> "The show must go on" would have been a more appropriate motto for The Band Wagon shoot. Astaire's wife was seriously ill during the film's production, Jack Buchanan had to work his scenes around painful dental operations and Oscar Levant had his usual hypochondria increased by having an actual heart attack shortly before filming. One particularly difficult number was "Triplets." It required Astaire, Fabray and Buchanan to dance on their knees. Fabray later said, "it was just a long day of pain, terror and anxiety." On Broadway, "Triplets" had been performed by three very different looking actors and had failed. For the film, Michael Kidd made the three performers look exactly the same size by having specially made baby shoes fit over the performers' knees. Their real feet and legs were covered with black velvet stockings, and the set's floor was black. The actors then danced on their knees. It was so strenuous they could only perform 20 minutes at a time. Originally, the number was to have featured Astaire, Buchanan and Levant, but the latter claimed ill health and Nanette Fabray took his place. The day before it was filmed, Fabray had an accident shooting "Louisiana Hayride." She jumped onto a barrel that hadn't been properly reinforced and fell through, tearing up her leg. She was on Novocain while filming the trio number.

> The film's original cinematographer, George Folsey, had worked several times with director Vincente Minnelli and was used to his methods. But as Minnelli's perfectionism put the production behind schedule, Freed replaced Folsey with Harry Jackson, borrowed from 20th Century-Fox, in the hope that he could speed up Minnelli's production.

> Beyond economy, the production had to move quickly to finish with Buchanan before his three-month contract expired. To move things along faster Minnelli concentrated on dialogue scenes for a week, then handed production reins over to Kidd so he could stage "That's Entertainment!" and "Triplets."

>During rehearsals of "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan," Astaire and Buchanan were supposed to perform a series of tricks with their hats and walking sticks. They kept dropping them, however, which inspired the joke that ends the number, in which they fail to catch their hats, throw away their sticks and walk off arm in arm.

> "The Girl Hunt" ballet was the last number filmed. In contrast to the tense atmosphere on the set during the rest of the film, this sequence was a joy for all involved. Astaire was happy to be developing a new dancing character as the hard-boiled detective, and everyone seemed energized. Minnelli had promised producer Arthur Freed that he would shoot the ballet in three days, to keep costs down. Instead he finished it in seven at a cost of $314,475. The sequence ran 13 minutes.