The carousel used in the Coney Island sequence was built for the film at a cost of $35,000 ($742,000 in 2022). Marion Davies kept it for her Santa Monica (CA) home after filming wrapped.
The elaborate musical numbers were filmed on Stage 7 (now Stage 16) at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, CA. To accommodate the enormous sets, the roof and walls of the structure were raised an additional 35 feet. The project, costing $300,000 in 1936 dollars ($6.36M in 2022), was paid for by William Randolph Hearst.
Clark Gable had to shave his (by then) trademark mustache for Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) and was kept clean-shaven for this film. He grew his mustache back for San Francisco (1936).
Now at Warners, Marion Davies requested and got Clark Gable as her co-star, even though he was under contract at MGM, her old studio. She had her lover William Randolph Hearst personally ask studio boss Jack L. Warner to get the deal done.
Often cited as being a box-office flop, grosses reported in the trades show that the film was quite popular and did especially well in cities.