The New York production of "Lost in the Stars" by Maxwell Anderson as librettist and Kurt Weill as composer opened at the Music Box Theater in New York on October 30, 1949 and closed July 1, 1950, running for 281 performances.
The anti-Apartheid themes of the film and its source materials meant that it couldn't be filmed in South Africa, and was instead shot near Cottage Grove, a small town in Oregon located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, about 120 miles south of Portland.
This is the only film in the American Film Theater series to get a G rating from the MPAA.
Apartheid, which translates to "separateness", was a system of government instituted and controlled racial segregation that existed in South Africa and Namibia (then South West Africa) from 1948 until it was repealed on June 17, 1991. Apartheid was designed to ensure that the South Africa was controlled economically, politically and socially by the nation's minority white population. According to the social hierarchy white citizens has the highest status, followed by the Indian citizens who were descended from indentured servants and workers, then Coloureds which was the term for South Africans who had ancestry from other regions like Spain, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia or the South Pacific, then finally black South Africans. There were laws in place that segregated public buildings and places like parks and beaches, which created white only areas and black only areas. There were also laws preventing cross-racial marriage, and even cross-racial sexual intercourse of any kind, violation was punishable by at least seven years in prison for each person.
Apartheid started facing heavy resistance in the 1980's by the African National Congress, and efforts of people like Nelson Mandela after he was released from prison in 1990. After Apartheid ended in 1991 and black South Africans were finally allowed to participate in politics this led to the first multiracial elections in April of 1994 when Mandela was elected the 1st President of South Africa.
Apartheid started facing heavy resistance in the 1980's by the African National Congress, and efforts of people like Nelson Mandela after he was released from prison in 1990. After Apartheid ended in 1991 and black South Africans were finally allowed to participate in politics this led to the first multiracial elections in April of 1994 when Mandela was elected the 1st President of South Africa.