Myrna Loy's character was based on Texas Guinan; she even utters Guinan's catchphrase "Give the little lady a big hand!"
Despite prominent billing on the title card, Jimmy Durante doesn't appear until 77 minutes into the film.
The Food Control Act mentioned in the film gave the president broad emergency powers to reroute food and fuel commodities to support American troops in World War I. It became law in 1917, shortly after the country's entry into the war. Although it was repealed in 1921, by allowing the president to redirect grains from the production of alcohol to the making of foodstuffs for troops, it served as an impetus for the 18th Amendment to the Constitution prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages in the U.S.
The film dramatized some of the reasons for, and some of the failures of, Prohibition. When the film was released in March 1932, Prohibition had been in effect for about 13 years. Prohibition had become controversial during the Great Depression when governments began to look for ways to replace plummeting tax revenues. It became an issue during the 1932 presidential election when Franklin D. Roosevelt promised to repeal it. After he was elected and took office, the 18th Amendment was repealed in December 1933 with the passage of the 21st Amendment.
The Volstead Act, which became the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, was passed into law over President Woodrow Wilson's veto on 18 Oct 1919. It was repealed by the Twenty-First Amendment on 5 Dec 1933.