The film had a special preview on February 10, 1940 in Port Huron, Michigan, the place where Thomas Edison spent his childhood.
"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on
December 23, 1940 with Mickey Rooney and Virginia Weidler reprising their film roles.
At the time he starred in this, Mickey Rooney was literally the #1 box office attraction in America, having toppled Shirley Temple from the top spot in 1939. He would spend a total of 3 years atop the Top Ten Box Office Stars list before his appeal began to fade in 1942.
Like many a Hollywood biopic of its era, this film is loaded with fallacies, fabrications and purely fictional incidents. But it also, like many biographies of the time, it was a sizable box office hit.
The film was the first of a two Edison biopics that MGM released in 1940. "Edison, the Man" starring Spencer Tracy, followed two months later, completing the two-part story of Edison's life.