Editing Stage Door (section)

==Production==
===Development===
[[RKO Radio Pictures]] purchased film rights to the [[Stage Door (play)|stage play of the same name]] for $130,000.<ref name=TCMnotes/> The film only sparsely resembles the play, except in a few character names, such as Kay Hamilton, Jean Maitland, Terry Randall, Linda Shaw, and Judith Canfield. In the play, Terry Randall is from a rural family whose father is a country doctor, and Jean Maitland is actually a shallow girl who becomes a movie star. Kay Hamilton does commit suicide, but for completely different reasons and not on an opening night.

===Casting===
Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers were cast in lead roles, each for a respective salary of $75,000.<ref name=TCMnotes/> Rogers, who was a close friend of Lucille Ball, suggested Ball for the role of Judy Canfield to producer [[Pandro S. Berman]].<ref name=TCMnotes/> Ann Miller, who was cast in the supporting part of Annie, was only fourteen years old when she appeared in the film.<ref name=TCMarticles/>

[[Burgess Meredith]] was considered for a role in the film, and [[Douglas Fairbanks Jr.]] was also considered for the part of Tony Powell, which ultimately went to Adolphe Menjou.<ref name=TCMnotes>{{cite web|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/429/stage-door#notes|work=[[Turner Classic Movies]]|title= Stage Door (1937) – Notes|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120831150119/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/429/Stage-Door/notes.html|archive-date=August 31, 2012}}</ref> Andrea Leeds, who was cast as Kay Hamilton, was borrowed by RKO from her contract with [[The Samuel Goldwyn Company]].<ref name=TCMnotes/>

===Filming===
[[File:Old Vic Theatre, Waterloo Exterior Stage Door 2.jpg|thumb|150x150px]]
Principal photography for ''Stage Door'' began on June 7, 1937, and was completed on July 31, 1937.<ref name=AFI/> Director [[Gregory La Cava]] also allowed the actresses to ad lib and improvise dialogue during filming, which earned him praise from stars Leeds and Rogers.<ref name=TCMarticles/> Hepburn's famous lines during the play within the film, "The calla lilies are in bloom again. Such a strange flower, suitable to any occasion. I carried them on my wedding day and now I place them here in memory of something that has died," are from ''[[The Lake (play)|The Lake]]'' (1934), the play for which [[Dorothy Parker]] panned Hepburn's performance as "running the gamut of emotions from A to B."<ref>{{Cite web| url=https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/09/26/gamut-emotion/| title=She Runs the Gamut of Emotions from A to B| last=O'Toole| first=Garson| date=September 27, 2013| website=[[Quote Investigator]]| access-date=January 25, 2020}}</ref>