The film was based on a stage musical called The Gay Divorce, which had to undergo certain revisions for its transfer to the screen, not least to the title which, as Halliwell notes…

‘…gained an extra ‘e’ in deference to the Hays Office’s feeling that divorces should never be gay.’

The genuine Astaire-Rogers musicals, all made at RKO, began with The Gay Divorcee (1934), and continued with Roberta (1935), Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), Swing Time (1936), Shall We Dance? (1937), Carefree (1938) and The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939). 
     They returned to the screen in 1948, rather unsuccessfully, for MGM’s The Barkleys of Broadway.

Some of the most famous songs from the Golden Age are to be found in the Astaire-Rogers musicals.  Irving Berlin contributed ‘Cheek to Cheek’ and the title song from Top Hat, as well as ‘Let’s Face the Music and Dance’ from Follow the Fleet.  Gershwin chipped in with ‘Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off’ and ‘They Can’t Take That Away From Me’ from Shall We Dance, and Jerome Kern supplied ‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes’ for Roberta, and ‘A Fine Romance’ and the Oscar-winning ‘The Way You Look Tonight’ for Swing Time.

Brightbourne, for those who don’t know, is a fictional place contracting the names of two English seaside towns, Brighton and Eastbourne.