The lead role was intended for Lanny Ross, but Bing Crosby was cast because he was the more popular star instead. In fact, the songs were also selected especially for Ross, even though Crosby sings them in the final cut.
The story is set in 1851, the year that Stephen Foster composed "Old Folks at Home" (later more popularly known as "Swanee River"). The riverboat piano player tells Commodore Jackson, who says he's never heard it before, that the song is new.
One of over 700 Paramount productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since; its earliest documented telecast took place in Pittsburgh Wednesday 8 July 1959 on KDKA (Channel 2); it was released on DVD 10 November 2010 as one of six titles in the Bing Crosby Collection, part of the Universal Backlot Series, and again 11 November 2014 as one of 24 titles in Universal's Bing Crosby Silver Screen Collection.
When Bing Crosby was cast, he requested another song be added. However, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart had already returned to New York. The song, "It's Easy To Remember", was composed by the duo back east and they then sent a demo record back to Hollywood. It wound up becoming the film's biggest hit.
Booth Tarkington's story was actually a play, "Magnolia," which opened at the Liberty Theatre in New York on 27 August 1923 and closed in October 1923 after 40 performances. In the opening night cast were Leo Carrillo as "Tom" and Elizabeth Patterson as "Madame Rumford."