Director Robert Gist had a small acting role in the 1958 film adaptation of Norman Mailer's novel, The Naked and the Dead (1958). "An American Dream" and Mailer's own adaptation of Tough Guys Don't Dance (1987) have been the only other Mailer novels filmed to date, though a number of other films have been based on Mailer's nonfiction books.
Cherry's hotel is inside the interchange ramps between Interstates 10 and 110. It was built in 1925 and as of 2020 still stands as an apartment building.
Executive Producer William Conrad was a successful actor starring in Cannon (1971) (120 episodes) and Jake and the Fatman (1987) (103 episodes), as well as appearing as a supporting character in movies & on TV. He was a skilled voice actor and provided narration & character voices for The Bullwinkle Show (1959), under its varied titles, among countless animated other shows.
Les Crane, who plays Ganucci's nephew, was an actual late-night talk-show host whose ABC series had come to an end just before this film began production.