Trivia for
Rosemary's Baby (1968)

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• The Dakota Building on Manhattan's Upper West Side was renamed The Bramford for the film.
  
  
• It was on the set of this film that Mia Farrow received divorce papers from then-husband Frank Sinatra.
  
  
• There was a popular belief that Alfred Hitchcock was originally offered the chance to direct this movie. This has been deemed false. The director was never approached.
  
  

• There is a popular rumor that Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey gave technical advice and portrayed Satan in the impregnation scene. This is false - LaVey had no involvement with the film.
  
  
• Oscar-nominated editor Sam O'Steen would later direct the sequel, Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby (1976) (TV).
  
  
• Directed by Roman Polanski, whose pregnant wife actress Sharon Tate was murdered in 1969 by Charles Manson and his followers, who titled their death spree "Helter Skelter" after the 1968 song by The Beatles, one of whose members, 'John Lennon,' would one day live (and in 1980 be murdered) in the Manhattan apartment building called The Dakota - where Rosemary's Baby had been filmed.
  
  
• There is a heatedly disputed rumor that Sharon Tate appears unbilled at the party Rosemary gives for her "young" friends.
  
  
• Mia Farrow does the vocals on the title-sequence lullaby.
  
  
• This was Roman Polanski's very first adaptation, and it is very faithful to the novel. Pieces of dialog, color schemes and clothes are taken verbatim.
  
  
• William Castle acquired the movie rights to the novel. Robert Evans of Paramount agreed to green-light the project if Castle did not direct. This was due to Castle's fame and reputation as a director of low budget horror films. Castle was allowed to make a prominent cameo appearance.
  
  
• According to Mia Farrow, the scenes where Rosemary walks in front of traffic were spontaneous and genuine. Roman Polanski is reported to have told her that "nobody will hit a pregnant woman."
  
  
• This film, along with Repulsion (1965) and Locataire, Le (1976), forms a loose trilogy by Roman Polanski about the horrors of apartment/city dwelling.
  
  
• This was Roman Polanski's first American film. His first American film was going to be Downhill Racer (1969), but Robert Evans of Paramount decided that "Rosemary's Baby" would be more suited to Polanski.
  
  
• Casting for Rosemary's Baby presented its own problems: Polanski at first saw Rosemary as an "All-American Girl" and sought Tuesday Weld for the lead, but she passed on the role. Jane Fonda was then approached, but turned down the offer so she could make _Barbarella (1968)_ in Europe with then- husband Roger Vadim. According to his memoirs, Polanski for a while had the idea of having his future wife Sharon Tate on the part of Rosemary, yet he desisted, thinking it would have been unethical. Other actresses considered for the part were Julie Christie, Elizabeth Hartman and Joanna Pettet. Robert Evans suggested Mia Farrow based on her TV work and her media appeal (at the time she was Mrs. Frank Sinatra). Both men wanted Robert Redford for the role of Guy Woodhouse, but negotiations broke down when Paramount's lawyers blundered by serving the actor with a subpoena over a contractual dispute regarding his pulling out of Silvio Narizzano's film Blue (1968). Other actors considered were Richard Chamberlain, Jack Nicholson and James Fox. Laurence Harvey begged to do it, Warren Beatty turned it down claiming "Hey! Can't I play Rosemary?", before the part was offered to John Cassavetes. For Minnie and Roman Castevet, William Castle suggested Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, the famous Broadway acting duo. He even tried to convince Polanski to let him play the part of Dr. Sapirstein, a role eventually filled by Ralph Bellamy.
  
  
• According to John Parker's recent biography of Jack Nicholson, Robert Evans suggested Nicholson to Polanski but, after their meeting, the director stated that "for all his talent, his slightly sinister appearance ruled him out".
  
  
• Mia Farrow actually ate raw liver for a scene in the movie.
  
  
• Roman Polanski was so faithful to the novel that he asked Ira Levin the date of the issue of the New Yorker in which Guy Woodhouse sees a shirt he wants. Levin confessed that he had made up the detail.
  
  
• The last movie of special effects creator Farciot Edouart.
  
  
• The devil costume that Anton LaVey was falsely rumored to have worn in the impregnation scene was later re-used in the film Asylum of Satan (1975). A small woman had difficulty fitting into the tiny suit.
  
  
• Cameo: [William Castle] man near phone booth.
  
  
• Cameo: ['Tony Curtis' ] voice on phone of the actor who is struck blind by a witch's curse so that Rosemary's husband can get an acting job.
  
  
• Rosemary (Mia Farrow) says to Terry Gionoffrio (Angela Dorian), "I thought you were Victoria Vetri, the actress," to which Terry responds, "Everyone says that, but I don't see the resemblance." Victoria Vetri is Angela Dorian's real name.
  
  
• A scene was shot on Broadway, where Mia Farrow's and Emmaline Henry's characters attend a show of The Fantasticks and meet Joan Crawford and Van Johnson playing themselves. Along with several other small scenes, it was left out due to time constrictions.
  
  
• Production chief Robert Evans has admitted that he simply used an offer to direct Downhill Racer (1969) to lure Roman Polanski from Europe. It was his intention to have Polanski direct this film all along.
  
  
• The script called for Rosemary (Mia Farrow) to explain to Guy (John Cassavetes), that she'd "been to Vidal Sassoon" for her dramatic new haircut. Thus, Vidal Sassoon was in fact flown to the set to arrange Mia Farrow's hair into the now iconic pixie cut she sports during the second half of the film. For the first part, she wears a blonde wig designed by famed stylist Sydney Guilaroff.
  
  
• Entertainment Weekly voted this the tenth scariest film of all time.
  
  
• The book that Rosemary reads in the cab is the Book of Ceremonial Magic, by A.E. Waite, Chapter IV: The Rituals Of Black Magic: Section 4: The Grimoire of Honorius. The italic section has been entered into the natural flow of the text; the previous paragraph has been shortened to make space for it.
  
  
• The movie's poster was as #21 of "The 25 Best Movie Posters Ever" by Premiere.
  
  
• When Rosemary receives the book "All of Them Witches," she is told that 'the name is an anagram.' At first she tries to rearrange the letters of the book's title, but then realizes that the clue referred to a name within the book. However, the title actually is an anagram for 'Hell a Cometh Swift.'
  
  
• In a scene where Rosemary is getting her blood drawn, Rosemary tells the doctor that she recently saw the off- Broadway show "The Fantasticks." In The Fantasticks, the parental figures in the story arrange and orchestrate a "rape" of the ingenue, by as dark devilish character (named El Gallo), so a young man can save her, in the hope of having the young girl fall in love with the young man, have them marry, and procreate.
  
  

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