The first full-length sound motion picture produced entirely in color.
Although this film was produced in two-strip Technicolor, all existing prints are black-and-white. A complete B&W version been preserved by the Library of Congress.
Approximately one minute of the original Technicolor footage was discovered in 2005 and preserved. The scene involves Jerry (Sam Hardy) going onstage in costume. Other color fragments were discovered in 2014.
Originally released with the sound track recorded on Vitaphone discs, a sound-on-film version was later released, which required the left side of the image to be cropped off in order to provide space for the optical track, a black and white version of which seems to be all that has survived, and is occasionally shown on Turner Classic Movies. The evidence of the left side being cropped to use the sound-on-film track can be obviously seen on the film's title page.
Josephine Huston sings "Let Me Have My Dreams" for both Betty Compson and Sally O'Neil, at various times in the production. Dubbing was not yet developed, so Huston sang the song off camera into a mike, while Compson and O'Neil mouthed the words for the camera. This trick may have been the inspiration for the climactic gag in Singin' in the Rain (1952).