The boisterous Tugboat Annie character first appeared in a series of stories in the Saturday Evening Post written by the author Norman Reilly Raine which were supposedly based on the life of Thea Foss of Tacoma, Washington.[2] There is also a theory that her character is loosely based on Kate A. Sutton, secretary and dispatcher for the Providence Steamboat Company during the 1920s.[3]
Tugboat Annie also features Robert Young and Maureen O'Sullivan as the requisite pair of young lovers. Captain Clarence Howden piloted Annie's tugboat "Narcissus" (real name Wallowa), which was owned by Foss Tug and Barge of Tacoma and had been leased to MGM for the film. Howden's son Richard Howden is seen rolling rope during the credits.
Filmed in Seattle, Washington, Tugboat Annie used local residents as extras, including then-mayor John F. Dore.[4] The tugboat used in the film, renamed Arthur Foss in 1934, is the oldest wooden tugboat afloat in the world and remains preserved by Northwest Seaport in Seattle.[5]
The film earned $1,917,000 in rentals in the United States and Canada and $655,000 overseas for a total of $2,572,000[1]
and made a profit of $1.1 million.[6]
In the original 1967 version of The Producers, after Roger De Bris mentions as to why he's wearing a dress, due to him going to the choreographer ball, he claims that he looks more like the character when he is supposed to be "The Grand Dutchess Anastasia".
