My Fair Lady/Trivia


 * Author Allusion: In the Film, near the beginning we get a glimpse of Henry Higgins' notebook, which he's using to transcribe people's accents. It's unreadable... unless you understand the Shavian alphabet, whose creation was funded by George Bernard Shaw.
 * Dawson Casting: Audrey Hepburn was in her mid-thirties when she played the 21-year-old Eliza in the film adaptation.
 * The life of an apparently quite poor flower girl in those days probably would have aged the character of Eliza beyond her years; in this case, Dawson Casting may have been justified.
 * Furthermore, Audrey Hepburn has always looked younger than she actually was.
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Eliza is followed home by Sherlock Holmes who then proceeds to sing in the street for several days.
 * Non-Singing Voice: Marni Nixon did most of Audrey Hepburn's singing for the movie; this is at least partially responsible for the Award Snub mentioned above. And no, Marni Nixon's name appeared nowhere in the original credits.
 * However, when video of Hepburn's original vocal performances was released in the 1990's, many fans found Nixon's overdubbing to be completely unnecessary.
 * Also, Jeremy Brett as Freddy was dubbed by Bill Shirley (AKA Roger (singing) and Prince Philip).
 * Out of all of them, Brett was the one who could sing. Look him up on YouTube. But his singing voice was thought too mature for Freddy.
 * Rex Harrison couldn't actually sing either, but he developed a sort of recitative to compensate.
 * Julie Andrews could sing the songs just fine; after all she effectively created the role of Eliza both on Broadway and letter in London. She was passed over for the film because the producers insisted on having a big box-office name in the cast. My Fair Lady won three of the four headline Oscars (along with several others) but missed out on Best Actress, which went to Julie Andrews for Mary Poppins.
 * What Could Have Been: When Twentieth Century Fox hired Don Bluth to direct an animated movie for them, they said he could helm an Animated Adaptation of either My Fair Lady, or Marcelle Maurette's Anastasia. Bluth picked the latter.