The director's name of "Anthony Anguish" is a play on the title of a Warner Brothers' film released the previous decade - Anthony Adverse (1936) starring Fredric March and Olivia de Havilland.
The book Joe McDoakes is reading, "How to Win Parts and Influence Casting Directors", is a play on the famous self-help book written in1936 by Dale Carnegie, "How to Win Friends and Influence People".
Actor and future President Ronald Reagan is referred to by the narrator as "Ronnie" Reagan as he walks through the studio streets.