Because The Champ was made before the repeal of Prohibition, Frances Marion set the story mostly in Tijuana. That prevented protests from reformers and censors, who might otherwise have objected to the title character's easy access to liquor.

Until the final scene, when "There's No Place Like Home" plays on the soundtrack, all of the music in the film comes from environmental sources.

According to Hollywood legend, when director King Vidor couldn't get tears out of Jackie Cooper for one scene, he pretended to fire assistant director Red Golden, a friend of the child star's, in order to get the child worked up. As soon as the scene was finished, Vidor rehired Golden as a "reward" to Cooper. In his memoirs, however, Cooper claims never to have liked Golden.

Another legend surrounds Wallace Beery's Oscar® win. Minutes before the end of voting, actress and gossip columnist Hedda Hopper raced into the Motion Picture Academy®'s offices to hand in her ballot. As a friend of MGM head Louis B. Mayer, who had helped her land her job as a columnist in an effort to diminish rival columnist Louella Parsons's power, she most likely had voted for Beery. Some insisted she had actually run in to deliver her ballot at Mayer's personal request, to make sure Beery won. If she did vote for him, her last-minute ballot put him within one vote of winner Fredric March for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), who was the actual winner. Under Academy® rules at that time (since changed), the results were considered a tie.

By Frank Miller