Before starting in films, George Raft was a taxi dancer in New York, dancing with women at clubs for the "ten cents a dance". He was adept at all kinds of dance steps, including Spanish-style. One of his fellow dancers was a young Italian immigrant named Rudolph Valentino.
Nude model and burlesque dancer Sally Rand was paid $20,000 to appear in the film. Her popular nude fan dance ended up being immortalized forever.
Marice Ravel's symphonic orchestra composition "Bolero" premiered in Paris in 1929, which became the rage of the Parisienne concert stage. Adolf Zukor, in charge of the Hollywood Paramount Film Studios, from 1916-1936, demanded to own the "Bolero" music's film rights following the international success of "Bolero", assuming "Bolero" was an opera. Adolf Zukor didn't know he was not buying an opera. Upon the acquisition, of "Bolero," the story department had to come up with a scenario to use the title "Bolero" for a Paramount feature film.
One of over 700 Paramount productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned by Universal ever since.