at the studio for two decades but did not get screen recognition until two years after this film was made. It's likely he had a hand in designing this set also.
After the "42nd Street" number was completed, Busby Berkeley was promoted from weekly contract status and was given a term contract by the studio.
The fourth most popular movie at the US box office in 1933.
Novelist Bradford Ropes envisioned his novel as a muckraking expose of the exploitation of chorus girls on Broadway. He described the work as the "'Uncle Tom's Cabin' of the chorus girl."