Trivia / Summer of '42

• Ability over Appearance: Robert Mulligan intended to audition actresses no younger than 30 to play Dorothy. Jennifer O'Neill was only 22 and her agent begged them to let her audition. She won the part naturally. For what it's worth, Herman Raucher had no idea of the real woman's age.
• Banned in China: Banned in Ireland for the scene where Hermie is seen buying contraceptives — which were illegal in Ireland until 1980. And the movie was shown uncut there that year.
• …But I Play One on TV: Jennifer O'Neill jokes that people often thought she herself lived in 1942 (she wasn't born until 1948).
• California Doubling: Shot in California, because Nantucket Island was too modernized to pass for the 1940s.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • Jennifer O'Neill was kept apart from the three boys so there would be a natural feeling of unfamiliarity during their scenes.
  • The film was largely shot in chronological order to allow the actors to grow into their characters.
• I Am Not Spock:
  • Jennifer O'Neill has acknowledged in interviews that despite appearing in more than thirty other movies, and being a model and spokesperson for CoverGirl for years, she will always be best known as Dorothy.
  • Gary Grimes had a couple of other notable roles, but he too is best known for being Hermie.
• No Budget: Made for just $1 million.
• Real-Life Relative: Katherine Allentuck plays Aggie, Miriam's friend and Hermie's movie date; her mother, Maureen Stapleton, provides The Voice of Hermie's mom in an Uncredited Role.
• Reclusive Artist: Gary Grimes (Hermie) retired from acting at a young age and rarely gives interviews.
• Self-Adaptation: Herman Raucher also wrote a novelization of the script. The book mention's Oscy's death in Korea, which is left out of the film. The book also provides full names for the characters and clarifies that new people bought Dorothy's house after she left.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: Dorothy's Toplessness from the Back was a compromise due to Jennifer O'Neill's reluctance to do nudity.
• Sleeper Hit: The studio were convinced that no one would see the film, and they even fended off paying Herman Raucher for his script by promising him 10% of the gross. They also had him write a novelization and release it first to drum up interest. The book became a bestseller—so much so that the trailers for the film promoted it as an adaptation. Its gross was $32 million.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Herman Raucher originally intended to write this as a tribute to his childhood friend Oscar "Oscy" Seltzer, who'd gotten killed in The Korean War. But as he started to reminisce about this period in his life, he decided that his experience with Dorothy was the more interesting story to tell, and Oscy was shunted to a supporting role.
  • According to Jennifer O'Neill's autobiography, before she was cast as Dorothy (and the director was considering older actresses), the leading contender was Barbra Streisand.
  • Warner Bros. has repeatedly tried to buy back the rights to remake the movie, which Herman Raucher has declined. Jennifer O'Neill has stated that she feels the 1988 film Stealing Home was an attempted remake.
  • Jennifer O'Neill herself attempted to get an alternate sequel made, ignoring Class of '44. This story would be an alternate history in which Oscy survived Korea, and Hermie divorced his wife in 1962 to reunite with Dorothy and eventually marry her. It was planned to be produced by the Lifetime network, but nothing ever materialised.
• Word of Saint Paul: Jennifer O'Neill feels that Dorothy was caught up in the particular moment when Hermie arrived at the house. In her mind, had he shown up the next morning or even "an hour later", the sex wouldn't have happened.

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