Based on a short story, Memorial To A Bad Man, by George Bradshaw it was originally published in February of 1951 in The Ladies Home Journal and it was reportedly about legendary Broadway producer Jed Harris.<br /><br />Film producer John Houseman and director Vincent Minnelli convinced MGM production chief Dore Schary to switch the story to Hollywood partly because the film ALL ABOUT EVE had covered Broadway territory so well just two years earlier. And with the movie industry in decline (because of TV) Houseman thought it was ripe for a story about a producer from the Golden Days facing a new era. He also found a parallel between the multiple flashbacks and the most famous film he worked on, CITIZEN KANE.<br /><br />Hollywood excels at revealing stories about its self, think of SUNSET BLVD. (made just two years earlier), SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (made the same year as The Bad And The Beautiful), WHAT PRICE Hollywood (1932), SHOW PEOPLE (1928), A STAR IS BORN (1937, 1954 & 1976) and mostly recently Robert Altman's THE PLAYER (1992).<br /><br />Rumors speculate that (now 92 years old) Kirk Douglas' character "Jonathan Shields" is loosely based on producer David O. Selznick who's own father Lewis J. Selznick was an early giant in the film industry. After the collapse of his father's empire and bankruptcy, young David starred his career over, from the bottom as a proof reader slowly working his way up to producing and winning Oscars for both GWTW & REBECCA.<br /><br />Lovely Lana Turner's character "Georgia Larisson" is supposedly based on the now nearly forgotten Diana Barrymore trying to make a name for herself away from her father, the legendary John Barrymore. Today her niece Drew Barrymore is doing a fine job of carrying on the family tradition. Lana Turner plays an actor whose career started as a movie extra. Turner started her own career as an extra in A Star Is Born (1937). TRIVIA: Lana Turner thought it would be nice if her own personal hairdresser Helen Young and make-up man Del Armstrong appear in the films as themselves and they do! Dick Powell's character "James Lee Bartlow" was said to be inspired by legendary southern writer – F. Scott Fitzgerald and University of Virginia graduate & later UV instructor -- William Faulkner. And Gloria Grahame won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress playing Powell's wife "Rosemary Bartlow" who was based on fiery Southern belle Zelda Fitzgerald.<br /><br />Barry Sullivan's character of the director is inspired by Val Lewton and the low budget horror film he and Douglas make is obviously a rip off of The Cat People.<br /><br />Houseman and Minnelli were considering a character actor from the studio's supporting ranks for the role of producer Harry Pebbel when Walter Pidgeon put in a bid for the role. When told he seemed too suave and debonair to play the seedy producer, he showed up in Minnelli's office wearing a crew-cut wig and a poorly fitted suit and they said that's it! And he won the role.<br /><br />Leo G. Carroll's brief appearance as a "demanding" director is a thinly veiled reference to Alfred Hitchcock. When he first came to Hollywood, Hitchcock was under contract to producer David O. Selznick for years. Carroll had roles in many Hitchcock films of this era. The character played by Kathleen Freeman was based on Alfred Hitchcock's wife, Alma Reville.<br /><br />THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL was the first of four films director Vincent Minnelli would make with Kirk Douglas, the others were THE STORY OF THREE LOVES, TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN & LUST FOR LIFE.