Trivia for
The Crowd (1928) More at IMDbPro »

• The first American film to show a toilet.
  
  
• King Vidor filmed many scenes in New York City streets using real crowds instead of extras, real buses and trains, and even real traffic cops. In one scene, a police officer is looking toward the camera, admonishing someone to "move along". In fact, he was actually addressing Vidor and his disguised film crew. Vidor cleverly incorporated it into the scene.
  
  
• King Vidor shot nine different endings before settling on the one used in the finished film, because MGM did not like to release films without a positive ending.
  
  
• While MGM liked the script they thought it was there was very little chance it would turn a profit. Despite the risk head of production at the studio, Irving Thalberg, let King Vidor film this as a pet project because King had made many successful pictures for the studio and had made a lot of money. The film's gross would double the actual cost of production.
  
  
• Despite the widespread critical and mild box office success, MGM head Louis B. Mayer despised the picture partly because of the depressing theme but mainly because he thought it was obscene due to the bathroom scene that featured a toilet.
  
  

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