Trivia and Quotes
Trivia
 Director Cameo: [David Swift] The fireman shown shooing the small boy off a ladder after the a boiler accident at the Harrington House Orphanage. According to director David Swift, after looking at 362 girls for the part of Pollyanna, they still did not have anyone to play the part. One day, Walt Disney`s wife Lilly went shopping with Disney studio head Bill Anderson`s wife while they were in London on business. The two ladies saw Hayley Mills in Tiger Bay (1959) and thought she was perfect for the role of Pollyanna. The two men didn`t listen to them, but they were so persistent that the men finally agreed to watch the movie and immediately decided to cast Hayley.
Roy Disney, studio business head and brother to Walt, issued thousands of "Pollyanna Photo Locket Necklaces" as a promotional item containing the famous quote attributed to Lincoln in the movie. Discovering the necklace in a gift shop while on vacation with his family, director/screenwriter David Swift called the studio to have the item recalled immediately. Lincoln never said, "When you look for the bad in mankind expecting to find it, you surely will." Swift had simply made it up.
Apart from playing Jimmy Bean, Kevin Corcoran also did the narration for the Storybook Recording - a record that came packed inside the back cover of a softcover storybook you could read while listening to the record. Two of the songs that were dropped from the movie - "Pollyanna" and "The Glad Game" - were also included on the Storybook Recording.
The Orphanage house is still on the Warner Bros back-lot and sits next to the house used in Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988).
Patty Duke auditioned for the plum part of Pollyanna.
Director/screenwriter David Swift had wanted to trim the overlong film by about 20 minutes and rearrange some scenes (most notably the acquisition of the doll in the town bazaar sequence) but Disney, who fell in love with the film by watching the dailies, would not allow it and Swift did not have final cut privileges.
Hayley Mills` first filmed scene was with Karl Malden: Reverend Ford is practicing his sermon in an open field. Distracted and losing her concentration, Mills hadn`t got anything "in the can" by the time cast and crew broke for lunch. Her father, the actor, `John Mills`, took her aside to ask what was wrong. "Do you know what you are like?" he said. "You are like a great big white cabbage! Yes, really boring. Go on, pull your finger out." The afternoon`s shooting went fine, but it was a long hot day "and Karl, I remember, got awfully sunburned. I always felt rather responsible."
Adolphe Menjou`s last film.
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