Elia Kazan and Budd Schulberg spent months researching the advertising world, even gaining access to ad agency meetings, in order to understand the way Madison Avenue approaches and shapes the thinking of the American public.
Lee Remick, making her film debut as the sexy baton twirler, showed up at the set three weeks early, so she could train with the local high school's majorettes.
When it came to casting, Elia Kazan selected several "people from Nashville; Lonesome Rhodes' friend who twitches his toes, he's from the Grand Ole Opry, a regular comedian there. We went around a lot of clubs, picking up entertainers. I had heard Andy Griffith on record, then I saw him on TV . . . He was the real native American country boy and that comes over in the picture. I had him drunk all through the last big scene because it was the only way he could be violent. In life, he wants to be friends with everybody."
To underscore the sway of television media in America, Elia Kazan incorporated several cameos by well-known media personalities, including Sam Levenson, John Cameron Swayze, Mike Wallace, Earl Wilson and Walter Winchell.
Burl Ives: Actor and musician, just prior to the middle of the film, when Walter Matthau's character enters the bar.
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