The original Broadway production of "Hellzapoppin'" opened at the 46th Street Theater on September 22, 1938, and ran for 1404 performances--a considerable run for a Broadway show in the 1930s. The original theatrical run included moves to the Winter Garden Theater and the Majestic Theater. The comic team of Chic Johnson and Ole Olsen wrote and produced the review and served as emcees for the show. As with the movie, the Broadway show was a mix of absurdist comedy skits, comic musical numbers, walk-on comedians and audience participation. There were running gags, such as the woman who walked down the theater aisles shouting "Oscar!", and the man with the potted plant who shouted "Miss Jones!" (One gag from the Broadway show that did not make it into the movie was a woman in the audience who stood up several times and announced she was "just going to the bathroom"). The Harlem Congaroos--the Lindy Hop dance troupe that appears in the film--also appeared in the original Broadway show (although during the show's run, they were variously billed as Whitey's Steppers or Whitey's Lindy Hoppers).
The woman who walks through the movie set shouting "Oscar!" is Catherine Johnson, Chic Johnson's wife.
The film's Best Song nomination for "Pig Foot Pete" is a mystery. The song does not appear in Hellzapoppin' (1941), but did appear in Keep 'Em Flying (1941), a Bud Abbott and Lou Costello film that was made the same year by the same production company.
Stuntman Dale Van Sickel appears as the Frankenstein Monster in a gag cameo, making him the first person after Boris Karloff to portray the Monster on film.
Dan Rowan and Dick Martin cited this movie as the main inspiration for the style of their comedy show, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967).
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