When Eddie is looking around Ruby's apartment, waiting for his clothes to dry, he spots a pennant on the wall that says "Albany Night Boat." That refers to the steamships that would depart New York City in the early evening for an overnight trip up the Hudson River to Albany. The ships had hundreds of staterooms and often were used---as the film's contemporary audience would know---for romantic getaways or illicit affairs. The pillow Eddie sees next also may have been a souvenir from the ship, as it's inscribed, "We're here to-day/To-morrow we're through/So let's be gay/It is up to you." Such trips peaked in the early 20th century, but started to decline in the 1930s when less costly, speedier, and more efficient modes of transportation by rail and automobile came to the fore. By the 1940s, the Albany Night Boat had virtually ceased to exist.
This film was the eighth most popular movie at the U.S. box office for 1933. It earned MGM a profit of $433,000 ($10.2M in 2023) according to studio records. Hold Your Man (1933) cost $266,000 to make, and grossed $1.1 million - a 400% profit. Jean Harlow was now one of MGM's most successful stars, and it was clear that she could carry a picture on her own, without an important male co-star. She would do just that, spectacularly, in her next film, Bombshell (1933).
Following on the great success of Red Dust (1932), Hold Your Man (1933) was the third of six movie pairings of Clark Gable and Jean Harlow. In chronological order, their films made together were: The Secret 6 (1931), Red Dust (1932), Hold Your Man (1933), China Seas (1935), Wife vs. Secretary (1936) and Saratoga (1937) with Lionel Barrymore.
About her singing in Hold Your Man (1933), Jean Harlow said, "They have me singing in a reformatory! My singing would be enough to get me in, but I'd never be able to sing my way out." The song she sings, "Hold Your Man," was written by Nacio Herb Brown (music) and Arthur Freed (lyrics). Harriet Lee was the uncredited voice double for Harlow.