Standard Oil founder Henry Morrison Flagler established Palm Beach as a playground for the rich when he built a mansion on the barrier island off Florida's East coast in 1902. The parties he threw there helped establish the island as a winter getaway. He also built two lavish hotels there, the Royal Poinciana Hotel and the Breakers Hotel as travel destinations for the well to do. Prominent residents over the years have included Madeleine Astor, World War I hero Billy Bishop, singer Jimmy Buffet, writer William S. Burroughs, Jr., the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, broker E.F. Hutton, Michael Jackson, John Lennon, actress Dina Merrill, architect Addison Mizner, Marjorie Merriweather Post, singer Rod Stewart, Donald and Ivana Trump and Vera Wang.

The leading characters' names, Tom and Gerry, are a reference to the popular cat and mouse team introduced by the MGM Animation Department in 1941.

The name of J.D. Hackensacker III's yacht, The Erl King, seems on the surface a reference to German literature but is actually a disguised reference to John D. Rockefeller, often called "The Oil King."

When The Palm Beach Story opened, the same executives who had tried to keep Preston Sturges from casting Rudy Vallee signed him to a multi-picture contract for $2,500 a week. He would also star in three more of Sturges's movies: The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947), Unfaithfully Yours (1948) and The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend (1949).

Vallee and Claudette Colbert repeated their roles in a 30 minute radio adaptation broadcast by The Screen Guild Theatre in 1943.

By Frank Miller