Trivia and Other Fun Stuff on IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO YOU

The original working title for It Should Happen to You was A Name For Herself.

By the time she made It Should Happen to You Judy Holliday was already recognized as a unique comic presence in films, having won the Best Actress Oscar® for her hilarious portrayal of Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday (1950), a role she first played to great acclaim on the Broadway stage. Though attractive, Holliday was no glamour queen and constantly battled a weight problem. A few months prior to shooting It Should Happen to You the actress had given birth to a son, Jonathan, and was still "thirty pounds over what her camera weight should have been," requiring her to crash diet. Although sensitive about her weight, Holliday also had a sense of humor about it too, recalling a photo shoot in which she was to appear in some glamour shots for the Columbia publicity department. "Look sexy," the photographer said. She tried to oblige, but he kept demanding, "Sexy! Sexier!" In desperation, she asked him what he had been eating recently. He mentioned a thick, sizzling steak, an onion soup with croutons and lots of cheese, a cold pasta salad, strawberry shortcake. Judy's mouth began to water and her eyes became liquid. "That's the look I want!" the photographer shouted (from Judy Holliday by Gary Carey).

Columbia Pictures was so pleased by the Judy Holliday/ Jack Lemmon pairing, they rushed them into another picture the same year. The film was the oddly-titled Phffft! (1954), written by George Axelrod and directed by Mark Robson. As with It Should Happen to You New York City is the backdrop. Columbia starlet Kim Novak and comedy mainstay Jack Carson join in for this minor farce, an unofficial update of The Awful Truth (1937).

The 16mm movie that Pete makes for Gladys contains synchronized sound, as well as dissolves and stop-motion animated special effects. The lab bill alone for such a film would have been a fortune, far beyond Pete's means.

The topic for the panel show on which Gladys appears was "At what age should a girl marry?" One of Gladys' fellow panelists is real-life former actress Constance Bennett, who was 16 at the time of her first marriage.

The song "Let's Fall in Love", which Holliday and Lemmon sing as a duet, was written almost 20 years earlier by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler.

Look for a brief cameo by up-and-coming actor John Saxon in the Central Park sequence.

By John Miller

Famous Quotes from IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO YOU

Gladys (Judy Holliday): What's the idea?
Pete (Jack Lemmon): It's my business - documentaries. I make movies, only they're about real things - people, places, things - this one I'm working on now is about Central Park.
Gladys: Well, I'm glad you think I'm a real thing.

Pete: Well, so long Gladys. (Shakes her hand, then pauses and kisses it). I saw a fellow do that in a French movie last week. I've been meaning to try it ever since.

(Painters are painting "CLOVER," not "GLOVER" on Gladys' sign)
Gladys: Hey sign painters, Listen! "G!" Not "C" like you got it, "G" like you haven't got it!

Landlady: I hear you have a, uh, a movie machine in there.
Pete: That's right. You play your cards right, I'll show you some fascinating documentaries someday.
Landlady: Don't do me no favors.

Madison Avenue Executive: There's no reason for you to be unreasonable.
Gladys: I don't think I'm unreasonable.
Madison Avenue Executive: You don't?
Gladys: No, I think I'm reasonable. You're the ones that are UN.

Pete: What's the point of it? In the first place, everybody can't be above the crowd, can they?
Gladys: No, but everybody can try if they want to.
Pete: But why isn't it more important to learn how to be a part of the crowd?

(Mob at Macy's forms around Gladys)
Customer: Who is it?
Pete: Nobody - Believe me!

TV Announcer: And here she is, the gal who believes in signs!

(On a panel show on the subject "At what age should a girl marry?")
Ilka Chase: Gladys, what do you think?
Gladys: Well, I think If they're big enough, they're old enough.

Photographer: Give us a smile - Keep it "Glover"!

Gladys: Please don't be nasty, I'm so tired.
Pete: Well, you're not too tired to see 'Junior' down there.
Gladys: Listen, Pete - I'm over 21.
Pete: From the neck down, yeah.

Gladys: The way it looks to me, Mr. Adams, there are two kinds of people - the ones who will do anything to make a name for themselves, and the ones who will do almost anything.

Mr. Clint (Michael O'Shea, Gladys' press agent): You're just a nobody that I've blown up into a property.
Gladys: You haven't done so much, Mr. Clint. You just made me into some kind of a freak.
Mr. Clint: You were a freak when I first ran into ya. Only I've been showing you how to cash in on it, that's all.

Gladys (repeating Pete): It isn't just making a name - what's that? It's making the name stand for something - even one block, instead of for nothing all over the world.

Compiled by John Miller