Many years after the release of Born Yesterday writer Garson Kanin finally admitted that he had used Columbia Pictures mogul Harry Cohn as the model for Harry Brock.

William Holden and Broderick Crawford became good friends during filming, united by their fondness for liquor and a mutual dislike of Cohn. Among the jokes they played on him were ordering large Scotches at lunch so he would worry about their getting drunk in the middle of a shooting day. They also ran up huge bills for room service during location shooting in Washington just to aggravate him.

Judy Holliday and Crawford extended their famous gin-rummy scene to their off-screen relationship. Afraid of flying, Holliday insisted on taking the train to Washington for location shooting. Crawford went along and they passed the four-day trip playing gin for money. When they arrived in Washington, Holliday had won $600 from him, along with his undying friendship.

Holliday was so worried about jinxing her Oscar® chances she placed six different five dollar bets against herself.

Three weeks before the film's December 26 premiere, the reviewer for Tidings, a Catholic newspaper based in Los Angeles, jumped the gun with a scathing review of the film's political content. Inspired by Kanin's own liberal politics and the nation's rising tide of anti-Communist rhetoric, reviewer William H. Mooring, stated, "Never have human symbols been more subtly molded to carry destructive comment through disarming comedy." The notice, syndicated to Catholic papers around the country, triggered an uproar in Hollywood, with protests from even the most conservative members. Gossip columnist Louella Parsons countered, "If there are any pink ideas infiltrated into Born Yesterday, they are way over my head." By the time the film premiered, the controversy had blown over.

At the time Born Yesterday appeared, Holliday was listed in the anti-Communist publication Red Channels as a member of organizations charged as fronts for the Communist Party. As a result, the film was picketed by veterans in New York and New Jersey.

Judy Holliday listened to the Oscar® broadcast at a New York night club with Cukor and Swanson, who was appearing on Broadway at the time in Twentieth Century. When she won, on-lookers couldn't tell if Swanson wanted to congratulate her or kill her. After a failed attempt to make a speech for the press, interrupted by the broadcast of Ethel Barrymore's accepting the award on her behalf in Hollywood, Holliday returned to her table, where Swanson whispered to her, "Why couldn't you have waited until next year?"

MEMORABLE QUOTES FROM BORN YESTERDAY (1950)

"I wasn't only in the chorus. I spoke lines. I could have been a star probably if I'd stuck to it." -- Judy Holliday, as Billie Dawn, to Howard St. John, as Jim Devery

"A world full of ignorant people is too dangerous to live in." -- William Holden, as Paul Verrall

"Nobody's born smart, Billy. Do you know what the stupidest thing on Earth is? An infant!"
"Whadaya got against babies all of a sudden?"
"Nothing. I've got nothing against a brain that's three weeks old and empty. But, after it hangs around for 30 years and hasn't absorbed anything, I begin to wonder about it."
"What makes you think I'm 30?" -- Holden, as Paul Verrall, trying to interest Holliday, as Billie Dawn, in education

"Are you one of these talkers, or would you be innarested in a little action." -- Holliday, as Billie, coming on to Holden, as Paul

"One night I brought home a hundred dollars and gave it to him. Do you know what he did?... Well, it sure didn't do the plumbing no good." -- Holliday, describing her father's reaction to her good fortune as mistress of Broderick Crawford, as Harry Brock

"You're just not couth." -- Holliday, lording it over Crawford, as Harry Brock

"Look, when I say I want a whole floor, I don't want one wing, and I don't want two wings. I want the whole bird." -- Crawford, as Brock, lording it over a hotel employee

"You think you're so smart, huh -- what's a peninsula?"
"...That new medicine..." -- Crawford, trying to prove Holliday hasn't learned much.

"What have you been doing, standing over a hot resolution all day?" -- St. John, as Jim Devery, greeting Larry Oliver, as Congressman Hedges

"Would you do me a favor, Harry?"
"What?"
"Drop dead!" -- Holliday and Crawford.

"This country and its institutions belong to the people who inhibit it." -- Holliday, standing up to Broderick

"You an' your big numbers. You don't watch out, you'll be wearing one across yer chest." -- Holliday, responding to Crawford's attempt to bribe Holden

"What's goin, on around here?"
"A revolution." -- Broderick and St. John, as Devery

"To all the dumb chumps and all the crazy broads, past, present, and future, who thirst for knowledge and search for truth... who fight justice and civilize each other... and make it so tough for crooks like you...AND me." -- St. John, toasting Holliday and Holden

Compiled by Frank Miller