FILM · 1969 · USA
Sweet Charity
40 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (40)
- #001
The production was shooting on the day Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Actress Paula Kelly was so upset that she could not work. Director/choreographer Bob Fosse, who was deeply passionate about making the film, did not fully understand this, but he still let everyone go home early.
- #002
Although she was not credited in the titles, Gwen Verdon was the assistant choreographer on the 1969 film version of Sweet Charity.
- #003
The actress who was Shirley MacLaine's dance partner but was not credited in the titles later became a famous porn actress under the stage name Georgina Spelvin.
- #004
This was Chita Rivera's first film. She played "Nickie" in the film, although she had previously played "Charity" on the national tour.
- #005
During the shoot, Shirley MacLaine, Chita Rivera and Paula Kelly grew very close. MacLaine wrote that dancing with them was like being between two disciplined and well-oiled steamrollers.
- #006
Shirley MacLaine was working with a painful, infected tooth that required a root canal, but she was so skilled that she kept it a secret to avoid disrupting the production. She wrote that she was in so much pain that she did not even remember Bob Fosse filming one of his grueling dance numbers.
- #007
Shirley MacLaine wrote that Gwen Verdon, who had starred in the Broadway show, suggested that she take the lead in the film version. After MacLaine got the role, Verdon generously coached her on her performance.
- #008
For US film posters in various sizes, Universal painted John McMartin's grey hair black, seemingly to make him look younger.
- #009
Although this very expensive film version of the Broadway hit was expected to be very popular, it became one of Universal's biggest flops of the late 1960s. Director Bob Fosse, for whom it was his first film, was deeply saddened by it.
- #010
Shirley MacLaine advised Universal Pictures president Lew Wasserman to hire Bob Fosse to direct the film. Fosse had directed and choreographed the Broadway version. Verdon, who played Charity in Fosse's original Broadway musical, wanted to reprise the lead, but approved MacLaine starring in the film because she was a recognizable movie star.
- #011
Original producer Ross Hunter left the film after a disagreement with director Bob Fosse over how to handle the racy story. Robert Arthur was brought in to replace him.
- #012
John McMartin was nominated for the 1966 Tony Award (New York City) for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for "Sweet Charity" and recreated his role in the film version.
- #013
Chita Rivera, who played Nickie, had previously played the role of Charity on the national tour.
- #014
Gwen Verdon's Tony-nominated Broadway performance of the number "If My Friends Could See Me Now" was recorded live on The Ed Sullivan Show (The Ed Sullivan Show (1948)) before this film was made. It can be viewed on YouTube.
- #015
Suzanne Charny is the lead dancer of the nightclub in her first feature film.
- #016
Gwen Verdon was nominated for the 1966 Tony Award (New York City) for Best Actress in a Musical for "Sweet Charity" for the lead role.
- #017
Ben Vereen's first film came with the role of "Dancer," singing in the nightclub scene.
- #018
The original Broadway production of "Sweet Charity" opened on 29 January 1966 at the Palace Theatre, ran for 608 performances and was nominated for the 1966 Tony Award for Best Musical. John McMartin reprises his role in the film.
- #019
The dance number for "Big Spender" inspired the dance routine in En Vogue's music video for "My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)."
- #020
Sweet Charity was among the 400 films nominated for the American Film Institute's 2002 list of the 100 greatest American love stories.
- #021
Advertisements for this 1969 film proclaimed it the first musical of the 1970s.
- #022
Marie Wallace originated the role of Ursula in the original Broadway production.
- #023
Chita Rivera and Paula Kelly, who appeared in the London stage production of the show, have supporting roles in the film. John McMartin was the only lead actor to reprise his role from the Broadway version.
- #024
Peggy Lee had a popular version of "Big Spender."
- #025
Because of the combination of dance movements used in a street scene, the film is regarded as an excellent introduction to more rigorous physical training in the martial arts. The choreography can be ranked as training in Tai Chi Chuan, Hsing Yi, kickboxing and some Silat skills. The precision used in its performance was filmed more clearly than the equivalent scenes in West Side Story (1961).
- #026
"Big Spender" was included in the American Film Institute's 2004 list of the 100 greatest pieces of American film music, drawn from a list of 400 nominated films.
- #027
The stage version had a cast of 29 people, some of whom played about six roles, while the film had a cast of roughly 500 people who spent 12 weeks in New York around Wall Street, Central Park and Yankee Stadium; the garage scene on stage was done using two or three tires, some empty oil cans and two half-cars and three or four dancers, while for the film about 50 cars and 50 dancers, including Sammy Davis Jr., were used.
- #028
At the beginning of the nightclub scene, Cleopatra (1934), starring Claudette Colbert, is visible on the large screen in the background.
- #029
This was Lee Roy Reams's first film, in the role of "Dancer."
- #030
This was Chelsea Brown's first film, listed in the credits as "Dancer" without being named.
- #031
At a cost of $85,000, a replica of a section of New York's Central Park was built on Universal's back lot, while the actual shooting took place in New York at Lincoln Center, Sutton Place, Wall Street and 5th Avenue.
- #032
I. A. L. Diamond, who wrote the screenplays for The Apartment (1960) and Irma la Douce (1963), both starring Shirley MacLaine and co-written and directed by Billy Wilder, was initially hired as screenwriter, but he too quit the job because of disagreements with Bob Fosse and was replaced by Peter Stone.
- #033
"If My Friends Could See Me Now" was included in the American Film Institute's 2004 list of the 100 greatest pieces of American film music, drawn from a list of 400 nominated films.
- #034
This was Louise Quick's debut, in the role of "Dancer" without being named in the credits.
- #035
The show Sweet Charity was based on Federico Fellini's film Nights of Cabiria (1957).
- #036
John McMartin was a close friend of Jack Cassidy and Shirley Jones. He is Shaun Cassidy's godfather.
- #037
The film stars Shirley MacLaine, with John McMartin, Chita Rivera, Paula Kelly, Stubby Kaye, Ricardo Montalban, Sammy Davis Jr. and Barbara Bouchet. Adapted from the 1966 stage musical of the same name, the film was again directed and choreographed by Fosse. That musical was in turn based on the screenplay by Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano and Tullio Pinelli for Fellini's Nights of Cabiria (1957). While Fellini's film concerns the romantic ups and downs of an ever-hopeful prostitute, the musical turns the main character into a dance-hall hostess for hire in Times Square.
- #038
Sweet Charity was Bob Fosse's first feature-length directing effort.
- #039
Sweet Charity (1969), whose full title is Sweet Charity: The Adventures of a Girl Who Wanted to Be Loved, is an American musical comedy-drama film directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse in his first feature-length directing effort, written by Peter Stone, with music by Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields. The film's costumes were designed by Edith Head.
- #040
Bud Cort made an early appearance in Bob Fosse's 1969 musical film Sweet Charity as a "flower child" or hippie extra, without appearing in the title sequence.
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